Consolation-bracket play kicks off against Samford

The women's basketball team has a chance to even out its 0-2 record this weekend in the consolation bracket of the Preseason Women's National Invitational Tournament (WNIT), hosted by Samford University in Birmingham, Ala. After dropping their opening game of the tournament to then-No. 4 Maryland last weekend, the Tigers will be one of four first-round losers fighting to close out their WNIT appearances on a high note. Princeton (0-2 overall) will face Samford (1-1) on Friday and will play either East Tennessee State (0-1) or Delaware State (0-1) on Saturday.

"This weekend will prove to be another battle," first-year head coach Courtney Banghart said. "We are again on the road and playing very formidable opponents."

Princeton has played Samford (1-1) once before, during a tournament hosted by Vanderbilt in November 2003. Senior forward Katy Digovich is the only Tiger on the current roster who played in that game, having scored 17 points for the Tigers' second-highest point tally of the day.

Princeton has never faced either of its potential final-round opponents. This lack of history will not be a real disadvantage, as none of the other three teams in the tournament have played each other before.

"Going into the games this weekend, we know little about our opponents, so our main focus has been our fundamentals," junior guard Caitlin O'Neill said. "At this point in the season it's hard to tell what our strengths and weaknesses are. We have put a lot of focus into our defense and basic fundamentals. They're what will win us games or lose us games."

Fundamentals are a good place to start for the Tigers, who lost to Wagner in Staten Island, N.Y., on Tuesday after shooting 30 percent from the floor and committing 24 turnovers. While Princeton started out strong with a 7-0 lead, long droughts resulted in a 75-49 Wagner victory. Senior forward Meagan Cowher came away with 14 points and 14 rebounds for her 14th career double-double, but the team as a whole could not create momentum with any of the lineups Banghart tried.

"We are coming off a disappointing performance at Wagner," Banghart said. "In this business, you have to have a short memory and bounce back quickly. You have to be ready to execute varying game plans and play whomever is on the other side of the court."

Samford is heading into the tournament with the momentum of a 48-46 victory over Alabama on Tuesday. The Bulldogs secured the win despite being outrebounded 36-30 and outshot 50 percent to 34 percent. The Bulldogs were able to capitalize on the turnover battle, taking advantage of Alabama's 27 turnovers while giving up just 16 of their own. Three Bulldogs had 10 points in the game.

If turnovers are all the Bulldogs need to win, that does not bode well for the Tigers. Princeton has racked up 38 turnovers in the first two games of the season, and turnovers plagued the team last year as well.

East Tennessee State lost its first-round WNIT match to Western Kentucky. The Lady Toppers shot just 37.5 percent and turned the ball over 22 times. Delaware State was also haunted by sloppy ball control in a 54-47 loss to Delaware in its WNIT debut, coughing it up 24 times.

Banghart has a lot of new talent to work with, and she has given every Tiger a chance to shine. All three freshmen have already scored their first career points and hit at least one three-pointer in the first two games of the season.

"I have inherited a great group of women, but we have a lot of ground to make up," Banghart said. "We have to continue to work on our fundamental skill development and continue to learn to play together on both sides of the ball."