December 12, 2006 - Princeton 74 Rider 45
December 12, 2006
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Women’s College Basketball
Princeton University 74, Rider University 45
PRINCETON—Trying to catch a Tiger by the tail. The Broncs took on the Princeton Tigers on Tuesday looking for their first win of the season. Despite clawing back into the game and winning the second half by a point, Rider fell to the Tigers 74-45. “It looks bleak but it’s not as dismal as people are making it out to be,” said head coach Tori Harrison. “We are working hard for a half and we need to do the little things for 40 minutes.”
Rider (0-8) jumped out to an early 4-0 lead before the Tigers went on a 13-1 run, opening a 13-5 lead with 14:44 left in the first half.
Leading 15-10 with 13:02 left in the first period, the Tigers went on a 15-2 run jumping out to a 30-12 lead with 8:16 left and led 47-17 at the half.
Princeton (4-6) shot 63 percent in the first half.
Sophomore Danielle Costantino (Norristown, Pa./Archbishop Carroll) came off the bench to score a team-high 11 points in 22 minutes of action.
“Right now we have to concentrate on working on each possession,” said Costantino. “We need to work on the offense and try to score and then play hard on defense. We need to keep it simple, one play at a time and build that effort into a good half and then do the same things we’ve been doing in the second half.”
Freshman Stephanie Wisniewski (Levittown, Pa./Villa Joseph Marie) finished with nine points in 25 minutes of action with junior Janele Henderson (Brooklyn, N.Y./Bishop Loughlin) adding seven points and seven rebounds in 34 minutes for the Broncs.
“It’s hard but we have to continue to think positive,” Costantino added. “We just need to worry about each play ahead of us and go from there and not worry about the last play if something bad happened.”
Rider forced 10 Tiger turnovers in the second half (17 in the game) but could not sustain the comeback.
“Rider can take a lot of pride out of the way they played in the second half,” said Princeton head coach Richard Barron. “They battled and didn’t quit and that’s something that they can build on as a team.”
The Broncs out-scored the Tigers 28-27 in the second half, the fourth time in eight games that Rider has won the final 20 minutes and ended the game on a 14-6 run.
“Trying to put two halves together is the recurring theme,” Harrison added. “We can fight in the second half but we have to find that fight in the first half. Once we find it, hopefully, we’ll be there.”
For Princeton, junior Meagan Cowher had a game-high 21 points in just 17 minutes, including seven for seven from the foul line. Cowher is the daughter of Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Bill Cowher.
“We’re not going to turn this around overnight,” Harrison added. “We haven’t had a winning season in 12 years and it’s going to take us making baby steps before we run. We’re finally getting some players in here that can play but they are young and overall, by getting the better players in here we can take bigger steps and move the program forward.”
Senior Kara Borel (East Stroudsburg, Pa./Stroudsburg) had four rebounds in the game to move into a tie for fifth place on the all-time Bronc rebounding list with Leanne Moore who had 624 boards from 2002-2005. Borel added four assists on the night.
The Broncs had six blocks in the game, three by Wisniewski and now have 22 blocked shots as a team in the last three games.
Rider will try to retrieve its first win of the season a week from tonight (December 19) when the Broncs host the Retrievers of the University of Maryland – Baltimore County (UMBC) at 7:00pm in Alumni Gym.
-RU-
