Women's basketball heads to California for break

With the opening of the Ivy League season still relatively far in the future, women's basketball will focus on working out early-season kinks and making adjustments to a new offense led by freshman point guard Jessica Berry during its two-game mini-tournament on Friday and Saturday in Moraga, Calif.

The road trip's opening contest is against St. Mary's, who defeated the Tigers (1-1 overall) in Princeton last year, 56-46, in the first-ever competition between the two programs. The Tigers will look to avenge last season's home loss by defeating the Gaels this time around on St. Mary's home court. Like Princeton, the Gaels (0-2) are looking for their first win this season after opening with losses to Eastern Washington and Washington State.

The Tigers will next face off against either Butler (1-1) or Central Florida (1-2), both teams that Princeton has never battled before.

Despite their lack of play experience against the two squads, the Tigers are prepared to face fierce, well-rounded competition. No matter who the Tigers face off against on Saturday, the team will be a formidable challenge. Butler is looking to continue to improve upon last season's noteworthy .500 record, and Central Florida, returning all five of its starters, seeks to defend its first-place finish in the Atlantic Sun Conference this season.

"All the teams are very good, very athletic and very deep," head coach Richard Barron said.

The Tigers' mentality entering the tournament is to continue working toward gradual improvement — rather than seeking to make drastic changes — after a disappointing opening loss to St Joseph's on Nov. 18.

"Our focus is to get better every day and every game," Baron said. "[Against St Joseph's], we just missed good shots. Hopefully, those same shots will fall the rest of the season."

Effective shooting will be crucial to securing a Tiger victory, especially when considering the statistics of last season's contest against St. Mary's. In the opening 20 minutes of that match-up, the Gaels outshot Princeton, 31-19, and, in doing so, built an early lead Princeton could not overcome.

Offensively, Princeton will look for consistent contribution from senior forward Becky Brown, who led the Tigers with 15 points against St Joseph's and is now Princeton's eighth all-time leading scorer. Berry has also already exhibited her own offensive potential by posting 10 points and seven rebounds in her first collegiate performance.

Besides the regular contributions from Brown, Berry and the other starters, it's anyone's guess as to who will shine offensively during break play. Against St Joseph's, sophomore forward Ariel Rogers stepped up and led the reserves with nine points, but the Tigers have a whole range of players who could rise to the challenge.

"You never know who will step up and play well," Barron said. "It could be anyone on the team. We're just excited to make the trip and continue competing."

The Tigers hope that early-season enthusiasm can motivate them to gobble up competition on the West Coast and fine tune their play before the real pressure of the Ivy season begins to loom on the horizon.