Turning point for women's basketball

The Tigers began this season by mixing the best of both old and new. From seniors to freshmen, head coach Richard Barron has bridged the class divide of the women's basketball team with talent.

This year marked a turning point for the program as it was the first year that Barron could look at the team truly as his own. Barron's first recruited players are finally seniors and the schism that previously plagued the team between pre-Barron era players and the Barron has recruits formally disappeared.

Barron inherited a struggling program that held a dismal 2-25 record in the 2000-2001 season that appeared to be going nowhere. Now he has built a team whose talent spans across all four years.

This year, freshman point guard Jessica Berry has enriched the team as not only a competent addition to the Tigers but as a true, talented star. She had a 30-point performance against St. Mary's early in her collegiate career on Nov. 25 and has already climbed into the stat books as she has notched the second greatest number of assists in a season.

Yet it was Princeton's known talent coming into this season that earned the Tigers a third-place ranking in the Ivy League preseason polls, which proved to underestimate the team's strength.

No one can deny the immense contribution that senior center Becky Brown has made both statistically and emotionally. Brown entered the season ranked 10th all-time in scoring and has added 428 points to that total in this season alone. Yet it is not only her formidable presence in the lane but her court leadership that sparks the Tigers' success. Pumping up the crowd at games and earning cheers from her resident fans at Jadwin Gym, Brown has helped the team surpass its preseason expectations and earn itself a share of first place in the Ivy League.

Senior Katy O'Brien has also helped the team from a different perspective through her leadership from the perimeter. Her ability to spark runs with clutch threes, including five three-pointers last Friday against Brown, has energized the Tigers and allowed them to boast an offensive diversity which few other teams in the Ivy League can match.

Filling in between the veterans and the rookies, the sophomore and junior classes hold comparable talent. Junior forward Casey Lockwood, who averages 7.5 points per game and 4.9 boards per game, was finally back to full strength this season after a torn ACL in her freshman year hampered her abilities the previous two seasons.

Sophomore forward Meagan Cowher, last season's Ivy League Rookie of the Year, has brought an intense edge to the post through hustle plays and adept moves around the hoop. She sits second on the team in both scoring and rebounding with 14.7 points and 5.6 grabs per game. Sophomore forward Ariel Rogers, who earned an Ivy League Rookie of the week honor last season, has been a goto player off the bench all season for the Tigers along with a pair of freshmen reserves, forward Whitney Downs and guard Caitlin O'Neill.

With his impressive recruiting track record, Barron will look to bring only the best to the Tigers' reputable program next year. But the shoes of Brown and O'Brien will be hard to fill. For now, though, Princeton will look to keep thoughts of next season as far away as possible as O'Brien, Brown and senior guard Ali Smith and senior forward Lauren Nestor look to end their collegiate careers with the ultimate prize — an outright Ivy League title and a trip to the NCAA tournament.