Princeton sweeps home pair

On Friday night, after the women's basketball team thoroughly defeated Yale, 75-49, to start the weekend, junior center Becky Brown was optimistic about Saturday night's game against Brown.

"I think that we can take what we did tonight — the effort and the intensity and the energy," she said. "Those are definitely things we can work on in the next couple of weeks, but I think it'll be there tomorrow too."

It was definitely there.

The Tigers (12-10 overall, 4-5 Ivy League) kept their momentum going Saturday night, upsetting Brown (15-8, 7-3), 53-50, for their first two-game winning streak since before Ivy League play began.

Against Yale (5-18, 2-8), Princeton allowed the Bulldogs to gain a 2-0 advantage before taking the lead and never looking back.

"As Coach Barron said, this was one of our best games all around [this season]," junior guard Katy O'Brien said.

Whether it was offense, defense, rebounding or shooting, the Tigers played as if they had all the right answers. Indeed, Princeton easily maintained its lead in the first half with one spectacular play after another.

On one such possession, junior guard Lauren Nestor handed off the ball to Brown only to immediately receive it back. Nestor calmly squared herself to the basket and drained a three-pointer with less than four minutes to play in the first half. O'Brien also nailed one from the top of the arc, making the score 37-21.

With a comfortable 37-25 lead at halftime, one might have expected the Tigers to let up; however, second-half play was equally intense. Princeton dominated virtually every aspect of the game, with Brown, O'Brien, Nestor and freshman guard Ali Prichard able to drive the lane at will.

Nearly every Tiger player got in the game. Freshman Ariel Rogers continued her recent strong performances with 13 points.

"We were subbing in and out the whole game. . . it was a good team effort," O'Brien said.

If one thing did go wrong for Princeton, it certainly wasn't within its control. Brown took a fall less than five minutes into the second half after driving for a tough basket, hurting her left ankle in the process. It was only a "mild sprain," she said after the game, adding that she thought she would play in Saturday night's game against Brown.

Get the best of the ‘Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

She ended up sitting on the bench the next evening, but the team leader still had some advice for her teammates prior to tipoff.

"What happened against Brown last time is we let them get up by a lot in the first half, and I think that we just need to keep it close," Brown said before the Tigers faced the Bears for a second time this season.

It seems the rest of the team knew exactly what Brown meant because, even without her presence on the court, Princeton fought out a close but convincing victory. The fact that Brown did not play in the contest against the Bears makes the team's win even more impressive.

O'Brien had 16 points, and Rogers had a career-high 14 in her first start for the Tigers. Just last weekend against Columbia, Rogers had set her previous career high.

But it was sophomore forward Katy Digovich — who didn't even play against Yale — who ended up making the difference for Princeton.

With 17 seconds left in regulation, Digovich scored the go-ahead layup off an offensive rebound, making the score 51-50. She sealed the deal on the next possession with two layups, and, as time expired, the scoreboard read Princeton 53, Brown 50.

The Tigers followed Becky Brown's formula for success, keeping the score close for the first half and maintaining a strong level of play in the second as well. Princeton finished the game with 36 percent shooting, compared with Brown's 33 percent.

The Tigers almost let the Bears come back in the final few minutes of the game. After leading by as much as eight, 49-41, off a Digovich layup with 3:36 to play, Brown rallied to claim a one-point advantage, 50-49, with 1:36 to play.

But the Tigers would have none of it, and, between the performances of O'Brien and Rogers earlier in the game and the closer by Digovich, Princeton escaped with a perfect weekend record.

Brown fell from second to third place in the Ivy League after the defeat, and Princeton ended the weekend at No. 5, up one place.

The Tigers have five games remaining in the season, including Tuesday night's Amtrak matchup against Penn.