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Princeton University
Harvard
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Players Mentioned
No. 19/21 Princeton Women's Basketball Cruises to 96-46 Rout of Harvard
January 31, 2015 | Women's Basketball
BOX SCORE
VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS
PRINCETON VS. HARVARD (Condensed Game)
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – With four different players scoring in double figures, the No. 19/21 Princeton University women's basketball team showed no signs of rust in its first game back following a 20-day layoff for first semester exams, cruising to a 96-46 victory over Harvard University at Lavietes Pavilion.
Hitting 7-of-11 shot attempts and 4-of-6 threes, Blake Dietrick led all scorers with 18 points, while also collecting six assists, four rebounds and three steals. Amanda Berntsen netted a career-high 17 points on 6-for-7 shooting, while Alex Wheatley and Vanessa Smith finished with 15 and 14 points, respectively.
Notching their second largest margin of victory of the season, it marked the eighth game in which the Tigers held a lead of at least 30 points. Securing a double-digit win in all but one of its outings en route to an Ivy League record 18-0 (2-0 Ivy) start, Princeton has won by at least 20 points on nine occasions. The Orange and Black's 96 points are the most Harvard has surrendered to an Ivy League team since Dartmouth netted 96 on March 7, 2000.
Helping the Tigers jump out to a 6-0 start, Wheatley ducked into the paint for a pair of layups in the game's first 2:26. With Harvard's AnnMarie Healy cutting the home team's deficit to three with a jumper at 15:55, Princeton answered with a 9-2 run.
Dietrick got the stretch started with a triple. After a Temi Fagbenle basket inside of the 15-minute mark, V. Smith netted four of the game's next six points from the charity stripe to stake the Tigers to a double-digit margin.
With the Crimson battling back to within eight, the Tigers pieced together nine straight points to build a 36-19 lead. V. Smith got the spurt started with a layup before a pair of Wheatley free throws put the Orange and Black up 12. A Dietrick three-pointer extended the lead to 15 before Wheatley capped off the run on a layup with 5:49 left in the first half.
Down 44-26 at the intermission, Harvard netted four of the second period's first five points. On top 45-30 with 18:26 on the clock, Princeton held the Crimson scoreless for the next 6:20, outscoring Harvard 16-0 during that span.
Berntsen got things going with a free throw inside of the 18-minute mark before a Dietrick basket made it 48-30. Mariah Smith then connected on a pair from the charity stripe before a Dietrick three coupled with a Berntsen layup put the Tigers up 25.
Making her way to the left corner for a transition three, Berntsen put Princeton up 58-30 before Dietrick closed out the dominant stretch with a trey of her own. Putting the brakes on Harvard's scoring drought, Grace Keane knocked down a triple at 12:06. Coming right back, the Tigers responded with 16-6 run, before ultimately winning by a 50-point margin.
Princeton shot 59.3 percent (35-59) for the game with a 60.0 percent clip from long distance (9-15). Shooting just 23.8 percent (15-63) from the floor and 18.8 percent (3-16) from three, the Crimson connected on just 17.6 percent (6-34) of their field goal attempts in the second half.
The Tigers return to action at Dartmouth on Saturday, Jan. 31 at 6 p.m.