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Players Mentioned
Vanderbilt to Visit Women's Hoops for Final Pre-Ivy Game Saturday
January 03, 2008 | Women's Basketball
Princeton vs. Vanderbilt
Sat., Jan. 5 at 2 p.m.
Jadwin Gym (Princeton)
Records: Princeton 3-12, 0-0 Ivy; Vanderbilt 10-4, 0-0 SEC
All-Time Series: Vanderbilt leads 2-0
Princeton head coach: Courtney Banghart (1st season/Dartmouth '00)
Vanderbilt head coach: Melanie Balcomb (6th season/Trenton State '84)
Internet Audio: Click here
SEC comes to Jadwin: Princeton will welcome a Southeastern Conference team to Jadwin Gym for the fourth time ever Saturday when Vanderbilt visits. LSU was the first to visit, during the 1983-84 season, and Florida came the following season. Arkansas was the most recent SEC visitor, playing in the Princeton Invitational Nov. 27, 1999. The only SEC men's team to play at Jadwin was, coincidentally, Vanderbilt, which dealt the Pete Carril-coached Tigers a five-point loss Dec. 21, 1985.
Berry's back: The Tigers added Jessica Berry prior to the Monmouth game. The junior guard was an All-Ivy rookie pick in 2006 and came within two assists of matching the Princeton single-season assist record that year. Berry stands 10th on the Princeton career assist list with 231. Berry had been studying abroad at Oxford for the fall semester.
Last chance: The Vanderbilt game is the 16th and final non-conference game of the regular season for the Orange and Black, who will begin the 14-game, two-month sprint in pursuit of an Ivy League title and the league's NCAA Tournament automatic berth next Saturday against Penn.
Homecoming: Vanderbilt head coach Melanie Balcomb has several Princeton-area ties, having played high school ball at Hightstown High School and college ball at Trenton State (now The College of New Jersey). The former Cranbury resident's father, Alan, was a boys' basketball coach at South Brunswick High School and spent time as an assistant coach at Princeton under Pete Carril.
Double-digit streak: Meagan Cowher continued her double-digit scoring streak with 20 points at Monmouth, making it 18 straight games in which she has scored at least 10 points and 74 such games in her career. Though the Princeton record for consecutive games with double-digit scoring is not known, Cowher's former teammate, Becky Brown '06, scored at least 10 points in the last 19 games of her career.
Go Vikings: Don't be fooled by the “Princeton” on the Vanderbilt roster. Sophomore Ashlee Bridge didn't wear the Orange and Black; rather, the 5-11 guard/forward graduated from Princeton High School in Cincinnati, Ohio. It is one of eight Princeton High Schools in the U.S. Five of those schools use Tigers as their mascot, though Bridge's Princeton is the Vikings.
Jersey girls: A Garden Stater herself, Vanderbilt head coach Melanie Balcomb tapped her New Jersey roots to fill two assistant coaching positions on her staff. Lisa Cermignano played at Gloucester Catholic in southern New Jersey before moving on to George Washington University. Vicky Picott is a fellow Hightstown High alum with Balcomb and graduated from Rutgers before eventually joining Balcomb on the Xavier staff in 2000.
Almost: Princeton nearly hosted its third ranked team this season at Jadwin Gym. The Commodores dropped out of the AP and coaches polls this week following a loss to Old Dominion but began to make their case for a return to the rankings with a 27-point win over South Florida Wednesday.
Hill's heights: Rookie guard Krystal Hill has scored 20 of her 40 points this season over the last three games. She had 11 points in 17 minutes at Sacred Heart and nine points in 16 minutes at Monmouth. She also has four of her six rebounds this season in that span.
Downs is up: Whitney Downs' nine points at Monmouth were her most since she had nine in a Nov. 20 win over Lehigh. Downs had her season-high 14 in the season opener against Maryland.
Like clockwork: Meagan Cowher began a seven-game streak of scoring 20 or more points last season against Vanderbilt on Dec. 30, 2006. She is currently on a three-game 20-point streak which began Dec. 22 at Sacred Heart.
Cowher on the glass: Meagan Cowher's 18 rebounds over the last two games (nine and nine) are her most in back-to-back contests since Dec. 1-5, when she also had 18. Cowher had 16 total rebounds in the four other December games.
Pool-ing the points: Shelbie Pool's eight points at Monmouth were her most since Dec. 16 against Syracuse, when she had 11.
Streak of threes: Ali Prichard has had a three-pointer in nine straight games while Addie Micir has had at least one in five straight games. Micir canned five in one game of her stretch against Syracuse.
Streak snapped: Meagan Cowher's streak of having at least a point continued into its 72nd game, but the next-closest streak, belonging to Caitlin O'Neill, was halted at 10 games. The new next longest active streak belongs to Ali Prichard, who has scored in nine straight games.
The Bears got ?em: Both Princeton and Vanderbilt can lament a loss to California this season. Berkeley got the best of the Tigers 10 days after hosting and besting the Commodores by eight points on Dec. 2.
Tigers everywhere!: Vanderbilt has four of the 12 Division I schools that use “Tigers” as their nickname on its schedule. The other three such ?Dore opponents are LSU, Clemson and Auburn.
Ivy tip-off: Princeton will start the Ivy schedule next week against Penn, but Dartmouth and Harvard will play the first intra-Ivy game of the 2008 season Saturday evening in Boston.
Same five for six: Princeton's starting five of Meagan Cowher, Ali Prichard, Jillian Schurle, Addie Micir and Caitlin O'Neill has remained the same for the last six contests.
Series with the Commodores: Princeton and Vanderbilt have met twice, including once in Hawaii with Vanderbilt winning 85-30 on Dec. 21, 1999. Last season, the teams renewed the series on Dec. 30, 2006 with Vanderbilt winning 89-74.
Dialing distance: Princeton has a 16-game streak of taking a double-digit number of three-pointers. The Tigers have done so in all 15 games this year and the season finale of 2006-07. Princeton has taken as many as 29 shots from beyond the arc in a game this season.
Representing with class: All four classes have had someone score at least two points in every game so far this year.
NEC to SEC: Princeton will go from a Northeast Conference opponent to a Southeastern Conference opponent this week. Princeton has faced only five SEC teams all-time, including Arkansas (0-2), Florida (0-1), LSU (0-1), Tennessee (0-1) and Vanderbilt (0-2). The last time Princeton faced an SEC opponent was Dec. 20, 2005 at Tennessee.
On Vanderbilt: The Commodores have two players averaging double-figure points in senior Liz Sherwood (14.1 ppg) and junior Christina Wirth (13.4 ppg), and though no Commodore averages more than 5.8 rebounds per game (junior Jennifer Risper), the team is outrebounding its opponents by three boards per contest.