Women's basketball gains momentum from exciting first win of season

It is the most stressful shot that anyone can take in a basketball game: the buzzer-beater. It becomes even more stressful when the game is on the line, and one shot is the only difference between winning and losing.

This is the situation that sophomore forward Lee Culp found herself in last Saturday against Yale. The women's basketball team was trailing by one point, and there were less than two seconds remaining on the clock.

Culp does not remember exactly what happened. One second, she saw guard Allison Cahill driving down the lane. She remembers Cahill giving her a perfect assist right underneath the basket. And then Culp remembers the buzzer. When she looked up at the scoreboard, she realized that the game was over.

And Princeton had won, 61-60.

"If I had thought about it, I probably would have missed the shot," Culp said afterwards. "I don't even remember taking it. But, when I realized that we had won, it was one of the best feelings in the world."

Whether she realized it or not, Culp had stepped up at a vital time and secured the victory for the Tigers. Cahill had also played an important role by seeing her open teammate and executing a perfect pass. Both of them, in that play, exemplified court smarts and maturity.

But wait a minute.

Maturity?

Cahill is only a sophomore, with little more than a year and a half of Tiger basketball experience. Culp, who is also a sophomore, is just as young.

How did two players, both underclassmen and relatively inexperienced, manage to act with such maturity and confidence?

The answer is quite simply that they have been forced to all year.

Taking a look at the women's basketball roster, it is amazing to see how young the team is. Guard Jessica Munson is the lone senior. There are 2 juniors, guard/forward Lauren Rigney and guard Hillary Reser. The remaining nine players, or 75% of the total team, are either freshmen or sophomores.

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Underclassmen not only dominate the team in terms of numbers, they are the statistical leaders as well.

Sophomore forward Maureen Lane is leading the team in points, averaging almost 13 per game. This past weekend against Yale, she led the team with 27 points. Culp is leading the team in rebounds, grabbing almost nine boards a contest.

When the time came for the game-winning shot, Culp was not thinking like a sophomore. She was thinking like a team leader. She, and the rest of the underclassmen, has been leading the team the entire season.

However, the importance of the upperclassmen should not be overlooked. Munson, a co-captain, is a three-year starter for the Tigers. She is not only second on the team in assists, she also provides much-needed motivation at key times.

Rigney, also a three-year starter and co-captain, is leading the team in assists. This year, she has racked up 33 assists to lead the entire Tiger squad. Furthermore, Rigney is considered one of the most tenacious defenders on the team. After the win at Yale this weekend, head coach Kevin Morris said that Rigney's defense played a major role in the victory.

Reser is best known for providing the emotion that any team needs to be successful. After an injury prevented her from playing in a loss at Lafayette, Morris stated how much her absence affected the team: "She plays with so much intensity that she always makes a difference. We just aren't the same team on the court without her."

Even with the success of the underclassmen, everyone realizes that victory, or defeat, is dependent on a total team effort.

"Everyone does what they need to do for the team," Lane said, after she was asked about her pivotal 3-pointer that tied the game in overtime against Yale. "We don't think about individual stats. All we care about is winning."

With the confidence of the underclassmen, who refuse to act their age, the entire team can expect more wins in the future.