The Lauren Gosselin era as the head coach of Princeton women’s basketball began with a dramatic triumph over Belmont in the season opener for both teams on Monday night at Jadwin Gym, 63-52, thanks to Fadima Tall.
The senior forward played the game of her life, scoring a career-high 29 points and grabbing a career high 22 rebounds to register the first 20-20 performance in 40 years for Princeton.
The last Tiger player to cross the 20-20 threshold was Ellen DeVoe in the mid-1980s.
“That was grit at its absolute finest,” Gosselin told reporters after the game. “How relentless was [Fadima] coming out of nowhere, grabbing those late game rebounds we needed, right? And talk about impacts on both ends. She just had an endless motor tonight.”
The Tigers needed every once of energy that Tall could deliver against a Belmont team that just wouldn’t quit, especially after Toby Nweke went down with a shoulder injury in the second quarter.
Making only the fourth start of her Princeton career, Nweke paced the Tigers to a 25-18 lead at the end of the first half, leading all scorers with eight points until she went down mid-way through the second stanza. When the shooting guard returned to the bench after the intermission, she was wearing a sling.
But Nweke’s injury inspired her team to rally when the game was on the line.
“We knew that we were feeling really sad for Toby, but Toby didn’t want us to [be discouraged],” Tall said postgame. “We said it was for Toby in our huddles, and everyone stepped up when we needed to.”
In a pregame ceremony, Princeton’s returning players were presented with championship rings for winning the Ivy League regular season and tournament titles last season. The new bling might have distracted the players in the early going.
“We tried not to get distracted,” Tall confessed, “but if I’m the other team, I’m like ‘Oh, ring ceremony, let’s go out and beat them.'”
And at first it looked like Belmont might do just that.
The Bruins jumped to an early 8-3 lead after the Tigers missed five of their first six shots. Part of the problem was that Gosselin’s squad was settling for threes instead of working for higher-percentage shots.
But during the first TV timeout, Gosselin gathered her squad and reminded them of what they wanted to do: Get the ball to Tall in the block.
“It wasn’t the plan coming in to just shoot threes,” said Gosselin, “so I think they just needed that reminder in the timeout. So yeah, the focus of the timeout was to get the ball inside, and then if the threes appear from kickouts, that’s a great shot to knock down.”
But even the open threes were not falling for the Tigers tonight, especially from Princeton’s talented backcourt. All-Ivy senior guards Ashley Chea and Skye Belker combined for only 1-for-11 from distance, which forced the Tigers to find other ways to score.
But with Nweke out of the lineup, the Bruins surged in the third quarter, knotting the game at 39 apiece.
“I leaned on my upperclassmen a lot minutes-wise, and Toby going down certainly didn’t help the rotation,” Gosselin explained. “So we had to fight through that and put different combos out there. But I think that’s the beauty of our roster is we can move people around.”
One of those players Gosselin turned to was Grace O’Sullivan, a 6-foot-0 sophomore from Acton, Mass. Sullivan came off the bench to replace the injured Nweke and responded with five points in the third quarter, including a three, a defensive rebound and a coast-to-coast contested layup.
“I was incredibly proud of Grace to come in and, you know, play different positions,” Gosselin said. “So when Toby went down, she kind of had to hang tight at the wing. But she’s someone who can knock down shots, and she’s a strong body.”
With the game tied entering the fourth quarter, Tall did what she so often has done over the past three season for the Tigers — she took the game over. The senior from Silver Spring, Md., grabbed eight rebounds and tallied 16 points to put the game away for the Tigers.
How did she once again rescue the Tigers in the final stanza?
“I wish I knew,” said Tall. “I really wish we weren’t in that spot every single game, that’s be great. I think it’s just knowing when to learn that skill, like knowing how to win. knowing how to turn it on, and outwork the team in those final minutes. We really trust ourselves in those last five minutes to be to do what we have to do.”
For Gosselin, the debut and the win were a big relief.
“It feels great to get the first one out of the way, win or loss, quite frankly, but it certainly feels better to come out with the win against a really solid team,” Gosselin said postgame. “You know, they punched us a few times. They went on their runs, but I felt like our group really, you know, once Toby went down, just bought into the grittiness, the defense first.”
The win gave Princeton a series sweep over Belmont, which was picked to finish third in the MVC this season. Last year, the Tigers traveled to Nashville and came away with a 70-58 win in the first ever meeting between the two programs.
“We’ve got a lot of respect for Princeton,” Belmont head coach Bart Brooks told Ivy Hoops Online after the game. “They’ve been really good for a lot of years in a row. They’re really talented. Tranfers haven’t impacted them liek the rest of us. I feel like those players being able to play that many games together makes them really challenging to play against this early because of their experience.”
And how will Gosselin celebrate now that she has a win under her belt as the headmaster of this experienced group of players?
“I’m going to bed early because my son will be up at 5:15 a.m. and I’ve had a few late nights over the past couple days.”
But there will be no rest for the weary at Old Nassau.
Gosselin’s squad will hit the road in a few days for their first road game of the season against the Richmond Spiders on Friday before playing another MVC stawart, the Murray State Racers, on Sunday afternoon.
You can bet the Spiders and Racers will have one thing on their minds as they prepare to face Princeton — how to handle Tall and her gritty Tigers.