Women's Basketball: Tigers fall short in NCAA Tournament

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — The women’s basketball team lost to No. 8-seed Kansas State 67-64 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Saturday. The loss led to Princeton’s third consecutive first-round exit in their third straight appearance at the Big Dance.

With expectations higher this year after posting a dominant Ivy League campaign, receiving the first-ever Associated Press ranking in program history and drawing a No. 9-seed in the first round, this loss stung more than the Tigers’ first-round exits in the past two years.

“This one hurts the most out of all the tournament losses so far,” junior forward Niveen Rasheed said. “Until the last .9 seconds, we thought we were going to win. We’re not happy how this ended.”

Though they fought back from a Kansas State lead that extended to as many as eight points in the second half, Princeton could not take advantage of key opportunities created through its own defensive efforts down the stretch.

With half a minute left and the Tigers down by six, junior point guard Lauren Polansky grabbed an offensive rebound on a wild miss by junior forward Niveen Rasheed. Her put-back was good, bringing the Tigers to within four.

The Tigers immediately fouled Kansas State guard Mariah White, who missed the front end of the one-and-one. Allgood grabbed the rebound, but Princeton turned the ball over on the other end, all but ending their chances.

Princeton more or less executed its strategy heading into the game, outrebounding the Wildcats and preventing Kansas State’s leading scorers, guard Brittany Chambers and forward Jalana Childs, from going on a tear. But forward Branshea Brown surprised the Tigers’ defense, unloading a career-high 22 points on 10-17 shooting.

“We decided to focus on Childs, and Brown just had a great game,” Rasheed said. “We stuck to our game plan, it just so happened that 34 [Brown] went off.”

Princeton executed its offensive game plan successfully against a Kansas State team that was second only to undefeated Baylor in points allowed in the Big 12. Rasheed scored 20 points, Edwards added 15 with clutch three-point shooting and Allgood scored an efficient 15 while giving the Tigers an offensive post presence in the second half.

The Tigers shot 42.6 percent from the floor, in line with their 43 percent average for the season. Though Banghart said she was disappointed with Rasheed’s six turnovers, she noted that the Tigers’ 14 total turnovers were more or less outweighed by Princeton’s 16 offensive rebounds.

“We are a messy team that turns the ball over,” Banghart said. “If you had showed me this stat sheet before the game, I would have said, ‘We’ll see who wins.’ And they did.”

After turning the ball over almost immediately after winning the tip, the Tigers sputtered offensively at the beginning of the first half, missing their first four shots from the floor and turning the ball over three times before scoring their first points. But junior forward Kate Miller helped the Tigers ignite a 12-2 run over the second five minutes, sinking a jumper and then bucketing an easy layup in transition.

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Kansas State responded with a 7-2 run of its own to even the score at 14-14 midway through the half. The teams then traded baskets, with the Wildcats unable to extend their lead beyond four points.

Down 28-24 with 1:49 to play in the half, Princeton had an opportunity to tie the score when Rasheed hit a jumper and Edwards got fouled after coming up with an offensive rebound. But Edwards hit just one of two free throws, and Kansas State guard Ashia Woods hit a three-pointer with under one minute remaining to send the Wildcats into the locker room up by four.

Allgood took over in the post after the break, scoring nine of her 15 points in the second half. Princeton opened up the second half with a 10-2 run to take a 37-33 lead three minutes into the period. But the Wildcats went on a 9-2 run to regain the lead with 11 minutes remaining in the game, and the Tigers found themselves playing catch-up once again.

Princeton's best opportunity came after it trailed 53-45 with about eight minutes to play. Edwards drained two free throws and Allgood followed with a layup. After Childs missed a jumper on the other end, Edwards sunk her second three-pointer of the game to pull Princeton to within one.

Nevertheless, the Tigers would neither tie the game nor take the lead in the final 10 minutes. They created ample opportunities for themselves on defense with stops and strips, but simply could not convert on the other end.

“It came down to a few loose balls we didn’t get,” Edwards said.

After an Allgood layup cut the Wildcats’ lead to two with 5:42 left, Allgood took a charge from White, but Rasheed was blocked on her layup attempt and the Tigers could not pull even.

“It was a back-and-forth game,” Banghart said. “It’s a game of alternating currents — that’s how competitive games are. You hope that you’re on the upward current at the very end, but we weren’t.”

The Wildcats will go on to face No. 1 Connecticut in the second round.