The women's basketball team was clearly missing something on offense in its weekend games against Princeton and Penn. With point guard Lauren Clarke '14, the third-highest scorer on the team, out with an injury, the Bears' offense struggled, and they handed easy wins to both opponents.
Princeton 70, Brown 48
The Bears started off strong, using the combined shooting skills of guard Lindsay Nickel '13 and co-captain Hannah Passafuime '12 to capture their only lead of the game, 12-11, in the first ten minutes.
But the Tigers stormed back. They went on a 12-2 streak to take a 26-14 lead and went into the half ahead 13 points.
Princeton came out of the locker room and increased the tempo, taking a 13-2 run to establish a safe lead, 48-24.
"We lost track of their shooters and transitions," said co-captain Aileen Daniels '12. "What got us was that we had to work harder for our shots."
Daniels stepped up to start a 9-2 streak with a jumper at 14:29, but the Bears' attempt was too little and too late, and the Tigers reestablished their power, eventually winning comfortably, 70-48.
Bruno shot only 30 percent from the field and were led offensively by Nickel with 11 points. Daniels added seven points.
Penn 52, Brown 32
The Bears kept up with Penn early on, trailing by only two points, 11-9, after seven minutes. The Quakers then ran away after a 10-2 streak that was left unmatched by the Bears. Penn ended the half with a 30-17 lead.
Bruno pulled it together in the second half with ferocious defense that limited the Quakers' scoring. But Brown did not have the offense to match, and the Bears were only able to bring the deficit down to 10.
"We played really great defense," Daniels said. "They didn't score for nine straight minutes, but our shots just weren't falling."
The Bears shot just 27 percent from the field on Saturday night and only 22 percent in the second half. In contrast, the Quakers ended the game shooting 36 percent from the field.
Penn was able to overcome Bruno's tough defense and take a 25-point lead with six minutes on the clock. Brown made one last attempt in the final minutes, cutting the lead to 17, but the Quakers had already secured the win.
The Bears will go on the road to face more Ivy challengers next weekend. They take on Columbia Friday night before heading to Cornell for a 7 p.m. tip-off Saturday.
