The women’s basketball team has had a successful season so far, accumulating seven wins in eight games and claiming the best record in the Ivy League. The Tigers lead the conference in points allowed and scoring margin, an indication of the team’s tremendous defensive play so far. Princeton also features junior forward Niveen Rasheed, one of the best players in the league. Rasheed leads the league in rebounds per game with 7.6 and is third in scoring with 16.9 points per game.
Princeton (7-1) has won the conference two years in a row, and before their first loss of the season to Delaware the Tigers had received top-25 votes in both major national polls.
In addition to Rasheed, the Tigers’ roster is stacked with contributors and big-time players, such as senior guard Lauren Edwards. A co-captain of the team, Edwards averages 9.5 points and 4.6 rebounds per game. Princeton is also led by fellow senior center Devona Allgood, who is averaging 8.6 points and is third in the Ivy League with 7.1 rebounds per game. Another key player for the Tigers is junior Lauren Polansky, who, while averaging only 2.9 points per game this season, has been a fantastic point guard for the Tigers. She ranks fifth in the Ivy League with an average 3.1 assists and is first in the conference with 3.5 steals per game.
Princeton will look to build on last week’s win over University of Maryland, Baltimore County, when it faces off against Navy (5-3) on Friday night. Navy is led by forward Jade Geif, who averages 10.4 points and 8.3 rebounds per game, leading the team in both categories. Navy has also gotten solid contributions this season from guard Kara Pollinger, with 9.5 points and 4.4 rebounds per game, and forward Audrey Bauer, with 9.6 points and just over four boards per game.
Edwards noted that Navy poses a challenge for the Tigers: “Navy is a good team. Any game on the road will pose different types of challenges because you aren’t in the comfort of your home gym. We will need to stay consistent in our effort, focus and execution in order to do well at Navy.”
Despite the team’s success, Princeton’s one blemish of the season cannot be ignored. The Tigers’ win over UMBC came directly after their first loss of the season to Delaware. How Princeton performs in the coming games will be very important, and Edwards is happy with how the team has responded so far.
“I thought the team responded well to the Delaware loss,” she said. “Thursday night was a tough loss against a talented team, but we knew we had to bounce back to get ready for UMBC, which was less than 48 hours after.”
Although Princeton beat UMBC, there is still some room for improvement coming off of that game. No one on the roster scored in double digits, including Rasheed, who only made two out of her attempted 11 shots. Edwards made only one shot and scored two points, and the team made only 32 percent of its field goal attempts.
The Midshipmen visited Jadwin Gymnasium last year, keeping the game close in the first half before falling to Princeton 74-61.
The Tigers travel to Annapolis, Md., to play Navy this Friday night at 7:00.
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