Girls basketball: Princeton pulls away from Hall in second half

SPRING VALLEY – Trailing by two points at halftime, the Princeton girls basketball team decided to get back to what it does best.

The Tigresses made some defensive adjustments, turned up the pressure and pulled away from Hall for a 57-40 victory in the Three Rivers Conference East Division opener for both teams.

“The girls have a certain style of play that they want and they were ready to get back to,” Princeton coach Tiffany Gonigam said. “It’s just a credit to their hard work and how bad they wanted it.”

Princeton put more pressure on to start the third quarter, pestering the Red Devils into eight turnovers in the period as the Tigresses went from down 23-21 at the break to up 41-30 after three quarters.

“The girls like playing fast and like playing in the full court, so it was just kind of unleashing that back to them,” Gonigam said. “We made small adjustments on where we needed to be in that pressure to help slow down the passing that Hall was doing.”

Camryn Driscoll drained a 3-pointer early in the third to give the Tigresses a 24-23 lead. Princeton continued to extend the lead, never trailing the rest of the game.

Princeton’s lead reached double digits at 36-26 with 2:49 left in the third when Keighley Davis stole the ball and eventually scored on an assist from Driscoll on the Tigresses’ fourth shot of the ensuring possession.

“We really picked it up in the second half,” Driscoll said. “We just pushed and picked up our defense.

“I think we just got a lot more energy. We were able to tip passes and read the ball better. We were able to keep our offense more controlled.”

Offensively, the Tigresses relied on the 3-pointer with Hall’s Ella Sterling making it difficult to score in the paint with multiple blocks early. Driscoll drained three 3-pointers in the second quarter and two more in the third. Driscoll finished 5 of 8 from behind the arc and scored a game-high 19 points.

Olivia Mattingly also hit a pair of 3s, and Reese Reviglio added one as Princeton shot 8 of 21 from deep.

“We started out this season really hot from the 3-point line, taking a lot of 3s,” Gonigam said. “But tonight, I think it was just about taking what the defense gives you, and that was something that was open for us tonight.

“Sterling is a nice player in the post. She had a ton of blocks, so we had to come back in the second half and control what we can, take what we can, and the 3-point line was open. The girls were ready to catch and shoot when necessary.”

The Red Devils led 9-8 after the first quarter and 23-21 at halftime.

Hall had success getting the ball inside to Sterling. The transfer from Seneca scored eight points down low — two baskets on assists by Kennedy Wozniak — and was able to set up her teammates with a pair of assists.

“She does a really nice job for us,” Hall coach T.J. Orlandi said. “She can score, but she’s a good facilitator in the middle as well. She’s a really good passer. She sees the floor really well, so it opens up a lot of things for us.

“In the first half, I thought we were moving the ball well. We were getting good cuts and hitting cutters for layups, but we couldn’t knock down a shot. I thought there was a chance where we were up 6, 7, 8 at halftime, but we were up two.”

Driscoll, who had seven rebounds and two steals, was one of three Princeton players in double figures. Miyah Fox had 15 points and six rebounds, while Davis finished with 10 points.

The Tigresses improved to 7-0 overall and 1-0 in the conference.

“We’re excited,” Driscoll said. “One of our goals is to win conference again, so it’s nice to start with a win.”

For Hall (2-3, 0-1), McKenna Christiansen scored 14 points. Sterling added 13.