While Blake Dietrick was thrilled to help the Princeton University women’s basketball team roll to an 83-54 win over Penn last Saturday in the Ivy League opener for both teams, the senior guard knows that the resounding victory doesn’t really prove anything.
“I think we definitely did make a statement but I think we take it with a grain of salt because of what happened last year,” said Dietrick, referring to the homestretch in 2013-14 which saw the Quakers defeat Princeton 80-64 in the regular season finale to win the Ivy title after the Tigers had posted an 84-53 win at Penn earlier in the season.
“We won by 30 at Penn, which arguably is a greater feat than what we did today. So I think we know that game in March is going to be just as important as this one. It is great to start out on a nice solid win.”
The Tigers used the loss to Penn last season to fuel its fire coming into the game on Saturday.
“We did bring it up in the locker room before we went out,” said Dietrick, who scored a game-high 25 points in the win Saturday which improved 19th-ranked Princeton to 17-0 overall and 1-0 Ivy.
“It was just — remember that feeling, remember what we have been working for this whole offseason and this preseason and don’t let one team stand in our way.”
Junior forward Annie Tarakchian, who grabbed a career-high 17 rebounds in the win over the Quakers, wasn’t about to let Penn stand in her way.
“We just talked about how it felt last year and how we wanted to avoid that 100 percent and prove that we are the tougher team,” said Tarakchian, whose left eye was black due to her tough play in a 75-63 win over Hampton on January 5. “I think we came out and really proved that today.”
While Tarakchian and her teammates savored the feeling of being 17-0, they are not getting ahead of themselves.
“I think our goal is just to win the next game every time,” said Tarakchian. “Being 17-0 is really cool but at the end of the day it is just focusing on the next game and getting the next one and getting to the NCAA tournament.”
Dietrick, for her part, enjoyed a cool moment in the first half as she passed the 1,000-point mark in her career, becoming the 22nd player in program history to hit that milestone
“I am just so grateful that I got to do it with this group of people,” said the 5’10 Dietrick, a native of Wellesley, Mass.
“My team is so amazing and they pick me up when I have bad games and they motivate me to be better. I am just so happy that it happened at home; I think that is a nice treat.”
Princeton head coach Courtney Banghart was very happy with how the team performed against Penn.
“We were just really excited to start league play; there has been a lot of talk in preseason and non conference,” said Banghart.
“We felt like we have really developed into a pretty good team at both ends of the floor. It was an opportunity to showcase that in the league and play a really good Penn team. That is what Ivy League basketball is about, it was a great environment. I thought our kids were the better team today and I hope they continue to be.”
Banghart knows that she has a great kid in Dietrick, a first-team All-Ivy selection last year, who is leading Princeton with 15.8 points and 5.6 assists a game.
“I think Blake is a really special example of our program,” asserted Banghart.
“She came in and bleeds Princeton from the beginning and she just trusts the process. It wasn’t always easy playing behind Lauren Polansky. Blake hasn’t wasted a minute. She has used her off terms for academic pursuits but she never loses sight of the gym and the development she has needed. She is a better player than she was last year. Whenever your senior leader is a great representation of what the program is about, all the numbers and all of that is just the gravy. She has done things the right way and it is fun to watch her have so much success this season.”
It was fun for Banghart to see her team hold Penn’s star center Sydney Stipanovich to two points on 1-of-11 shooting.
“We challenged our post before the game and said how do you want to deal with the post game,” said Banghart.
“Do you want the guards to help out on it or do you want to do it on your own. Alex Wheatley said I want to guard her on my own, don’t send a guard. So as much credit as I would like to take, I can’t. Alex Wheatley really did a great job on her and everybody else that came in played with high hands. I think they were really dialed into the scout. We broke down how she could hurt us and I thought we took those things away. We felt like we let her do whatever she wanted in our gym last year and that is not what this program is about.”
While the 17-0 start says a lot about the Tiger program, Banghart sees her players as being more immersed in the process than the record.
“It is a really special thing and I don’t think the kids will understand that entirely until they have some perspective,” said Banghart.
“It is the idea that these kids are so focused on the process and the progress of our program. I am excited to be back in the gym with them. We are going to give them a few days off because they have some coursework but when we get back there on Wednesday, we will have a really hungry group. They will know that next up is Harvard/Dartmouth in that order. This isn’t a group that needs a pep talk, they need a scout. They need to understand what players do and understand what the team does and then they need to be rested because they practice so hard. It is more about managing more Xs and Os than pep talks with this group.”
With Princeton currently on exam break before it heads north for the games at Harvard on January 30 and Dartmouth on January 31, Banghart is determined to make sure that her players remain hungry to improve.
“It is recognizing that we have to be playing our best basketball in March, we just have to be,” said Banghart.
“I don’t want to limp in any way. We were kind of limping last year, losing to Brown and then to Penn. We lost two of our last four games. We want to be playing our best basketball in March so I have to figure out how to make sure that happens. We’ll make sure that the kids are truly better in March than they are now. I think they will be.”
Dietrick, for her part, believes Princeton has a good chance of running the table as long as it keeps its focus.
“The Ivy League process is a grueling schedule; it is back-to-back with some long travel, especially Harvard, Dartmouth, Cornell, that kind of thing,” said Dietrick.
“I think we have the mental toughness and the physical fitness to push through. We are really deep this year so I think that playing back to back isn’t going to be that much of a struggle but it is something we have to remember and be conscious of and not take anything for granted. We equate every game in the Ivy League schedule because each one is a stepping stone to get to the tournament. We have ingrained that already in our underclassmen. They understand that every day and every practice is one step towards our goal.”