TAYLOR MADE: Princeton University women’s basketball player Taylor Brown dribbles up court in a game earlier this season. Last Wednesday, senior point guard and co-captain Brown scored 14 points with five assists and four rebounds to help Princeton rout Lafayette 65-27. The Tigers, who lost 57-55 at Fordham last Saturday to drop to 4-5, play at Kansas State on December 18. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

As the Princeton University women’s basketball team started its season by losing its first four games, Taylor Brown wasn’t looking for her shot.

The senior point guard and co-captain had a total of just 11 points in those four outings.

Urged by the Princeton coaches to be more assertive, Brown responded by scoring 48 points in the team’s next four games as the Tigers won each contest.

In reflecting on her recent surge, Brown gave most of the credit to her teammates.

“I just try to bring what I can to make the team better,” said Brown after contributing 14 points with five assists and four rebounds to help Princeton defeat Lafayette 65-27 last Wednesday in moving to 4-4.

“My teammates did a good job of moving the ball. I was able to have a lot of open shots so they made it easy for me.”

But Princeton head coach Courtney Banghart will tell you that Brown deserves plaudits for her improvement.

“I can’t say enough about the way Taylor is playing; it is hard for her to talk about herself because all she wants to do is help us win,” said Banghart.

“I think what she had figured out is that helping us win means that we also need statistics from her too; it is not just helping everybody else along. Early in the year, she was trying to help everyone else along and everybody was helping everybody else along. Now we recognize that she needs to fill the stat sheet in the right way. As she has played better, we have played better.”

In the win over Lafayette, Princeton produced one of its better defensive efforts of the season, holding the Leopards to 21.2 percent shooting (11-of-52) and forcing 26 turnovers.

“Coach said we needed to keep up our player to player,” said Brown, reflecting on the defensive effort that saw Lafayette score just nine points in the second half.

“That was something we honed on going into the second half, just staying accountable to our own and then committing to the mission of the team and I think we did a good job with that.”

In Brown’s view, the Tigers are on a mission after enduring a rough 0-4 start this season.

“I think we all wanted so badly to be better and we were getting in our own heads,” said Brown.

“We needed to take a step back and take a breath and realize that we are all very good and we can all bring our own talent and play within our system and play to each other’s strengths.”

Princeton has been much stronger at the offensive end in recent action. “I think we are more shot hungry, we are definitely looking for openings and taking the right shots and not passing up good shots,” added Brown.

“We have definitely been more aggressive but because of our ball movement and the way we have played our offense, we are getting a lot more open looks too. Every game I feel a little better and get a little more experience under my belt.”

Banghart liked the way her players came out aggressively against Lafayette.

“I thought it was good to see that we were able to push the tempo on our own, which we learned in the UMBC game,” said Banghart.

“If you punch us, we are going to punch back. If you throw the first punch, it is a different mindset. It just shows a level of aggressiveness that we didn’t have earlier in the year. It is hard to come and be the tempo setter. Eight games in, to have a team that is willing to set the tempo shows massive growth.”

Princeton also showed impressive scoring punch throughout the lineup, rolling to a 38-point win on a night where both junior star Leslie Robinson and freshman standout Bella Alarie were held scoreless.

“If you have a game where Leslie and Bella had the nights that they had and you are still going to win by 30, the depth shows,” said Banghart, who got 20 points from junior Tia Weledji off the bench in the win with senior co-captain Vanessa Smith chipping in 11.

“Tia had to step up. Taylor and Vanessa, the seniors, had to get double figures. Jackie Reyneke was big with six boards. That is how we practice so we in here are not surprised by it. We work hard at getting the depth we need to be successful but that was a team win because neither of the two players that lead us in virtually every category gave us much tonight.”

The team’s hard work on the defensive end pleased Banghart. “I think we are so young and inexperienced on the defensive end that there are still breakdowns in communications but far fewer,” said Banghart.

“We have good size, we have good versatility. We have good willingness. This is a team that plays really hard. I think most college coaches in the country would love to have a team that they could say, above all, they play really hard, Now I think they need to talk to each other more on the court. I thought our press looked really great tonight. You can say they didn’t shoot very well but they had these Tigers all over them.”

While the Tigers didn’t have their best shooting night in a 57-55 loss at Fordham last Saturday as their winning streak was snapped, Banghart is confident that her team, now 4-5, will keep pressing forward as it plays at Kansas State (9-1) on December 18.

“This team loves challenges; I knew these guys were going to get better,” said Banghart.

“Kansas State is a physical team, it is in the Big 12 and is at home. I think what we try to gain from that environment is now you see how tough you are. Now are you tough enough to play a possession game. Are you tough enough to go on a run, are you tough enough to hold them from going on a run.”

Brown, for her part, believes that Princeton will keep showing the mental toughness it has exhibited in getting on the right track after its shaky start.

“We are trying to not rest on our laurels, the success we are having is definitely taking steps in the right direction,” said Brown.

“We are not getting too high on our successes and not getting too low when we are not going as well either. We are keeping an even head and attacking each game with the same mindset. I think winning games adds to the confidence level; it gives a lot of positive energy and we are going to try to continue to ride off of this momentum.”