Princeton University Athletics
Players Mentioned
Princeton Makes The Short Trip To Rider For Sunday Tip-Off
November 26, 2011 | Women's Basketball
The Rider women's basketball team averaged 22.5 turnovers per game a year ago, when the Broncs won five games.
This year, through three games, turnovers are down to 17.0, a drop of 5.5 per game, or nearly 25%. As a result, winning percentage is way up, all the way to .667, as Rider has won two of its first three.
It's been eight days since the Broncs last played, and that game was the team's first loss of the year, a 66-57 defeat to Penn. In that game, Rider turned it over a season-high 20 times, as opposed to the 15 turnovers in a win over Lafayette and 16 in a win over Bucknell.
Princeton, on the other hand, has played twice since Rider last played, with wins over Marist last Monday and Davidson Friday afternoon.
Princeton has won all five of its games, and here are the turnover totals in those five games: 27, 28, 19, 20, 24.
In fact, Princeton's best offense this year has started off its pressure defense, which has resulted in a ton of easy baskets so far.
Any time Davidson made a run against Princeton, the Tigers dialed up the defensive pressure - and that was that.
Princeton makes the short trip to Rider Sunday afternoon (2 p.m. tip) for the 29th meeting betwen the teams.
It's hard to imagine that too many - if any at all - of the 28 Princeton teams that previously faced Rider have been as strong defensively.
Teams are shooting 34.6% against Princeton from the field and just 23.1% from three-point range. Only one team - St. Joe's in the opener - shot better than 40% from the field against the Tigers.
That's as big a reason as any why Princeton is 5-0 for the first time in 34 seasons.
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Princeton is 5-0 for the first time since the 1977-78 season.
The first season for Princeton women's basketball was 1971-72. Princeton would win its first five of the 1973-74 season and then its first six in 1974-75, matching that again in 1977-78. No Princeton team since has won its first six games of a season, and no Princeton team has ever won its first seven.
As for Princeton and Rider, they first met on Dec. 13, 1972, when Princeton won 38-30. Since then, the teams have never gone longer than three years without playing, except for a gap from 1974 through 1984.
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Princeton is in the "others receiving votes" category in both the ESPN coaches' poll and the Associated Press media poll. Princeton defeated Marist, another "others receiving votes" team, and Davidson since the last AP poll was released; the ESPN poll came out after the Marist game.
Between now and Dec. 17, Princeton will play two teams currently ranked in the Top 25 (Stanford and DePaul) and another team receiving votes (Delaware, Thursday at Jadwin Gym).
Stanford is ranked fifth in both polls, while DePaul is 19th in the AP poll and 20th in the ESPN poll.
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Princeton's Lauren Polansky had eight steals in the win over Davidson.
The only other times in program history that a player ever had that many were in 2001, when Mary Kate Opila had eight against Lafayette, and back in 1976, when C.B. Tomasiewicz had 10 against Yale.
Polansky leads Princeton with 16 steals on the season and now has 108 for her career. To reach the Princeton top 10, she would need to get 51 more.
Tomasiewicz has the career record with 329. She also has the three top single-season totals with 90, 84 and 81.
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Princeton's Niveen Rasheed averages 20.0 points per game, with 100 points in five games. She has had at least 17 points in every game, and she is the only Tiger in double figures in every game.
The next four highest season points-per-game averages - including three that are in double figures - in this game all belong to Rider players.
Rasheed has 725 career points. She needs to average 11.9 points per game to reach 1,000 by the end of the regular season.
Devona Allgood has exactly 200 more points than Rasheed, at 925. Should Allgood and Rasheed both reach 1,000 this season, then it would mark the first time in program history that three players have reached 1,000 points in the same season (Lauren Edwards reached 1,000 against Lafayette)
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Speaking of Lafayette, Princeton and Rider have both defeated the Leopards on the young season.
Rider's win was by a 64-56 score on Nov. 11 at Lawrenceville, while Princeton won 87-47 on Nov. 14 in Easton.
Both Princeton and Rider held Lafayette to just above 30% shooting. Princeton forced 27 turnovers, while Rider forced 19. Princeton did outrebound Lafayette 45-35, while Lafayette outrebouned Rider 49-38.
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Princeton has made 25 three-pointers in five games.
Of those 25, 10 came against Marist, while 15 came in the other four games combined.
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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.
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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 91 games of her career, starting 78, including every game the last three seasons
• has 925 career points
• eighth in program history with 660 career rebounds; needs one to tie Carol Puza '83 for seventh and 11 to tie Meagan Cowher '08 for sixth
• had 18 points on 8 of 10 shooting and scored the first nine Princeton points of the second half as the Tigers took control against Villanova
• had nine points and six rebounds vs. St. Joe's and six points and six rebounds against Lafayette
• has 18 rebounds in her last two games, including a season-high 10 against Davidson
• scored in double figures in 21 of 29 games last year
• has attempted - and made - one career three-pointer, as the shot clock was expiring against Harvard last year
Megan Bowen #43
• had 12 points in the win over St. Joe's
• returned after missing two games with a concussion to have six points against Davidson
• had six points and three rebounds against Lafayette
• shooting .529 from the field (9 for 17)
• missed the Villanova and Marist games with an injury
• 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
• had four points, two rebounds and an assist in five minutes against Marist, including a big three-pointer early in the second half as Princeton took control of the game
• scored her first seven points and had her first career three-pointer and assist in win over Lafayette
• made first collegiate appearance in game against St. Joe's
• 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 since the start of her sophomore year
• became the 19th 1,000-point scorer in Princeton women's basketball history against Lafayette
• is one of 10 players in school history with at least 100 career three-pointers
• has 1,019 career points; needs 39 to tie Allison Cahill for 17th all-time at Princeton
• has 104 career three-pointers; needs four to tie Laura Leacy for ninth and then 57 more after that to tie Kim Allen for eighth
• was been in double figures in points in both of the first two games before having five points, but also six rebounds and four steals, against Villanova
• had 13 points and 10 rebounds in opener against St. Joe's
• had three blocked shots against Davidson after having three in the first four games combined; six blocked shots leads team
• scored in double figures in 20 of 29 games a year ago
• had a career-high six rebounds against Villanova
• had five points and two rebounds in 12 minutes against Lafayette
• had four points and three rebounds against Davidson
• had a steal and rebound in four minutes against St. Joe's
• 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
• had 11 points, four rebounds, two assists and a steal in 16 minutes against Lafayette
• the 11 points were her second-highest total ever, behind career high of 12 against Brown last year, and gave her a third double figure game for her career
• had five points and career-high five rebounds against Villanova
• tied career-high in rebounds two games later with five against Davidson
• tied her career high with four assists against Marist
• had five points and two rebounds in 19 minutes against St. Joe's
• had a key three-point play during 10-0 run that broke game open early in second half against St. Joe's
• played in 22 games as a freshman
• led team with four assists and two steals in NCAA game against Georgetown
Laura Johnson #22
• scored 13 points, all in the second half, against Marist
• made three crucial second half three-pointers against Marist
• had six points, three assists, three rebounds and two steals in 18 minutes against Lafayette; made both of her three-pointers in the game
• had two blocks against Villanova
• played in every game last year, starting four
• has played in all 89 games the last three years, with 10 starts
• led team with 16 points at Harvard last year
Kate Miller #20
• had a team-high and career-high 18 points against St. Joe's
• had four points, three rebounds and three steals against Davidson
• led team in scoring in a game for the first time in her career
• moved into starting lineup last year after Niveen Rasheed's knee injury
• played in all 29 games, starting 14, as a sophomore
• has played in every game of her career
• has had five career double figure games
• improved three-point shooting to 11 of 20 a year ago after shooting 2 for 19 freshman year; was 1 for 4 against St. Joe's
• had eight steals against Davidson, the second-highest single-game total in school history, behind only C.B. Tomasiewicz, who had 10 against Yale in 1976
• had a career-high 12 points - along with six rebounds, three assists, two steals and a blocked shot - in the win against Marist
• had six rebounds and five assists against Villanova
• had four assists, four rebounds and four steals in the opener against St. Joe's
• 2011 Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year
• has started 54 games her career
• missed one game last year due to injury
• has 171 assists and 95 turnovers for her career
Niveen Rasheed #24
• leads team in scoring and rebounding and is second in steals and assists
• averaging 20.0 points per game; school record for a full season is 19.5, set by Sandi Bittler in 1989-90
• the reigning Ivy League Co-Player of the Week
• had 24 points and nine rebounds against Davidson
• had 18 points and 11 rebounds against Marist, along with three steals and her first two made three-pointers of the year
• had 19 points and 12 rebounds against Villanova, of which 15 of her points came in the second half
• had team-bests with 22 points, seven rebounds, four steals, three blocks and three assists - in 23 minutes - against Lafayette
• had 17 points, six rebounds and three assists against St. Joe's
• shooting 51.3% from the field
• has 725 career points
• returned this season 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 37 of 43 career games
• 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
Alex Rodgers #5
• had a career-high 10 points against Lafayette
• shot 3 for 4 against the Leopards, including 2 for 3 from three-point range; also had three rebounds, an assist and a steal
• played in 18 games as a freshman
Jess Shivers #23
• made her first career appearance in win over Davidson
• 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
• had first career point and first two career rebounds in the game against Lafayette
• 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
PROBABLE PRINCETON STARTERS
No. Name Pos. Cl. Ht. Hometown 2011-12 Stats
3 Lauren Polansky G Jr. 5-8 Mill Valley, Calif. 4.6 ppg, 3.8 rpg
30 Lauren Edwards G Sr. 6-0 Los Angeles, Calif. 7.4 ppg, 6.4 rpg
24 Niveen Rasheed G Jr. 6-0 Danville, Calif. 20.0 ppg, 9.0 rpg
20 Kate Miller F Jr. 6-0 Rumson, N.J. 6.6 ppg, 2.0 rpg
44 Devona Allgood C Sr. 6-3 Huntersville, N.C. 8.6 ppg, 6.8 rpg