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Princeton University
Maryland
Players Mentioned
No. 13 Princeton Closes Out Historic Season With Loss to No. 3 Maryland
March 24, 2015 | Women's Basketball
BOX SCORE
POSTGAME PRESS CONFERENCE
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COLLEGE PARK, Md. – Tasting defeat for the first time in 2014-15, the 13th-ranked Princeton University women's basketball team saw its pursuit of perfection come to an end on Monday night with an 85-70 loss to top-seeded Maryland in NCAA Second Round action at the XFINITY Center.
A four-point contest at the intermission, Maryland used a 20-4 run over the first 7:02 of the second half to blow the game open. Advancing to its seventh Sweet 16 under head coach Brenda Frese, Maryland improved to 32-2 on the season while extending its program-record win streak to 26.
Closing out the year with an Ivy League record 31-1 mark, Princeton put the wraps on a historic season. The Tigers' No. 13 ranking in both the Associated Press Top-25 and USA Today Coaches polls are the highest in conference history. Princeton's No. 8 seed is the best an Ivy program has ever earned, and the Tigers' first round win over Green Bay was just the second NCAA victory for an Ivy team, joining No. 16 Harvard's upset over No. 1 Stanford in 1998.
Playing in her final collegiate game, senior co-captain Blake Dietrick poured in a team-high 26 points on 10-of-18 shooting. Ranked 11th on the Tigers' all-time scoring list (1,233), Dietrick's 210 career three-pointers are third on the school's charts, while her 346 assists are fourth. Her 157 helpers this year are a program record and is the fifth-highest single-season total in Ivy history.
Vanessa Smith finished with 15 points on 6-of-9 shooting, while Alex Wheatley had 10 points and three rebounds. Grabbing six boards, Annie Tarakchian upped her season total to 300, setting a new single-season program record.
Scoring six of Princeton's first eight points, Wheatley staked the Tigers to a one-point edge with a jumper from the right elbow at 15:31. Maryland's Laurin Mincy responded with a step-back three from the right baseline before Lexie Brown got an easy two in transition to make it 12-8. After a Shatori Walker-Kimbrough jumper coming out of the media timeout pushed the margin to six, Dietrick put the brakes on a 7-0 Terrapin spurt with a layup at 13:34.
Once again down six after a Kiara Leslie jumper, the Tigers pieced together a 9-1 run. Amanda Berntsen got the burst started with a pair of free throws inside of the 13-minute mark, before Smith knocked down a pull-up jumper in transition. Draining an open triple from the left side, Smith put the Tigers back on top. After Mincy went 1-for-2 from the charity stripe, Smith drove the lane for two more to make it 19-17 midway through the period.
Down 22-21 after Tierney Pfirman bucket, Princeton reeled off a 7-2 stretch. Smith once again got things started by knifing into the paint for two. A Michelle Miller jumper momentarily extended the margin to three before Dietrick converted a three-point play the old fashioned way to make it 28-24.
Regaining control, Maryland answered with a 10-2 run over a span of 1:45. Walker-Kimbrough made a pair of free throws before Pfirman buried a three from the right corner to cut the Terp deficit to 31-30. Mincy then drew a foul and hit 2-of-2 from the charity stripe to put the home team back in front. Princeton's Taylor Williams momentarily stemmed the tide with a layup at 3:32, but a Brown trey on Maryland's next possession put the Terps back up four.
Up 42-38 at the intermission, Maryland opened the half on a 20-4 run. Mincy got things started by netting four of the frame's first six points. After sinking a pair of free throws, Brionna Jones connected down low to give the Terrapins their first double-digit lead at 50-40.
After Walker-Kimbrough hit an open jumper from the left side, Mincy drained a triple to make it 55-40. Following a Brown layup, Malina Howard converted down low to push the lead to 19. Wheatley answered with a layup of her own, but Brown promptly dialed one in from long distance to make it 62-42.
Hoping to jumpstart the Princeton offense, Dietrick hit a three from the left wing. With Tarakchian coming up with a steal on the other end, Dietrick was off to the races, netting an uncontested two to trim the Tigers' deficit to 62-47. After forcing another turnover, Dietrick once again scored in transition to pull the Orange and Black within 13.
Still up 13 approaching the midway point of the period, Maryland netted 11 unanswered points. Mincy and Brown sparked the run with back-to-back triples before a Jones layup upped the margin to 72-51. Mincy closed out the stretch with a triple.
Making one last run, Princeton scored nine-straight, pulling back within 14 at 75-61 on a Dietrick trey. Coming right back, Mincy buried her sixth and final three-pointer to bump the Maryland lead back up to 78-61 with 4:29 on the clock.
Shooting 53.4 percent (31-58) from the game, with a 60.0 percent (12-20) clip from long distance, Maryland connected on seven of its eight threes (87.5 percent) in the final 20 minutes. The Tigers shot 58.6 percent (29-63) from the floor, while the Terps finished with a 35-29 rebounding edge.