Final Stats

PRINCETON, N.J. - The Lafayette women's basketball team dropped a non-conference road game to Princeton, 65-27, on Wednesday night at Jadwin Gymnasium.

The Leopards (1-9) keyed in on limiting the Tigers' (4-4) leading scorer, Bella Alarie, and it worked to perfection as the freshman was unable to put the ball into the basket all game. Alarie eclipsed double-digit scoring in each the Tigers' previous five outings, including a 26-point effort against Seton hall, but she went 0-for-11 from the field against the Leopards.

With the team's leading scorer contained, Princeton turned to Tia Weledji, Taylor Brown and Vanessa Smith for scoring production and they delivered, combining to score 45 points.

Rebounding was the story of the game as the Tigers held the edge 52-31. Princeton turned its 21 offensive boards into 21 second-chance points. Princeton also generated a lot of scoring opportunities off of turnovers. Princeton deployed a full court press for majority of the game and the Leopards struggled to figure it out, turning the ball over 26 times. Those turnovers resulted in 21 points for the Tigers.

Princeton got out to an early 13-5 advantage by finding space from midrange and knocking down several open shots. Brown was the Tigers' most efficient scorer in the opening quarter, connecting on all three of her shots for seven points.

The Princeton lead grew to 11, 20-9, at the end of the first quarter as the Tigers shot close to 50 percent from the field.

Both teams were on a scoreless drought for the first three minutes of the second quarter until Harriet Ottewill-Soulsby hit a free throw before the seven-minute mark. The Tigers answered with an and-one score by Smith to give Princeton a 13-point lead. However, that lead was trimmed to 10 once Sammy Stipa beat her defender and found a wide open Ottewill-Soulsby under the basket for the score and the foul.

Princeton used a 10-5 run to close out the opening half and led 33-18 heading into the break. Brown was kept at her seven points, but it was Weledji who caught fire, shooting 6-of-10 from the floor for 14 first-half points.

When the two teams returned to the court for the second half, it was the Tigers that clawed their way to a 10-0 run while holding the Leopards scoreless for over nine minutes. During that span, Weledji was responsible for five of the team's nine points. With under five seconds to go in the quarter, the Leopards got on the board with a Stipa jumper at the buzzer.

The Tigers continued to stay in rhythm and outscored the Leopards 20-7 in the final quarter of play en route to the 65-27 victory over the Leopards.

The Leopards will close out a three-game road stretch in Pittsburgh when they square off against Duquesne on Sunday, Dec. 11 at 2 p.m.