Women's Basketball: Delle Donne, opening run sink Tigers

The women’s basketball team was handed its first loss of the season on Thursday night, falling to undefeated No. 24 Delaware by an 81-70 score. The Blue Hens scored the first 14 points of the game and led comfortably for the rest of the game, keeping Princeton winless all-time against nationally-ranked teams.

The Tigers (6-1) rallied in the first half, narrowing the lead to six points, but Delaware (5-0) went on a 14-0 run to take a 38-18 lead and never looked back. The Blue Hens’ advantage was in double digits for almost the entire game.

Princeton did play significantly better in the second half than in the first, outscoring the visitors 42-35 in the period. Unfortunately for the Tigers, it came as too little too late as Delaware came up with some important rebounds and second-chance points down the stretch to keep its perfect season alive.

The two teams met last season in a game very similar to this one, as both squads came into the early-season matchup ranking among the nation’s best mid-majors. Last year, Princeton came up victorious, winning the game by 18 points, aided by the fact that star forward Elena Delle Donne did not play for the Blue Hens. Princeton also beat Delaware at home two years ago despite Delle Donne’s 35 points.

Senior guard Lauren Edwards said after the game that these memories may have helped the visitors.

“There is incentive to having been beaten two years in a row,” she said. “[Delaware] wants to come back and beat [Princeton] at home, and [Delaware] just got their ranking, so I’m sure that was a part of their pregame speech and what they were saying.”

Princeton’s top performers in the game were Edwards, who scored 23 points; junior forward Niveen Rasheed, who dropped 20 points and posted five rebounds; and sophomore guard Nicole Hung, who came off the bench to score 11 for the Tigers.

But the story of this game was Princeton’s inability to stop Delaware’s potent offense led by Delle Donne, who scored 32 points and added nine rebounds.

Delle Donne came into the game leading all of women’s college basketball with an average of 30.2 points per game.

“Elena is [6 feet 5 inches] and doesn’t turn it over,” head coach Courtney Banghart said. “She only has like four turnovers playing as many minutes as she does.”

The Blue Hens scored an impressive 46 points in the first half on a usually stout Princeton defense that had not allowed more than 62 points in a game this season.

Princeton, despite the loss, showed resilience late in the game and played until the last whistle. This quality of the Princeton team more than anything gave Edwards pride, she said.

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“I think our team showed a lot of poise,” Edwards said. “Even though we were down 14-0 after the first timeout, it was still something we came back to; we never gave up, and it was a team effort.”

“Everybody was out there playing,” Edwards added. “I’m proud of the fact everybody played up until the last minute.”

The Blue Hens had previously beaten then-No. 11 Penn State and are nationally ranked for the first time in program history. Their victory on Thursday snapped a 26-game home win streak for Princeton, dating back to a loss at Rutgers in December of 2009.

Princeton will look to rebound against University of Maryland, Baltimore County at 2 p.m. on Saturday.