W. Hoops searching for a win vs. Tigers

Even when the title seems out of reach, you have to keep playing the games.

After a tough weekend which featured back-to-back home losses that all but ended the Quakers' chances at an Ivy League title, Penn (12-10, 5-4 Ivy) will be back in action tonight at the Palestra against Princeton (12-10, 4-5).

What a difference three weeks can make. Just 21 days ago Penn played one of its best games of the season, beating Princeton in a double-overtime thriller at Jadwin Gym to extend its Ivy League record to 3-0.

Having finished the first road trip of the season tied for first place, the future looked bright for the Red and Blue.

Since then, Penn has lost four straight home games and slid from tied for first to four games back of first-place Dartmouth.

In their first meeting with Princeton, Penn struggled on the inside as senior Becky Brown dominated Penn junior center Jennifer Fleischer, scoring 20 points and grabbing 10 boards. Brown also managed to hold Fleischer to no field goals.

"I think they got to the offensive boards quite a bit," Penn coach Patrick Knapp said. "I think we could contain Becky Brown a little bit better."

Brown even impressed her own coach, who is not shy to sing his senior center's praises.

"With most of the head-to-head matchups with other big centers, she's been very dominant," Princeton coach Richard Barron said. "She's very good around the basket, a big scorer and certainly someone everybody has to give a lot of attention to."

But despite Brown's play, the Tigers know that they need to play better to come home from the Palestra with a win.

"Hopefully we just play with a little more energy," Barron said "I don't think we played very hard in that game."

One element that will be missing is Princeton's third leading scorer, Megan Cowher.

Cowher has not played since the Quakers beat the Tigers on Feb. 1. Shortly afterwards she was diagnosed with a stress fracture in her foot. The four-time Ivy League Rookie of the Week was averaging 13.1 points per game before she went down.

Both coaches downplayed the importance of Cowher's injury.

"Nothing is different," Barron said, quick to dismiss any claims that the injury to Cowher would hurt his team's chances against Penn.

"They're missing one of their key players right now," Knapp said. "We can't worry about that. We gotta play with the cards we're dealt."

But the impact of Cowher's loss has been minimized by the emergence of another Princeton freshman forward, Ariel Rogers. Rogers, who is averaging only 4.1 points per game on the season exploded last weekend.

She scored a career-high 13 points in a win on Friday against Yale, then bested the performance the next night, scoring 14 in a big win over Brown.

The momentum of the two teams seem to be going in opposite directions, as Princeton comes off its best weekend of the season and Penn comes off their most disappointing.

"I would think our players will get excited about playing Princeton," Knapp said after Saturday's loss to Yale. "But, we need a day, we need a day away, it's been a tough weekend."

The Quakers will have no more than a day to regroup and try and improve their awful home record. Penn is 0-4 at home in Ivy League play and 5-0 on the road, so Princeton is in the odd position of seemingly having a road-court advantage.

If Penn wants to salvage a season that is quickly turning from good to atrocious, a win against Princeton tonight would go a long way.

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