DRIVEN: Princeton University women’s basketball player -Michelle Miller drives past a foe in action last year. Last Sunday, senior star Miller scored a game-high 24 points to help No. 25 Princeton defeat Duquesne 94-66. Miller is showing drive off the court as the chemistry major is applying to medical schools and has been named a finalist for the Rhodes Scholarship. Miller and the Tigers, now 2-0, play at Seton Hall on November 19 and at Rider on November 24. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

Michelle Miller is taking multi-tasking to a higher level this fall during her senior year at Princeton University.

In addition to starring for the 25th-ranked Princeton women’s basketball team and working on her senior thesis, chemistry major Miller is applying to medical school and is a finalist for the Rhodes Scholarship, having reached the interview stage of the process.

“It has been busy,” said Miller, who won Princeton’s Shapiro Prize for Academic Excellence award last year.

“Since the end of the summer to now, I have had nine med school interviews, which are all at the campus at the medical schools. Over fall break, I had to fly to San Francisco for an interview. It has been a little chaotic. With the Rhodes scholarship, I have a mock interview on Monday.”

As a result, Miller has been spending nearly as much time this fall with former Princeton President Shirley Tilghman as the Tiger hoops coaching staff,

“Shirley Tilghman is one of our faculty fellows, she has been great with guiding me in that,” said Miller, referring to the Rhodes application process.

“She has been very helpful with my med school stuff. She is helping with my Rhodes mock interview tomorrow, the interview will be next weekend in California.

Last Sunday, Miller helped Princeton take care of business on the court, scoring a game-high 24 points as the Tigers defeated Duquesne 94-66 to improve to 2-0.

“I think we came out really dialed in with really good intensity on both ends of the floor,” asserted the 5’10 Miller, a native of Pasadena, Calif.

“The defense was pretty dialed in. They did make some shots but they are a good shooting team. I think we were contesting things well. I think our offense fed off of our defense. We really had it going on both ends of the floor.”

On the offensive end, Miller and classmate Alex Wheatley had their inside-out game going as Wheatley starred down low with 16 points and seven rebounds and Miller shot 9-of-15 from the floor, including 3-of-7, from the three-point range.

“We definitely want Wheats to be aggressive, she can be that dominant presence for us inside,” said Miller.

“She established herself early and that helps me get some inside-out looks and some easier shots.”

After shooting just 3-of-9 in an 72-34 opening day win over American on Friday night, Miller was looking for her shot against Duquesne.

“I just wanted to be aggressive today,” said Miller, who also had five rebounds and four assists in the win.

“In the first game, everyone was ramped up and a little nervous. It tends to happen. We started a little slow in that game and got into it a little better in the second half of that game and carried that over to today’s game.”

The Tigers started a little slowly in the second half as they were outscored 19-13 by Duquesne in the third quarter.

“They have an experienced team, we also have an experienced team,” added Miller.

“I think it is good for us to play quality teams like that. We knew they weren’t going to fold, we knew they were a good team. Having them make a little bit of a run and having us bounce back from that and stay resilient was good for us.”

In Miller’s view, it was a good opening weekend for the Tigers, who went 30-0 in regular season play in 2014-15 and ended with a final record of 31-1 after making it to the second round of the NCAA tourney.

“It was a lot of fun, it was great to have our seniors from last year back,” said Miller. “It was really great to see them, obviously we had tremendous success last year.”

After scoring 33 points this weekend, Miller is nearing the 1,000-point benchmark of success as she now has 949 points in her Tiger career.

“I think that is a testament to the cumulative effort you have put in over four years and I hope to be getting there soon,” said Miller.

“I think it will be a nice testament to my whole career but I am definitely more focused on team things.”

Princeton head coach Courtney Banghart liked the focus displayed by Miller and Wheatley in the victory over Duquesne.

“They were really big,” said Banghart. “They are not naturally aggressive people and asking them to be aggressive makes us better. Watching them grow up has been fun.”

The Tigers had a lot of fun at the offensive end in the first half, shooting 59.5 percent from the field (22-for-37) as they built a 58-32 halftime advantage.

“We were solid on our own and better together, that is one of our themes on offense,” said Banghart.

“You can’t rely on the offense to get you shots, you have to bring your own piece to the offense and I thought we did a good job of that today.”

Princeton was also solid on defense as it held the Dukes to 36.8 percent
shooting (25-for-68).

“What I love is after the game against American, we started the next morning’s practice with defensive clips that we didn’t like from the game,” said Banghart.

“We want to hold ourselves to our own standard defensively. We didn’t think we defended well even though the score didn’t show that against American. I thought tonight’s defensive effort was tremendous.”

Banghart also liked how her team responded when Duquesne played well in the third quarter.

“When you play an experienced team, much like we are, they are never going to give up, ever, ever so that is the way it is going to be,” said Banghart.

“It is going to be a lot of runs. We got punched in the face a little bit and we came out swinging. When you shoot 50 percent and get 16 offensive boards, it shows how committed and hungry we are. I give a lot of credit to our kids.”

Senior star Annie Tarakchian showed her commitment to excellence on Sunday, producing another double-double with 19 points and 10 rebounds.

“She is a beast, she is the best,” said a smiling Banghart of Tarakchian. “She plays with such an incredible motor. She is really versatile on offense. She cares about winning, she cares about her teammates. You could see that and that is why she is a crowd favorite. People like watching Annie Tarakchian; she plays hard and she plays the right way.”

Princeton got some hard play off the bench from senior forward and tri-captain Taylor Williams.

“That was so great, 11 points and 7 rebounds in 17 minutes,” said Banghart.

“She is that fifth senior, she has an important role on this team. She is a captain and she has to make sure that the bench is always ready to help out.”

In reflecting on the opening weekend, Banghart acknowledged that she is working on getting a handle on this year’s squad.

“I am still getting a feel for this team, I have to admit,” said Banghart. “We have a really talented, really solid senior class. We have a lot of young pieces who are inexperienced and so I am figuring them out a little bit. I thought it was good to see us against someone else. I thought we were able to see how deep we can be on Friday night and on Sunday, we were able to see how good our first group is. This group is hungry so we will get better.”

Looking ahead to its next game, a clash at Seton Hall on November 19, Banghart knows that the Tigers will have to get better in order to pull out a win in its first road contest of the season.

“Seton Hall is really good, they are really fast, they are really strong,” said Banghart of the Pirates, who are 2-0 and defeated Rutgers 77-49 last Monday.

“Part of the issue with freshmen is that they are not physically ready yet. They are ready to play at our level. Seton Hall is a tough matchup for us because we are young outside of our first group and we are going to need them to physically match their intensity.”

Miller, for her part, is ready to do whatever the group needs. “Coach wants me to look to score,” said Miller. “If my scoring will help make the team better, thinking of it that way, I am definitely happy to fill some of that role.”