Alarie Named Ivy Player Of The Year as Robinson and Banghart Secure Ivy Honors

PRINCETON, N.J. – Bella Alarie scored the highest Ivy honor as she was selected as the conference's Player of the Year while Leslie Robinson earned first team All-Ivy accolades and Courtney Banghart was picked as the Ivy Coach of the Year, the conference announced today.

Alarie marks the fifth time in the last eight years that Princeton has taken home Player of the Year (Addie Micir, 2011, Niveen Rasheed, 2012-13 and Blake Dietrick, 2015). She is just the eighth sophomore in conference history to pick up the Player of the Year award.

Bella is such a rare talent," said Banghart. "At 6'4, she can score all over the floor and always presents such a difficult match up for the opposing team. She impacts the game on the defensive end as well, as a rim protector and elite rebounder. On such a young team this year, we needed Bella to be great. I'm most proud that she continued to get better as the season went on, as she had to continually adjust to the various styles of defense the league threw at her. She opens up the game so much for her teammates, and her play on both ends led us all the way to the Ivy title."

Alarie began the 2017-18 season on fire with double-digit scoring in the first five games and eight of the first nine outings. The sophomore had three straight double-doubles (Nov. 16-25) including a 12-point, 11-rebound, 4-steal, 2-block performance vs. Georgia Tech (Nov. 19). Her signature moment in the non-conference season came against No. 24/25 Villanova (Nov. 29) as she missed just three shots in 13 attempts, finishing with 29 points, nine rebounds, three blocks and two steals.

The 2017 Ivy Rookie of the Year was spectacular to begin Ivy play as she had 18 points on 7-of-11 from the floor, securing 12 rebounds and blocking a career-high eight shots in decisive 70-55 victory over Penn (Jan. 6). She followed that performance with another double-double vs. Columbia (Jan. 12). Two more double-doubles came against Dartmouth (12 points, 11 rebounds) (Feb. 10) and Penn (18 points, 15 rebounds) (Feb. 13). She finished Ivy play with 18 points and 10 rebounds vs. Yale (Mar. 3) as the Tigers wrapped up the outright conference crown.

Even after the great freshman season, Alarie was even better as a sophomore, surpassing her scoring average (13.4), field goal percentage (49.3) blocks (2.4), steals (1.3), assists (2.3), rebounding (9.0) and free throw percentage (.782) from a year ago. Her 66 swats this season have already broken the single-season record that she set last season. She's 22nd in the nation in blocked shots per game and 27th in total blocks. The sophomore is also 69th in all of Division I in rebounds per game and 87th in field goal percentage. This is Alarie's second All-Ivy honor as she was first-team All-Ivy last year and the Rookie of the Year.

After moving into the starting lineup at the beginning of last year, Robinson's game has grown into a first-team All-Ivy player. It is her second time being selected All-Ivy as she was earned second-team All-Ivy in 2016-17.

"We are all so happy for Leslie, as she is the heart and soul of this team," mentioned Banghart. "She is our floor general and our captain. Her versatility on the offensive end is critical to our attack and her accountability on the defensive end anchors us. She loves this game and loves playing it to the strengths of her teammates. She makes everyone around her better, and I'm grateful that the Ivy League coaches recognized her contributions in this most meaningful way."

After back-to-back two-point games against Georgia Tech (Nov. 19) and Davidson (Nov. 25), Robinson ripped off seven of eight contests with at least 10 points. She snagged double-doubles vs. Delaware (Dec. 2), at Quinnipiac (Dec. 9) and vs. Chattanooga (Dec. 21). In the month of December, the senior captain posted 11.4 points on 46.7 percent shooting, 7.1 rebounds, 2.8 assists per contest.

Robinson started Ivy play with a stellar 15-point, 5-assist, 4-rebound, 3-steal performance at Penn (Jan. 6). She followed with three consecutive games in double figures including 18 points, nine rebounds and two steals at Yale (Feb. 2). The Corvallis, Ore., native was a combined 14-of-20 shooting at Cornell (Feb. 16) and Columbia (Feb. 17), finishing the weekend with 14.5 points, 8.0 rebounds and 7.0 assists per meeting. In her second to last career home outing, Robinson registered one of the greatest games in Ivy history, securing what is believed to be program's first triple double against Brown (Mar. 2), scoring 10 points, grabbing 15 rebounds and dishing out 10 assists.

The senior captain completed the regular season at 10.3 points on 45.6 percent from the floor, along with 7.1 rebounds, 4.4 assists, 1.4 steals per game. Her 4.4 assists per contest are 97th in the country while her 120 assists are the sixth most in a single-season in program history.

Banghart's unit finished the regular season with a 22-5 overall record and won 12-of-14 Ivy games. The team recorded its sixth Ivy title in the last nine years and gave Banghart eight 20-win seasons in her time at Princeton. For that, the head coach was honored as Ivy Coach of the Year for the second time (2015).

"We have great coaches in this league, I'm inspired when coaching alongside them," reflected Banghart. "I thank them for this honor, yet we all know that it is earned by the assistant coaches, support staff, and players that over the course of a 14-game conference season, became the champions. I had a great team this year. The players bought in, played with joy, and trusted the process. All the while, my staff, trainer, and strength coach brought such excellence to their roles. As a group, we all had strengths and we played to them. We had each other's backs, no matter the challenge or the highlight. We were teammates more than we were anything else and our team followed our lead. A sincere thank you and congratulations to my people: Milena (Flores), Carrie (Moore), Kaitlyn (Cresencia), Meghin (Williams), Jodi (Scheider), and Angie (Brambley-Moyer).

Sitting at 2-2, Princeton rolled off three straight victories before a loss to Rutgers on Dec. 13. After that, the Tigers wouldn't lose for over a month, reeling off seven consecutive victories including their first victory over Penn in almost three years. A loss at Yale hardly slowed down Princeton as it ran off another seven-game winning streak, earning its 20th victory over the season and a berth in the Ivy League Tournament at Dartmouth (Feb. 23). The Tigers later clinched the No. 1 seed in the tournament with a victory over Brown (Mar. 2) and won the outright title the next night vs. Yale (Mar. 3).

The Tigers will face off against the Yale Bulldogs in the Ivy League Tournament Semifinal on Saturday (Mar. 10) at 6 p.m. Princeton's game will be featured on ESPNU (tape delay) and ESPN3 (live). Play-by-Play announcer Jon Mozes will call the action on radio on the Ivy League Network.

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