TAKING FLIGHT: Princeton University women’s basketball player Annie Tarakchian, right, battles a Rider player for the ball as the teams met last week. Senior star and tri-captain -Tarakchian poured in 21 points and grabbed nine rebounds to help Princeton top the Broncs 78-59 in the November 24 contest. Over the weekend, Tarakchian starred as the Tigers headed to her native California and won the Loyola Marymount Tournament in Los Angeles by beating UC-Irvine 83-42 in the opening round on Friday and then defeating Seattle 85-48 the next day in the title game. The Tigers, now 5-1, host Michigan on December 6 and Monmouth on December 8. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

Annie Tarakchian suffered through a rare off night when the Princeton University women’s basketball team lost at Seton Hall to see its 32-game regular season winning streak come to an end.

The senior star and tri-captain hit just 1-of-11 shots from the floor and had three points as the Tigers fell 71-64 to the Pirates in the November 19 contest.

As Princeton hit the court last week for its next game at Rider, Tarakchian was chomping at the bit to get back into action.

“It was frustrating last game, honestly I just wanted to get back out there and play another game because not having a game for a while after a rough one makes you think about it longer,” said Tarakchian, a 6’0 native of West Hills, Calif.

Tarakchian didn’t waste any time getting back in the groove, scoring 11 of Princeton’s first 15 points as the Tigers jumped out to a 21-13 lead and never looked back on the way to a 78-59 win over the Broncs in the November 24 game.

“It was much better,” said Tarakchian, who ended the evening with 21 points on 8-of-11 shooting with 3-of-6 from 3-point range. “I was happy to get back on the court and do better.”

In pulling away from the Broncs, the Tigers were able to get every player on the floor at some point in the contest as they looked to incorporate new faces into the rotation.

“It is totally different from last year, we lost four and gained six new ones,” said Tarakchian, who also chipped in nine rebounds and three assists in the win over Rider.

“It was fun seeing them out on the court today and being able to cheer them on and see them dive into college basketball and adjust to the pace. I remember being in that spot. It was tough for me too.”

Princeton head coach Courtney Banghart had fun seeing her team bounce back in style from the setback at Seton Hall.

“I know my group so well by now, I think they are still learning how to be the better team,” said Banghart.

“I love the humility of trying to prove it night in and night out, it takes a little confidence that success requires and they are still building that as a group. I get to see them battle every day in practice and I knew that our seniors would be what we need. They are still figuring out what we need but they are figuring it out more and more every game.”

Banghart knew that she was going to get a big effort from Tarakchian in the wake of her subpar performance against Seton Hall.

“If we have to go through the year knowing that Annie is going to bring us to the title, I will sleep well at night,” said Banghart. “She is a competitor. I think she is disappointed that she didn’t get a double double but I have to take that one since I played her only 22 minutes.”

While Banghart was disappointed by her team’s loss to Seton Hall, she believes the Tigers learned a valuable lesson in the process.

“They felt like they needed to prove that they were the better team, they didn’t think they were the better team,” said Banghart.

“Therefore they adjusted to Seton Hall before we even jumped the ball in the air. I want it the other way around, I want teams to have to adjust to us. This is a really, really good team with lots of good pieces. We are not perfect and that is what makes it fun to coach. We are a very solid basketball team.”

Princeton gave further proof that it is very solid over the weekend, rolling to the title at the Loyola Marymount Thanksgiving Classic in Los Angeles by beating UC-Irvine 83-42 in the opening round on Friday and then defeating Seattle University 85-48 the next day in the championship game.

Senior guard Michelle Miller passed the 1,000 point mark in the win over Seattle and was named the Classic’s Most Valuable Player after totaling 35 points on the weekend. Classmate Amanda Berntsen, who poured in a career-high 21 points in the championship game, and Tarakchian, with a total of 32 points and 20 rebounds in the two games, joined Miller on the All-Tournament team.

In looking ahead to the tourney, Banghart was confident her team would take care of business.

We looked at it like a three-game road trip; we wanted to win all three so this is the first one and we have got two more to go,” said Banghart, whose squad is now 5-1 and returns home this week as it hosts Michigan on December 6 and Monmouth on December 8.

“I would like them to play with the toughness and make our opponents adjust to us because of how we play together. When we play with energy on the defensive end and when we play together on the offensive end, we have proven that we are hard to beat.”

Tarakchian saw the California tourney as a special homecoming. “I have played against a lot of the players that we are going to go up against at LMU.” said Tarakchian, who ended up getting named as the Ivy League Co-Player of the Week along with Penn’s Michelle Nwokedi and is now averaging a team-high 15.8 points and 9.7 rebounds a game.

“We are excited to go out there, we tend to do better on the road. I think we are more focused and stuff so we are all ready for the trip.”