While it has been a smooth ride for the Princeton University women’s basketball team this winter as it posted another undefeated season in Ivy League play, senior star Devona Allgood hit some turbulence last February.

The All-Ivy center suffered a hip pointer, which caused her to hobble through the team’s Senior Night and Ivy title clinching ceremony against Dartmouth and then sit out of practice for a week.

In the team’s last weekend of the regular season, Allgood came off the bench as she looked to get back up to speed.

Starting in Princeton’s regular season finale against Penn on March 6, Allgood showed that she will be at 100 percent come NCAA tournament time, scoring a team-high 12 points as Princeton routed Penn 79-42 to improve to 24-4 overall and 14-0 in Ivy action.

The 24th-ranked Tigers have been seeded ninth in the Kingston (R.I.) Region and will be facing No. 8 Kansas State (19-13 overall, 9-9 Big 12) in a first round contest on March 17 in Bridgeport, Conn. The winner will face the victor of the matchup between top-seeded Connecticut and 16th-seeded Prairie View in a second-round contest on March 19.

A relieved Allgood saw her performance against Penn as proof that she is primed for the postseason.

“It is feeling a lot better; a week of rest really helped so I should be ready to go,” said the 6‘3 Allgood, a native of Huntersville, N.C., who now has 1,162 points in her Princeton career.

“They did a great job of feeding me the ball tonight; everybody has their time when they are feeling it.”

Allgood did feel some deep emotions as she played her final game at Jadwin Gym.

“It is great to be out here; all I can think about is the great four years I have had here,” said Allgood, who is averaging 10.0 points a game this winter and was named last week as a second-team All-Ivy performer, her third straight all-league honor.

“It is bittersweet that I am leaving but there is a season for everything and this one is nearing the end. I am excited that I can continue and that I can play in the tournament too.”

The Tiger are excited about running the table again in Ivy play. “It is not something that happens a lot; it is hard to do,” said Allgood, who helped Princeton go 14-0 in Ivy action in the 2009-10 season and 41-1 in league play over the last three seasons.

“It shows our toughness and it shows that we are not going to be complacent. Ivy schedules are tough, you play back-to-back Friday and Saturday. We have to come hard every single game.”

As the Tigers get ready for their third straight trip to the NCAA tourney, they are fine-tuning their game.

“Right now the focus is on us and making sure that we can do certain things well,” said Allgood.

“We need to make sure that we are still growing and not just settling for where we are right now. We just need to keep working hard at practice, competing and making each other better.”

Princeton head coach Courtney Banghart liked the way Allgood competed over the last three games as she came back from her injury.

“She missed all last week with a hip problem so I thought  we weren’t going to have her,” said Banghart.

“We used her sparingly on Friday and she was so efficient. You hope that she is peaking at the right time. When you took the game away from her for a week, it was like ‘oh god it is over’ so I think she is making every minute count which is exciting. She was sharp all weekend, this is the best Devona has played all year.”

In order to get her team to post another perfect Ivy campaign, Banghart has pushed her players to be sharp.

“Is so rare because it is really hard to do,” said Banghart. “Part of it is sometimes I have to be a little bit crabby to keep them on a standard. Fortunately, there is game film and fortunately, we have got really competitive kids and we are deep. If you are not going to bring your effort, it is no problem because somebody else will. I think that innate competitiveness helps them stay hungry.”

After having fallen to Georgetown in the 2011 NCAA tournament and St. John’s in the 2010 tourney, the Tigers are hungry to get past the first round.

“It is a finite experience; it means a lot to my seniors if they get a win,” said Banghart.

“For this particular team, it is our one shot so I don’t think they feel the pressure of the past two teams not winning. They just realize that with this particular group, there is a chance to win a tournament game. We have had a great non-conference schedule. I just hope that we are good enough on that day to take down whoever it is we get put up against.”

Allgood, for her part, is confident that the Tigers will take advantage of their chance in this year’s tourney.

“We have experience being there so we hope that really shows and that we are not lost in the excitement,” said Allgood.

“I think that we would really like to show our growth. We know what we are capable of and that is what we are trying to prove.”