Women's Basketball to Begin 2008 at Monmouth Wednesday

Princeton at Monmouth
Wed., Jan. 2 at 7 p.m.
Boylan Gym (Monmouth)
Records: Princeton 3-11, 0-0 Ivy; Monmouth 1-9, 0-1 NEC
All-Time Series: Series tied 2-2
Princeton head coach: Courtney Banghart (1st season/Dartmouth '00)
Monmouth head coach: Michele Baxter (4th season/St. John Fisher '87)
Internet Audio: Click here

Leading off: The Princeton-Monmouth game is Princeton's first athletic event of 2008 in any sport. It is also the first Ivy League women's basketball game of the new year. Columbia and Yale will have non-league games Thursday, while Cornell and Brown will do the same Friday. Dartmouth and Harvard will tip off the intra-Ivy schedule Saturday, while Penn will be the last to return to the hardwood next Monday.

Turnovers: The Tigers had 16 giveaways at Rider, their most since Dec. 5 at NJIT (22) but still enough to continue a streak of sub-20 turnover games into a fifth contest. Princeton last had six straight sub-20 turnover games over the last five games of 2006-07 and the season opener this year.

Free throws: Princeton had three straight games shooting better than 70 percent from the free-throw line before taking a step back against the Broncs. The Tigers made just 5 of 13 free throws (38.5 percent), the team's second lowest percentage of the season.

Happy new year: Princeton has won four straight games to open a calendar year since 2004. Three of those wins came against Lafayette and the other was against St. Francis (N.Y.).

More calendar: The Tigers won't be sad to see December go. Princeton went 1-6 in the year's 12th month and will look to shed a five-game losing streak Wednesday against the Hawks. Of the six losses, two were to ranked teams, each by single-digits, and another defeat was on a buzzer-beating three pointer. Princeton last had a winning record in December in 2005-06, when it went 6-2 with the two losses to top-10 Tennessee and Rutgers. Last season, Princeton was 3-5 in December.

Still more calendar: Princeton had an eight-game January winning streak snapped last Jan. 13 against Cornell despite 35 points from Meagan Cowher.
The streak continues: Meagan Cowher's double-digit scoring streak extended to 17 games with her 24 points at Rider last Saturday. That ties her personal best streak, which spanned the 2005-06 and 2006-07 seasons. The longest recent stretch is 19 to end Becky Brown's career in 2006.

Series with the Hawks: Princeton is 2-2 against Monmouth with a long gap between home-and-home series. Despite being 41 miles apart, Princeton and Monmouth went 24 years between meetings. The teams met in the 1978-79 and 1979-80 seasons with Monmouth winning both and again Nov. 19, 2004 and Dec. 1, 2005. Princeton won the two recent meetings.

More Tigers-Hawks: Katy Digovich led the Tigers with 17 points in the opener of her sophomore season as Princeton topped Monmouth in overtime, 57-52, on Nov. 19, 2004. Meagan Cowher had a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds in her collegiate debut. The next season, the five starting Tigers had all 64 of Princeton's points in a 64-56 win. Becky Brown had a double-double with 17 points and 10 rebounds while Meagan Cowher and Katy O'Brien had 15 points each.

Coming back: Monmouth returns the scorers of 20 of its 56 points against Princeton two years ago in Lindsey Zegowitz (four), Brianne Edwards (five), Nyaimah Ware (six) and Marisa Jimenez (five). Princeton returns just Meagan Cowher's 15 points from that Dec. 1, 2004 meeting.

Team times two: Princeton played 10 players for the second straight game against Rider Saturday. The Tigers have not put more than 10 players on the floor since Dec. 8 against California when 12 Tigers saw game action. Nine of the 10 players against Sacred Heart and Rider were common, with Julia Berger playing against Sacred Heart and Elizabeth Pietrzak getting the nod off the bench in Lawrenceville.

Same five for five: Princeton's starting five of Meagan Cowher, Ali Prichard, Jillian Schurle, Addie Micir and Caitlin O'Neill has remained the same for the last five contests.

Dialing distance: Princeton has a 15-game streak of taking a double-digit number of three-pointers. The Tigers have done so in all 14 games this year and the season finale of 2006-07. Princeton has taken as many as 29 shots from beyond the arc this season.

Scoring streaks: Meagan Cowher has scored a point in 71 straight games and in 90 of her 91 career contests. The only time Cowher played and did not score was Mar. 5, 2005 against Dartmouth with her current head coach, Courtney Banghart, on the Dartmouth bench as an assistant. Caitlin O'Neill has the next longest active scoring streak of 10 games.

Watch, listen to the Tigers online: Derek Jones will call Wednesday's game live on GoPrincetonTigers.com. Princeton is scheduled to broadcast all 30 games this season on the Web free of charge, while video broadcasts of home and select away games will be available for a monthly subscription through TigerZone.

Representing with class: All four classes have had someone score at least two points in every game so far this year.

Bellwether stats: Princeton has not won a game this season when it does not lead at the half, gets outrebounded or has a lower field goal percentage than its opponent. The Tigers are 0-10 when behind at the half or outrebounded and 0-9 when having a lower field goal percentage.

Tigers versus the NEC: Princeton will face more Northeast Conference teams than schools from any other conference except the Ivy League this season. The Tigers will look to pull even against NEC teams on the season with a win against Monmouth after a win over St. Francis (N.Y.) and losses at Wagner and Sacred Heart. All four NEC games are on the road.

Common foes: Monmouth and Princeton share six common opponents in Rider, Lafayette, Sacred Heart, St. Francis (N.Y.), NJIT and Wagner.

On Monmouth: The Hawks will be returning from an 11-day layoff while the Tigers are in the middle of playing three games in eight days. Veronica Randolph is leading Monmouth with 11 points per game despite playing in 9 of 10 games and starting three. Jennifer Bender has started all 10 while averaging 9.8 ppg and a team-best 7.3 rebounds per game. The Hawks are allowing their opponents a 41.5 percent shooting clip.

Looking ahead: Princeton will play its final pre-Ivy contest Saturday against Vanderbilt before starting the Ivy slate Jan. 12 at Jadwin against Penn and entering a 19-day finals break. The Vanderbilt game will be a homecoming for Commodore coach Melanie Balcomb, a Hightstown High School and Trenton State University (Now the College of New Jersey) graduate, whose father Alan was an assistant coach under former longtime Princeton men's coach Pete Carril.

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Players Mentioned

Julia Berger

Meagan Cowher

Addie Micir

Caitlin O'Neill

Elizabeth Pietrzak

Ali Prichard

Jillian Schurle