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Women's Hoops Rallies to Defeat Drexel 64-52 in Mid-Major Showdown
December 18, 2010 | Women's Basketball
PRINCETON, N.J. (12/17/10) - Trailing for the first time at home this season, the Princeton women's basketball team rallied to defeat Drexel 64-52 on Friday, Dec. 17 at Jadwin Gym. The win extends the Tigers win streak at home to 13, as Princeton completes 2010 with a perfect home court record.
Drexel held Princeton scoreless for 10:58, had four-point lead and forced Princeton's top player Niveen Rasheed into five fouls after playing 16 minutes. All had the workings of an upset. However, the Tigers rallied and found what they had to do to win.
"We knew Drexel is a really good team, that is hard to guard," head coach Courtney Banghart said. "We had to deal with a lot of adversity throughout the game. The combination of our fight and poise is what got us this win."
Drexel had five turnovers in the first five minutes giving Princeton a 10-5 lead by the first media timeout at 14:31. Sharp three-point shooting by Jasmina Rosseell during a Drexel 10-4 run would give her team the lead.
The Tigers scored the next 10 points and made it a nine-point game, 24-15, at 8:12. However, a three by junior Laura Johnson at 9:21 would be Princeton's final basket from the field until 18:23 of the second half. Scoreless for 10:58, Princeton shot 0-for-11 during that stretch, while Drexel would score 10 points to take a 25-24 lead into the locker room.
Four minutes into the second half, Drexel reached its largest lead of the game, a four-point differential and had forced Rasheed into her third and fourth fouls and she took a seat on the bench.
The teams would trade buckets as Princeton couldn't yet find who would be its offensive spark. Hoping it would be Rasheed, she went back into the game and 10 seconds later would hit two free throws at 12:56 to get Princeton within one 33-32. Forty seconds later, Rasheed would foul out of the game, her first career disqualification.
That seemed to be the ignite the Princeton squad as the Tigers would take the lead three minutes later and wouldn't let go.
"This team is such a solid team, that when of their teammates goes, down they rally around," Banghart said. "They lost one of their own and they knew they had to come together to battle the adversity and they did that."
After Kamile Nacickaite drained a three, Princeton attacked and went on an 8-0. A three-pointer by Edwards at 9:07 would give the Tigers back the lead and Micir would drop in a jumper to make it a 40-35 with 8:25 left on the clock.
Drexel would score a string of free throws, five in fact, to tie the game up 40-40 at 6:32.
Devona Allgood and Edwards would each score points in the paint to help Princeton go up by four, 44-40 with a little more than five minutes left.
Nacickaite would go 2-for-2 from the line to get the Dragons within two, but it would be as close as they would get in the final minutes.
Micir and Edwards scored back-to-back three-pointers to make it an eight-point game. Another string of Drexel free throws, made it a four-point game, before Princeton went on a 8-2 run over the next three minutes to take its largest lead of the game, 58-48 with 53 seconds remaining on the clock.
Micir would go to the line six times in the final 45 seconds, as the Dragons purposefully fouled her twice to get possession. Entering the game shooting 100 percent from the foul line, Micir went 6-for-6 from the line to give the Tigers the 64-52 win.
Edwards had 17 points, five rebounds, five assists, two blocks and one steal. Micir was the leading scorer for Princeton with 18 points and had a team-high six rebounds. Allgood would also grab six boards and had 12 points. Princeton shot 44 percent from the field, 80 percent from the free-throw line and 44.4 percent from long range.
Nacickaite paced the Dragons with a double-double of 17 points and 10 rebounds. Rossell had 11 points, four rebounds and two assists. The Dragons, who played just seven players, shot 35.6 percent overall, 40 percent from long range and 77.8 percent from the foul line.
Drexel falls to 6-2 on the season, while Princeton improves to 8-2.
Princeton will be back in action on Sunday, Dec. 19 when it travels to Philadelphia to take on St. Joseph's at 2 p.m.