W. basketball beats Yale in triple-overtime, 94-92

The women's basketball team must really enjoy roller coasters, because this season has been a swift sequence of ups and downs.

After losing to Brown (12-9 overall, 6-2 Ivy League) on Friday by 13 points, the Tigers (8-13, 3-4) battled back and beat Yale (4-17, 1-7) in a triple overtime thriller on Saturday. The weekend encapsulates a trend the Tigers have exhibited all season long — playing one moment as if turnovers were the goal of the game, and the next as if winning was their only option.

Actually, the up-and-down trend is one that the entire league has displayed, not just Princeton. Both this year and last year, no team has stood out as consistently dominant.

"You never know which team is going to actually show up for a game," freshman post Rebecca Brown said.

The game against the Bears was definitely characteristic of this trend. In the first half, the Tigers shot a measly 31 percent from the field, so that by the break they trailed by 19 points. But in the next half they outscored Brown and improved their shooting percentage to 44 percent.

Princeton's Rebecca Brown led all scorers in the game with 23 points and 15 rebounds, career highs in both.

"I am definitely excited with my performance lately," Brown said about her award. "I didn't come to Princeton with expectations about how I would fit in competitively as a freshman in the league. I still have a lot to improve upon, but it's great that not just me but the team is getting recognized."

Junior post Kelly Schaeffer was the next highest scorer for Princeton in Friday's game, with 19 points.

Despite the strong performances of Schaeffer and Brown and the Tigers' sudden ascent in the second half, the Bears led the whole game, winning 73-60.

Princeton brought the energy it had found in the second half of the Brown game into the first half of the Yale game the following night. The Tigers snatched an early lead and held onto it for a 45-28 halftime advantage. They made eight of 17 three-pointers in the first half and shot 47 percent from the field.

Three-peaked roller coaster

But after this peak the roller coaster swung downhill for Princeton — and uphill for Yale, who battled back in the second half just as Princeton had done the night before.

A valiant scoring effort by Yale forward Christina Phillips, who finished the game with 28 points, made a Princeton victory more difficult than the score at halftime had predicted, with the score knotted at 78 after 40 minutes. Indeed, the Tigers could not mark a W in their record book until they had endured three overtimes.

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Schaeffer had an opportunity to end the game in regulation with a jumper, but the shot rolled out as the buzzer sounded. Scoring was low on both sides in the first OT, which ended 83-83. In the second, junior post Jessica Aitken nailed a three-pointer from way downtown to tie the score 88-88 and launch the game into a third and final battle.

The decisive weapon in the third overtime was a free throw by Brown in the last seconds. After making a basket, she was fouled at the other end while grabbing a rebound.

The freshman's 10 rebounds and 16 points earned her her second double-double of the weekend.

The 1000-point club

Senior co-captains Allison Cahill and Maureen Lane also achieved a laudable statistic on Saturday —both surpassed 1000 career points with double-figure scoring, Cahill with 24 points and Lane with 21.

Cahill entered the game needing eight points to reach 1000, while Lane needed 14. The co-captains were the first Princeton players to reach that mark since Maggie Langlas and Kate Thirolf accomplished the feat in 1999.

Schaeffer matched Brown with 16 points to help Princeton come out on top with a 94-92 final score.

"It was such an up and down game," Brown said. "We came out really strong in the first half, and we thought hands down that we were going to take the game. We were shooting well, rebounding — it was an all-around good half. But then in the second half Yale closed the gap. It came down to who was making the plays in the end."