Stone-cold women's hoops falls to Delaware

Coming off three road games to open its season, women's basketball looked to the friendly confines of Jadwin Gymnasium to help jump-start its struggling offense.

Yet once again, the shots didn't fall and the offense sputtered, and the Tigers fell to Delaware, 66-47, last night in their home opener.

Princeton (0-4), which came into the game averaging just over 40 points per game in its previous three contests, knocked down just 12 of 42 field goal attempts, including just four of 21 from three-point range.

The Blue Hens (3-2) controlled the tempo from the opening tip, knocking down the game's first basket and never trailing throughout the entire 40 minutes.

Both teams struggled to score in the early going. Delaware was able to take advantage of its size, though, feeding the ball into the post to forward Christina Rible, who helped the Blue Hens build an early lead.

Princeton closed the deficit, reeling off six straight points to close the first half — including a three-pointer by sophomore forward Maureen Lane just before time expired — to pull to within 30-21.

Yet the Tigers could not sustain their momentum coming out of the locker room. Princeton committed turnovers on four of its first five possessions of the second stanza. The Blue Hens opened with the first eight points — stretching their lead to 17 — and never looked back.

Princeton turned the ball over 26 times, while Delaware committed 16 turnovers on the night.

Princeton's major problem continued to be its lack of rhythm on the offensive end. The young Tiger squad — which sports just one senior on its roster — did not move well without the ball and was unable to develop a flow on offense.

Lane, who played a limited role a year ago, paced the Tigers with 15 points and leads the team in scoring in the season's early going. Junior guard Lauren Rigney added 11 points and a team-high eight rebounds.

Rible finished with 15 points and seven rebounds for the Blue Hens, and guard Cindy Johnson chipped in a game-high 17 points.

With a little over four minutes remaining, the Tigers cut Delaware's lead to 57-45 behind strong free throw shooting. Princeton, forcing the tempo more, knocked down 16 of 20 shots from the charity stripe in the second half to edge back into the contest.

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Shooting woes continued to haunt the Tigers, though, as the team was unable to knock down enough other shots to cut into the deficit even more. Princeton made just 4 of 21 shots from the field in the second half.

Princeton's non-conference slate continues next Wednesday at Lafayette. The young Tigers will not only look to claim their first victory of the season against the Leopards, but also to do something that has proven difficult thus far — come together offensively.