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Vol. LXIV, No. 46
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Wednesday, November 17, 2010
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Vol. LXIV, No. 46
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Wednesday, November 17, 2010
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(Photo by Bill Allen/NJ SportAction)
BANNER DAY: Princeton University women’s basketball star Devona Allgood works in the paint in action last season. Last Saturday, junior center Allgood scored 20 points with seven rebounds, three blocks, and three steals to help Princeton rout visiting Fairleigh Dickinson University 78-37 in the season opener for both teams. Allgood was later named the Ivy League Player of the Week for her performance. The game was preceded by a “Raising the Banner” ceremony during which the NCAA banner the Princeton squad earned last season was unveiled. The Tigers will look to keep on the winning track when they play at perennial power Rutgers on November 18. |
Moments before the tip-off last Saturday in the season-opener against Fairleigh Dickinson University (FDU), Devona Allgood and her teammates were all smiles as last winter’s achievements were recognized.
In a pregame ceremony, the NCAA banner the squad earned last season was unveiled and the litany of what the Tigers accomplished as they went 26-3 overall and 14-0 in Ivy League play was detailed to the crowd at Jadwin Gym.
Dan Mavraides knows that the Princeton University men’s basketball team is depending on him to exert plenty of leadership this winter.
The senior guard and tri-captain didn’t waste any time taking a lead role last Friday as Princeton opened its season by hosting local rival Rutgers.
Mavraides led by example in the first half, scoring 15 points to help Princeton jump out to a 44-38 halftime lead over the Scarlet Knights.
In the second half, Mavraides showed a different side of his leadership style, keeping his cool when Rutgers seized the momentum by forging ahead 63-59 with 4:49 left in regulation.
Although Jim Smirk was thrilled to see his Princeton High girls’ cross country team win the Central Jersey Group III sectional team title two weeks ago, he believed his runners had more to give.
“As soon as we debriefed after the sectional race, we said we did a good job but we can do even better,” recalled PHS head coach Smirk.
“Elyssa [Gensib] was coming off an injury and it was her first big race in a while. Amelia [Whaley] was No. 5 and she didn’t have a good race.”
Last Saturday, PHS had a big, big race, placing second in the state Group III meet, trailing champion West Morris Mendham by just two points. In placing second, PHS qualified for next week’s Meet of Champions (MOC).
“Everyone put everything out, when they execute like that you have to be happy as a coach,” said Smirk. “I asked to see competitive fire and everyone dug a little deeper.”
For the Hun School boys’ soccer team, putting off its season finale helped it put together its best effort of the fall.
Hun was originally scheduled to play the Hill School on November 5 to end the 2010 campaign but stormy weather and the lack of an available turf field led the schools to reschedule the game for last Wednesday.
It didn’t take Julia DiTosto long to figure out that the John Witherspoon Middle School field hockey team had the potential to do some special things this fall.
“Our offense was really good,” said DiTosto, an eighth grade striker for the squad. “I could tell in practice that we could score a lot of goals.”
Initially, it was a curiosity to young Bob Smyth and his buddies as they played around their Evelyn Place neighborhood in the late 1950s.
“They built the Harrison Street Playground right behind my house; we watched it go up before our eyes,” said Smyth, who was a teenager at the time. “We saw that come out of the ground.”