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Rutgers Nips Princeton On Shot With 4.4 To Play
November 19, 2010 | Women's Basketball
The banner of Hall-of-Fame coach Vivian Stringer looms over the court at the Lewis Brown Athletic Center, and the real-life version is still doing business on the home side bench. Clearly, this is not a place where visitors go home often with victories.
Two years ago to the day, after her team was a 48-point afterthought on this court, Courtney Banghart looked around and said that she'd back. She just didn't realize it would sting even more the second time around.
Khadijah Rushdan knocked down a jump shot with 4.4 seconds left to give Rutgers a 54-53 win over Princeton in an early-season thriller in front of 2,518 at the RAC. Princeton rallied from 15 points back in the second half to take a lead down the stretch before Rushdan broke the Tigers' hearts.
The loss was Princeton's 14th straight to the Scarlet Knights, with the last Princeton win back in 1978. Rutgers improved to 104-16 in the last nine seasons at home.
Among those 104 wins was an 83-35 win over Princeton exactly two years ago.
"We came in here and it felt like we lost by 112," said Banghart, the fourth-year Tiger head coach. "I said we'd be back, but this feels worse."
That loss two years ago left Banghart at 8-24 in her young coaching career. Since then, she is 40-17, and her team is 22-2 since a 10-point loss to the Scarlet Knights a year ago, when she led Princeton to a 14-0 Ivy record and the first NCAA tournament bid in school history.
This year, Princeton came in off a 41-point win over FDU in its opener, while Rutgers lost to California by nine and No. 2 Stanford by 13 to open its season.
Rutgers led 35-22 at the half and 39-24 with 18 minutes to go before Princeton turned its game up on both ends. It took four minutes to get the lead under double digits and then just three more for Princeton to get its first lead at 42-41.
"I love the fight in this team," said Banghart. "We had 22 points at the half, which is ridiculous for us. We made some adjustments, and we never stopped fighting."
It would go back-and-forth from there with eight lead changes down the stretch, and Princeton would take a 53-52 lead on the seventh of those, when Lauren Edwards scored with 1:13 left.
The Tigers would get a stop after that, but the final sequence was set up when Niveen Rasheed's jumper hit the rim and bounded to the floor, where a mad scramble ensued. A held ball would have favored Princeton at that point, but the officials ruled that Chelsey Lee of Rutgers had possession and had called for a timeout before the ball was tied up.
As a result, the Knights had a chance to win the game, and Rushdan took full advantage, swishing a mid-range shot with 4.4 to play. Princeton was unable to get a shot off after that before the horn.
Rasheed led Princeton with 14 points and added seven rebounds, while Edwards and Addie Micir had 11 each. Devona Allgood had eight points and eight rebounds, adn Kate Miller came off the bench to spark the comeback with seven points while drawing two key charges.
Rushdan led RU with 13.
Rutgers shot 52% for the first half while making 4 of 5 three-pointers, but Princeton held the Knights to 23% shooting and 0 for 4 on three-pointers in the second half.
Princeton shot 32% in the first half and 45% in the second half, but the Tigers came away with 12 offensive rebounds and nine second-chance points after intermission.
Princeton is at Lehigh Sunday and then faces Southern California and either Vanderbilt or Quinnipiac at Vanderbilt's tournament after Thanksgiving.
Rutgers now leads the series with the Tigers either 15-1 or 15-3, depending on whether two early 1970s games against Doulgass are counted. There is no disputing the current series streak, which now stands at 14 for the Scarlet Knights.
Of those 14 wins, six have been by at least 20 points and four have been by at least 40. The Scarlet Knights scored 110 against Princeton a year after the last Tiger win and 116 the year after that.
Those games - like the 48-point RU win two years ago - are just numbers in the record book now.
The one-point loss this time around stings, but it does show how far the Tigers have come in a short time.
