Women's basketball splits weekend with win vs. Yale

The seniors on the women's basketball team (9-16 overall, 4-7 Ivy League) wanted to hold on for just a second. They wanted to savor the loud cheers and fluorescent lights of Jadwin Gym before walking off the court as Princeton varsity athletes for the last time.

And then they wanted to drive the ball down Yale's throats.

Up by one, 11 minutes into the second half, senior point guard Allison Cahill dribbled downcourt, lingered for a second as she passed half court to hold up the signal for the play, and then bounced the ball into Maureen Lane's outstretched hands. Lane, with her back to the hoop, stood motionless at the top of the arc. Suddenly, with a left pivot she spun around, bounded toward the hoop and pushed the ball into the basket before the Elis could say defense.

Lane's knifing drive was the first of 25 points the Tigers would score in the final nine minutes of the game to beat Yale, 74-71.

With 14 seconds left, the game looked as if it might be a repeat of the one two weeks ago when Yale and Princeton dragged each other through three overtimes before the Tigers finally took the victory. Freshman center Rebecca Brown, who would finish with 21 points and 10 rebounds, made a layup and foul shot to give her team a four-point edge, but Yale retaliated with a three-pointer at the eight second mark to thin the spread to one point.

What finally put the game away for the Tigers were two clutch free throws by sophomore guard Karen Bolster who was fouled intentionally by Yale on the inbounds pass.

Bolster's were not the only foul shots that made a difference in the game. While Princeton shot 12-for-15 from the charity stripe, the Elis were just three-for-10. If Yale had made half of those missed foul shots, the win could have gone the other way.

Lane shot six-for-nine from three-point range on the way to a 20-point night. As a whole, the Tigers shot an impressive eight-for-15 from beyond the arc.

"We executed well like we did earlier in the season against Cornell," Cahill said. "We controlled the ball and had very few turnovers which made the difference."

Friday's victory would have been a sweet way for the seniors to say farewell. Unfortunately, the Tigers still had No. 2 Brown (14-11, 8-4) to fend off the following night.

Princeton was, in a word, flat against the Bears, shooting 15-for-51 from the field and 4-for-17 from three-point range in losing, 68-50.

The Tigers, having fallen victim two weeks ago to Brown's aggressive inside players who scored many points off offensive rebounds, went into the game planning to pack the Bears in on defense and prevent the guards from penetrating to the basket.

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Too many defensive breakdowns prevented Princeton from keeping the Bears off the boards and scoring fast break points off the transition.

"It was disappointing to play so well on Friday against Yale only to lose to Brown right after," Cahill said.

The Bears were ahead, 30-21, at the half, and they held the lead for the rest of the game. Three Brown players scored in double figures, led by Sarah Hayes, who finished with 16 points.

"Something wasn't clicking," Brown said. "And it wasn't even that Brown played their best basketball either. We were just that off."

Brown led the Tigers with 14 points and eight rebounds, even though she got into foul trouble and was held to 27 minutes.

This past weekend may not have been the perfect sendoff for the seniors from Jadwin, but perhaps the disappointment against Brown will give even more incentive to finish the season and their Princeton basketball careers with three final victories over Cornell, Columbia, and Penn.

As Lane said to her teammates when she walked into the locker room Saturday night, "We have three more games left and we have to BRING IT!"