Littlefield, Alarie Help Power Princeton Past UMBC In Final Non-League Game

Saturday, December 30

Princeton, N.J.

4:00 PM

Princeton University

10-3

UMBC

1-12

UMBC

Princeton

Littlefield, Alarie Help Power Princeton Past UMBC In Final Non-League Game

December 30, 2017 | Women's Basketball

Box Score

On an afternoon when Carlie Littlefield couldn't miss, Princeton's defense made sure UMBC could.

The former looks great in the box score. The latter puts your team in position to win championships.

Littlefield, the wildly impressive freshman guard, scored 15 points on 6 for 6 shooting that included three three-pointers, and she added five assists and three steals while playing just 20 minutes, and Bella Alarie, with the same playing time, had 13 points of her own.

It was the Princeton defense, though, that swallowed up another opponent, this time the Retrievers, and the result was a 77-40 Tiger victory on Carril Court. Princeton, who improved to 10-3 while playing its final non-league game, opens the Ivy League season this coming Saturday, Jan. 6, at Penn in a matchup of teams who have finished 1-2 in the league each of the last four years and who met in the first Ivy League tournament final a year ago.

Princeton will enter the Ivy season on a four-game winning streak, during which time no team has scored more than 54 points. In fact, during those four games, Princeton's opponents have averaged just 45 points per game and have shot a combined 35.7 percent from the field.

"Our defense has been very good," said Princeton head coach Courtney Banghart. "Defense is about effort and communication and playing as a team, and all of those are things each player can control. I thought we did a very good job today defending, and then on offense, I thought we shared the ball very well too. It was a very good game for us, and now we can get ready for Penn and the Ivy season."

Littlefield and Alarie combined for nine of Princeton's first 11 points, and it would be 11-0 Princeton midway through the first quarter. The lead reached 20 at 29-9 less than three minutes into the second and then passed 30 with 3:24 to go before intermission, on a Littlefield basket that made it 42-11 and gave Princeton more points than UMBC would score all day.

It was 47-11 at halftime, and Banghart gave 11 players at least 12 minutes of playing time, with none having more than 22. Princeton had 11 players score in the game.