Women's Basketball: Tigers aim for first-ever tourney win

Last season, the women’s basketball team reached the NCAA Tournament for the first time in program history. This time, the Tigers are not satisfied with just reaching the Big Dance: they have their sights set on another program milestone, a postseason victory.

“I feel like the more times you get to the tournament, the better the chances are that we’ll get [a win],” head coach Courtney Banghart said during the Ivy League postseason media teleconference. “Considering we brought back so much from last year’s group that really expected to win last year, I couldn’t be more excited about bringing their experience and fight into this tournament.”

No. 12-seed Princeton (24-4 overall, 13-1 Ivy League) will get its chance on Sunday afternoon, when it takes on No. 5-seed Georgetown (22-10, 9-7 Big East) in College Park, Md. The first-round game is scheduled to tip off around 2:30 p.m. and can be seen on ESPN3.com.

The Tigers earned an 11-seed last season after an undefeated Ivy League campaign, but dropped their tournament opener to St. John’s, 65-47. The Red Storm entered halftime on a 25-8 run and never relinquished control, holding the Orange and Black to 28.3 percent shooting for the game.

Princeton draws another Big East team in the first round, but this time, it hopes to stay in the tournament a little longer.

“Last year was very exciting to get there for the first time,” junior center Devona Allgood said. “Now that we’ve gotten a second chance, we’re definitely out to show that we’ve worked really hard over the summer and this year so that maybe we can get a win in this tournament.”

Senior guard and co-captain Addie Micir was named the Ivy League Most Valuable Player, leading regulars with 12.1 points per game. Allgood and junior forward Lauren Edwards were also named first-team All-Ivy and averaged double figures. Sophomore point guard Lauren Polansky was named the Defensive Player of the Year, headlining a Princeton unit that allowed just 51.3 points per game.

Though none of Princeton’s top seven scorers last season were seniors, the Tigers will be down one key player from that team. Sophomore forward Niveen Rasheed – the unanimous Ivy League Rookie of the Year as a freshman – injured her right ACL in the second half of a nonconference game at Davidson, which sidelined her for the season. Rasheed led the conference with 16.4 points per game at the time of her injury.

Despite losing the star forward, Princeton dropped only one game the rest of the way, a 73-67 defeat at Harvard in early February. The Tigers enter the postseason on a 10-game win streak, with the closest of those victories a nine-point victory over the Crimson at home.

Statistically, these Tigers are nearly indistinguishable from the group that preceded them. Last year’s team made 44.5 percent of its field goals in the regular season and held its opponents to 34.3 percent; this year’s squad shoots 44.7 percent and allows 34.7 percent. Last year’s Tigers turned the ball over on 21 percent of their possessions and forced turnovers 27 percent of the time; this year’s team is at 21 and 26 percent, respectively.

Last year, Princeton outscored its Ivy League opponents by 21.6 points per game; this year, it outscored conference foes by – believe it or not – 21.6 points per game.

The one significant difference comes on the offensive end, where the Tigers have attempted more three-pointers and hit significantly more of them. Princeton makes 41.8 percent of its shots from beyond the arc, second-best in the nation. Micir, who ranks fourth among qualifiers with a 46.8 three-point percentage, is the Tigers’ top shooter, while Edwards started slowly but has made 20 of her last 34 treys.

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The three-point line figures to be a key battleground against Georgetown, which allowed opponents to shoot just 29.5 percent from distance. The Hoyas also were strong on both sides of the turnover battle, forcing more than five more miscues per game than they committed.

Sophomore guard Sugar Rogers is the unquestionable centerpiece of Georgetown’s offense, averaging 18.4 points on nearly 16 attempts per game. Nearly half of those have come from beyond the arc – where she shoots 33.5 percent – while senior guard Monica McNutt, who has scored 10.4 points per game, is also not afraid to launch the ball from deep. No other Hoyas average double figures.

Georgetown earned a fifth seed for the second consecutive year, but is by no means a perennial favorite in March: this season marks just the third time the Hoyas have reached the NCAA Tournament. In 2010, they beat Marist in the first round before losing to Baylor, which would go on to reach the Final Four. This year’s squad, however, enters the postseason with very little momentum, having lost five of its last seven contests.

Banghart said that her team knows what to expect from the Hoyas.

“They have great athleticism and they’re going to play a zone defense for 40 minutes, they’re going to play a three-quarter-court press, they’re going try to generate turnovers and score in the open court,” she said. “Much like when we played against bigger teams like Rutgers, Vanderbilt and Wake Forest, we really have to defend the break as well as take care of the basketball. They’re going to try to make it an up-tempo game and force us to make shots on the perimeter, and we’ll be ready.”

When they take the court Sunday afternoon, Banghart, Micir and senior guard Krystal Hill will return to the site of their Princeton debut. On Nov. 9, 2007, the Tigers opened their season against then-No. 4 Maryland in the Preseason WNIT. Banghart lost her first game as a college coach, 76-52; Hill scored three points while Micir missed all three of her attempts.

The Tigers have improved greatly since that year’s 7-23 campaign, and Micir and Hill do not want their college career to end where it started.

“Last year it was quite a whirlwind, it was the first of a lot of things for this program, and we really wanted to work hard and get back once again,” Micir said. “This year, we don’t just want to go there for the experience, we want to go down there and show up and play really well.”

If the Tigers win, they will take on either No. 4-seed Terrapins or No. 13-seed St. Francis (Pa.).

“Last year was our dance,” Banghart said. “This year is a work trip.”