The American University women's basketball played at Princeton on Monday night at Jadwin Gym in Princeton, N.J., and was defeated by a score of 77-45.

It began well for the Eagles, as senior Nicole Ryan knocked down back-to-back three pointers in the first three minutes of play to give American (1-1) an early 6-0 lead. Princeton (2-0), however, stormed right back with 18 straight points over the next eight minutes to take a 18-6 advantage before a Michelle Kirk three-point field goal broke the scoreless drought for the Eagles.

The Tigers continued to have their way on the offensive end throughout the remainder of the first half, opening up a 19-point advantage, 30-11, with 3:20 to play on a Addie Micir three-pointer. American began to get its rhythm toward the end of the opening stanza on back-to-back buckets by junior Liz Leer to cut the Princeton lead to 32-15. The Tigers ended up taking a 17-point lead, 34-17, into the halftime intermission after shooting 42.9 percent from the floor (15-35) compared to only 27.3 percent (6-22) for the Eagles.

The second half played out in a similar fashion to the first 20 minutes, as the Eagles got off to a good start on back-to-back early buckets by Leer and sophomore Lisa Strack to trim the Princeton lead to 15. But the Tigers proceeded to rattle off 16 unanswered points to take a commanding 55-24 advantage with 14 minutes left in the contest. The teams would play even basketball over the final several minutes, as Princeton cruised to a 77-45 home victory.

In the game, Princeton shot 50.8 percent from the floor (31-61), including an impressive 52.6 (10-19) percent from three-point range. The Eagles finished the game at 40 percent overall (18-45), and were seven-of-12 from beyond-the-arc.  

The combination of Micir and Niveen Rasheed finished with 20 and 18 points for Princeton, respectively. The duo combined to shoot 15-for-25 from the floor and grabbed 10 total rebounds.

American was led by Ryan, who scored 16 points on six-of-11 shooting, including four-of-six from behind the arc. Her four triples gives her 149 in her career, moving her second in AU history. Kari Gaskins, who played at AU from 1995-99, was previously second all-time in made three-pointers with 147.   

The Eagles will continue their three-game, season-opening road trip on Wednesday afternoon at Brown. Tip from Providence, R.I., is set for 4 p.m.