Double-OT heartbreak

Down two points with two seconds to play in the second overtime last night, freshman forward Meagan Cowher stepped to the line to shoot two free throws. She missed both shots — albeit one on purpose — and the women's basketball team lost its chance to upset Penn, falling 61-59.

It was the second heartbreaking defeat in five days for the Tigers, who lost to Brown by one point on Friday night.

Junior center Becky Brown paced Princeton (9-7 overall, 1-2 Ivy League) with a team-high 20 points and nine rebounds. Cowher finished with 18 points on six of 12 shooting from the field.

"We weren't strong, we weren't aggressive," Brown said afterwards. "We were playing as if we were afraid to lose instead of playing to win. We played on the back of our heels."

Still, the Tigers very nearly won the game in regulation. Down two, with 27.1 seconds left, Penn (10-6, 3-0) had one chance to tie the game. Point guard Joey Rhodes drove baseline, slipping behind Brown, and put up a reverse layup that hung on the rim before falling off. Penn regained control of the ball, however, and scored on a Monica Naltner floater from the right side of the lane, tying the game at 51-51 and sending it to the first overtime.

The overtime was played like the rest of the game — sloppily. The teams combined for 37 turnovers on the night, including three within the first two minutes of the first overtime.

Penn broke the tie with a free throw at the 2:51 mark and extended its lead to three with a baseline jumper on its next possession. Two Cowher free throws cut the Quaker lead to one with 1:30 left in the first extra period.

But the Tigers knotted the game at 55 when sophomore guard Elyse Umeda found Brown slashing toward the hoop for yet another clutch five-footer.

With three seconds remaining in the first overtime, Princeton had the ball with a shot to win the game. Umeda's inbounds pass only found Quaker fingertips, however, and the game headed to a second overtime.

Cowher broke the tie in the second overtime with a five-footer off the glass and added another two on a strong drive just over two minutes later, giving the Tigers a three point lead with 2:15 to play.

The Quakers cut the lead to one on a jump shot and then took a two-point lead on Karen Habrukowich's fifth three-pointer on the night.

Trailing by two points with 5.4 seconds left on the game clock, Cowher drove through the lane and drew a shooting foul. After her first free throw rimmed out, she purposely missed the second one, hoping one of her teammates could grab and offensive rebound and put it back for the tie. The ball fell to the floor, however, leaving the Tigers with nothing but a close call.

Inside vs. outside

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From the outset of the game, a clear battle emerged between Penn's outside shooting and Princeton's inside game. With the Quaker centers fronting Brown, the Tigers easily found Brown for five layups in the half.

On the other side of the court, Penn shot 88 percent from behind the arc and scored 21 of its 27 first-half points from the outside.

The Quakers did not cool off in the beginning of the second half, tying the game at 32-32 with a little less than 17 minutes to play. After Brown broke the tie with a free throw, the lead seesawed back and forth, as the teams traded baskets at both ends for the next six and a half minutes.

Penn's Rhodes ended that with her third three-pointer of the game, giving the Quakers its largest lead of the game at 45-41.

The Tigers, as they did all game, fought back to within one point when Umeda made her first basket of the game, a three pointer with five minutes left in the game.

On Princeton's next possession, Brown gave the Tigers the lead by making two free throws and then padded the lead with a layup on an inbounds play from the baseline. But the Quakers sent the game to overtime on Naltner's floater.