Women's basketball's losing streak ends with a hard-fought victory

The losing streak is over.

For the first time since it beat Harvard on Jan. 11, the women's basketball team won, posting a 60-53 win against Brown Saturday night.

Twelve minutes into the second half, with the Bears leading 35-34, junior guard Allison Cahill hit a three-pointer to put the Tigers up by two. Minutes later, after Brown tied the score at 41-41, Cahill put in another three points that decided the game.

Clutch shots were the decisive firepower that kept Princeton alive — a trend that has resulted in both close wins and close losses throughout the season.

Two weeks ago, against Yale, Princeton stretched the game into overtime by dropping three-point buckets at critical moments in the second half — only to lose 85-80 in the closing seconds of the game.

This time, however, the Tigers (9-15 overall, 3-8 Ivy League) were able to secure the win.

"We made clutch shots in the second half – especially [juniors] Mo Lane and Allison Cahill. We made our last 12 free throws in a row to seal the win," head coach Richard Barron said.

Lane headed the Tiger offense by making all three of Princeton's first-half three-pointers, scoring 11 out of the team's 21 points.

She then sparked the second half with a three-pointer and led the Tigers on an eleven-point run, giving them a comfortable 32-24 lead. Lane finished the game with a team-high 20 points.

On the defensive end, senior Lauren Rigney rebounded aggressively, adding nine to her record.

Statistically, Saturday's win keeps Brown (5-20, 2-10) below Princeton at the bottom of the Ivy League standings. But more important for the Tigers is the emotional relief they have gained by finally putting their losing streak behind them.

"The win is more of a relief than anything. We needed some positive results to reinforce the efforts we have been giving and what we have been learning," Barron said.

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Princeton's success Saturday evening came after a disappointing 83-77 loss to Yale (13-11, 7-5) in New Haven the night before.

Although they shot an impressive 52 percent from the field — and an even more impressive 53 percent from the arc — the Tigers were not able to overcome a 22-point first-half deficit.

The overall performance Friday night is perhaps best looked at as two separate games – divided by an opaque wall between the first twenty minutes and the last.

The Elis' 56.3 field goal percentage in the first half overshadowed Princeton's 36.7 percent. And while Yale shot seven free throws, the Tigers went to the foul line just once.

Besides shooting, Barron said, "We were getting beat in transition and giving up way too many offensive rebounds."

But the game turned around at half-time.

"We started to hit some outside shots and created some easy baskets off of turnovers and hustle," Barron said.

The Tigers' defense managed to hold the Elis to under 40 percent shooting from the floor in the second half. Meanwhile, Princeton connected 16 of 22 shots (72.7 percent), this time drawing several more fouls and shooting 12 for 15 (80 percent) from the charity stripe.

By the 4:21 mark, after Cahill added two free throws, the Tigers had closed the deficit to two points.

But that, and Lane's three-pointer in the final minutes of the game, were not enough to pull the team ahead by the buzzer.

The other scoring leaders were Cahill, sophomore Kelly Schaeffer and freshman Ashley Rook, who contributed 21, 17 and nine points, respectively.

Overall, despite the loss, Barron was pleased with the way his team came back in the game.

This past weekend advanced the Tigers to 3-8 in the Ivy League. They will host Cornell and Columbia this coming weekend at Jadwin as the season nears its end.

But the Tigers prefer to look at these last encounters as only the beginning.

As Barron said, "It is very important that we see these games as the beginning of a new period in women's basketball at Princeton, not the end of a season."