Tomasiewicz And Tomasiewicz

TigerBlog mentioned yesterday that Bella Alarie is Princeton's career leader in points in women's basketball, with 1,703. 

This was in conjunction with Alarie's appearance in the Euroleague women's basketball semifinals next month with her Spanish team Perfumerias Avenida.

And while the subject is the greatest of the greatest in Princeton women's basketball history, here's a question for you:

Do you know who holds the career record for points per game in women's basketball?

Hint - that record has stood for 42 years now.

The answer is C.B. Tomasiewicz (who has been C.B. Nogay for 40 of those years; the "C.B." stands for "Claire Beth"). During her four years at Princeton, Tomasiewicz averaged 17.1 points per game, or 0.1 points per game more than Sandi Bittler Leland's 17.0. Actually, to be exact, it 0.07 points per game more than Bittler.

When Tomasiewicz graduated in 1979, she held the career record with 1,622 points. Bittler broke that record in 1990, and her 1,683 points were the record until Alarie's final weekend as a Princeton player. 

Tomasiewicz played 95 games at Princeton. Alarie played 106. With 11 more games at 17.1 per game, Tomasiewicz would have scored 1,812.

Of course, it's not quite apples to apples. The game has changed a lot through the years in women's basketball. Plus, Alarie had many nights where she didn't see the final eight to 10 minutes or so since her team was so far ahead.

Tomasiewicz averaged 17.1, followed by Bittler at 17.0. Next up is Niveen Rasheed at 16.3 and Alarie at 16.1. That would four-fifths of an amazing starting five.

As for Tomasiewicz, she played before the three-point shot, which makes her numbers even more impressive.

She is also one of the more interesting women who have competed at Princeton in the first 50 years. She was a professional athlete before she ever played for Princeton - in softball, of all sports. 

TB is pretty sure that whatever compliance issues there were related to that have either long since been resolved. C.B. did mention that she had to give up playing professional softball in order to be able to play basketball at Princeton. 

She could have been a two-sport professional athlete had she decided to play in the early women's professional basketball league, into which she and her Princeton teammate Heidi Nolte were drafted. They both turned that chance down to start their careers (Tomasiewicz was an engineering major at Princeton). 

Today, all these years later, Tomasiewicz is a grandmother who has a dog named Eli Manning Jr., which tips you off as to who her favorite team and athlete might be. She also has been a longtime competitor in equestrian jumping. 

Tomasiewicz's sister Ellen was also a great Princeton player. In fact, the Tomasiewicz sisters are the only two sisters who have both scored 1,000 points at Princeton (Ellen finished with 1,275).

They were also both first-team All-Ivy League selections twice. Ellen was a four-time All-Ivy honoree (first-team twice, second-team twice). C.B. would have been, but the first time there was an All-Ivy team for women was in 1978, C.B.'s junior year (Ellen graduated in 1982, meaning they were teammates for one season, 1978-79). 

C.B. was one of three Princeton women who were first-team All-Ivy League in 1977-78. The other two were Jackie Jackson and Margaret Meier, who were also 1,000-point scorers in their careers.

There have only been two other times when Princeton would have three first-team All-Ivy League selections in women's basketball in the same season. After that first time in 1978, it would take 33 more years until it happened again, when Devona Allgood, Lauren Edwards and Addie Micir were honored.  

The 2014-15 team, which went 31-1 and defeated Wisconsin Green Bay in the opening round of the NCAA tournament, had Blake Dietrick, Annie Tarakchian and Alex Wheatley all earn first-team All-Ivy.