MOVING FORWARD: Princeton University women’s basketball player Annie Tarakchian drives to the basket last Saturday against Yale. Senior forward and tri-captain Tarakchian scored 12 points and had eight rebounds on the day to help Princeton defeat the Bulldogs 65-50. Princeton, now 13-4 overall and 2-1 Ivy League, plays at Dartmouth on February 5 and at Harvard on February 7. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

Starting its Ivy League campaign by losing at Penn in early January just before going on a lengthy exam-break hiatus prompted some soul searching for the Princeton University women’s basketball team.

“We didn’t want to lose the first game of the 14-game tournament,” said Princeton senior star and tri-captain Annie Tarakchian reflecting on the 50-48 setback.

“That game showed some gaps in our offense and our defense and it set us off into 20 days of just getting better and working on our flaws and what we can do.”

Returning to action last weekend in the friendly confines of Jadwin Gym, the Tigers showed progress, beating Brown 72-53 on Friday and then pulling away to a 65-50 win over Yale a day later, improving to 13-4 overall and 2-1 Ivy League.

“I think this weekend shows that we have gotten better,” said Tarakchian, who had seven points and 17 rebounds in the win over Brown and then chipped in 12 points and eight rebounds against Yale. “We still have work to do but we came out of this weekend a better team.”

Princeton head coach Courtney Banghart liked the yeoman’s work she got from Tarakchian over the weekend.

“I don’t think Annie has shot the ball well, 4-for-10 today and even worse yesterday but she had 25 rebounds on the weekend,” said Banghart of the 6’0 Tarakchian, who is now averaging 12.4 points and 9.5 rebounds a game.

“She has gotten better defensively and I think that is what you expect from your captain, Annie has a way to impact the game in ways that are different than she did last year. It is fun to watch.”

Banghart acknowledged that it was painful to watch Princeton struggle in the second quarter against Yale as it was outscored 20-14 by the Bulldogs.

“I thought we just stopped talking to each other and I don’t know what it is,” said Banghart.

“We are trying to continue to grow our communication. We have a naturally little more reserved senior class and they are going to have to find their voice. I thought clearly they did that at the half and the rest of the ball game and that will have to continue.”

Senior star Alex Wheatley made noise in the third quarter as she scored 10 points in the third quarter to draw cheers from the crowd of 2,109 on hand for the program’s annual “Play4Kay” breast cancer awareness game.

“It was obviously a priority to get the ball inside; Wheatley had six shots yesterday and that is not enough and she had one shot at half-time and that is not enough,” said Banghart of Wheatley, who ended up with 14 points and nine rebounds on the day.

“That is a two-part problem, in terms of Wheatley finding a way to get her teammates to get her the ball and it is a problem with her teammates not getting her the ball. We have to move the ball quicker and do a better job getting the ball inside. We will show them on film what we need and how important it is. They are a coachable group. I told them at halftime in a very direct way that the ball needed to get inside.”

In Wheatley’s view, it is important for Princeton to bring its best effort every night against its league foes.

“I think we get every team’s best and it is really good for us,” said Wheatley.

“It means any night, anything can happen so we have to be on our A-game and we have to give it every week. We are used to having a target on our back, it has been that way all four years. I am glad nothing has changed. It makes everybody excited.”

Banghart is excited to get into the thick of Ivy play. “It is hard to explain the 14-game tournament, it is a really hard thing, the back-to-back play and understanding how to play over an 80-minute weekend,” said Banghart, whose team plays at Dartmouth on February 5 and at Harvard on February 7.

“It is just a challenge. You want to make sure that you are tough enough, that you are wiling to adjust enough, and that your kids are willing to get better. We are so much better than we were a month ago and we need to be better next week. That is what you are supposed to do, good teams get better in January and February and in the past I have had teams get better in January and February.”

In Tarakchian’s view, the Tigers have the competitive mind-set to keep getting better and better.

“I think just the fire that we had,” said Tarakchian, when asked to assess the biggest areas of progress for Princeton over the weekend.

“It was up and down today, it kind of lulled in the second quarter. Overall, I liked everyone’s competitiveness from 1 to 17; just wanting to win and doing anything it takes to get there. That shows on the practice court and it showed this weekend on both days.”