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Princeton University
Harvard
Players Mentioned
Dietrick Helps No. 16 Women's Basketball to 78-57 Win Over Harvard
February 22, 2015 | Women's Basketball
BOX SCORE
PRINCETON, N.J. – Erasing an early deficit, the No. 16 Princeton University women's basketball team remained unbeaten with a 78-57 victory over Harvard University at Jadwin Gymnasium.
Extending its Ivy League record start to 25-0 (9-0 Ivy), the Tigers improved to 9-7 against the Crimson under eight-year head coach Courtney Banghart. With the victory, Banghart ties Joan Kowalik for the most coaching wins (163) in program history.
Blake Dietrick led all scorers with 23 points on 10-for-18 shooting. Logging 30 minutes, the senior co-captain also dished out eight assists while pulling down five rebounds. Annie Tarakchian turned in her fourth consecutive double-double with 17 points and 14 boards while going 8-for-12 from the floor. Vanessa Smith chipped in with nine points and nine rebounds off the bench.
Trailing 5-4 in the early going, Harvard pieced together a 9-2 run over a span of 4:08 to build a six-point cushion. Still down six inside of the nine-minute mark, the Tigers rattled off 11-straight points.
Smith got the comeback started with a layup at 8:31. After knocking down a three-pointer from the top of the key, Dietrick found Alex Wheatley in transition for an easy bucket that put Princeton back up 16-15. Another Wheatley basket coupled with a Dietrick layup pushed the Tigers' margin to five.
With Harvard battling back to within two on a Temi Fagbenle layup at 2:24, Princeton closed out the half on a 7-0 run. Wheatley kicked off the spurt by once again connecting down low. Driving hard to her right, Tarakchian finished with contact before Dietrick drained a triple from the left side to stake the home team to a 28-19 edge at the intermission.
Seeing its lead cut to five after four quick Harvard points to start the second half, Princeton ripped off a 12-4 run. Tarakchian netted the Tigers' first points of the period on a layup before Dietrick knifed into the paint to make it 32-23. Still up by nine approaching the 15-minute mark, Amanda Berntsen leaked out for an uncontested layup before another Dietrick basket upped the cushion to 40-27.
Holding onto a 14-point lead midway through the second, the Tigers put together a 9-2 run over the next 4:25 to put the game out of reach. Kenya Holland capped off the burst with a layup at 6:27 that put Princeton up 60-39.
Connecting on just 30.8 percent (36-78) of its field goal attempts in the first half, Princeton shot a blistering 61.5 percent (24-39) in the final 20 minutes. Holding Harvard to just 36.2 percent (25-69) from the floor and 13.0 percent (3-23) from three, the Tigers matched their highest rebounding output of the season (53), while finishing with a +16 differential on the glass.