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Princeton University
Columbia
Players Mentioned
Rasheed Scores 27 Points in Princeton's 77-55 Win Over Columbia
February 13, 2010 | Women's Basketball
NEW YORK (2/12/10) - Freshman Niveen Rasheed matched her career-best scoring with 27 points and 14 rebounds, her sixth double-double of the season, to lead the Princeton women's basketball team to a 77-55 win over Columbia on Friday, Feb. 12 at Levien Gymnasium.
The Tigers improve to 18-2 overall and 6-0 in the Ivy League, matching the program's best start in Ivy League play. Columbia falls to 13-8 and 4-3 in the Ivy League after its largest margin of defeat this season.
"That was a great team win," head coach Courtney Banghart said. "We were sharp mentally, physically and very disciplined with the game plan. We handled their pressure and played really hard on the defensive end. Coming in, Niveen knew that Lomax was one of the premier players from last year, she was focused and competed the way Niveen always does."
Junior Addie Micir scored 14 points and sophomore Devona Allgood added 13. Allgood and freshman Lauren Polansky finished the night with six rebounds apiece. Polansky had six rebounds, one behind the game-best of seven recorded by Rasheed. Rasheed also had a team-best five steals while sophomore Lauren Edwards had four blocks in the game.
The teams started the game trading baskets to give Princeton a 6-5 lead at the time of the first media timeout at 15:35. Rasheed scored back-to-back baskets to put Princeton up 10-5. A jumper by Danielle Browne at 14:13 would be the last basket the Lions would get for the next 3:20 as the Tigers went on a 12-0 run to take a 22-7 lead.
Caitlin Stachon finally found the rim for Columbia but Princeton wasn't done yet, scoring the next nine of 11 points to grab a 20-point edge, 31-11 with 4:42 to play in the half.
Lauren Dwyer and Micir exchanged jumpers before a layup by Krystal Hill gave Princeton its largest lead of the first half, a 23-point advantage, 36-13 with a little more than two minutes left.
The Lions started to find some open spots on the court and hit three shots while the Tigers got one point on a Rasheed free throw.
Less then eight minutes into the first half, Princeton had forced the Ivy League's leading scorer Judie Lomax into two fouls. She averages 2.3 fouls per game and has fouled out just one time this year. The junior, who leads the nation in double-doubles finished the first half with just four points and three rebounds.
Browne drained a three to start the second half, putting Columbia within 15 points, the closest the Lions got since 9:33 of the first. However the next 10 minutes belonged to the Tigers who went on a 20-7 run to take their largest lead of the game on an old-fashioned three-point play by freshman Kate Miller to make it 57-29 with 13 minutes to play.
Columbia went on a 10-0 run over the next two minutes to make it an 18-point game with 9:04 to play. Rasheed responded scoring the next four points and handed Lomax her fourth foul. The teams would trade runs through the next five minutes with Princeton leading 67-49 with 4:05 remaining.
A basket by Rasheed sparked a 7-0 run to push the Tigers back ahead by 23.
Not soon after, Columbia substituted Lomax and Dwyer and put five freshmen on the court for the remaining 1:30 as Princeton went on to record the 77-55 victory.
Lomax was held to 11 points and nine rebounds, while Dwyer paced the Lions offensively with 12 points. Melissa Shafer had a 10-point game and had five rebounds. Browne and Sara Yee each had five assists and five rebounds apiece. Columbia shot 37.7 percent from the field, 31.3 from behind the arc and 80 percent from the free-throw line.
The Tigers shot nearly 50 percent from the floor, at 49.2 percent, while going 13 of 15 from the free throw line.
Princeton will take on Cornell tomorrow, Feb. 13 at 7 p.m., at Newman Arena.