The women’s basketball team (2-0 overall) enters the weekend on a roll, having handled both of its early-season opponents so far and tallying sizable victories. Yet the Tigers will face a potent and formidable foe when they compete against Delaware (1-0) this Saturday.
The Blue Hens sport a powerful offense led by redshirt freshman guard and forward Elana Delle Donne, whose collegiate career has become one of the focal storylines of the entire 2009-10 NCAA women’s basketball season. Delle Donne was the top-ranked basketball recruit among high school graduates in 2008, and she was widely considered the best high school player since Candace Parker of Tennessee and WNBA fame.
Delle Donne originally matriculated at UConn, but she dropped out of school after just two days of summer classes. Citing burnout after devoting years of her childhood to basketball, she enrolled at her hometown college of Delaware and considered leaving the sport entirely.
Delle Donne also wanted to stay close to home so that she could easily keep in touch with her sister, who is deaf and blind and has cerebral palsy. She played on Delaware’s varsity volleyball team, earning a place on the All-Rookie team in the Colonial Athletic Association. Basketball was very much a thing of the past for her.
Not anymore. After a full year of deliberation, Delle Donne returned to the court, and her presence has already inspired fear in her opponents. A hybrid swing-guard at six feet, five inches, Delle Donne surpassed the 50-point mark in two of Delaware’s opening scrimmages, and she tallied 19 points and seven rebounds in the team’s season opener against St. Francis.
Delaware had only one player average more than 10 points per game last season, but against St. Francis, three players were in double figures. The Blue Hens have returned their entire starting lineup from last season, though this continuity may prove irrelevant as the team runs more of its offense through Delle Donne.
This Princeton squad is no team of pushovers, though. Led by junior guard and forward Addie Micir and freshman guard Niveen Rasheed, the Tigers have dominated their opponents thus far, winning by an average of more than 28 points. Micir led the Tigers in scoring last year with 11.8 points per game, and Rasheed has scored 18 points in each of the two contests so far this season.
The team’s solid play has inspired a measured confidence among the players.
“We’ve done a good job playing together, [especially] cleaning up the boards,” sophomore guard Laura Johnson said. “[Rasheed] has been great: She’s not tentative to shoot or to create her shot.”
Princeton has a young team, with only four upperclassmen on the 12-person squad, but inexperience has not shown itself very much in the early going. The Tigers graduated three starters, but the new recruits have transitioned well into their new roles. Freshman point guard Lauren Polansky has handled a challenging situation well, stepping in to run the Princeton offense and replace Jess Berry ’09, a steady hand at the position.
Polansky has performed ably so far, as demonstrated by the team’s 68- and 77-point outputs in its first two games, respectively. Equally impressive has been Rasheed, who earned Ivy League Rookie of the Week honors for her play against Stony Brook, with 18 points, nine rebounds and three assists. Rasheed posted similar numbers against American, recording five rebounds and a team-high five assists with her 18 points.
Against Delaware, the team’s priority will be to contain Delle Donne. Princeton hopes that the improvements made from the game against Stony Brook to the game against American, such as increased intensity and reduced scoring droughts, will carry through to the matchup against the Blue Hens.
Princeton’s rebounding margin has also improved over this two-game span, and the Tigers will have to limit Delaware’s opportunities on offense to neutralize Delle Donne. Most of all, the Tigers must remember that they are playing against a team, not just one player.
“As coach has reminded us, it doesn’t matter if Delle Donne scores 50 against us on her own, as long as we score [more],” Johnson said. “We’re a young team, and we can play at high intensity against anyone.”
The game against Delaware will be Princeton’s first serious test of the season, and it should be a good barometer for the season. If Delle Donne is able to shake off her regular-season cobwebs and run free, the Tigers could be in for a long afternoon. If the Tigers can control the glass, dictate the pace and keep the ball away from Delle Donne, they should be able to match their formidable opponents.
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