Princeton drops two at home

Junior center Becky Brown summed up the women's basketball team's weekend with a bit of an understatement.

"Yeah, we're disappointed," Brown said after the Tigers' two weekend home losses, to Dartmouth (8-8 overall, 4-0 Ivy League) on Friday, 69-55, and to Harvard (12-6, 3-1) the next night, 67-51.

Princeton (9-9, 1-4) failed to establish itself in either game. With freshman forward Meagan Cowher out with a stress fracture, several Tigers saw more playing time than normal, including freshman forward Ariel Rogers. Rogers' career-high 11 points were not enough, however, to lift the Tigers over Harvard.

The Crimson executed its game plan to perfection, seemingly moving to all the right places at the right times to receive easy feeds the entire night. After jumping out to a 17-2 lead with 12 minutes, 13 seconds left in the first half, Harvard never let Princeton get back into the game. Devastating Crimson three-point shooting (66 percent in the first half) kept the Tigers at bay. Princeton retreated into the locker room trailing at halftime, 37-36.

"We were back on our heels in the first half — we weren't able to penetrate," Brown said.

It was the same story in the second half. In the final few minutes, though, the Tigers managed to put together a run that pulled them within 14 points on freshman guard Ali Pearson's three.

That was as close as Princeton could get. Harvard used a stifling defense that made it difficult for the Tigers to even get off a shot, much less score.

"The past couple games, we've played teams shooting their best games of the year," Brown said.

Princeton didn't fare much better against the Big Green the previous night. Despite strong shooting from Brown, who led the team with 19 points, Dartmouth crushed the Tigers with 28-of-29 shooting from the line and accurate shooting beyond the arc.

After a sporadic first half in which Princeton allowed a 14-4 run, the Tigers still managed to cut the lead to 31-30 at the break and took the lead early in the second on free throws.

The score was tied four minutes into the second half, but Princeton never regained the advantage. After pulling ahead, 50-42, with 9:33 to go, the Big Green sealed it with 12-of-12 shooting from the line and three more three-pointers.

While the Tigers and Dartmouth both shot about 40 percent from the field, Big Green pulled away from Princeton with 50 percent three-point shooting, while the Tigers shot just 33 percent.

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"We need to make some shots. In the past couple games, we've missed a lot of shots," head coach Richard Barron said.

The Tigers must now regroup before next weekend's road battles against Cornell and Columbia.

"Those are both winnable games for us," Barron said. "We've got to get over it. We need to learn from our mistakes [and] watch some film and improve."