Women's Basketball: Yale, Brown taken down

“That was such an emotional and heartfelt win against Yale last night, so we knew there was going to be a little bit of a hangover effect,” Banghart said. “Defensively, we were a little reactionary at first, so we came out in the second half ready to defend.”

The two victories solidified Princeton’s (19-4 overall, 8-1 Ivy League) position at first place in the league, a full game over second-place Harvard, which recovered from upset losses to Brown (7-17, 3-7) and Yale (11-13, 7-3) last weekend with a home sweep. The Bulldogs, who had been in second place before their 73-57 loss to the Tigers, slipped into third.

Princeton, which had been having trouble scoring early in games, came out strong off the tip on Friday. Led by sophomore center Meg Bowen’s 10 first-half points, the Tigers amassed a 11-point lead six minutes into the game, a lead that ballooned to 24 by halftime.

“We knew that Yale was going to play really up-tempo, since they beat Harvard and are second place in the league,” senior guard and co-captain Addie Micir said after the game. Micir was one of five Tigers to score in double figures on Friday night. “We knew we had to go out and go hard.”

But Yale did not resign itself to its fate, emerging from the locker room with more aggression and energy on both the offensive and defensive ends. The Bulldogs went on an 11-4 run to begin the second half, slowing down Princeton’s ability to move the ball while Yale forward Mady Gobrecht, who led her team with 15 points, took over on the offensive end. Banghart attributed the lapse to fatigue, and the Tigers turned their play around before their lead dwindled too far.

“The way we came out playing, it’s hard to play that way for 40 minutes,” said Bowen, who led the team in scoring with 15 points. “The lead was still big enough that there was no need to panic.”

While Princeton bounced back for a solid 16-point victory, the fatigue carried into the first half of its game against the Bears. The Tiger offense started off strongly, but the team did not extend its lead to more than six points for the first 19 minutes of the half. Princeton never surrendered the advantage, though Brown forward Aileen Daniels kept her team in the game with eight first-half points.

In the final minute of the first half, Bowen hit a layup and junior forward Lauren Edwards sunk a three-pointer, sending Princeton into the locker room with an eight-point lead and momentum in its favor. When the team returned from the locker room, it made good on its halftime pledge to lock down on defense, going on a 9-0 run in the first five minutes of the second half. Its defense remained strong, recording seven steals and six blocked shots for the game.

“We were up by a lot, but we still had to keep our focus as if we were tied at the half,” junior center Devona Allgood said. “It makes us have to stay focused even more so that we don’t come out lackadaisical.”

Edwards helped Princeton run the score up, leading all scorers with 20 points on 5-7 three-point shooting. She also had three steals, three assists and four rebounds.

“After the first media time-out, we knew she had to make an adjustment to how she was playing,” Banghart said of Edwards. “They were giving her open looks, but she’s so unselfish. Once we told her what we needed her to do, she did it and had a great game after that.”