The women's basketball team's three-game winning streak ended this weekend after they lost to Penn and Princeton on the road. They fell to 3-7 in the Ivy League after consecutive losses in Philadelphia Friday night and New Jersey Saturday.
Penn 55, Brown 43
It was a back-and-forth game in the first half Friday night at the Palestra. Penn started off hot and maintained a steady lead in the first 11 minutes. Then the Bears took over for the next 10 minutes to take their first lead of the night, 24-21, with 3:56 remaining. A three-pointer by Penn guard Alyssa Baron tied up the game, and her free throw minutes later gave the Quakers a one-point lead at the half.
The Bears never regained momentum.
"We started out each game very strong, but our main issue was not being able to maintain that way of playing into the second half," said co-captain Aileen Daniels '12. "We stopped working together on offense."
From the locker room, the Quakers went on a 9-0 run to take a double-digit lead with 12:08 remaining, 42-30. Baron led the Quakers in this streak and ended the night with a game high of 24 points. Brown, who lost to Penn earlier this season, never got closer than 12 until the final buzzer.
Co-captains Hannah Passafuime '12 and Daniels led the offense with nine and eight points, respectively. Lindsay Nickel '13 also put up eight points for the Bears.
Princeton 75, Brown 38
While the Bears and the first-place Tigers (19-4, 8-1 Ivy) are far apart in the Ivy standings, Brown had defeated another Ivy elite, the second-place Harvard — the only conference squad to beat Princeton — at the Pizzitola Center last weekend. But the Tigers dominated the court Saturday night.
Bruno stuck with the Tigers for the first 20 minutes, led by Daniels, who put up all eight of her points that night in the first half. Though Brown never had a lead after the second minute, they stayed close to the top-ranked Tigers until a surge in the final two minutes gave Princeton an eight-point advantage at the half.
The Bears fell apart in the second half, scoring only 15 points. They were outscored by the Tigers 44-15 after the break.
Guard Lauren Clarke '14 broke Brown's offensive silence after four minutes into the second half with a lay-up, but the shot only cut Princeton's lead to 15.
"We let them do whatever they wanted to on offense," Daniels said.
Sure enough, Princeton continued to dominate, led by guard Lauren Edwards, who ended the game with 20 points for the Tigers. They shot 51 percent from the field in the second half and increased their lead to 37 by the end of the night.
The Bears were without their leading scorer, Sheila Dixon '13, who was out of the lineup due to illness. She averages 28 minutes and 10 points per game. According to Daniels, the team missed Dixon's ferocity on the court, but they prepared for her absence in practice.
"We switched the lineup around — a lot of people's roles changed, but we do it in practice," Daniels said. "Things like this happen."
The Bears stay on the road in their second-to-last weekend of the regular season. They look to sweep the season series against Harvard and Dartmouth, both of whom they beat at home last weekend.
