Women's basketball uses defense, depth to beat St. Francis Brooklyn

Princeton women’s basketball improved to a 6–1 season record Sunday afternoon, after earning a 76–44 win over St. Francis Brooklyn (2–5).

Though the Tigers played without senior forward Bella Alarie, they received a valuable contribution from first-year forward Ellie Mitchell, who scored 11 points and grabbed 14 rebounds for her first career double-double.

Princeton also benefited from a stellar offensive performance from sophomore guard Abby Meyers, who scored 17 points in 15 minutes. After missing all of last season, Meyers also missed the first four games of this season with an injury. She has yet to play more than 15 minutes since returning against Iowa, but she shot 7–12 from the field and 3–5 from three against St. Francis-Brooklyn.

And it wasn’t just Meyers and Mitchell — Princeton had eight players score at least five points.

The Tigers got out to a strong start; they didn’t allow St. Francis Brooklyn to score a point for over six minutes and leapt out to a 13–0 run.

Princeton’s defense to start the second quarter was just as strong as its defense to open the game. After the Terriers scored nine points at the end of the first quarter, cutting the deficit to 19–9, Princeton held them to two points over the first seven minutes of the second quarter. In the meantime, an and-one layup from sophomore guard Maggie Connolly, a pair of layups from Meyers, and a layup from Mitchell helped the Tigers extend their lead to 34–11.

After taking a 42–18 lead into halftime, Princeton scored the first four points of the second half to make the score 46–18. The Tigers continued to hold onto the large lead as the clock ran down, and the Princeton bench players helped the team secure the 76–44 win.

The win was the second straight game in which the Tigers held their opponent to under 50 points — Princeton allowed just 40 points to Monmouth in its 52–40 win on Sunday, Nov. 24.

This Sunday, the Tigers held St. Francis Brooklyn to 15–53 (28.3 percent) shooting from the field, and 6–19 (31.6 percent) from three.

In addition to Meyers’ 17 points and Mitchell’s 11 points, junior guard Carlie Littlefield recorded nine points, five rebounds, and three assists, and sophomore guard Grace Stone scored seven points.

Princeton will look to continue its non-conference success this Saturday at Marist, before returning to Jadwin on Tuesday, Dec. 10 to play Hartford.