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Homecoming Queen: Rasheed Leads Princeton Past Santa Clara
December 20, 2011 | Women's Basketball
Ordinarily, this wouldn't be a good time of year to get on Santa's bad side.
In the case of the Princeton University women's basketball team, this wasn't really a matter of naughty or nice. It was more about a team that had lost four of five - albeit against three ranked teams and a fourth team on a nice roll - that would have a much better Christmas break with a win over Santa (Clara, not Claus) Monday night.
Princeton, led by 20 points, six rebounds and five assists from Niveen Rasheed, defeated Santa Clara 77-61 Monday night in front of 602 at the Leavey Center. Lauren Edwards added 13, while Kate Miller and Devona Allgood had 12 for the Tigers.
The win came in the second game of Princeton's California swing, one that began with a solid performance in a loss to No. 4 Stanford Saturday. The two games were played within 60 miles of the homes of Rasheed and fellow Tiger junior Lauren Polansky, who had a team-best seven rebounds in the game.
Princeton improved to 8-4 on the season, with the four losses to nationally ranked Stanford, DePaul and Delaware and defending Patriot League champ Navy.
Santa Clara fell to 6-6.
The game against Santa Clara resembled Princeton's first six of the year, all of which were wins. The Tigers built an 18-point halftime lead after holding the Broncos to 32% shooting in the first 20 minutes, and they would lead by as many as 27 after intermission. The only time Santa Clara led was at 2-0.
"We jumped out on them early and disrupted their rhythm on the offensive end," said Princeton coach Courtney Banghart. "We took them out of their stuff. And it was nice to get a balanced effort."
Rasheed, who had 23 against DePaul and 16 against Stanford to earn Ivy League Player of the Week honors, had her fifth game of the year with at least 20 points. She shot 7 for 11 from the field and put up her big numbers in just 27 minutes.
Edwards followed up her 16-point game against Stanford with 13 more against Santa Clara, including 3 of 6 shooting from three-point range. Edwards moved into 16th place all-time at Princeton with 1,105 career points and is just 11 points away from moving up three spots to 13th.
Allgood's 12 left her with 987 career points.
Her chance at becoming the 20th 1,000-point in school history will wait at least 10 days, as the Tigers are now off until Dec. 29, when they'll play at Hofstra. The final game of the calendar year 2011 will be New Year's Eve afternoon at Drexel.
"It was a good team win," Banghart said. "We played hard and got a win that we really needed."
After the game, Princeton scattered for the break, to reconvene in Princeton to prepare for the last two non-league games and then the league opener Jan. 7 at Penn.
Getting a win against Santa Clara, especially a convincing one, brought a little pre-holiday joy to the Tigers' world.