Women's Basketball Weekly Release - Week 8

December 24, 2012

Complete Women's Basketball Weekly Release in pdf format

Photos courtesy of Penn and Princeton Athletic Communications

PRINCETON, N.J. -- More big games, more stellar performances – just another week of Ivy League women’s basketball.

Only five teams were in action last week. Princeton and Cornell went on roadtrips to Illinois and Texas, respectively, while Dartmouth hosted Marquette, Yale took on Marist and Penn walked down 33rd Street to play Drexel.

The Tigers went 1-1 on the week, defeating Illinois State, 67-50, before falling to DePaul, which had spent time in the receiving votes category of both polls earlier this season, 86-75. Senior Niveen Rasheed posted back-to-back double-doubles, scoring 21 points in each contest. Freshman Michelle Miller tallied a career-high 14 points against Illinois State and sophomore Blake Dietrick netted a personal-best 16 points against the Blue Demons.

Cornell suffered a pair of hard-fought losses, first to Texas A&M Corpus Christi, 52-49, then to No. 20 Texas, 53-40. Senior Clare Fitzpatrick posted her first double-double of the season with 18 points and 12 rebounds against TAMUCC, which also marked the 10th of her career. Junior Allyson DiMagno averaged 15.0 points, 7.5 rebounds, 1.5 steals and 1.0 block in the two games.

Despite 11 points apiece from sophomore Abbey Schmitt and senior Faziah Steen, Dartmouth fell to Marquette, 70-52. Yale sophomore Sarah Halejian scored a team-high 11 points as the Bulldogs dropped a home game to Marist, 62-50, and Penn saw its four-game winning streak come to an end at the hands of Drexel, 77-50. Freshman Keiera Ray finished with a team-high 16 points in the loss.

The upcoming week features a trio of tournaments for the Ivy League. Brown will face No. 9 Maryland on Friday and either Maryland Eastern-Shore or Hartford on Saturday as part of the Terrapin Classic in College Park, Md., while Harvard will take on No. 15 Oklahoma State on Friday and either San Diego State or SMU on Sunday in the San Diego Surf ‘N Slam. Not to be outdone, Penn will compete in the Iowa State Cyclone Challenge, playing Alabama State on Saturday and either the host team or Air Force on Sunday. The other League action features Yale at Georgetown on Friday, Columbia at Long Beach State on Saturday and William & Mary at Cornell on Sunday.

PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Princeton senior guard Niveen Rasheed (Danville, Calif.) posted a double-double in consecutive games for the second time this season and the first since she accomplished the feat on Nov. 20 and 23. She now has four double-doubles on the year and 27 for her career.

Rasheed finished with 21 points and 10 rebounds in the Tigers’ 67-50 win over Illinois State and 21 points and 12 rebounds in Princeton’s 86-75 loss at DePaul. She also averaged 3.5 assists, 2.0 steals and 1.0 block while shooting 54.8 percent from the field (17-of-31). Rasheed hit 10 field goals against the Redbirds, her highest single-game total since connecting on 10 at Harvard on Feb. 11, 2012.

Rasheed takes home the eighth Player of the Week award and 17th Ivy League weekly award of her career, as she earned Rookie of the Week nine times in 2010. Rasheed is now in sixth-place on the Ivy League all-time Player of the Week list and moves past her coach, Courtney Banghart, who earned seven Player of the Week honors at Dartmouth from 1997-2000.

Rasheed's Statistics for the Week

	MIN	FG-A	PCT	3FG-A	PCT	FT-A	PCT	REB	A	B	S	PTS
at Illinois State	36	10-18	.556	0-0	.000	1-1	1.000	10	1	2	1	21
at DePaul	32	7-13	.538	1-2	.500	6-9	.667	12	6	0	3	21
TOTALS	34.0	17-31	.548	1-2	.500	7-10	.700	11.0	3.5	1.0	2.0	21.0

 

ROOKIE OF THE WEEK
Penn freshman Keiera Ray (Aurora, Ill.) did all she could to help the Quakers take down their rival down the street, leading the team in points (16), rebounds (four) and assists (four) in a 77-50 loss to Drexel. Ray posted her fourth double-digit scoring performance of the season and is now second on the team in scoring, averaging 11.0 points a game.

Ray is Penn’s fourth Rookie of the Week recipient in the past three years, joining junior Alyssa Baron, a six-time winner in 2010-11, and sophomores Kara Bonenberger and Katy Allen, who received the award a combined five times in 2011-12.

Ray's Statistics for the Week

	MIN	FG-A	PCT	3FG-A	PCT	FT-A	PCT	REB	A	B	S	PTS
at Drexel	33	6-13	.462	1-4	.250	3-5	.600	4	4	0	0	16

 

 

HONOR ROLL
Blake Dietrick, Princeton (So., G – Wellesley, Mass.)
8 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists, 50.0 3FG%, 100.0 FT% at Illinois State
16 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists, 71.4 FG%, 66.7 3FG%, 100.0 FT% at DePaul

Allyson DiMagno, Cornell (Jr., G – Fairport, N.Y.)
17 points, 8 rebounds, 1 steal, 58.3 FG%, 50.0 3FG%, 100.0 FT% at TAMUCC
13 points, 7 rebounds, 2 steals, 2 blocks, 60.0 3FG%, 100.0 FT% at Texas

Clare Fitzpatrick, Cornell (Sr., F – Southbury, Conn.)
18 points, 12 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals, 85.7 FT% at TAMUCC
10 points, 1 rebound, 1 assist, 1 steal, 50.0 FG% at Texas

Sarah Halejian, Yale (So., G – Wyckoff, N.J.)
11 points, 3 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal, 100.0 FT% vs. Marist

Michelle Miller, Princeton (Fr., G – Pasadena, Calif.)
14 points, 3 rebounds, 1 steal, 66.7 FG%, 50.0 3FG% at Illinois State
2 rebounds, 1 steal, 1 block at DePaul

UPCOMING SCHEDULE
Friday, December 28
1-Brown at No. 9 Maryland, 12 pm
Yale at Georgetown, 7 pm
2-Harvard vs. No. 15 Oklahoma State, 10 pm

Saturday, December 29
1-Brown vs. UMES/Hartford, TBA
3-Penn vs. Alabama State, 2pm
Columbia at Long Beach State, 4 pm
4-Duquesne at Dartmouth, 7 pm

Sunday, December 30
William & Mary at Cornell, 1 pm
3-Penn vs. Iowa State/Air Force, 2pm
4-Delaware/Villanova at Dartmouth, TBA
2-Harvard vs. San Diego State/SMU, TBD

KEY
1-Terrapin Classic (College Park, Md.)
2-San Diego Surf ‘N Slam (San Diego)
3-Iowa State Cyclone Challenge (Ames, Iowa)