Women's hoops thumps Cornell, then loses to Columbia in overtime

Lions and Tigers and Bears took to the hardwood last weekend in Jadwin Gym ready to maul each other for another intra-Ivy victory.

The women's basketball team (10-16 overall, 4-9 Ivy League) extended its winning streak to two games Friday, but followed it up with a loss on Saturday. The good news is that this loss can't lead to another nine-game losing streak because the team only has one game left.

Despite yet another non-winning weekend, the Tigers displayed the kind of basketball expected early on after starting the season with an 8-6 record.

Playing two teams that blew Princeton out earlier in the season, the Tigers were not expected to make many waves in either contest. Cornell and Columbia, however, got an unexpected dose of the Tigers' run-and-gun potion.

"Both teams blew us out in the first half [of the game] earlier this season," head coach Richard Barron said. "We played well and didn't give either game away."

In their first game against Cornell (14-13, 8-6), the Tigers lost by 15 points in a rout. But on Friday night, Princeton mustered a 14-point victory over the Big Red in Jadwin.

Trailing 34-27 at intermission, it looked like just another defeat for the hapless Tigers, ready to start one more losing streak for the season after yet another first-half meltdown.

On the contrary, a 21-1 run to start the second period breathed life into Princeton. The game might as well have stopped there, as the Tigers outscored Cornell by 21 points in the second half, securing a blowout victory for themselves, 70-56.

Putting it mildly, Barron said, "We played very well in the second half against Cornell. We are playing so much more competitively [than the team did last season]. I'm very proud of that."

Saturday night, the Columbia Lions came to Princeton to battle it out with the Tigers for sixth place in the stacked Ivy League.

Princeton once again trailed at the half, but only by four points.

After the break, the two teams exchanged leads for much of the second period.

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With 10 seconds remaining and Princeton down by four, freshman guard Karen Bolster drained a shot-clock-beating three from way downtown to pull the Tigers within one. After a Columbia free throw, junior guard Allison Cahill drew a foul driving to the hoop, and nailed two free throws to tie the game and send it into overtime.

In the extra frame, the Tigers were unable to convert on their two field goal attempts within 20 feet, but their two successful conversions from outside the arc kept them in the game.

On the other side of the ball, the Lions could not convert from downtown, but were able to cash in on four field goals.

If the Tigers had made two more free throws than the Lions in overtime, they would have at least forced a second overtime. Unfortunately for Princeton, its first missed free throw of the night came from the hand of Kelly Schaeffer, and that proved to be the difference, as Columbia won the contest by a single point, 73-72.

"We are very disappointed with the outcome of the Columbia game," Barron said. "I am a competitive person, and I want to win.

"The team is disappointed with losing, and maybe that's a new feeling. We are starting to expect to win. It's a subtle and slow transition, but it is a very crucial one."

With a tiny scratch from the Lions and a Big Red bear head hanging on the wall at Jadwin, the Tigers seem to be ending the season on the same good note as they began.

The Tigers' last game of the season is this Wednesday night in Jadwin Gym at 7:30 against the Quakers of Penn.