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Princeton University Athletics
Princeton University
Drexel
Allgood Has A Grand Day As Tigers Top Drexel
December 31, 2011 | Women's Basketball
Devona Allgood Postgame Interview
The Princeton bus pulled up next to the Daskalakis Athletic Center on Drexel's campus Saturday afternoon and unloaded the women's basketball team for the final time in 2011.
In seven short days, the bus will pull up in front of another building, this one three blocks away, and 2012 will get really serious, really quickly. New Year's Eve, though, is a time for celebration, and it was Princeton that got to celebrate one last win in 2011.
Niveen Rasheed had 22 points, 13 rebounds, five assists and three steals to lead Princeton to a 63-51 win over Drexel in front of a New Year's Eve matinee crowd of 2,247.
Devona Allgood had 13 points and became the 20th 1,000-point scorer in Princeton women's basketball history when she scored her third point of the game.
"It was a good win, I thought," Princeton coach Courtney Banghart said. "We battled. We were so safe with our press break in the first half, and I thought we attacked better for sure in the second half. We were sharper. That could have been our best defensive effort."
The win left Princeton at 24-6 for the calendar year and 10-4 for the 2011 part of the 2011-12 season, despite one of the toughest schedules in Division I women's basketball. The next game for Princeton is in seven days, when the Tigers will play basically across the street from Drexel at the Palestra in their Ivy League opern against Penn.
Princeton has won the last two Ivy titles and is 27-1 in the league the last two years. No team has ever won three straight outright Ivy titles since the league went to a double round-robin format in the 1982-83 season.
"I think Coach Banghart did a great job with the schedule," Allgood said. "It gave us the chance to play a lot of really good teams, and I think it's prepared us for the league schedule."
Still, that's another week - and a different year - from the Drexel game. This one was about finishing the non-league schedule with a win, which was accomplished with a huge help from a 12-2 run to the start the second half. Princeton had led by one at the break, 24-23.
It was also about Allgood's 1,000th, which came with 4:44 to go in the first.
Allgood was the second Princeton player this season and third this calendar year to reach 1,000 points. Addie Micir, the 2011 Ivy Player of the Year who was in attendance at the game, did so in the first game of 2011, and Lauren Edwards did so in the second game of this season.
"Devona and Lauren committed to us before I coached a game or before we won a game," said Banghart. "It's very special that they both got their 1,000th points. And i thought she played very well today."
Of greater importance in the scheme of the game were the nine points Allgood scored during the 12-2 run that began the second half.
"It's exciting," Allgood said. "It was a bit anti-climactic in the game, but it's very exciting. Only 20 players have done it in the program's history. That's something very special to be part of."
Had it not been for a torn ACL a year ago, Rasheed would have long ago gone past 1,000 as well. As it is, she now has 890 after her huge day against the Dragons, including 9 of 14 shooting and makes on both of her three-point attempts.
Princeotn held Drexel to 28.6% shooting in the game. Good foul shooting (10 for 12) by the home team in the first 20 minutes kept it close, and the Dragons did make a run at the Tigers in the final minutes, closing to 55-50, before Princeton put it away.
Kristen Helmstetter had five points, four rebounds and three assists in 18 very strong minutes.
After that, it was back on the bus and back to Princeton for New Year's Eve celebrations.
It'll be back to business soon enough. In a new year, and right down the street.
