Princeton wins pair

The women's basketball team recovered from a lackluster opening half against Colgate on Saturday to rally to a convincing 79-61 win. Coupled with the Tigers' victory against Monmouth on Thursday, 64-56, the weeekend brought Princeton's record to 4-2 — its best start since 2001.

No fewer than six Tigers posted double-digit point totals over the two matchups, with two of them — senior guard Becky Brown and sophomore forward Meagan Cowher — repeating the feat on both occasions. In fact, Cowher's 12-point contribution against Colgate means that she has now scored in the double-digits in five straight games.

The Tigers seemed likely to disappoint as they started slowly against Colgate (1-5). They trailed the entire first half, shooting just over 40 percent off the floor and converting just one three-point attempt, while the Princeton defense compounded the misery by proving unable to prevent the Raiders from getting high percentage shots.

"We lacked defensive mobility," head coach Richard Barron said. "There was just no defensive intention."

Colgate, for its part, had none of these problems, asserting itself with back-to-back three-pointers right off the bench as the Raiders ran off to a 14-5 lead. Colgate played aggressively, rebuffing the Tigers' offense on every turn and tallying eight steals to Princeton's four. Though they were outdone slightly in rebounds, 20-18, a slight advantage in turnovers, 13-11, and more accurate shooting, 45.5 percent, saw the Raiders end the half up by seven.

"We came out not ready to play our game," junior forward Casey Lockwood said. "We were so caught up in what they were doing, we lost sight of our own game."

Fortunately for the Tigers, they duly found form early in the second half. Though Colgate drew first blood by increasing its lead to nine, Princeton struck back with a 10-2 run to cut the deficit to one point. Lockwood, adding to her game-high 18 points, secured the lead for the Tigers for the first time, courtesy of two free throws with 14:25 left on the clock.

The Raiders and Princeton traded leads until the Tigers rattled off an 8-0 run to go up by 10 with 7:38 left and followed up with 16-3 run during which sophomore forward Ariel Rogers notched seven points in a row, adding to her career-high 16-point showing. With that run, Princeton secured the largest lead of the game at 77-58 with just over a minute left.

And though the Tigers were momentarily distracted by a fall in the final minute by junior guard Elyse Umeda that forced her to leave the game in pain, it was too late for Colgate to prevent Princeton from romping to a comfortable win.

The Raiders were thoroughly outdone in the second half, especially in rebounds, 27-8, while an abundance of fouls took their second-highest scorer out of the game late in the second half and provided Princeton with 20 free throw opportunities. The Tigers duly obliged, converting 17 of these and 21 of 24 overall, while gifting just six back.

Better than worst

Princeton also struggled early against Monmouth on Thursday, shooting an underwhelming 36.4 percent off the floor in the first half. The Tigers did not fall behind in the game, however, as the Hawks fared no better, managing just 36.0 percent. The teams traded the lead, with the largest at just six, and Princeton ended the half up by just three.

The Tigers improved markedly throughout the second half, improving their shooting percentage by nearly 20 percentage points. Princeton added five to its lead right out of the locker room and then went on to claim a 13-point edge with 11:27 left before closing out the game, 64-56. The Hawks would come no closer than seven the rest of the way.

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Though Monmouth missed just one free throw of 12 for an incredible 91.7 percent conversion rate, the Tigers had more than twice as many opportunities and earned 14 points from the charity stripe. Princeton was also able to negate the Hawks' 34-33 edge in rebounds and 19-17 advantage in turnovers with 11 steals to nine and six three-point shots to three.

The Tigers again had four players notching double-digit scores: joining Brown, with a game-high 17, and Cowher, with 15, were freshman and senior guards Jessica Berry and Katy O'Brien, with 12 and 15, respectively.

Princeton will face Army when next at West Point. A win will give the team its best start since 1995, as well as give the players some measure of confidence as they face their toughest challenge yet — No. 9 Rutgers at home on Sunday.