Pioneers Back on the Road at Princeton Sunday Afternoon
12/13/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Dec. 13, 2008
Complete Release in PDF Format 
Sacred Heart Pioneers (3-5, 2-0 NEC) vs. Princeton Tigers (4-4, 0-0 Ivy League)
Game #9 - Sunday, December 14, 2008 - 4:00 pm - Princeton, N.J. - Jadwin Gym (6,854)
Multimedia: Live Stats
The Storyline... Sacred Heart will be back on the road this Sunday afternoon as they head to Princeton to face the Tigers fresh off a 3-0 homestand last week. The Pioneers snapped their 0-5 losing skid to open the season with three-straight double digit victories as they return to non-conference play against Princeton. The Tigers are right back in action after a 52-41 win over Monmouth at home on Friday night.
Series... The Sacred Heart Pioneers lead the all-time series, 3-0. SHU beat the Tigers, 79-65 last season at home in the William H. Pitt Center. The Pioneers posted back to back wins in 2002-03 and 2003-04, winning on the road, 69-61, on December 7, 2002 and at home, 71-47, on December 6, 2003.
Pioneers vs. the Ivy League... The Pioneers are 19-14 all-time versus teams from the Ivy League. SHU has faced every team in the league with the exception of the University of Pennsylvania. The Pioneers have faced instate rival Yale the most of any school, holding an 9-3 series lead including eight-straight wins. The Pioneers are 4-3 all-time against Columbia, with the home team winning each game in the series, and hold a 3-0 lead over Princeton. SHU is an even 3-3 in their all-time series with Brown and 0-2 against the Big Green of Dartmouth. SHU has faced Cornell just once, losing to the Big Red.
The Coaches... Ed Swanson (SHU `89) is in his 19th season as head coach at his alma mater. Swanson posts a 300-218 record in his career at Sacred Heart. His teams have a 174-99 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, (300) and winning percentage (.579). He has twice been named the NEC Coach of the Year and is four conference wins away from becoming the league's all-time leader in regular season win. Courtney Banghart (Dartmouth `00) is in her second season as the head coach at Princeton and led the Tigers to a 7-23 record last season. Prior to becoming Princeton's head coach, Banghart 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.
Scouting the Tigers... The Princeton Tigers are 4-4 on the year as they close out a two-game homestand before embarking on a four game road swing. The Tigers are coming off a 52-41 win over Monmouth that snapped a three-game slide. Senior guard Whitney Downs is the team's leading scorer averaging 11.8 points per game, shooting 47.9% (34-71) from the field. Sophomore Addie Micir is right on Downs heels averaging 11.4 points per game while hitting a team-best 38.5% (15-49) from three. Princeton was picked to finish seventh in the eight team Ivy League in the preseason poll.
Last Meeting with Princeton... The Pioneers had four starters in double figures while shooting 52.6% (30-57) from the field on the way to a 70-65 win over visiting Princeton last December. SHU center Kaitlin Sowinski led the offensive charge with 23 points while guard Alisa Apo posted her fourth-straight game in double digit hitting for 19 points in the win. The Pioneers saw a 21-point second half lead whittled down to nine with just over seven minutes to go. Sowinski powered an 11-0 run, scoring the first five points, to push the lead to 76-55 with 3:13 to go putting the game out of reach. SHU's Khalia Cain's posted a season-high 16 points while forward Stephanie Ryan added 13 points. SHU out rebounded the Tigers 36-28 while turning the ball over just 13 times. Princeton was led by Megan Cowher who made 10-of-15 on her way to 20 points. Caitlin O'Neill and Krystal Hill each had double figures with 12 and 11 points, respectively.
Last Time Out... Senior Kaitlin Sowinski scored a game-high 18 points and freshman Callan Taylor posted a double double with 14 points and 10 rebounds as the Pioneers got their third-straight win, beating Mount St. Mary's 65-52. The win improved SHU to 2-0 in the Northeast Conference and gave Pioneer head coach Ed Swanson his 300th career victory in 19 seasons with the program. SHU, who never trailed in the game, extended an early 8-2 advantage to a 19-11 lead at the 9:29 mark as Taylor buried her first of three from behind the arc. The Pioneer's lead never dipped below double digits the rest of the first half and hit a high water mark of 16 on an Alisa Apo three with just under four minutes to go. The Pioneers took a season-high 19 three's in the first half, hitting just five, but took advantage of 14 Mountaineer miscues for 13 points at the other end. The Mount clawed their way back into the game in the early stages of the second half, using a 10-2 run capped by a Brianna Gauthier three at 16:08 to trail by just four, 38-34. Taylor helped the Pioneers respond and hit a dribble-drive and a her third triple of the night to push the lead back to double digits, 50-38, with just under 10 minutes to play. The Mount tried to piece together one last run but could get not closer then down seven, 50-43, before the Pioneers began to pull away, using a 13-5 run to go up 17 with a minute left. Stephanie Ryan finished with 11 points, four steals, four rebounds and three assists while Apo, SHU's leading scorer, hit just four-of-13 but finished with 10 points and four helpers. The Pioneers shot 44.3% (27-61) from the field and outscored the Mount 28-16 in the paint.
300 Career Coaching Victories... Sacred Heart head coach Ed Swanson earned his 300th victory in Monday night's 65-52 win over Mount St. Mary's. Swanson is in his 19th season coaching the Pioneers, the only head coaching job he has ever held. His first career win came in his first game as SHU's head coach, 76-57 over King's College on November 26, 1990. His 100th career victory came on December 30, 1997, a 62-43 win over Pace. His 200th victory at Sacred Heart came on January 17, 2004 at Mount St. Mary's, 64-58. He has coached the Pioneers to four 20 win seasons and has posted at least 18 wins in each of the last seven season. For his efforts, he has won two NEC Coach of the Year awards (2004, 2008) and an NECC Coach of the Year award (1996). Swanson is closing in on a Northeast Conference coaching milestone. When the conference slate starts back up in January, Swanson will be two wins away from becoming the all-time leader in NEC victories.
From 0-5 to Three-In-A-Row... The Pioneers lost their first five games of 2008-09, the first time in program history an Ed Swanson coached team started 0-5 and the first time since the winless 1982-83 season (0-21). Since then, the Pioneers have rattled off three-straight, averaging 75.7 points in those games and winning by an average of 46.3 points. Over the last three, all at home, the Pioneers are shooting 48.0% (86-179) from the field and outrebounding opponents by nearly 15 per game. In back to back games over Stony Brook and Fairleigh Dickinson, all 14 Pioneers on the roster saw action as SHU posted a 36-point win over FDU and a 39-point win over Stony Brook, their largest-margin of victory since an 84-44 win over Fairleigh Dickinson at home in 2006. SHU pulled down 54 rebounds as a team against SBU, hitting the 50 rebound mark for the first times since grabbing 52 in the 2006 NEC Championship game against Quinnipiac.
Offense Finding its Stride... Sacred Heart is finding its offensive legs, averaging a 67.6 points per game, second in the Northeast Conference. The Pioneers are second in the NEC in three-point shooting, hitting 36.0% (49-136) from behind the arc while making a league-high 49 three's. SHU is ranked four in field goal percentage (.417) and third at the free throw line (.720). SHU posted their best offensive outing of the season in their win over Fairleigh Dickinson, hitting a season-high 53.4% (31-58) from the field and 45.5% (10-22) from three.
Home Cooking... Sacred Heart opened this season with four of their first five games on the road including a season-opening swing through Kansas and Marquette. After a 77-75 loss to Lehigh in their `08-'09 home opener, the Pioneers have won three-straight in the Pitt Center as they close out 2008 with two-of-three at home after Sunday's game at Princeton.
2-0 start in the NEC... For the second-straight season Sacred Heart starts 2-0 in the Northeast Conference in league games played in December. The Pioneers are 2-0 in the conference for the fourth-straight season as they close out non-conference play with games at Princeton and Villanova and at home against Rhode Island and Binghamton. The NEC slate picks back up on Saturday, January 3rd at Monmouth.
Sowinski In the Middle... After a slow start to the 2008-09 season, senior center Kaitlin Sowinski is back to being a force in the middle for the Pioneers. Sowinski is averaging 14.3 points over her last three games, shooting 69.2% (18-26) from the field while averaging 6.0 rebounds, all Pioneer wins. Sowinski led the Pioneers with 18 points on eight-of-nine shooting against Mount St. Mary's last time out. On the year, she is ranked fifth in the NEC in field goal percentage (.506) and third in blocks per game (1.75).
Taylor Notches Second Double Double... Freshman Callan Taylor is coming off her second double double game of the year after posting 14 points and 10 rebounds against the Mount. Her first career double dip came against Lehigh with 21 points and 10 boards. On the year, her 61.1% (11-18) shooting from behind the arc and 88.0% (22-25) at the charity stripe rank first and third, respectively.
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