Princeton University Athletics
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WBB Looks For First Win In 2011-12 - And First Ever Against St. Joe's
November 10, 2011 | Women's Basketball
Kate Miller Talks About The Start Of The 2011-12 Season
Courtney Banghart and her staff of assistant coaches Milena Flores and Melanie Moore and operations director Megan Griffiths have spent the last two years checking off boxes that had never before been checkable for the Princeton women's basketball program.
An outright Ivy League championship? Check.
Back-to-back outright championships? Check.
The NCAA tournament? Check.
Another NCAA tournament? Check.
Now as Year 5 of the Banghart era begins, Princeton has gone from building from the ground up to the unquestioned Goliath of Ivy League women's basketball.
A 7-23 record in her first year was followed by 14-14 and then the vault to 50-8 the last two years, including a 27-1 run through the Ivy League. Yes, Princeton graduated Addie Micir, the 2011 Ivy League Player of the Year, but Princeton returns two first-team All-Ivy League selections and the league's Defensive Player of the Year - and that doesn't include arguably its best player, who comes back after a torn ACL last December.
For all the box-checking, there are still some accomplishments out there that Princeton has never achieved in women's basketball, and the 2011-12 opener gives the first chance at one of those.
In its entire program history, Princeton has never beaten St. Joe's, not in nine tries, the most recent of which was last year, when the Hawks won 70-61 in two overtimes.
The 10th chance to do so comes up Friday night at 7, as Princeton hosts St. Joe's to open the 2011-12 season.
* * *
Princeton first played St. Joe's in women's basketball in the 1975-76 season, the fifth for the program. The Hawks won that game 82-41 - and won each of the next three years by at least 25 points as well.
The series took two years off before resuming in the 1981-82 season, and though this one was closer (75-67), it was win No. 5 in the series for St. Joe's, followed a year later by win No. 6, by 21 points.
The teams would not meet again for 23 years, until the 2005-06 season, when the Tigers fell by 12, a total matched again the next season. That set up last year's double-overtime win.
Add it all up, and Princeton is 0-9 against St. Joe's all-time, with an average margin of defeat around 20 and only two games closer than 10 points, with none closer than eight.
* * *
The 2010-11 Princeton-St. Joe's game was a two-point game at the half, even at the end of regulation, even at the end of the first overtime - and then all St. Joe's in the second. The Hawks pulled away by going 8 for 8 from the line in the second overtime on an afternoon where Princeton shot an uncharacteristic 5 for 13 from the foul line.
Niveen Rasheed led the Tigers with 18 points and 11 rebounds, while Lauren Edwards added 15.
Michelle Baker, now a senior, had a career-high 29 points for the Hawks, earning her Atlantic 10 Conference Player of the Week honors.
* * *
Princeton returns four starters from a year ago, when the Tigers were 24-5, 13-1 in the Ivy League. The Tigers will start four players - Niveen Rasheed, Lauren Edwards, Devona Allgood, Lauren Polansky - who started together two years ago, and the fifth player was a starter for much of last year, after Niveen Rasheed was injured.
Two of those starters, Allgood and Edwards, combined to start 33 games three years ago as freshmen.
In other words, Princeton is loaded with veterans, as well as a deep bench and three talented newcomers.
It's not surprising that Princeton is the preseason favorite in Ivy women's basketball, having earned 14 of the 17 first-place votes in the media poll.
St. Joe's, coming off a 20-12 season and WNIT berth, was picked to finish fifth in the Atlantic 10 (which has 14 teams).
* * *
Princeton has had 18 players in its women's basketball history reach the 1,000 career point mark.
Remarkably, two of those 18 did so in the same game - Maggie Langlas and Kate Thirolf in 2000 in of all places Hawaii and Maureen Lane and Allison Cahill in a home game in 2003.
One thing Princeton has never had is three players reach the 1,000-point mark in the same season - though 2011-12 might be the first.
Lauren Edwards enters her senior year with 982 points, 18 away from joining. By her career average, she should get there in Game 2 at Lafayette.
Devona Allgood will take longer, as she has scored exactly 100 fewer points than Edwards to date with 882. Allgood needs 118 points and averaged 12 per game last year; at that rate, it would take 10 games.
The third could be Niveen Rasheed, who would be right on the doorstep if she hadn't gotten hurt last year. Rasheed enters her junior year with 644 points, leaving her 356 away. She would need to average 12.7 for the regular season to get to 1,000; her career average is 15.7.
Sandi Bittler is Princeton's career leader with 1,683 points. If Rasheed averages 15.7 points for 56 more games, she would have 1,523 career points.
To reach Bittler in 56 games between this year and next, Rasheed would have to average 18.6 points.
* * *
Princeton finished the 2011 season ranked first in the Ivy League in scoring defense, scoring margin, field goal percentage, field goal percentage defense, three-point field goal percentage, three-pointers made per game, three-point field goal percentage defense, rebounding, rebounding margin, blocked shots, assists, turnover margin and assist-to-turnover margin.
* * *
The Princeton women's basketball team had three 20-win seasons prior to Courtney Banghart's arrival, having won 20 games in 1987-88 and 1995-96 and a program-best 21 in 2005-06.
Princeton won 26 games in 2009-10 an then 24 in 2010-11.
* * *
The Princeton women's basketball team spent 11 days touring in France and Senegal in September, playing four games (two in Paris, two in Senegal).
In addition to the basketball, the team visited all of the historical and cultural sights in Paris, including Notre Dame and the Louvre.
In Senegal, the team conducted a basketball clinic for local children and visited an orphanage, among other service-oriented events.
What Can You Say About ...
Devona Allgood #44
• 2010-11 first-team All-Ivy League
• 2009-10 second-team All-Ivy League
• 2008-09 honorable mention All-Ivy League
• has played in all 86 games of her career, starting 73, including every game the last two years
• has 882 career points
• scored in double figures in 21 of 29 games last year
• ranks 10th in program history with 626 rebounds; needs seven to move up two spots into eighth
• has attempted - and made - one career three-pointer, as the shot clock was expiring against Harvard last year
Megan Bowen #43
• appeared in the first 24 games of last year before injuring her shoulder against Columbia; missed four games before returning for NCAA tournament
• scored nine points on 3 of 5 shooting and added five rebounds in NCAA tournament game against Georgetown
• had a career-high 15 in win at home against Yale
• led team in scoring for first time in career with 14 points at Dartmouth
Blake Dietrick #11
• led her high school team to an 84-9 record
• scored 1,440 career high school points, the most ever by a boy or girl at the school
• 2011 Massachusetts Player of the Year
Lauren Edwards #30
• first-team All-Ivy League each of the last two years
• started every game the last two years
• enters senior year with 982 career points, leaving her 18 away from becoming the 19th 1,000-point scorer in program history
• needs one three-pointer to become the 10th player in program history with at least 100; needs nine to tie foe ninth and 69 to tie for eighth
• scored in double figures in 20 of 29 games a year ago
• played in 16 games freshman year
• high game was 16 points against Penn
• scored six points in 19 minutes against Georgetown in the NCAA tournament game
Nicole Hung #10
• played in 22 games as a freshman
• had double figures with 12 against Brown and 10 against La Salle
• led team with four assists and two steals in NCAA game against Georgetown
Laura Johnson #22
• played in every game last year, starting four
• has played in all 86 games the last three years, with 10 starts
• led team with 16 points at Harvard
• has averaged 4.3 points per game in her career
Kate Miller #20
• moved into starting lineup last year after Niveen Rasheed's knee injury
• played in all 29 games, starting 14
• has played in every game of her career
• has had four career double figure games, including three a year ago
• improved three-point shooting to 11 of 20 a year ago after shooting 2 for 19 freshman year
• 2011 Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year
• has started 50 games her first two years
• missed one game last year due to injury
• has 159 assists and 82 turnovers for her career
Niveen Rasheed #24
• returns after suffering a torn ACL against Davidson, in the 12th game of last season
• was averaging team-best 16.4 points and 7.3 rebounds per game at the time of the injury
• has been in double figures in 35 of 41 career games, including 11 of 12 last year
• finished with the fourth-highest number of points on the team last year (197) despite playing only 12 games
• was the 2010 Ivy League Rookie of the Year (and a nine-time Ivy League Rookie of the Week) and a first-team All-Ivy League selection
• has 644 career points
Alex Rodgers #5
• played in 18 games as a freshman
• had career high of eight points on three occasions
Jess Shivers #23
• high school team went 80-8 in her four years, including 45-0 her sophomore and junior years
• shot 63 percent from the floor as a senior
• averaged 11.6 points, 7.4 rebounds, 1.9 blocks, 1.7 steals and 1.5 assists per game her senior season
Mariah Smith #25
• scored 1,897 career points in high school
• earned five all-state recognitions as a senior
• late father Mark Smith scored 1,653 points at Illinois and was drafted by the Milwaukee Bucks
THE LAST TIME ...
Scored 100 Points................ N/A (highest is 97)
Scored 90 Points................ 94 vs. La Salle (1/4/11)
Scored 80 Points................ 81 vs. Dartmouth (3/4/11)
Allowed 100 Points................ 107 at Tennessee (12/20/05)
Allowed 90 Points................ 91 at Monmouth (1/2/08)
Allowed 80 Points................ 83 at Rutgers (11/18/08)
Scored 50 Points in a Half................ 51 vs. La Salle (1/4/11)
Allowed 50 Points in a Half................ 56 at Penn (3/11/08)
Won in Overtime................ vs. Monmouth (11/19/04)
Lost in Overtime................ vs. St. Joseph's (12/19/10)
Shot 55% from the field................ 57.7 vs. Stony Brook (11/22/08)
Shot 50% from 3-point range................ 52.9 at Cornell (2/25/11))
Shot 90% from FT line................ 92.3 vs. Dartmouth (3/4/11)
Had 50 rebounds in a game................ 53 vs. Penn (3/9/10)
Had 20 assists in a game................ 20 vs. Dartmouth (3/4/11)
Blocked 7+ shots in a game................ 14 vs. Yale (2/18/11)
Had 15 steals................ 17 vs. La Salle (1/4/11)
Committed fewer than 10 TOs................ 7 at Cornell (2/25/11)
Had a 30-point scorer................ Cowher (31) vs. Penn (3/11/08)
Had a 25-point scorer................ Rasheed (28) vs. Lafayette (12/13/10)
Had a player with 15+ boards................ Rasheed (16) at Cornell (2/13/10)
Had a player with 10+ assists................ O'Brien (10) vs. Yale (2/18/05)
Had a player with 5+ blocks................ Allgood (6) vs. Harvard (3/5/11)
Had a player with 5+ steals................ Polansky (6) vs. Columbia (2/11/11)
Had a player w/ a double-double................ Allgood vs. Harvard (3/5/11)
Had 2 players with double-doubles................
Allgood/Rasheed at Harvard (3/6/10)