Women's Basketball: Cagers extend streak to 18, near clinching Ivy championship

It was the sort of play that has typified the women’s basketball team this season. Late in the first half, the Tigers forced Columbia star forward Judie Lomax to cough the ball up, and sophomore guard Lauren Edwards outhustled everybody else, diving to control the loose ball. Edwards tossed the ball to a teammate before rolling out of bounds, igniting a fast break that ended with the ball in the hands of freshman forward Niveen Rasheed, who streaked ahead of the pack.

But as Rasheed attempted the game-tying layup, a streaking Danielle Browne chased her down, meeting the freshman at the rim and blocking the ball violently out of bounds. As the Lion bench roared with approval, Princeton knew it was in for one of its toughest tests of the season.

“[Columbia’s] style of play forced us to battle,” head coach Courtney Banghart said. “It took us a minute to get to battle, but when these kids had their backs against the wall, they thought, ‘Ok, now we get to win this thing.’ ”

One day after a 96-59 thrashing of Cornell (7-18 overall, 2-10 Ivy League), the Tigers found themselves in a dogfight against Columbia (16-10, 7-5) at Jadwin Gymnasium. But Princeton (23-2, 11-0) pulled away from the Lions in the second half, earning its 18th consecutive victory and remaining undefeated in the Ivy League.

Columbia guard Kathleen Barry did not play in their first meeting, a 77-55 Tiger romp, but she made her presence felt immediately on Saturday, draining a three-pointer from the corner on the Lions’ first possession. Princeton has come out flat in the second games of many back-to-backs this season, and it did so again on Saturday, falling behind 14-9 early on.

The Tigers were plagued by early foul trouble, as sophomore center Devona Allgood was called for two fouls in the first 80 seconds and sat for much of the half. Meanwhile, Columbia was on fire early, hitting eight of its first 12 attempts from the floor.

In the first matchup between these teams, Princeton’s offense was headed by its frontcourt, getting a combined 40 points from Rasheed and Allgood. This time, it was the guards who led the charge. Junior guard Addie Micir drew a three-shot foul early on and made each free throw. Then she hit a three-pointer minutes later to tie the game at 14.

Princeton fell into another small hole, but the Tigers began to aggressively push the pace, and their transition game brought them back. After another Micir triple, Edwards picked off a pass and took it the other way for an easy layup, knotting the score at 21. On the next possession, Micir hit a tough shot on the secondary break, giving Princeton a two-point lead.

After shooting very well to open the game, Columbia made just four of its final 18 attempts of the half, but its defense was able to keep the game close. The Tigers’ offense stalled after Micir picked up her third foul at the five-minute mark, going through a five-minute scoreless stretch. Princeton rarely turns the ball over, but the Lions force more turnovers than any team in the Ivy League, and they won the struggle in the first half, pressuring Princeton to cough the ball up 12 times.

Trailing by two and without the ball, the Tigers seemed likely to head into the locker room facing a deficit for the first time in league play this season. But sophomore guard Laura Johnson stole the ball, giving Princeton the final possession. The Tigers made it count, as freshman point guard Lauren Polansky found Edwards on a backdoor cut for an easy layup, tying the game with four seconds remaining in the half. Edwards and Micir combined for 25 of the Tigers’ 29 first-half points.

A layup from Danielle Browne — who finished with 15 points — tied the game again early in the half. But then Edwards took over. The sophomore drove for a spinning layup, hit a pull-up jumper and sank a three-pointer, before capping the sequence by blocking Brown and forcing a shot-clock violation. Minutes later, after Columbia had pulled within one possession, Edwards sparked a 6-0 Tiger run with a floater in the lane.

“Lauren Edwards is about as competitive as can be, so she comes up big in bigger games,” Banghart said of the sophomore, who finished with a team-high 23 points. “She’s a star amongst stars when the game’s on the line, that’s for sure.”

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Columbia could not cut the margin to fewer than five points the rest of the way. Princeton would not let the Lions make up ground, holding them to just one-of-12 shooting from beyond the arc in the second half. And the Tigers dominated the offensive glass, turning seven offensive rebounds into 12 second-chance points in the final seven minutes to pull away.

Princeton’s first game of the weekend was much less suspenseful, as the Tiger offense was unstoppable from the start. Micir opened the game with a pair of three-pointers, and Princeton scored 15 points in the first five minutes. The Tigers passed the ball very well inside, helping net Allgood a team-high 13 first-half points. Princeton entered the second half with a 53-30 lead, scoring an incredible 1.56 points per possession.

The Tigers’ offense hardly slowed down in the second half, as Princeton continued to find easy buckets against the overmatched Big Red. When all was said and done, the Tigers had scored 96 points, one shy of the program record.

“We were certainly firing on all cylinders,” Banghart said. “We knew we wanted to push the pace, and we thought we had good athletes at all positions. We ran a great break, which gave us a lot of open shots. And we can knock down open shots.”

Princeton shot a mediocre seven-of-24 from beyond the arc and hit just three of 13 against Columbia, but the Tigers excelled in every other aspect of the offense. The Tigers shot just shy of 50 percent and grabbed 20 offensive rebounds. But most impressive was how Princeton handled the ball, posting a season-high 24 assists while turning the ball over a season-low seven times. Every Tiger scored except for Polansky, who contributed six assists and three steals.

But Rasheed, who led the team with 18 points, was nonplussed by the offensive outburst.

“[Scoring 96 points] is great,” she said. “But we were more upset that we let them have 59 points.”