Women's Basketball: Rasheed returns strong in 79-62 win

In a fast-paced game that turned into a blowout in the final stages, the women’s basketball team opened its season with a 79-62 victory over St. Joseph’s. The Tigers suffered a tough overtime loss to the Hawks last year, but got revenge thanks to a full-court press that forced 28 turnovers and strong offensive performances from junior forwards Niveen Rasheed and Kate Miller.

Senior co-captains Lauren Edwards and Devona Allgood scored 13 and nine points, respectively, while junior center Meg Bowen added 12.

“We have so many threats on offense, and our bench is extremely deep,” Allgood said. “You’re going to see a lot of that this year.”

St. Joseph’s did not hold a lead in the game, though they pulled to within three points midway through the first half and went on a 6-0 run early in the second. Rasheed snapped the Hawks’ momentum, going one-on-three as she drove in transition to sink a layup, draw the foul and make the free throw.

After missing the final 17 games of the season with a knee injury last year, Rasheed — the 2009-2010 Ivy League Rookie of the Year, who led the team in scoring when healthy — appeared to be back in full form, scoring 17 points and snagging six rebounds.

“Welcome back,” head coach Courtney Banghart said. “She showed everyone tonight that she’s back. We’ve kind of kept it a secret for the past couple weeks during practice. This is the game that she loves, and to get a chance to play it as well as she does makes me happy.”

Miller, who averaged just 4.2 points last year, looked very comfortable in a slightly different role on offense, mostly playing the small forward position. She was aggressive while driving to the basket and shooting from the arc, going 5-8 overall on field goals and 7-8 from the line to lead the team with 18 points.

“Everyone has to look to be a threat this year,” Miller said. “It only works if everybody’s getting looks.”

Players from both teams spent time in foul trouble, and the 46 combined fouls were the most for a Princeton game since Feb. 15, 2008 at Yale. During the Hawks’ run in the early second half, the Tigers looked as if they were holding back their physicality on defense to avoid the whistle. But they made up for it on the offensive end by capitalizing on fouls, going 21 for 27 on free throws.

Before the season began, Banghart said that this year’s scrappier team would look to be more aggressive with the full court press, and she said she was impressed with the overall defensive intensity in the opener.

“Defensively we forced plenty of turnovers and we shot barely better than they did,” Banghart said. “I loved our kids' fight, but it was smart fight.”