Women's Basketball: High expectations against Lafayette

Now in the thick of its non-conference schedule, the women’s basketball team will take on Lafayette this Saturday at Jadwin Gymnasium. The Tigers (6-2) are off to a torrid start this season, and they hope to roll through December before beginning Ivy League play on Jan. 9.

“We should not lose any games from here on out,” freshman guard Niveen Rasheed said. “I think things are looking great so far.”

Aside from their games against powerhouses UCLA and Rutgers, the Tigers have cruised. And even the two defeats were close: Princeton led against the Bruins into the second half, and it trailed the Scarlet Knights by one at the intermission, but shots stopped falling for the team in both contests.

“Even the games we were ‘supposed to lose,’ we put up a tough fight and almost won,” Rasheed said. “We should win from here on out and win Ivies.”

Two things have contributed to Princeton’s success so far: the ease with which a squad dominated by underclassmen has learned the ropes of collegiate play, and a concerted emphasis on defensive pressure. For a team featuring eight underclassmen on its roster and four in its starting lineup, the recent strength is striking.

“The younger players have done very well coming in,” sophomore guard Lauren Edwards said. “They’ve had experience playing against quality players [in club and high school competition], so for them it hasn’t been that big of a jump.”

“I think we play really well together,” Rasheed said. “You really don’t feel like you’re a freshman out there.”

Rasheed, for one, has transitioned seamlessly to college ball. She leads the team in points (17.8), rebounds (8.0), assists (2.5) and steals (2.1) per game, and she has won four straight Ivy League Freshman of the Week awards behind her strong play.

Freshman point guard Lauren Polansky has played at a difficult position with considerable success, and Edwards, a returning starter, is one of three players on the team to average more than 10 points per game. Sophomore center Devona Allgood, second on the team with 6.9 rebounds per game, has also performed well.

For her part, head coach Courtney Banghart has emphasized defense, and that has both grounded the young squad and stimulated the transition-oriented aspects of the offense. Princeton has won all five games in which it held its opponent to fewer than 60 points.

The coaching staff and scout team prepare the Tigers to recognize key scorers on opposing teams, point out favorite plays and isolate weaker players who they want to have the ball. The Tigers’ defense has yielded only two 20-point efforts to opposing players: one to Delaware forward Elena Delle Donne, and one to Rutgers guard Brittany Ray.

“Our team has done a really good job in practice keeping us prepared,” Rasheed said. “Our upperclassmen and returning starters have been really good examples.”

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“It’s really easy to break up [other teams’] plays, especially when [our team] knows them,” Edwards said.

With four of their next six opponents sporting losing records, the Tigers plan to spend the next stretch of the season streamlining their game on both sides of the court and getting the less experienced players more minutes on the floor. First up is Lafayette (2-8), the last-place team in the Patriot League that is on the second leg of a month-long six-game road stretch.

Guards Lauren Jackson and LaKiesha Wright lead the team in scoring with 13.8 and 12.6 points per game, respectively.

The Leopards’ most recent victory came on Dec. 2 against winless Penn, and given the Quakers’ struggles, Tiger enthusiasts need not fear Lafayette as an Ivy slayer. And Princeton won’t need to fret about other opponents lurking in the horizon: The team’s next game doesn’t come until next Thursday.

“Our season is setting up really well over the next few weeks, for who we play and where we play,” Edwards said.

Given the team’s early successes, its optimistic confidence certainly seems justified.