Women's Basketball: Challenges lie ahead after Tigers’ 3rd tourney defeat

the team’s loss to Kansas State on March 17

The 67-64 loss came down to a resurgence of the Wildcats’ offense in the final 10 minutes after a messy game for both teams. The letdown, while in isolation is upsetting to the Tigers’ fans, in the broader context shows a program that in the past five years has dramatically improved. The letdown raises the concern among fans of whether the trajectory will continue.

“After a season we had, and it ends like this … to say we came to win would be an understatement,” head coach Courtney Banghart said. “This was a game we could and should have won.”

The match was the third consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance for the Tigers. In their previous showings, the Tigers were easily overtaken, first 65-47 by St. John’s in 2010, and 65-49 by Georgetown in 2011.

In the context of prior losses, the match against Kansas State was “debilitatingly sad,” Banghart said.

“We never stopped fighting throughout the game,” junior forward Niveen Rasheed said. “[The loss] gives you even more motivation for next year.”

Under Banghart’s watch, the women’s basketball program has risen to become the dominant power in the Ivy League. The team has lost only one match to league opponents over the past three years, and the Tigers received the first top-25 national ranking in conference history prior to entering the tournament.

“This right here is the byproduct of what we have been building,” Banghart said of the progression of the program under her tenure.

But for a team that spent conference play averaging 77 points per game and won 14 games by an average of 31 points, Princeton fans may wonder whether the imbalanced nature of the Ivy League hampered the Tigers’ performance on the national stage.

“It’s not the blowouts in the last minutes — it’s the close games. Although you may not win them, those are the most fun moments you’ll come away with,” senior guard Lauren Edwards said.

Banghart explained that the conference games serve as “preparatory time” for the team’s greater challenges. “For us, it’s not for anything but getting better,” she said.

Additionally, the Tigers’ performance in the NCAA Tournament still signals the strength of the league. “Ultimately, when we get out here, we are representing the Ivy League. We should be proud of how we played,” senior center Devona Allgood said.

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To Banghart, the next steps are clear. “I know what comes next: spending next week in the gym for 15 hours a day recruiting,” she said.

For current players, the next steps for the team are not as straightforward. The season ends with the departure of Devona Allgood at center, where she has played a dominant role since her sophomore year. Princeton also loses its main outside shooting threat in Edwards, who made 37 percent of her three-point attempts this season.

Next year, regardless of which superstars join the team, it is clear that Rasheed will have an even larger role on the offensive end. Rasheed has been a dominant player for the Tigers since her freshman year, except for the second half of her sophomore campaign, which she missed due to an ACL injury. This season, she averaged 16.9 points per game for the Tigers.