Women's Basketball: Road trip to Columbia, Cornell awaits

After patiently persevering against Yale last Friday and coasting through a masterful performance on both the offensive and defensive ends against Brown on Saturday, the women’s basketball team will head to New York this weekend with the chance to add to its lead in the Ivy League standings.

Against Cornell (5-19 overall, 2-8 Ivy League) on Friday and Columbia (5-19, 4-6) on Saturday, the Tigers (19-4, 8-1) will face two teams they handily defeated at Jadwin Gymnasium two weeks ago, though not without some struggles early on. In a slow-moving game against the Lions, Princeton had trouble breaking through the opposing defense early, scoring just 20 points in the first half. But the Tigers made up for this with a strong defensive effort themselves, allowing just 11 points in the period.

“We more just focus on our defense to try to keep ourselves in it,” senior guard and co-captain Addie Micir said. “They played great defense, but we also didn’t make a lot of shots. As long as we just come out there and play our offensive style, we’ll be okay.”

But while the Tigers cruised through the second half en route to a 57-35 win that time, head coach Courtney Banghart said it will be much more challenging to beat Columbia at Levien Gymnasium in Manhattan, N.Y. The Lions have won four of their five home games so far in the Ivy League season, with their only loss coming to second-place Harvard. Since then, Columbia has dropped four straight games, but all of their losses came on the road.

“They’re averaging 67 points in the league at home, but only 44 on the road, so they’re 23 points better at home,” Banghart said. “They’re shooting at a much better percentage, they’re much more comfortable in their own gym and they play with more aggression.”

Because they recognize that fifth-place Columbia may put up a much higher-scoring effort, the Tigers are prepared to step up their defense.

“They can shoot from the outside and they have a good post presence, so everyone’s got to come out and defend their own and play hard defensively,” Micir said. “If we do that, we’ll put ourselves in a position to win the game.”

While Cornell, which will play Princeton in Ithaca, N.Y., on Friday night, sits in last place in the Ivy League and has lost seven games in a row, Banghart said that she expects the Big Red to play fearlessly in the hopes of recording a big upset in what has been an otherwise disappointing season.

“They run really good action, they play really hard and they’re young,” Banghart said. “So they don’t have intimidation, fears or all that. They’re a much better team than their record shows.”

Indeed, Cornell has produced stronger efforts than the scoreboard may suggest in its recent games. It matched Harvard with 40 second-half points away at Lavietes Pavilion last Friday but could not overcome a five-point first-half deficit in the close loss. The following night, the Big Red held a 26-18 lead against Dartmouth at the break but could not contain the Big Green’s 19-4 run and allowed 41 second-half points.

Cornell also had a strong first half against the Tigers, heading into the locker room down by just two despite a strong offensive performance by Princeton. This time around, the Tigers will watch out for forward Claire Fitzpatrick, who scored 16 points and grabbed five rebounds at Jadwin.

Banghart noted that for many teams, this weekend marks a critical and potentially worrisome point in the season. With two road victories this weekend, Princeton would put itself in a position to clinch the Ivy League title — and thus a berth in the NCAA tournament — when it returns home the following week. While this pressure could make a lot of teams vulnerable for an upset, Banghart said she is not worried about this year’s Tigers.

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In recent games, Princeton has demonstrated immense depth and flexibility. The team’s three leading scorers — Micir, junior center Devona Allgood and junior forward Lauren Edwards — have all scored in double figures in three of the past four games, with any one of them capable of dropping 20 on any given night.

“With a normal team, I’d be worried about going on the road this late in the year, playing against two teams we are better than on paper,” Banghart said. “Our goals are really high, so we simply can’t stop getting better, growing, and building. The teams that can be focused on improving in late February are the teams that are pretty special.”