Women's Basketball: Tigers stay atop Ivy League

After a pair of unusually slow starts, Princeton picked up the pace to win both games, making it the team’s 31st consecutive Ivy League victory. The Tigers stand in first in the Ivy League and are the only unbeaten conference team.

Head coach Courtney Banghart described the pair of games as a “separation weekend.”

“We really separated ourselves,” Banghart said. “We only have one more road weekend, and if we take care of our business, we’ll be what we wanted to be at the beginning of the year, which is the Ivy League champions.”

The Tigers now stand at the halfway mark of their Ivy League season, with one more road trip before the end of the regular season. They look to win their third consecutive Ivy League title and clinch another NCAA playoff berth.

On Friday, Princeton struggled to find its stride against Dartmouth and eventually needed a surge in the second half to take down Dartmouth 77-65.

Princeton started strong defensively and forced Dartmouth to go 0-5 from the field, but the Tigers were unable to draw their first points until 16:48 left in the half when junior forward Kristen Helmstetter put up a layup.

Eventually Princeton was able to start up an 18-6 run over the Big Green, leaving the match at 21-14.

Dartmouth responded with its own streak, bringing the Tigers’ lead down to only three points with six minutes left in the half, but Princeton stretched out the lead to 35-29 at the end of the first.

The first half, however, was the closest Dartmouth got to taking down the Tigers, as senior guard Niveen Rasheed started the second half with a pair of three-pointers to launch Princeton’s lead to 43-32 three minutes into the second.

Their lead would eventually swell to as high as 19 points before the Tigers were able to close out the match.

Rasheed finished the night with 25 points and 12 rebounds.

“The offense doesn’t come as easily and we get a little out of sync,” sophomore guard Blake Dietrick said when explaining the Tigers’ slow offensive start. “But I think we recovered really well.”

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The following night, PrincetoThe Princeton women’s basketball team (16-5 overall, 7-0 Ivy League) came away with a pair of wins after a doubleheader Ivy League weekend, hosting Dartmouth (6-15, 4-2) and Harvard (13-8, 4-3) at Jadwin Gymnasium.

Head coach Courtney Banghart described the pair of games as a “separation weekend.”

On Friday, Princeton struggled to find its stride against Dartmouth and eventually needed a surge in the second half to take down Dartmouth 77-65.

Eventually Princeton was able to start up an 18-6 run over the Big Green, leaving the match at 21-14.

Their lead would eventually swell to as high as 19 points before the Tigers were able to close out the match.

Rasheed finished the night with 25 points and 12 rebounds.

The following night, Princeton began the game against Harvard by falling behind, but a career-high night by Dietrick brought Princeton back to take down the Crimson 67-51.

The Tigers started the match off slowly once again, as the Crimson opened up the game with a 5-0 lead over the Tigers. Eventually, Helmstetter broke the offensive ice for the second night, putting in a layup two minutes into the first.

Princeton lagged for the first five minutes, eventually letting Harvard piece together a 15-8 lead at 14:58. But Rasheed once again led the Tigers back to the lead with a fast break opportunity that sparked an 11-2 run to return the control of the match to Princeton at 20-19.

Princeton increased the pace of the game from this point on, with Dietrick driving much of the offense from behind the arch and putting in a pair of threes by the halfway mark.

During the second half, the Crimson had a 7-2 drive to bridge the gap down to seven points at 47-40. But that was the closest Harvard came before the end of the game.

Dietrick ended the game as the points leader for the night, with a career-high 19 points, coming mostly from the outside, with five three-pointers before the night’s end.

“If the team’s packing it in, we’re going to shoot,” said Dietrick, explaining that pressure on the inside forced the Tigers to find opportunities from the outside. “You can live and die by the three-pointers. If the other team is hitting them, they can feel like daggers, and when you’re hitting them, they can get your team really pumped.”

Rasheed was second in points, racking up 17, along with 10 rebounds and two assists.

Princeton takes the stage again this weekend when it hosts Columbia on Friday and travels to Newman Arena in Ithaca to play Cornell on Saturday.n began the game against Harvard by falling behind, but a career-high night by Dietrick brought Princeton back to take down the Crimson 67-51.

Princeton increased the pace of the game from this point on, with Dietrick driving much of the offense from behind the arch and putting in a pair of threes by the halfway mark.

During the second half, the Crimson had a 7-2 drive to bridge the gap down to seven points at 47-40. But that was the closest Harvard came before the end of the game.

Dietrick ended the game as the points leader for the night, with a career-high 19 points, coming mostly from the outside, with five three-pointers before the night’s end.

Rasheed was second in points, racking up 17, along with 10 rebounds and two assists.

Princeton takes the stage again this weekend when it hosts Columbia on Friday and travels to Newman Arena in Ithaca to play Cornell on Saturday.