Cowher's 32 not enough

As a captain on the women's basketball team, senior forward Meagan Cowher knows it's up to her to carry the team in hard times. Cowher turned up the heat on Lafayette on Saturday night, notching 32 points and snatching 13 rebounds for her 16th career double-double while leading the team with four steals, but her performance was not enough to buoy the Tigers, who fell to the Leopards, 78-68, for their fifth loss in the season's first six games.

After Princeton (1-5 overall) and Lafayette (2-3) battled for control during the game's opening minutes, the Leopards used a late first-half push to forge ahead of the Tigers for a 34-29 lead at the half. Once play resumed, LaKeisha Wright went on a scoring tear for Lafayette, scoring nine of her 18 points over a 10-minute stretch that saw the Leopards take a 16-point lead. Despite Cowher's second-best career scoring total, the Tigers never fully recovered from this deficit.

"Most of my points came from the inside," Cowher said. "As a post player, that's where I can contribute, but our guards need to find where they can contribute as well."

The star forward led her team from the very beginning, netting Princeton's first six points before junior guard Caitlin O'Neill contributed a bucket from outside the arc, tying the score at eight with 15 minutes, 35 seconds remaining in the first half.

The two teams continued to trade leads, with each defense trying its best to clamp down on the opponent's offensive sparkplug. As Lafayette tried to control Cowher, the Tigers dealt with Vanes Van De Venter, who finished with her own double-double of 19 points and 10 rebounds for the Leopards.

With 0:55 left on the first-half clock, O'Neill netted another three-pointer as Princeton cut Lafayette's lead to 31-29. The Leopards' Jessica Spicer answered O'Neill quickly, however, scoring her own three-pointer with 34 seconds to play, leaving Princeton down by five at the half.

As the second half began, it was clear that there would be no more back-and-forth in this game. Lafayette opened up a double-digit lead on the Tigers within the first minute of play, and once again, Cowher and O'Neill were left leading Princeton's ultimately futile response.

Each netted a jumper, and Cowher hit a free throw to bring the score to 41-34, but Lafayette was determined to keep pace. Wright's jumper with 17:20 remaining signaled the beginning of her nine-point outburst, and she combined with Van De Venter for 28 points and 12 rebounds for the second half.

Princeton's offense, meanwhile, struggled to muster a sustained counterattack.

"[Lafayette] likes to slow down the tempo and play half-court ball, and we like to get out and run with it," head coach Courtney Banghart said. "Their style stifled our offense."

Princeton's struggles were reflected most strikingly in its three-for-20 performance from beyond the arc. With 10 points, O'Neill was the only Tiger other than Cowher to score in double-digits, but Van De Venter and Wright were two of four Leopards to achieve that standard.

Freshman forward Addie Micir snapped Princeton out of its stupor with a layup at 9:39 to go in the second half, and after Cowher's basket just over two minutes later, it seemed like the Tigers were on their way to a late comeback. But trailing just 60-50 with 7:16 to play, Princeton seemed to lose its focus and committed 10 fouls over the remainder of the game. Lafayette capitalized on these opportunities, and the Leopards sunk 16 of 20 free throws, including 10 in the last 59 seconds of play.

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O'Neill's jumper at the buzzer marked her 10th point, but such shots from outside were few and far between for the Tigers.

Banghart said that improving shooting accuracy, while certainly a team goal, must also become the responsibility of individual players.

"The only way to improve your shot is to shoot," Banghart said. "The shooters need to get back in the gym and shoot. We all need to get back to working out."

The Tigers will hit the road again Thursday to play St. Francis at 7 p.m. in Brooklyn, N.Y. Cowher will certainly aim for another spot-on game, as she is only 16 points from securing sixth place on Princeton's all-time scoring list.

Even so, there is only so much the leader can do for her team. It will be up to the rest of the Tigers to draw inspiration and momentum from Cowher's play if Princeton is to secure another win.

"None of the girls are happy about how we've been playing," Cowher said. "We need a win against someone we can compete with."