It was the game the Princeton women's basketball team had been waiting for all season.
On Saturday night, the Tigers silenced the crowd in Lee Amphitheater at Yale by beating the home team 61- 60 in overtime.
Sophomore forward Maureen Lane led the squad with a game-high 27 points on 9-for-19 shooting from the field. She shot 7-for-15 from behind the three-point line. Sophomore guard Allison Cahill added 10 points for the Tigers, and junior forward Lauren Rigney contributed nine.
The team shut down the Bulldogs with a tenacious offense and suffocating defense.
"We made sure that they didn't get anything easily," Cahill said. "Every play, every second, and every minute we played hard."
Princeton led Yale 30-26 at halftime, but the game was tied at 55 at the end of regulation. Princeton outscored Yale 6-5 in overtime to come up with the win.
According to several members of the team, the game was won because no one was afraid to step up at critical times.
"We just weren't going to let ourselves lose," Lane said. "With that confidence, we were able to make big plays at key times."
One of those big plays included a 3-pointer by Lane with 1:30 left in overtime. Her clutch shot put Princeton up 59-58. Another came from sophomore forward Lee Culp. Off of an assist by Cahill, Culp scored the winning bucket on a lay-up with a little more than two seconds remaining on the clock.
Princeton (1-16, 1-3 Ivy) controlled Yale (5-14, 0-6) on both ends of the court. Offensively, Princeton limited its turnovers to 13, well below its season average of 20. Defensively, they completely shut down Maria Smear, Yale's leading scorer. Coming into the night averaging 12.5 points a game, Smear managed only 5 against the Tigers.
Unlike their game at Brown on Friday, where they fell 68-35, the Tigers could boast that they played their best game from the tip-off until the final buzzer.
"I thought we played really well in the first half and I knew that our team was capable of playing just as well in the second half," said head coach Kevin Morris in a press release. "The lead changed back and forth all game but we hung in there."
Princeton learned from Brown (10-9, 5-1) that they had to stay competitive for all 40 minutes if they were going to come up with a win. Although the Tigers had a strong first half at the Pizzitola Sports Center, they went scoreless for 10 minutes in the second half. In that time, they watched the Bears go on a 23-0 run en route to its victory.
Lane believes that securing a win after the dissapointing loss will provide a strong motivation for the rest of the Tigers' season.
"Winning this weekend was the best feeling ever," Culp said. "We've been working hard for three months for this, and it finally showed because we were able to beat a good team. We are all looking forward to winning again."
The Tigers have a chance to build upon their win when they host Dartmouth this Friday at 7 p.m.
"After the game, we were really exhausted, and really really excited," Lane said. "We know that things are going to take off from here."
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