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Second Half Marist Rally Enough to Hand Women's Basketball 56-45 Loss

Courtesy: Princeton Athletic Communications Release: 11/17/2012

Courtesy: Beverly Schaefer

Megan Bowen led the Tigers with 12 points Saturday

Box Score

A second half Marist rally was too much to overcome for the Princeton women's basketball team, as the Tigers fell 56-45 to the Red Foxes in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. Saturday evening. With the loss, Princeton falls to 1-1 on the young season, while Marist improves to 2-1.

The Tigers will look to get back into the win column at home versus Rider on Tuesday, Nov. 20 at 7 p.m., before jetting out to the West Coast for a pair of contests. Princeton opens its post-Thanksgiving weekend with a Friday, Nov. 23 game at UC Riverside at 10 p.m. ET, before wrapping up the weekend two days later with UCLA in a 4 p.m. ET meeting with the Bruins.

Princeton jumped out to the initial advantage, taking an 11-4 lead off a Megan Bowen jumper at 15:45. Despite their immediate offensive run, the Tigers were unable to preserve their double figure advantage for long.

Marist began to claw its way back into the game heading inside the 10-minute mark. The Red Foxes' persistence paid off, as the home side managed to come from behind and take a one-point lead, 16-15, at 5:44 off an Elizabeth Beynnon jumper.

Before the conclusion of the first half, Princeton went on an 8-4 run to hold a 23-20 differential heading into halftime.

Following intermission, Princeton preserved its lead until the 10:12-minute mark, when Marist's Leanne Ockenden put in a layin to lift the Red Foxes to a 35-34 advantage.

From that point forward the Tigers were forced to play catch up, unable to find a final surge to retake the lead for the fourth time in the game. Marist outscored Princeton 36-22 in the second half to hand the Tigers their first loss of the year.

Bowen led the offense with 12 points going 6-for-9 from the field, while Niveen Rasheed was the team's rebounding leader with 10. Rasheed and Mariah Smith each had seven points apiece, with Smith going 5-for-6 from the stripe.

In the game, Marist shot 37.8 percent (17-for-45) to Princeton's 26.2 percent (16-for-61) from the field. The Tigers did outrebound the Red Foxes 45-27, but committed 21 turnovers to Marist's 16.