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Players Mentioned
No. 11/12 California to Face Women's Basketball Saturday at Jadwin Gym
December 06, 2007 | Women's Basketball
Princeton vs. No. 11/12 California
Sat., Dec. 8 at 6 p.m.
Jadwin Gym (Princeton)
Records: Princeton 3-6, 0-0 Ivy; California 7-1, 0-0 Pac-10
All-Time Series: First meeting
Princeton head coach: Courtney Banghart (1st season/Dartmouth '00)
California head coach: Joanne Boyle (3rd season/Duke '85)
Internet Audio: Click here
Tough sched: Princeton will face back-to-back ranked teams at Jadwin Gym in a week's time when it hosts No. 11 (AP)/12 (coaches) California Saturday at 6 p.m. and No. 4/3 Rutgers Wednesday at 7 p.m. Cal and Rutgers are the second and third of four ranked teams the Tigers will face this year after opening at Maryland and before hosting Vanderbilt Jan. 5.
Golden State to Garden State: Princeton has four players from California and one from the Bay Area, though Tiger senior Katy Digovich is from the hometown of the Golden Bears' rivals, Stanford, in Palo Alto. Tani Brown, Cheryl Stevens and Caitlin O'Neill are all from the Los Angeles area.
More Golden State/Garden State: Cal is on a two-game swing in New Jersey as it will make the short trip up Route 1 to face Rutgers Monday. The Golden Bears will be just the second California-based team to play in Jadwin Gym after St. Mary's, another Bay Area school, visited Dec. 14, 2004. Princeton will make it six California teams faced when it meets the Bears, who will join Pacific, St. Mary's, San Diego State, Santa Clara and Stanford. The Tigers have made three trips to California all-time, all to Bay Area schools. Princeton played in a tournament at Santa Clara Dec. 18-19, 1993, in a Stanford tournament Nov. 29-30, 2002, and at a St. Mary's tournament Nov. 25-26, 2005.
Tigers versus the Pac-10: Princeton has had a limited history with the Pacific 10 Conference, having played just three games against member schools. On Dec. 27, 1992, the Tigers fell to Washington on the Huskies' home floor, 79-43. Eight years later, on Nov. 24, 2000, Oregon State dealt Princeton a 69-33 defeat at the home of the Beavers. The most recent of the three games against Pac-10 schools was on Nov. 29, 2003 when the Tigers traveled to Stanford and fell 95-39.
Another milestone: Meagan Cowher needs four points to become the sixth Tiger in program history to score 1,300 points. If she scores seven points, she will pass Corneille Burt for fifth place on the all-time list.
Assistants' ties: Princeton assistant coach Milena Flores is an alumna of Cal's rival, Stanford. Cal assistant Lindsay Gottlieb is an Ivy Leaguer, having played at Brown. Flores and Cal assistant Charmin Smith were teammates at Stanford for one season in 1996-97 when the Cardinal went 34-2 and advanced to the Final Four.
Double-double: Meagan Cowher posted 13 points and 11 rebounds Wednesday at NJIT for her fourth double-double of the season and 17th of her career.
Double-digit rookies: Shelbie Pool has scored in double-digits in back-to-back games with 12 against Duquesne and 10 at NJIT. Fellow freshman Addie Micir scored back-to-back double-digits with a dozen each against Delaware State and Lehigh. Prior to Micir and Pool, the last Tiger freshman to score double-digits back-to-back this early in the season was Meagan Cowher in 2004-05.
Now boarding: Princeton outrebounded NJIT 50-34 in Wednesday night's game. The last time Princeton had a rebounding margin as large was Jan. 3 when it outrebounded Lafayette by 25. Princeton's 50 rebounds were its most since last Nov. 24 at Lehigh, when the Tigers also had 50.
A record pace: Princeton is on pace to set a pair of team records this year. With 520 field goals attempted in nine games, Princeton is on pace for 1,733, 10 more than the current record of 1,723 set by the 1979-80 team. The Tigers have also grabbed 354 rebounds, on pace to edge out the 1995-96 team 1,180-1,179.
Double-digit streak: Meagan Cowher's double-digit scoring streak has reached 12 games, stretching back to last season. Her collegiate best streak is 17 over the 2005-06 and 2006-07 seasons.
Tigers and Bears, oh my: Though the Princeton women haven't faced California yet, the Tiger men clashed with the Golden Bears on the national stage. Cal ended Princeton's season in 1997 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament in a game at Wake Forest's Joel Coliseum, 57-55. On that Golden Bears team was a future professional sports star, though not on the hardwood, in Kansas City Chiefs TE Tony Gonzalez. It was the second Cal-Princeton men's basketball meeting all-time after the Tigers trounced the Bears 85-59 early in the 1971-72 season in Lexington, Ky.
Shuffling the starters: Princeton fielded the same starting five of Meagan Cowher, Whitney Downs, Caitlin O'Neill, Tani Brown and Ali Prichard for the season's first six games. Since then, Princeton has used three different starting lineups without returning to that original five. Addie Micir, Jillian Schurle and Julia Berger have been added to the starting lineup during the shuffling.
Team game: No Tiger may come close to a record for rebounds in a season, but the reason the Tigers are on pace to break the team single-season rebounding record is because everyone's in on the boarding. Every Tiger, from guards to posts, has at least two rebounds this year, from Krystal Hill's two to Meagan Cowher's 85.
It all adds up: Cal's opponents have taken 52 more field goals, 75 more three-pointers and have benefited from 27 more Cal turnovers. The Bears, however, have outrebounded their opponents by 10 per game, 41.9 to 31.6.
Good matchup: Cal is led by 6-1 junior forward Ashley Walker, who has 21.0 points and 11.9 rebounds per game. Princeton senior Meagan Cowher has 17.4 rebounds and 9.4 points per game, both tops on her team.
Watch, listen to the Tigers online: Derek Jones will call Saturday'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, including the Cal game, will be available for a monthly subscription through TigerZone.
West Coast: Naturally the Cal roster has a West Coast flavor as well. On the roster of 10, the Bears count six Californians, one from British Columbia in Canada, one from Oregon and one from almost the West Coast in Arizona. Even the one Bear from outside North America is a West Coaster as Rama N'diaye is from Senegal, a nation on the western coast of Africa.
Everybody in: Princeton has used no fewer than 10 of the 13 players on its roster in any game this year. All 13 have made the floor twice, against Maryland and Lafayette.
Been a long time: No Tiger has averaged a double-double since Ellen DeVoe '86 did so in the 1984-85 season (14.1 pts./10.5 rebs.). Cowher is close to averaging a double-double with 17.4 points and 9.4 rebounds per game.
Representing with class: All four classes have had someone score at least two points in every game so far this year.
Meet the freshmen: Princeton's trio of freshmen all had points in the same game for the fourth time at NJIT, the season's ninth game. The highest cumulative total in those games came against Duquesne, when Shelbie Pool had 12 points, Addie Micir had nine and Krystal Hill had four for a total of 25 rookie points.