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Princeton University
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Rasheed's Monster Night Not Enough As Princeton Falls To DePaul
December 14, 2011 | Women's Basketball
The numbers leapt off the stat sheet and not just figuratively but also literally caused Courtney Banghart's head to snap back.
"Twenty-three points and eighteen rebounds," Princeton's women' basketball coach said. "And against a Big East team."
She left out a nationally ranked Big East team, one that has played in the last nine NCAA tournaments.
And she left out the irony, that while the numbers Niveen Rasheed put up against No. 21/23 DePaul on Carril Court at Jadwin Gym Tuesday night were ridiculous, there were other numbers on the same piece of paper that were fatal in the quest for a Princeton win.
Rasheed was one of four Princeton players in double figures with her 23, and her 18 rebounds were a career-high and the fifth-best in program history. They also weren't enough, as DePaul held off several Princeton challenges for an 78-67 win in front of 744.
Princeton fell to 7-3, while DePaul - who matched Princeton with four players in double figures, led by Keisha Hampton's 23 - rebounded from its loss to Tennessee Sunday at the Maggie Dixon Classic at Madison Square Garden to improve to 9-2.
Princeton played well enough to beat almost any team on its schedule, with the possible exception of the next one. It doesn't get any easier for the Tigers, who now travels across the country for a game at No. 4 Stanford Saturday afternoon, followed by another at Santa Clara Monday.
"We wanted to win," Rasheed said. "It was a great opportunity for us against a Big East team that is nationally ranked, and we wanted to play hard and win."
In addition to Rasheed, Princeton also got 14 points and nine rebounds from Devona Allgood, who now has 971 points for her career. Lauren Edwards and Kate Miller had 10 each.
What did in the Tigers, though, were these numbers:
* 34.8 shooting from the field
* 2 for 15 shooting from three-point range
* DePaul's 50% shooting for the game
* Princeton's 22 turnovers
"You can't shoot a low percentage and turn the ball over and expect to win," Banghart said. "We did both."
Princeton did have several bright spots, including the fact that it outrebounded DePaul 44-36 and had 19 offensive rebounds, which turned into 18 second-chance points. The Tigers held DePaul to 6 for 15 three-point shooting after the visitors came in averaging 10 made threes per game, second-best in Division I.
The Tigers trailed by as many as 16 on several occasions, but they would get it under double figures eight times, coming as close as six at 46-40. Each time, DePaul answered with great offensive precision and with what the Blue Demons do best - making shots.
"They're a very well-balanced team," Banghart said. "They do a lot right. They're well-coached. And they shoot. They were at 50% with 78 points and that's basically an average night for them."
DePaul is now 5-0 all-time against Ivy League schools.
As for Princeton, the Tigers are 1-1 against the Big East this season, after defeating Villanova earlier in the year. Each of Princeton's last two seasons has ended with a loss to a Big East team in the first round of the NCAA tournament.