Frazier Shines for Columbia
In her first full week back in the starting lineup after suffering an early season injury, Lions sophomore center Chelsea Frazier showed how instrumental she is to her team’s success as she was named the Ivy Player of the Week. Frazier scored a career-high 22 points in Columbia’s Ivy League home opener against Cornell, a 76-59 victory. Her team had come into the game having lost nine of 10.
She scored 14 of the Light Blue’s first 20 points as part of a 20-3 start and was simply unstoppable for most of the first half. The previous weekend Frazier had matched up against Big Red junior forward Jeomi Meduka, a two-time Ivy Player of the Week, but struggled to stay on the court due to fouls. She went just 2 for 11 from the field in 23 minutes. This time it was Frazier drawing Meduka into foul trouble as she limited the conference’s third leading scorer to just 19 minutes and held her under double figures in points.
Earlier in the week Frazier almost succeeded in carrying the Lions to a victory over visiting Longwood. With her team trailing at the half, Frazier scored 12 of her 15 points in the second half including eight straight at one point. But 29 percent shooting doomed the Lions.
Tough Non-Conference Slate Proves Deadly for Conference
For many teams in college basketball, conference play is when the schedule truly gets tough. One faces hostile crowds, battles great rivals and competes for the ultimate goal—a conference championship.
For several teams in the Ivy League this season, conference play may be a nice change of pace. Every team but Cornell and Havard finished well under .500 in non-conference play, and Cornell was the only team that managed a winning record.
Meanwhile, Yale finished 2-11, Princeton 3-13, Columbia 3-11, Dartmouth 3-11, Penn 3-12 and Brown 1-13.
One reason for this may be the difficult schedules the teams undertook. Brown and Columbia led the pack, each playing four teams leading their respective conferences. Most notably for Brown, they played nineteenth-ranked George Washington who dismantled the Bears 98-22.
For the Lions, their toughest loss came at the hands of twelfth-ranked West Virginia. Though the Mountaineers do not lead the Big East—a conference with seven teams in the top 25—they are the highest ranked team Columbia played. In the Florida Atlantic Invitational, the Light Blue fell 74-41.
Other notable matchups were Yale’s season opening game against seventh-ranked Stanford and Princeton’s contests with fourth-ranked Rutgers and fifth-ranked Maryland.
While playing at a conference foe may not be easier, no more ranked foes loom except for when the league’s champion enters the NCAA tournament.
Cowher finishing career on high note
Having already been selected to two first-team All-Ivy squads, Princeton senior forward Meagan Cowher is again dominating the Ivy League and may be en route to her first
Ivy Player of the Year selection.
Cowher, daughter of former NFL coach Bill Cowher, came to Princeton and immediately had an impact starting 19 games as a freshman. She was named Ivy Rookie of the Year—the first in Princeton history—and was named Ivy Rookie of the Week four times.
As a sophomore Cowher neared the level of production she has maintained for the past two seasons, scoring 14.6 points and grabbing 5.8 rebounds a game.
Cowher then led the Tigers in scoring and rebounding as a junior including setting a Tiger record with 496 total points. Had she scored four more points she would have been just the 14th woman in Ivy history to score 500 in a season.
As a senior has improved upon her numbers again and nearly led her team to an uspet of fourth-ranked Rutgers.
Cowher is averaging 17.8 points, good for the league lead and 7.7 rebounds, second behind Cornell junior Jeomi Maduka.
In a game earlier this year against Lafayette she poured in 32 points—almost half of her team’s total—and also added 13 rebounds. However, her finest performance may have come against Rutgers—while her team was held to 48 points, Cowher scored 20 including two baskets late in the second half to tie the score at 40.