It's what no fan likes to see but what all players and coaches hope for: a dominating blowout of the opposing team. This weekend, though, the women's basketball team found itself alternately on the winning and losing sides of two games that, in the end, weren't even close.
Princeton (13-12 overall, 5-7 Ivy League) cruised to victory against Columbia (11-14, 4-8) on Friday night, 72-53, only to lose to last-place Cornell (3-22, 1-11) the next evening, 76-61.
The contrast between the two games was stark. Against the Lions, the Tigers had four players in double digits. The Big Red, though, kept all of Princeton's players from breaking the 10-point barrier.
In fact, the contest against Columbia was well-executed on virtually every front. The 4-2 advantage the Tigers held after a few minutes of play would prove to be their smallest edge of the night. Princeton exploded at the start of the game, building up a 10-point lead after just 10 minutes of play.
With balanced contributions from several players, the Tigers relentlessly padded their lead. Freshman forward Ariel Rogers nailed her signature jump shot to make the score 28-13 with 5:55 to play. Junior guard Katy O'Brien sank a three-pointer and senior center Becky Brown hit a shot on subsequent plays to make the score 33-13.
As the buzzer sounded to send both teams to the locker room, Princeton held a commanding 16-point lead, 37-21.
More of the same
The Tigers set the tempo of the first half while simultaneously penetrating the Lion defense at will and keeping Columbia from getting off many quality shots. The second half proved no different. The Lions sharpened their performance a bit, though, cutting Princeton's advantage to 46-38 with 14 minutes to play.
That was as close as Columbia would get. Junior guard Lauren Nestor nailed a three-pointer from the left side of the arc with 13:15 remaining to put a serious damper on the Lions' comeback hopes. The Tigers gradually widened the gap and waltzed to a 72-53 win.
After letting several other teams creep back into contention a few times this season, Princeton was determined to quickly squelch any Columbia hopes.
Moreover, the performance against the Lions was a nice improvement over Tuesday night's loss to Penn — not to mention a landmark win for the team. None of the players on Princeton's roster had ever beaten Columbia during their career.
After Friday night's performance, no one would have guessed how Saturday night would end for the Tigers, who were playing their last home game of the season and facing a team yet to win an Ivy League game.
"It's kind of a shock," Brown said of the loss.
After shooting 50 percent from the field and 81 percent from the line against the Lions, Princeton utterly collapsed against Cornell, connecting on only 38 percent and 56 percent, respectively.
The Big Red jumped out to a 6-0 lead in the first four minutes of the game against a panicky Tiger team, with head coach Richard Barron furiously substituting players in and out in an attempt to help Princeton find its rhythm.
"We came out and nothing worked," Brown said. "We were very discombobulated and missing layups in the beginning."
The Tigers' play picked up toward the end of the second half with four consecutive buckets, two by Nestor and two by Rogers, that made the score 34-27.
With a three by O'Brien in the last minute of the half, Princeton headed into the locker room trailing Cornell just 36-30, seemingly poised for a second-half comeback.
The Tigers came out gunning in the second half and pulled the score within two, 36-34, thanks to points from Rogers, but that was as close as Princeton could get.
All the answers
Every time the Tigers managed to start a run for the remainder of the game, Cornell answered back with three-point plays, either draining shots from outside the arc or both sinking a shot and drawing a foul in the paint. No matter what the Tigers did, it seemed the Big Red had all the big plays and all the answers.
By the time the final buzzer sounded, a dejected and tired Princeton team slunk away from the court under a scoreboard the bore a disheartening score: Cornell 76, Princeton 61.
Besides the disappointment of a loss in their final home game of the season, the Tigers also suffered the embarrassment of a loss to a team firmly entrenched in the Ivy cellar.
Princeton's collapse against Cornell does not bode well for next weekend's season-ending road trip against league-leading Dartmouth and second-place Harvard, teams against which the Tigers hope to again be on the winning side of a blowout.
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