University of Delaware Athletics
Carra's Last Second Jumper Lifts Delaware to 59-58 Comeback Victory Over Princeton
12/9/2012 9:21:00 PM | Women's Basketball
NEWARK, Del. -- University of Delaware women's basketball senior guard Lauren Carra (at right) provided the heroics for the Blue Hens Sunday afternoon as she knocked down a running jumper off the glass from 10 feet out with two seconds left to finish off a 59-58 comeback win over Princeton before an enthusiastic crowd of 4,029 at the Bob Carpenter Center.
The Blue Hens (5-2), who won for the fourth straight game, came away with the hard-fought victory in a battle between two of the top mid-major teams in the country. Delaware, the defending Colonial Athletic Association champion a year ago, went 31-2 last season with a first round NCAA Tournament win and a top 10 national ranking.
Princeton (6-3), the two-time defending Ivy league champions, had a three-game win streak snapped despite 15 points and nine rebounds from senior All-American guard Niveen Rasheed, whose departure from the game after picking up her fifth foul with 3:21 left helped ignite the Delaware comeback.
Carra, who played most of the second half with four fouls, was one of three Blue Hens in double figures as both she and senior guard Jaquetta May (at left) scored 15 points and fellow guard Akeema Richards (below right) added 13 points and seven rebounds. Danielle Parker and Kelsey Buchanan each added seven rebounds for the Hens.
“We drew up a play in the huddle,” said Carra of the winning basket which came right after Blue Hen timeout. “It was actually a play to go man-to-man for Princeton on defense and they ended up coming out in the zone, so the play kind of broke down there a bit. As a team, we really showed maturity just staying with it and just finding a way to the basket. They (Princeton) were working me, but that was huge for my teammates to step in behind me.”
Following the timeout with 16 seconds left, Carra got the ball at the top of the key. She dribbled to her left, made a move inside, and knocked down the short jumper off the glass for the winning points with just two seconds remaining. Princeton had one last chance for the win but Delaware's Kayla Miller intercepted the long inbounds pass from Annie Tarakchian to end the game.
“Princeton is a really good basketball team and I'm really proud of our kids,” said Delaware head coach Tina Martin, whose team played without All-American and 2012 national scoring leader Elene Delle Donne (Lyme Disease) for the third straight game. “I told them we have to grind this out, we have to try to keep this close. And the kids listened. The first half we were a little shaky but we pulled things together. I just can't say enough about the group as a whole. Lauren (Carra) has really stepped up and the play at the end of the game was designed for her. It was a very tough shot with the defender hanging on her. I think we've grown by leaps and bounds, even over the past couple weeks.”
The Blue Hens defeated Princeton for the second straight year and downed the Tigers for the eighth time in the last 10 meetings.
Kristen Helmstetter added nine points and nine rebounds for Princeton while Blake Dietrick and Alex Wheatley each chipped in with eight points. The Tigers were undermined by 10 of 27 shooting from the field (37 percent) and 10 turnovers in the second half. The Tigers hit just 3 of 18 shots from beyond the three-point arc for the game.
Delaware fought back from an eight-point deficit early in the second half and trailed by five points at 58-53 after Rasheed hit a jumper with 3:21 left to play. But Rasheed fouled out with 1:49 left to play after fouling Delaware's Kelsey Buchanan following her own missed shot. Buchanan calmly knocked down both shots from the charity stripe to cut the margin to 58-55.
The Hens got the ball back after a missed free throw by Kate Miller with 1:12 left, setting up a layup by Carra with 54 seconds remaining that narrowed the Tiger lead to 58-57.
The Hens got the ball back again when Buchanan made another big play, stepping in front of a pass by Princeton's Miller on the left block with just 24 seconds left to set the stage for the winning possession.
Delaware had a tough start as the Hens shot just 9 of 33 from the field in the first half and went down by as many as 10 points before cutting the Princeton lead to 32-25 at halftime. The Hens burst out of the gates in the second half to get back into the game, outscoring the Tigers 17-9 over the first five minutes to take their first lead since early in the game at 41-40 on a Carra three-pointer with 14:57 left.
The Hens held at least a share of the lead for the next 10 minutes before consecutive field goals by Princeton's Wheatley gave the Tigers a 54-52 lead with 5:05 remaining. Rasheed then sandwiched two jumpers around a free throw by May to give Princeton the 58-53 lead with 3:21 left. Delaware then took over from there to complete the comeback.
Delaware will take the next 11 days off for exams before returning to action on Dec. 20 when the Hens host No. 9 ranked Maryland at 7 p.m. at the BCC. The Hens suffered their only regular season loss to the Terrapins last season when Maryland captured an 85-76 victory on Dec. 29 in College Park, Md.
