Women's Basketball: Princeton competes for a cause

Competing in their final home game until March, the Tigers (8-11 overall, 3-2 Ivy League) will don pink jerseys to raise breast-cancer awareness when they face the Bulldogs (9-11, 2-4) on Friday and the Bears (3-17, 1-5) on Saturday.

The Tigers head into the games riding the momentum from their sweep of Columbia and Cornell last weekend. Dominating the games with its offensive production, Princeton beat the Big Red by 19 points and had four players in the double-digits in points against Columbia.

Among the players most crucial to the team’s win over the Lions was sophomore guard Addie Micir, who sunk 14 points against Columbia and leads the team in scoring with 12.5 points per game.

“We played our style of basketball,” Micir said. “We are a very athletic team. We like to run and go up and down the floor and then take it to the rim.”

The Tigers will need to maintain their offensive output if they wish to complete another sweep this weekend and improve their third-place Ivy League standing.

Princeton kicks off its weekend with a game against Yale tonight in Jadwin Gymnasium. Though the Tigers dominated the Bulldogs at home last year, Yale will be looking for redemption after losing three consecutive home games against Ivy rivals last weekend. The Bulldogs will not be going down without a fight.

“We know that Yale is a pretty good team,” Micir said. “They have a couple of dominant players that we will have to look out for. We have been working mainly on our defense in order to make sure we can run and score.”

The Bulldogs have several stars on their roster that could challenge the Princeton defense. Yale forward Melissa Colborne leads the team with 15.6 points per game and 57 assists on the season.

After their contest against Yale, the Tigers will head right back into action against Brown. Coming off a 71-46 loss to Harvard last weekend, the Bears will look to get back on track and break out of their five-game losing streak. The lone bright spot in Brown’s Ivy League season so far has been its triumph over Yale.

While the Bears’ stellar defense was largely responsible for their win over Yale, Brown’s offense needs to play some serious catch-up. With the Bears’ leading scorer, guard Karly Grace, averaging only seven points per game and the team recording more than 20 turnovers per game, Brown’s relatively weak offense will be something the Tigers will look to take advantage of in Saturday night’s game.

Micir knows that in a league like the Ancient Eight, any team can win on any given night.

“The Ivy League is a crazy league,” Micir said. “Anyone, any night, could come out and beat any team. We have to take it one game at a time, and Brown is no exception. They are capable of attacking the basket and knocking down shots.”

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While Princeton has the upper hand in its games this weekend, that slight advantage will quickly disappear if it underestimates its opponents. But if Princeton can maintain its high-octane offense, a weekend sweep is well within its reach.