Last night, the women’s basketball team easily posted its third consecutive victory, beating Drexel by a 66-49 margin. The win was highlighted by a career performance from star freshman guard Niveen Rasheed, who tallied 27 points in the victory and also had seven rebounds and three assists.
The Tigers (8-2 overall) now have four contests remaining before they open Ivy League play against Penn on Jan. 9.
Princeton jumped out to an early lead, then saw the score tied halfway through the first half. The Tigers responded with an 8-1 run starting at the 13 minute, 29 second mark, and though Drexel (4-4) was able to bring the score to within two, the Tigers closed out the half with a 31-26 lead, thanks to five straight points from sophomore guard Lauren Edwards.
The opening of the second half saw a heated set of exchanges, with eight lead changes from 15:55 to 8:35. But after Drexel lead scorer forward Gabriela Marginean was relegated to the bench after her fourth foul, the dynamic of the game completely changed.
Princeton followed Marginean’s benching with a 10-0 run of their own and held Drexel scoreless for long enough that the Dragons were forced to put Marginean back in at the 4:25 mark. Marginean proceeded to foul out less than two minutes later.
The Tiger defense put up another impressive showing, as it held Drexel to two points over the game’s final two minutes. In the end, Princeton’s defense held Marginean to 10 points and the entire Drexel team to 38.5 percent shooting from the field. The win at Drexel marks the sixth time the Tigers have held an opponent to 50 or fewer points — the Tigers are 5-1 in those games.
Head coach Courtney Banghart was satisfied with her team’s victory over the Dragons.
“We keep telling our kids every night that we are 0-0 and we just have to find a way [to win], and that’s exactly what they did tonight,” Banghart told goprincetontigers.com, the website of Princeton’s Office of Athletic Communications. “We didn’t shoot well from three, but we were able to generate offense anyway. I love how this team competes. And we’re going to get better.”
Rasheed’s career night, which came on 11-of-16 shooting from the field, was made all the more remarkable by the fact that Rasheed only turned the ball over three times.
Also impressive was Rasheed’s durability: The freshman was on the floor for 38 of the game’s 40 minutes. Rasheed capped off her performance with a five-for-nine showing at the free-throw line.
Other impressive performances from the Tigers included one from sophomore center Devona Allgood, who recorded a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds. Edwards also scored in double digits, with 12 points on five-of-10 shooting. Junior forward Addie Micir scored seven points.
The win at Drexel represents what the team considered a stepping stone on the path to a successful campaign against Ivy League competition. Before this campaign can begin, however, the team must close out an increasingly difficult non-conference schedule with games against Houston, Fairleigh Dickinson and Fordham over winter recess.
The first of these games, against Houston (7-3) could be a difficult one for Princeton. In Houston, the Tigers will face an imposing offense that has averaged more than 70 points per game against local foes, winning three straight contests. The team is led by forward Courtney Taylor, a six-footer who has averaged 13.0 points and 10.1 rebounds per game on the season, and guard Brittney Scott, who has averaged 15.6 points per game and shoots .355 from beyond the three-point arc.
Next, the Tigers will return to New Jersey for a road game against Fairleigh Dickinson (4-5) on Dec. 30.
Like Houston, Fairleigh Dickinson will be riding a hot streak, having won its last two games, with a game against St. Bonaventure forthcoming.
Fairleigh Dickinson is 3-1 on its home court, and though the team has a negative scoring margin, it has held its opponents to less than 40 percent shooting in the open court.
Last on the Tigers’ road map for the break will be Fordham (5-4), a game that will be played at Jadwin Gymnasium on Jan 2.
Having won four of its last five, Fordham could represent a third straight team the Tigers will face with relative momentum coming into their meeting.
Given their very strong performance at this point of the season, though, the Tigers ought to compete well with all of these future foes.
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