Gallery by Heather Belcher
Charleston – Despite a 10-year wait, Princeton’s return to Charleston was brief.
The Tigers offense struggled all afternoon Tuesday, shooting a tournament record low 15.8 percent from the floor in a 58-21 loss to No. 2 Morgantown in the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center.
While struggles shooting the ball aren’t new for the Tigers, Tuesday’s showing was below what they expected, though they took it in stride.
“They said our shooting percentage would be even lower than it was and it obviously was a lot lower,” Princeton senior Kylie Conner laughed.
“I think we thought we could use the low shooting percentage as an advantage for us, but it just kept going lower,” Maddie Stull added.
Hoping to get the Mohigans in a low-scoring slugfest, that ambition never materialized.
Morgantown post Lily Jordan netted a pair of buckets, sandwiching a Kate Hawkins 3 to get the Mohigans out to a 7-0 lead. A pair of Jordan free throws pushed the advantage to 9-0 with 4:08 left in the quarter.
“When you have a 6-foot post that can shoot jump shots and take you down low and make great moves and sees the floor well, from a coaching standpoint when you get to see her in person it’s even better than advertised,” Princeton coach Matt Smith said. “She’s just a dominant basketball player who can play all facets of the game. I think that she’s probably by far the best post player we’ve seen and can do it from any different levels.”
To Princeton’s credit its defense clamped down holding Morgantown scoreless over the final four minutes of the frame but the offense only mustered four points with two of them coming from the charity stripe.
In the second quarter it was more of a show for Jordan again who scored six in the frame. But the Mohigans also deployed their pressure package to generate turnovers. It led to a 12-0 run to open the quarter.
“We really felt with our red one, our diamond press we could really control where the ball was going to be,” Morgantown head coach Doug Goodwin said. “Because we rotated well we got good deflections and a steal out of things. We can turn it up when need be at times but we can also be patient and control the ball.”
Princeton eventually found the scoreboard when Kalyn Davis and Kylie Conner went back-to-back with a layup and a 3 but Morgantown had an answer for both buckets, taking a 26-10 advantage into the break.
The Mohigans were never threatened afterwards, opening the half with another 12-0 run that put the game away.
The Tigers had their moments and positives, out-rebounding Morgantown 22-8 in the first half but the inability to hit shots eliminated any chance of chipping the deficit.
“We looked at trying to do some things, circle back to some things we had done previously,” Smith said. “But I mean guys, at the end of the day they earned it. They just brought pressure one through five and make it really difficult on you as a team to get things done. Again we’ll give them all of the credit because they deserve it.”
Princeton finishes the season at 11-15 and will graduate several players including starters Maddie Stull, Autumn Bane, Kaylyn Davis and Kylie Conner.
“The entire group, There weren’t a whole lot of people outside of our locker room who thought we would even get here,” Smith said. “They never gave up and they believed that the entire season and they’re the reason we made it here. I’m very proud of them and I love each and every one of them.”
