Women's Basketball: Tigers stay unbeaten with New York sweep

Senior guard and captain Lauren Edwards led the charge for Princeton in the game against Columbia, leading the team in scoring with 13 points, as well as adding six rebounds. Junior forward Niveen Rasheed, the Ivy League’s leading scorer and rebounder, added 10 points and nine rebounds despite shooting just 2-9 from the field.

The Tigers’ incredible scoring distribution was the major story from this game. Senior center and captain Devona Allgood and freshman guard Blake Dietrick also scored in double figures, adding 12 and 11 points respectively. Five other players on Princeton’s team scored at least five points, including four bench players, showing the depth of the Tigers and the confidence with which they were all playing.

Princeton also showed a huge sense of urgency on offense against the Lions, scoring 86 points — its third highest total the season — and pushing the ball up court at will.

“Our key to victory in the Columbia game was pushing the pace on offense,” Allgood said. “We needed to get stops and score quickly to generate more possessions and beat their zone defense down the floor.”

The Cornell game, although anticipated as being more challenging for the Tigers, finished with an almost identical result to the Columbia matchup the night before. Princeton, led by 16 points and eight rebounds from Rasheed, jumped out early and never looked back. This score at halftime was decisive, with the Tigers holding a 21-point lead. Allgood added a great game, scoring 13 points and grabbing nine boards for Princeton. Edwards added 10 points, while junior forward Kate Miller contributed nine.

Allgood was particularly happy with the team’s play in the Cornell game, saying that they have really learned how to attack the zone defense as a group.

“I’m happiest about the growth that we showed this weekend against Cornell, in particular,” Allgood said. “In our first matchup with them, we really struggled against their zone defense. It was something we were still working the kinks out with, but Saturday night, we played our zone offense very well, leading to great scoring opportunities and less turnovers.”

One huge story throughout the season for the Tigers has been their remarkable job rebounding the ball in the paint. Princeton is nationally ranked seventh in rebounding margin, its highest national ranking for any major statistical category. They are also ranked first by a large margin in the Ivy League in the same category. The Tigers outrebounded Columbia and Cornell 52-27 and 43-25, respectively, this weekend.

“In both games, it was imperative that we won the rebounding battle,” Allgood said. “That meant limiting their offensive rebounds and sending as many as possible to the glass on our offensive end.”

Princeton has also played remarkably well on defense this season, particularly in Ivy League play. The Tigers are the best team in the conference in scoring defense, allowing opponents to score an average of only 53.2 points per game. Princeton has only given up more than 50 points only once in an Ivy League contest.

“Defense is something we’ve always taken great pride in,” Allgood said. “The less points they score, the less opportunities a team has to beat us. We certainly can’t forget about the importance of our defense, especially as we continue into the second half of Ivies, where teams are going to know our strengths even more and try to make scoring difficult.”

This weekend was an incredibly successful one for the Tigers, and maybe most impressive of all was the whopping scoring margins from both games. Princeton defeated Columbia by 40 points and Cornell by 36. As Allgood noted, her favorite moments from both contests were “seeing the final score.”

Get the best of the ‘Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

Princeton will head home to host Harvard in an important matchup on Friday before hosting Dartmouth the next day. The Tigers would clinch at least a share of the conference title by sweeping the contests and extending their home conference win streak to 23 games.