Sacred Heart pulls out close game against women's basketball

The women's basketball team lost 69-61 to Sacred Heart (3-1) Saturday at Jadwin Gym, but the game was much closer than the margin indicates.

In a game that saw 14 lead changes, neither team built more than a four-point lead until seven minutes, 17 seconds remained.

Princeton (3-4) led 29-27 going into the break. In the second period, the lead kept switching until the 8:48 mark, when Allie Bagnell of the Pioneers knocked down two free throws to give Sacred Heart the lead it would not relinquish en route to its third straight victory.

Sacred Heart built its lead to as many as nine points but could not pull away, as Princeton cut the lead down to two with 1:44 to play. At that point, Bagnell answered again, hitting a runner in the lane to break a 7-1 run by the Tigers and to seal the victory for the Pioneers.

"The game was evenly matched," senior wing/post Maureen Lane said. "The difference was down the stretch. We didn't execute and let the game slip away.

"We didn't play with a sense of urgency on each possession, understanding that each play could make the difference in the game."

Princeton made 36 percent of its field goal attempts against Sacred Heart — a deterioration after shooting 46 percent in its 97-69 win over Centenary on Wednesday.

The Tigers made only one three-point basket out of 11 attempts. Past games have shown that shooting well from three-point range more often than not translates into a Princeton victory.

In the Tigers' 92-74 win over Tennessee Martin, for example, the Tigers shot 52 percent from beyond the arc. Similarly, in their 97-69 win over Centenary on Wednesday, senior point-guard Allison Cahill alone sunk three out of four three-pointers.

Against Temple, on the other hand, the Tigers were ice cold from three-point range, missing all eight of their three-point attempts in the first half.

Not surprisingly, they lost that game, 70-40.

These results support what head coach Richard Barron said at the beginning of the season — the key to Princeton's success this season would be back-to-basics consistency. The Tigers have to put in those three-pointers if they want to win.

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Three-pointers aside, the leading scorer in Saturday's game was junior wing Kelly Schaeffer, who had 16 points on 4-8 shooting and went 8-9 from the free throw line.

Junior forward Eileen Powers was the only other Tiger with double figures, finishing with ten points. Lane and freshman post Rebecca Brown added nine apiece.

After going 9-9 from the free-throw line in the first half, Princeton made 13-20 (65 percent) free throw attempts in the second half.

Princeton's 61 points lowers the Tigers points-per-game average at home, which prior to Saturday's game had been 94.5 — an impressive number considering its 97 points against Centenary have been matched only twice in program history.

Four Pioneers scored in double figures on the evening. Co-captains Brooke Rutnik and Brooke Kelly led the squad, both scoring 13 points. Kate Maher scored 12, and Bagnell contributed 10.

Rutnik, who fouled out with 2:14 to go, was a force all night underneath the hoop. She grabbed nine rebounds, blocked two shots, forced two steals, and made two assists.

Kelly's 13 points moved her into eighth place on the Sacred Heart all-time scoring list with 1,033 career points.

Maher had a perfect shooting night, making three-of-three from the field and six-of-six from the charity stripe.

Overall, the Pioneers managed to shoot 42.3 percent (22-52) from the field and 76.9 percent (20-26) from the foul line, just enough to outlast the Tigers.

On defense, both teams seemed to foul more frequently than usual. A total of 50 fouls were called, and three players fouled out. Some of the calls were questionable, but Princeton did not make the necessary adjustments.

"The game was officiated very tightly, and we didn't make any adjustments on defense, allowing Sacred Heart to get a lot of points from the free throw line," Lane said.

Princeton will play its third home game in a row against Hofstra Wednesday at 7 p.m.