Justin Feil

By: centraljersey.com
The Princeton University women’s basketball team is returning to the NCAA tournament, but with a new determination.
The No. 12 seeded Tigers play No. 5 Georgetown 2:30 p.m. Sunday in College Park, Md. The game will be on ESPN2. After making their first NCAA appearance last year, they want their first NCAA win Sunday.
"I think you first have to believe you can do it," said PU head coach Courtney Banghart, who has her team 24-4. "These (Princeton) guys beat USC on the road, they beat Wake Forest on the road, we really competed hard against Rutgers. When you start to not just play close to teams, but beat them, you start to believe. I think this team believes that they’re capable." The Hoyas are a ripe target. While they did advance beyond the NCAA first round last year, and have been in the national top 25 all year, they have not looked as good as of late. They won only one of their last four games, in the first round of the Big East tournament, although two of their three losses have come against Philadelphia region top seed Connecticut.
"The first year you go, you talk about region," Banghart said. "You think, we want somewhere fun for our kids. This year, I didn’t mention region once. I just wanted good matchups. And I think the D.C. area, I think we’ll have a lot of local fans. It’s 2:30 on a Sunday, I think we’ll have fans go to that game. It’s exciting."
The winner advances to play the No. 4 Maryland-No. 13 Saint Francis (PA) winner in the second round 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at Maryland. Getting there would be a big step for the Tigers.
"I think we have to play it like just we do every game, just go into it like it’s another game," said PU junior Lauren Edwards. "We want to win it like any other game in the Ivy League. And work to our strengths. We’ve played Princeton ball all year and hopefully we can do that."
Princeton was eliminated in the first round last year with a loss to another Big East foe, St. John’s. With so much experience back, there’s a sense that Sunday is a second chance.
"They’re going to want to make right what was wrong," Banghart said. "We didn’t play very well.
"The very first game I ever coached at Princeton was at Maryland in the preseason NIT. Four years later, it’s the first round of the tournament. It’s kind of come full circle. It’s kind of neat."
Shooting woes doomed the Tigers in last year’s 65-47 loss to St. John’s. And it wasn’t that St. John’s defense was taking away everything that Princeton wanted to do.
"When you don’t make shots, you have to resort to other things like get to the basket," said Edwards, who shot an uncharacteristic 3-for-14 last year. "Last year was brutal. I don’t even know what our field goal percentage was in last year’s game."
Princeton shot only 20 percent in the first half and fell behind 34-18 before playing them evenly in the second half.
"We’re certainly going to learn a lot from what happened last year," Edwards said. "I think it’s going to help us go into the tournament and fix things that we did wrong or just be more ready to play in a big-time venue like College Park, Md., against Georgetown. They’re a great team. We’re really excited to step up and play."
The Tigers have good balance which makes it less likely that all of them would have the shooting woes they did last year. Addie Micir, the Ivy League Player of the Year, leads the Tigers at 12.1 points per game. Devona Allgood is just behind at 12.0 per contest and Edwards scores 11.7 per game. All three were All-Ivy first-team selections. Princeton also has the Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year in point guard Lauren Polansky, a key part of the Tigers’ experienced core. Even Banghart gained experience in how to prepare her team for the tournament from last year’s showing.
"I have to try to do that balance between staying fit and rested," Banghart said. "It’s a war when you go out there. It’s also recognizing that we will defend, and we will rebound. The issue is, are we going to be able to shoot it better? If we don’t shoot it better, we need secondary and third looks. They’ll shoot better this weekend, I hope for sure."
Georgetown’s leading scorer is Sugar Rodgers at 18.2 points per game. Only one other Hoya player averages double figures, Monica McNutt. The Hoyas don’t shoot as well as a team overall as the Tigers.
"You’re never going to get an easy matchup," Banghart said. "There’s not a bad team in the NCAA tournament. No matter who you get, you’re going to have to play really well. You just hope that they don’t have a dimension that you don’t have. I don’t think Georgetown has a dimension that we don’t have."
The Hoyas are 22-10. They have wins over six NCAA tournament teams. But the Tigers match up with their strengths.
"They have really good guards," Banghart said. "They play a very tough schedule in a tough conference. It’s a team with a lot of pride. But they’re not as big in terms of their size as a lot of teams we could have faced. And their strength is in their perimeter players. We’re going to have to be able to guard. They’re going to pressure us. We have to be able to play against their pressure.
"Rutgers does that. You have to have experienced guards against pressure. I would say we have that."
One player that the Tigers don’t have back from last year is Niveen Rasheed, who was their leading scorer and rebounder when she was lost for the season to a knee injury. But Princeton has had the entire Ivy season to adjust and managed just fine.
"Losing your leading scorer and rebounder is obviously tough," Edwards said. "We all stepped up and did what we had to do and it wasn’t going to affect our goals for the Ivy League and what we wanted to accomplish there. I think everyone had done a really good job of filling her position and the number of the shots she takes and the rebounds she gets. She’s still a big part of our team, even off the court."
Rasheed will again be on the bench cheering on the Tigers on Sunday. The game can’t come soon enough for the Tigers. They had to wait until nearly the end of Monday’s Selection Show to find out their pairing, and have been hard at work since then to prepare for something they understand better this season.
"It’s a different level of play," Edwards said.
After making their first appearance in the NCAAs last season, the Tigers know just what to expect and are looking forward to the challenge this year as they go for their first win in the NCAA tournament.
"Keeping this group fresh is never a problem," Banghart said. "They love to compete. It’ll be fun."