Sports shorts: Women's basketball falls to St. John's, men face IUPUI

Put the ball in the basket. That's what the game is all about.

There are lots of other skills involved in basketball - rebounding, passing, ball-handling - and the Princeton WOMEN'S BASKETBALL team matched sixth-seeded St. John's in all of those aspects March 20 in the program's first NCAA Tournament appearance. The only thing the Tigers couldn't do was put the ball through the net, as they fell to the Red Storm, 65-47, in Tallahassee, Fla.

Princeton battled St. John's to a draw on the boards and turned the ball over only four more times than its opponent. But the Tigers made just 28.3 percent of their field-goal attempts and hit one of 10 3-pointers, both season lows. The Red Storm shot 45.8 percent from the floor, pulling away late in the first half and never letting up. Perhaps most frustrating was the fact that Princeton took the attempts it wanted. But all too often the ball would go halfway down and pop right back out.

"One of my coaches when I was younger told me that if the ball hits the rim twice, it's a good miss," guard Addie Micir ’11 said. "We had a lot of good misses that just didn't fall."

The Tigers finished the year 26-3, and with all five starters returning next season, they seem poised to get another shot at playing in the postseason. By Kevin Whitaker ’13

Read more about the St. John's game and about Princeton's record-setting season in the April 7 print edition of PAW.

MEN'S BASKETBALL continues its postseason run in the College Basketball Invitational March 22 with a second-round game at Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis. The game begins at 7 p.m. EDT, and an audio link to the action is available through GoPrincetonTigers.com.