Women's Basketball: Tigers back on top of Ivy

“It’s big, but we realize that every game from here on out matters a whole bunch to us, regardless of what happens to Harvard,” senior guard and co-captain Krystal Hill said. “It shows how precarious your position is in the Ivy League because everybody scouts really well. The Ivy League is not a joke league, and we take it seriously.”

Princeton began the winning weekend at a slow pace, struggling to find points in the first half of what became one of the team’s lowest-scoring games of the season. After Columbia got off to a 4-0 start, junior center Devona Allgood brought her team back into the game with a series of layups and free throws.

Head coach Courtney Banghart subbed in sophomore center Meg Bowen, putting the Tigers’ two biggest post players on the court at the same time. The strategy worked, as the Tigers tied the game at 4-4 seven minutes into the half. When Bowen received a pass from sophomore point guard Lauren Polansky and faked a post-up, Allgood snuck inside, received a bounce pass from Bowen and drew the foul as she went for a layup.

“We felt like we had an advantage in the post, with me and Meg being bigger, and we tried to use our advantage,” said Allgood, who led the scorers with 13 points on Friday night. While the Tigers struggled with their long-range jump shooting, Allgood put up enough points in the paint to keep her team ahead.

The slow-paced game stagnated at 6-6 midway through the first half, as Columbia consistently ran down the shot clock on offense and frustrated Princeton by preventing good opportunities at the other end. But after Banghart put Hill into the game, the Tigers started to show more signs of life. Fresh off the bench, Hill opened up a 10-0 Princeton run with a quick three-pointer and later added two free throws to send the Tigers into the locker room leading 20-11.

“Every game you have to be prepared and go in and contribute,” said Hill, whose 12 total points were key in Princeton’s 57-35 victory. “I realized that I needed to bring some energy. Sometimes, that’s all you need, and the starters come in and play well after that.”

The game was the Tigers’ best defensive effort of the season, as they allowed fewer points than they had even at their 78-37 victory over Farleigh Dickinson in the season opener. This number was also the fewest points the Tigers have given up since 1996. Princeton limited the Lions to just 23 percent shooting and recorded four blocks while forcing 13 turnovers.

“Defensively, we were pretty solid,” Banghart said. “On offense, we weren’t sharing the ball as much as we’d like, so that just puts a lot of pressure on our defense. The kids showed their heart on the defensive end; I just wish they were a little sharper mentally on the offensive end.”

The Tigers carried the momentum that helped them outscore Columbia 37-24 in the second half into the opening period of Saturday’s game against Cornell. Junior forward Lauren Edwards, who took just eight shots on Friday night, opened her night with a long-range jumper and scored 13 points on 6-13 shooting. Princeton went on a 17-5 run in the first eight minutes, aided by seven points from Allgood, who dropped a career-high 22 points in just 26 minutes of playing time on Saturday.

But the half ended with Princeton up by just one possession, when Cornell guard Clare Fitzpatrick’s eight first-half points powered the Big Red to a 17-5 run. During this period, according to Banghart, the Tigers subs didn’t perform as well as they had previously performed and the defensive effort collapsed.

“We kind of deteriorated our defensive communication and our effort on the glass,” Banghart said. “We weren’t moving the ball well offensively.”

Cornell managed to keep the game close for the first five minutes of the second half, but after Allgood converted a three-point play to increase the Tigers’ lead to seven, the Big Red could not keep up. Senior guard and co-captain Addie Micir, who scored 11 second-half points, sunk her last three three-point attempts to solidify the blowout. Micir, who was suffering from the flu, had been scratched from the lineup until 5 p.m. but decided to play anyway.

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“It’s senior year; there aren’t too many games left,” Micir said. “I think any one of us would have played — it’s the Ivy League season. It’s playoff time, basically.”