Tiger women host Ivy pair
By Justin Feil, Assistant Sports Editor
If Ali Pritchard and the Princeton University women’s basketball team are to succeed, they have to be tough.
Pritchard is undersized at 5-foot-11 for power forward, and the Tigers played shorthanded last weekend without standout freshman starter Addie Micir.
”I think we need to be tough and need to be smart,” Pritchard said. “If I try to lock up a 6-3 post and get in shoving match, I’m going to lose. It’s being smart too.”
Smart isn’t so much of a problem. It is Princeton, after all. It’s in the other department that the Tigers have made the most strides.
”The largest level of growth for our team is our level of toughness,” said first-year head coach Courtney Banghart. “In the Penn game, we were 5-for-5 in loose balls. At the beginning of the year, we were 0-for-5. It’s making plays. Against Dartmouth, Meg (Cowher) had 10 offensive rebounds and Pritch’ had about 20 tips. We’re going to the ball more.
”We still need to improve in defensive end. I think we still have a lot to learn on the defensive end. I’m not sure enough attention has been focused on the defensive end in the past. We’re going back to fundamentals. It doesn’t happen overnight. We will get better defensively.”
Princeton won its Ivy League opener over Penn, then went on the toughest road weekend in the league as they were swept at Dartmouth last Friday and Harvard on Saturday. The Tigers return home to host Cornell 7 p.m. tonight and Columbia 6 p.m. Saturday at Jadwin Gym with a sense of urgency that they need to jump back in the race.
”I’ve got a fire lit under my butt,” Pritchard said. “It’s senior year. Time is ticking. There’s no saving energy for tomorrow or next week or next month. You might not have it. Everyone is trying to get after it.”
Despite the sweep, the Tigers saw bright spots on the road last weekend. Princeton couldn’t make a shot while shooting 16 percent in the first half against Dartmouth, but rallied early in the second half to take a lead at the school Banghart coached at prior to Princeton.
”I always knew how much Dartmouth meant to me,” Banghart said. “It was neat how much I meant to them. There were a lot of people there.”
Dartmouth pulled away late for the win. The next night, Harvard shot 52 percent to ease away from Princeton.
”People are concerned,” Banghart said. “People are bringing their A game.”
Said Pritchard: “I think against Dartmouth, we were pretty pleased with the way we defended. We just couldn’t score. We prepared well, especially for Dartmouth. It’s good to know we can prepare ourselves for any given team and come out and execute. The opposite was true for Harvard. We were able to score, but we were not playing good defense. It’s a matter of doing it on both nights.”
To make matters worse, Micir was lost for the weekend with a leg injury that could limit her action this weekend as well. She was coming off the week before exams in which she was named Ivy League Rookie of the Week.
”Addie was doing a lot of things for us,” Banghart said. “She was our backup point guard, starting wing, backup forward. She’s one of our best passers. She’s also a fundamentally sound scorer. To lose her passing and scoring, we have to make it up quickly.
”About an hour before the Dartmouth game, we found out she was not going to play. That’s why I’m so proud of their effort. She was a secondary ball handler, our best feeder into the post and a primary three-point shooter. Everyone has to pick up a little bit.”
Cornell and Columbia present different challenges. Cornell returns its starting team from last year’s team that finished third. Columbia is younger, but defeated Cornell once in their head-to-head matchup.
”I think any team can beat any team in the league,” said Pritchard who averages 6.1 points and 4.2 rebounds per game. “Cornell is extremely talented and Columbia beat them. They both have strong inside presences. Columbia has one post we need to lock down. Cornell is very athletic. I think we’ll be ready. I think we’re itching to get another Ivy win. Every game is a playoff game. It’s winner takes all.”
The Tigers feel they are taking steps toward being better suited to come out with wins in Ivy matchups. Being a tougher team can trump advantages some other teams may have.
”Patience is a virtue,” Banghart said “Building what we’re trying to do takes time. It’s more than a year. Building toughness needs to be done first.”
The Tigers got tougher after watching one of their worst losses, the loss to Monmouth, unedited from start to finish at 7 a.m. They added more loose ball drills and drills that challenged their pride in competing.
”We did drills that appealed to our toughness,” Pritchard said. “We changed our mindset.”
It has shown up on the court. Princeton is playing with a greater sense of urgency. And the team is playing smarter. Pritchard knows she can help the Tigers by using her quickness at her position against bigger, slower players.
”It’s a matter of taking advantage of the mismatches,” she said, “and minimizing our disadvantages on the defensive end.”
For Ali Pritchard, there are a finite number of regular season games left in her Princeton career. Every Ivy opponent figures to be tough. The Tigers aim to be tougher.