Women's Basketball: Tigers stay perfect in Ivy play

The wins extend the Tigers’ (15-4 overall, 5-0 Ivy League) win streak to eight games and 15 straight in the Ivy League.

Friday’s game against Brown (12-8, 3-3) saw a struggling Bears squad facing a Princeton team that had issues finding an offensive rhythm.

“It was a little rusty,” junior forward Niveen Rasheed said, “but you’d expect that after two weeks without a real game.”

The Tigers started the match with several botched jumpers, and Brown eventually broke the ice with a three-pointer, which would be its only lead of the game. Princeton quickly found the feet under its legs, and three minutes into the half, a steal by senior guard Lauren Edwards gave an opportunity for junior forward Kate Miller to make a jumper and take the lead.

The Tigers marked the scoreboard with a 12-point unanswered run, but that momentum quickly faded, and time allowed the sluggish Bears to slash at the lead until the contest came to 14-11 with nine minutes left in the half.

Princeton responded with a jump-shot assault, including back-to-back shots from Rasheed and a three-pointer from freshman guard Blake Dietrick, closing the half with a 12-1 run.

In the second half, the Tigers continued to find short spells of success bounded on both sides by long lulls of fruitless plays. Brown struggled against the Princeton defense as well, as the game turned into sloppy contest with neither side finding footing. At one stretch of the game, Princeton and Brown botched three consecutive fast-break plays without a score.

The match against Brown was the lowest-scoring matchup for the Tigers since their 53-44 win over Davidson two months ago.

The Tigers had to clean up their game when they hosted Yale (12-8, 4-2) the next day, as they hoped to fend off another potential competitor in the Ivy League.

“It was a very important game because it was essentially for first place and to set ourselves apart,” sophomore guard Nicole Hung said.

The Tigers opened the game with an 8-0 run, passing to open players with precision. But three minutes into the game, Yale guard Megan Vazquez picked off a Princeton pass and scored, starting a seven-point unanswered streak to halt the Tigers’ progress.

Head coach Courtney Banghart called a timeout to stop the momentum. Hung said that Banghart wanted players to “be aggressive against their aggressive defense.”

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“After the timeout, we were looking to the back more, and everything opened up,” Hung added.

The two defenses slowed down the scoring, as each side scored only one basket in the next two minutes. The game was tied 10-10 six minutes into the half.

“We started to lock up the boards more and we really got out there and were aggressive,” Hung said. The Tigers would finish the game with 61 rebounds.

The defensive efforts quickly paid off, as the Bulldogs were unable to find much room on offense. Princeton went into the half with a 35-26 lead. Hung led much of the surge, scoring 10 points in 10 minutes for the Tigers.

Princeton continued to find streaks in the second half, never giving Yale a chance by locking up the rebounds. While the Tigers knocked in three shots from behind the arc and made over 45 percent of their baskets, they held the Bulldogs without a three-pointer and to 22 percent shooting in the second half.

“We gave ourselves some breathing room for next weekend when we go against Harvard,” Hung said.

Senior center Devona Allgood led the scoring against Yale with 18 points and seven rebounds in 25 minutes of work. Two Tigers stitched together double-doubles — Rasheed and Edwards. Saturday’s game also saw Hung’s strongest contribution yet, with 14 points and five rebounds.

In the three years on the Princeton squad Rasheed has proven herself to be the backbone of the Princeton offense. Despite sitting out much of the 2010-11 season, Rasheed now sits only 39 points away from the 1000 career points milestone. In the 40 years of the program’s history, only 18 Tigers have reached that mark.

Princeton will travel to Dartmouth and Harvard next weekend to round off the first half of Ivy League play.