Even without Kelsey Mitchell, Princeton had scored more points than against Mason than any other girls basketball team this season in a 54-45 Comets win on the Vikings home court on Dec. 15.

So coach Rob Matula wasn’t too surprised that Princeton with Mitchell set a season scoring high for Mason opponents in a 64-55 Greater Miami Conference win on the Comets’ Senior Day last Saturday.

Mason never led after going 0-for-5 from the field and committing seven turnovers in a first quarter that ended with Princeton leading, 19-5. Mitchell, in her second game back after missing 15 with a broken bone in her foot, scored 12 of her game-high 30 points and had all three of her steals in the quarter.

Matula also wasn’t surprised to see the Princeton junior guard, ranked by many recruiting services as the nation’s top player in her class, dominate. He was happy to see his Comets cut an 18-point deficit with 2:49 left in the third quarter to five with 1:38 in the fourth, but they could get no closer.

“We didn’t quit,” Matula said. “We expected a battle.”

Senior guard-forward Kayla McDowell overcame early jitters that produced four first-quarter turnovers to finish with a double-double – 17 points and 11 rebounds – to go with six blocked shots, but it was 6-foot-0 junior guard-forward Jenna Gunn who kept Mason in the game with a team-high 19 points, 11 in the first half. She went 5-for-7 from the field and 9-of-12 on free throws.

“She plays a lot of post, but she’s really a big guard,” Matula pointed out. “She helps us in the open floor.”

While the Comets were disappointed about suffering their first loss of the season – on Senior Day – Matula pointed out that they still are enjoying a tremendous season. They were scheduled to wrap up the regular season on Saturday at Colerain. Mason already has earned a share of the conference championship, and a win would leave them 19-1 overall and 13-1 in the league, giving them their first outright conference championship since winning the Fort Ancient Valley Conference Buckeye Division title in the 2000-2001 season. They shared the Buckeye title with Winton Woods in the 2006-2007 season, their last in the FAVC before jumping to the GMC.

They also will take the No. 1 seed into the Division I district tournament. They are scheduled to play the winner of the game between 22nd-seed Oak Hills and 29th-seed Woodward on February 20 at 6 p.m. at Kings High School.

Matula would have to wait and see what kind of impact suffering a first loss this late in the season would have on his team. One tangible result was dropping from second to fourth in the Associated Press Division I statewide poll. There are those who believe that it’s better to not be undefeated going into the tournament, that a well-timed loss can take pressure off of a team.

“Maybe,” he said. “I don’t know. There are different kinds of pressure.”