Pioneers Play Host to Tigers Saturday Afternoon
12/21/2007 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Dec. 21, 2007
Sacred Heart vs. Princeton Game Notes in PDF Format 
Sacred Heart Pioneers (5-5, 2-0 NEC) vs. Princeton Tigers (3-9, 0-0 Ivy League)
Game #11 - Saturday, December 22, 2007 - 2:00 pm - Fairfield, Conn. - William H. Pitt Center (2,100)
Radio: SacredHeartPioneers.com
The Storyline... The Sacred Heart Pioneers look to bounce back after Wednesday's 63-53 loss at Lehigh as they play host to the Princeton Tigers Saturday afternoon. The Pioneers are hosting their second of three games against Ivy League competition with the Tigers paying a visit. SHU lost to Dartmouth earlier in the year and will host Columbia in the final tune-up before full-time conference play gets under way. Princeton is in looking to end a three-game slide as they fell to Syracuse last time out, 77-75.
Series... The Sacred Heart Pioneers lead the all-time series, 2-0. SHU posted back to back wins in 2002-03 and 2003-04. The Pioneers won on the road, 69-61, on December 7, 2002 and took the home meeting the following season, 71-47, on December 6, 2003.
Pioneers vs. the Ivy League... The Pioneers are 17-14 all-time versus the teams from the Ivy League. Sacred Heart has faced every team in the league with the exception of the University of Pennsylvania. SHU has faced in state rival Yale the most of any school, holding an 9-3 series lead including eight-straight wins. The Pioneers are tied 3-3 with Columbia and hold a 2-0 lead over Princeton, both teams they will face this season. SHU is an even, 3-3, in their all-time series with Brown and 0-2 against the Big Green of Dartmouth after a loss earlier this year.. SHU has faced Cornell just once, losing to the Big Red.
The Coaches... Ed Swanson (SHU `89) is in his 18th season as head coach at his alma mater. Swanson posts a 283-207 record in his career at Sacred Heart. His teams have a 157-88 record since joining the Division I ranks in 1999-00. Swanson is the program's longest tenured coach and is the all-time leader in coaching wins, (283) and winning percentage (.578). He earned his first ever NEC Brenda Reilly Coach of the Year award after guiding SHU to a then school record 21 wins in 2003-04. Courtney Banghart (Dartmouth `00) is in her first season as the head coach of the Princeton Tigers. Banghart became the third-youngest head coach in Division I women's basketball with her hiring last May. She spent the previous four seasons as an assistant at her alma mater Dartmouth where she helped the Big Green to a pair of Ivy League titles in 2005 and 2006.
Last Time Out... Sacred Heart freshman Alisa Apo scored a season-high 20 points but the Pioneers fell short of their third-straight win, losing on the road 63-53 at Lehigh Wednesday night. Lehigh senior Kaela Pearce scored all 17 of her points in the second half in the win. The Mountain Hawks put together a 14-4 first half run and led 28-27 at the break. Lehigh came out on fire to start the second half, ripping off a 14-2 run over the first eight minutes to pull in front, 42-29. The Pioneers suffered another rough shooting stretch, going one-for-10 shooting, including nine-straight misses, to start the half. The Pioneers were able to chop the lead down to six, 44-38, at the eight minute mark Lehigh had an answer, quickly bouncing the lead back to 10. Pearce did much of her damage over the final five minutes, scoring 10 of her 17 as the Mountain Hawks kept SHU at bay the rest of the way for the win. SHU shot just 33.3% (18-54) from the field in the loss and were outrebounded 41-30. In addition to Apo's 20, Sowinski and Ryan both found double digits with 14 and 13 points, respectively. The Mountain Hawks shot 52.2% (12-23) in the second half and scored 22 points off 20 SHU turnovers.
Scouting the Tigers... The Princeton Tigers are off to a 3-9 start to their season and come in having lost three-straight. The Tigers started the year 0-4 before getting their first win, 61-49, at home over Lehigh. Princeton also owns wins over NEC school St. Francis (NY), 63-55, and NJIT, 56-45. The Tigers are led by senior forward Meagan Cowher, who was recently named to the Naismith Trophy watch list as one of the nation's top-50 players. Cowher comes in leading her team in scoring and rebounding at 17.4 points and 8.2 rebounds per game. Freshman Addie Micir was named the Ivy League Rookie of the Week after a pair of double digit games against Big East foes Rutgers (10 pts) and Syracuse (18 pts). The Tigers were picked to finish second, tied with Cornell, in the league's preseason poll.
Last Meeting with Princeton... Sacred Heart rebounded from a poor first half shooting performance to come away with a 71-47 win over Princeton on December 6, 2003 in the William H. Pitt Center. In a game played in blizzard like conditions, the Pioneer offense in the first half was as cold as the temperature outside. SHU shot just 28.6% (8-28) from the field and couldn't take advantage of multiple Tiger mistakes. Princeton turned the ball over seven times before taking their first shot to start the game and finished the half with 17 miscues but thanks to some anemic Sacred Heart offense, the Tigers trailed by just six, 27-21 at the half. The Pioneers shook off their wintry slumber in the second half, shooting 17-of-26 (65.4%) and 10-of-12 (83.3%) from the free throw line while using an early 15-0 run en route to a 71-47 win. Princeton mirrored the Sacred Heart first half, shooting an identical 28.6% on eight-of-28 shooting while wrapping up the game with 31 total turnovers. Sophomore Nicolle Rubino finished the game with a career-high 23 points with three rebounds, three steals and two assists. Freshman Mary Rush was the only other Pioneer in double digits with 10 points on an almost perfect shooting day, three-of-three from the field and four-of-five from the line. Princeton sophomore Rebecca Brown scored 15 points to lead all Tigers while grabbing six rebounds.
News and Notes...
- The Pioneers dropped their only game against Patriot League competition last time out, falling at Lehigh, 63-53. SHU is taking on Princeton in the middle game of three at home against the Ivy League this year. The Pioneers face La Salle of the Atlantic-10 next before closing non-league play hosting Columbia.
- Freshman Alisa Apo has the hot hand for the Pioneer offense, averaging a team-high 15.3 points over her last three games. The freshman guard is coming off a career-high 20 point night at Lehigh last time out where she also made five steals. Over the last three games, Apo has shot 51.9% (14-27) from the field, 44.4% (4-9) from three and 70.0% (14-20) at the line. On the year she is averaging 8.0 points per game.
- Junior center Kaitlin Sowinski found double-figures for the 10th-straight game with 14 points at Lehigh. Sowinski added to her league leading block total with three against the Mountain Hawks. She has had at least three blocks or more in eight-straight games and has had five or more blocks in three games this year.
-Freshman Maggie Cosgrove has cemented herself in the starting point guard role and continues to turn out solid performances. She is leading the team from behind the arc at 38.1%, hitting 16-of-42. Every field goal she has made this year has been from behind the arc. Over her last three games, Cosgrove has hit six-of-13 (.462) from three.
- The Pioneer's two starting guards, Khalia Cain and Maggie Cosgrove, both have positive assist-to-turnover ratios. Cain has 30 helpers against just 20 turnovers and Cosgrove has 25 assists and 20 miscues.
