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Princeton University Athletics
Princeton University
Penn
Players Mentioned
Women's Hoops Ends Season with 61-51 Win over Penn
March 06, 2007 | Women's Basketball
PRINCETON, N.J. -- In a game played for pride, the Princeton women's basketball team left Jadwin Gym proud. Senior Casey Lockwood had a double-double in her final game at Old Nassau as the Tigers defeated Penn, 61-51, to finish 13-15 overall and 7-7 in the Ivy League.
"It's good to finish with a win," Princeton head coach Richard Barron said. "It sure is."
The win gives Princeton just its second .500-or-better Ivy League season since 1999. Junior Meagan Cowher led Princeton with 14 points, giving her 496 for the season. After capturing the program's single-season scoring record last Saturday at Yale, her performance against Penn left her just short of being the 14th Ivy League woman to score 500 points in a season. Only five Princeton men have scored that many points in one year.
Cowher also clinched recognition as the Ivy League's scoring leader, for which the league considers only its 14-game season. Cowher beat out Dartmouth's Ashley Taylor 261-235 to become Princeton's second scoring champion in as many years after Becky Brown '06 did so last year. Since 1984, when the Ivy League began recognizing a scoring champion, Brown and Cowher joined Sandi Bittler '90, who won the honor in 1988, as the only Tigers to win the Ivy scoring title.
Lockwood finished with 11 points and 10 rebounds, giving her a double-double for the second time this season, both in the last five games.
"She's a great player," Barron said. "She had an injury that kind of covered two seasons (and) what she's accomplished is great. She's done a real good job for us."
Sophomore Whitney Downs was also in double-figure points for the sixth time this season and for the first time in back-to-back games after tying her career best with 17 against Yale.
Monica Naltner led Penn with 14 points while Ashley Gray had 11.
The Quakers led for most of the first half, going on a 10-2 run to open up a 7-7 tie at the 13:32 mark and take its largest lead of 17-9 on a Carrie Biemer three-pointer with 9:48 before the break.
But Princeton caught Penn at 19-19 and again at 21-21 on a bucket by Cowher with 2:32 to play in the half. That started Princeton on a 14-0 run to give the Tigers a 33-21 lead at th 16:10 mark of the second half.
Penn didn't score from the 3:01 mark of the first half until 14:15 remained in the game, a span of 8:46. Princeton's lead grew to as much as 13 at 45-32 on a pair of free throws from Lockwood with 7:42 left in the game.
But Penn had one last run, getting the deficit to six at 53-47 with 2:12 left on two Naltner free throws before Jessica Berry responded with a key three-pointer to widen the Tiger lead to nine and Penn never threatened from there.
Princeton outshot Penn 43.5% to 32.1% while outrebounding Penn 38-32. Penn also had more turnovers than Princeton, 16-12.
After Princeton also defeated Penn 78-72 on Jan. 6 at The Palestra, Tuesday's win completed the ninth home-and-away sweep for Princeton of Penn since the current league schedule format began in 1983.
Cowher ended her junior season with 1,137 career points, 11th on the all-time Princeton list. She will need 547 points next year to overtake Bittler for the Princeton record.
The Tigers will lose four seniors, including Lockwood and guards Elyse Umeda, Shelly Slemp and Lillie Romeiser, all of whom played their final game Tuesday night.