The slide continues: Army swamps women's hoops

It was clear from the national anthem which team was more focused and better prepared.

The Army women's basketball team (8-1) stood at attention in a straight line, backs to the bleachers, all in the same black warmups.

The Tigers, too, stood tall, honoring the flag. But, unlike the Black Knights, Princeton (0-6) was in varying states of dishabille — some players in warmups, some in uniform, some halfway between — and standing in haphazard formation.

This trend continued throughout the game, as the Tigers were plagued by unforced turnovers and poor rebounding and lost 64-46 last night at Jadwin Gym.

Both teams had difficulties shooting, but Princeton's greatest problems came from its poor offensive rebounding. The Black Knights pulled down 21 offensive rebounds to Princeton's 10.

These rebounds led to second chances. Though both teams shot in the mid-30 percent range, Army took many more shots and led for the entire game.

"We're a good-shooting team, but we really need to get more shots," senior point guard Jessica Munson said.

The Tigers also hurt themselves with 21 turnovers, both forced and unforced. Princeton threw the ball out of bounds, to the Black Knights and generally had difficulties getting to the basket.

Though the Black Knights started out the game with a full-court press, the Tigers quickly slowed the game's pace down with long possessions on their end.

When these possessions did not end in a score, however, the Tigers often could not grab the rebound, and so lost many offensive chances that they badly needed.

"They made a run on us early in the game and we couldn't recover," Munson said.

The night started out ugly, as Army jumped out to a quick 8-2 advantage. The Tigers never had the lead, and the closest they were able to come was 12-9 with 14 minutes, 20 seconds left in the first half.

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The momentum from the run that brought the Tigers to that point ended with an Army steal, exemplifying the tenor of the game.

Late in the second half, the Tigers made another run.

Down fifteen points, Princeton's defense finally began to make stops, and the team's sophomores took over.

After a breakaway layup by sophomore forward Lee Culp, the Tigers quickly returned to their end of the court when sophomore center Maureen Lane was fouled.

Lane made her free throws — her first points of the game — which were followed by another quick lay-in by Culp, bringing the score to 40-31 with 8:41 left in the game, and the Tiger fans began to sense a comeback.

After a three-pointer from Lane and two free throws by Culp, the Black Knights' lead had been cut in half, but that was as close as the Tigers would get.

Turnovers and missed shots in the ensuing minutes solidified and increased Army's lead, as had happened throughout the game.

The Tigers play again Dec. 16 at Elon College.