With fifteen wins in a row, Princeton women's basketball (20—3 Overall, 10—0 Ivy League) is a machine. Over the weekend, the team — No. 25 in the latest AP women's college basketball poll — defeated the Brown Bears (14—9, 5—5) and the Yale Bulldogs (6—17, 3—7) to continue their rampage through Ivy League play.
Behind late comeback, Tigers down Brown
Ready to embark on a full weekend of play, the Tigers pounced from the jump. After Brown went up 2–0 in the early minutes, first-year guard Skye Belker, sophomore guard Madison St. Rose, and senior guard Kaitlyn Chen drained three-pointers to bring the score to 9–2.
Off of a Brown timeout, Princeton continued their onslaught to take a 16–4 lead with 4:30 left in the first quarter. However, Brown dug their heels in, keeping Princeton’s lead hovering around 10. As the Bears began to find their footing, the two sides headed into the second quarter with Princeton comfortably up 20–10.
To start the second quarter, Head Coach Carla Berube’s suffocating defense forced three missed shots and two turnovers before Brown managed to score. Off a three from guard Olivia Young, Brown went on a 7–0 run, prompting Berube to call a timeout at 24–17.
Off the timeout, Princeton went on a mini 5–0 run and extended the lead back to 12. However, the Bears’ offense caught fire, and they scored 12 points over the last four and a half minutes of the second quarter. All of a sudden, after what seemed like just a momentary lapse from Princeton’s defense, the two sides headed into halftime in a one-possession game, with Princeton up 32–29.
In Princeton’s first game against Brown, the Bears shot a remarkable 47.8 percent from the three. Senior forward Ellie Mitchell spoke to The Daily Princetonian about the challenge of defending against Brown’s shooters.
“They hit so many threes on a lot of the same plays. A lot of them are actually threes that their four [power forward] was shooting,” Mitchell said. “Me and Chet [Nweke] were getting hit by a lot of flares and having to chase over, we’re not used to doing [that], so in practice, we repped that out a lot [in between games].”
The Bears’ three-point shooting prowess continued to give Princeton a headache, but not to the same degree as in the first matchup. Brown catapulted to a third quarter lead, helped by five successful threes in the frame. While the Tigers’ defense forced pressure inside, they had no answer for guards Olivia Young, Grace Arnolie, and Kyla Jones. Before long, Princeton found themselves in a seven-point hole halfway through the quarter.
Baskets from sophomore forward Tabitha Amanze and senior guard Chet Nweke cut the lead back to three, and Princeton clawed their way back, culminating with a St. Rose jumper that gave the Tigers the lead back with 1:49 left in the third quarter.
Brown wrestled the lead back once more with a Young three-pointer, but first-year guard Ashley Chea answered right back with a shot of her own to give Princeton a 55–54 lead heading into the fourth.
Princeton’s offensive prowess and defensive excellence shined in the final quarter, as the Tigers closed the game on a 13–8 run. With the fourth quarter strongly in Princeton’s favor at a score of 19–8, Princeton wrapped up yet another conference victory, this one with a final score of 74–62.
While the margin of victory was a comfortable 12 points, it wasn’t easy for the Tigers, who blew an early double-digit lead and had to claw their way back in the second half.
“We got off to a great start, and we kind of stumbled a bit, and Brown, all kudos to them, they played very well, they shot very well,” Mitchell told the ‘Prince.’ “They had a lot of energy the whole time, but we’re gonna keep battling, keep fighting till the end. We were finally able to pull away, which we’re obviously happy about, but [there’s] definitely some stuff for us to look back at and fill in these next few days of practice.”
Chen led the Tigers with 17 points — above her season average of 16 points per game. She also led the team in the two other main statistical categories, with a career-high ten rebounds and four assists, marking her third double-double of the season.
Tigers demolish the Bulldogs for best defensive showing in 42 years
Two of the first commands almost any dog will learn are “sit” and “stay.” Saturday night, those two words just about encapsulated the Yale offense’s reaction to the Princeton defense.
Not scoring over eight points as a team in a single quarter, and shooting 25.7 percent from the field while committing 27 turnovers, Yale’s offensive efforts were fruitless as Princeton trounced the Bulldogs.
The game started relatively even, as the two sides traded baskets to bring the score to six apiece in the early minutes. The Tigers then caught momentum heading into the first TV timeout, as three Yale turnovers led to three baskets for the Tigers and a 12–6 lead.
“[We were] just letting our defense fuel our offense — stop, score, stop, score, take it one play at a time,” Mitchell told the 'Prince' after the game. “And we always trust that the offense will come if our defense is doing what it should be.”
Mitchell’s words rang true at the beginning of the first, and they would only be amplified after the timeout. Avoiding the inconsistency of the Brown game, the Tigers went on a 7–2 run to close out the first with a 19–8 lead.
Heading into the second, Princeton kept the onslaught going. Chen, St. Rose, and Mitchell all scored before the first TV timeout, and the Tiger defense forced four turnovers to go along with only three points for Yale. The last four minutes of the quarter were no different on the defensive side, but the Tiger offense sputtered, scoring only four minutes over that period.
Heading into the half, Princeton had a commanding lead at 32–15, but with a strong third quarter, Yale could’ve been right back in it.
Princeton 32, Yale 15 | 2:32 2nd @kaitlynchenn2 in transition .... lol, good luck.
— Princeton WBB (@PrincetonWBB) February 17, 2024
💻- https://t.co/GyMr46cMfD
📊- https://t.co/hT5WaAnyy4#GetStops 🐯🏀 pic.twitter.com/e7jAvoVPfS
However, a third-quarter comeback was not in the cards for Yale on Saturday night. Just in the first three minutes, Madison St. Rose scored eight points for the Tigers, equaling Yale’s first-quarter point total.
The rest of the team played off of St. Rose’s energy, putting on a defensive master class while continuing to pile on the points offensively. With three minutes to go in the quarter, Princeton had just completed a 20–2 run to bring the lead to 52–17, at which point Yale needed a breath and called timeout.
While Princeton’s offensive onslaught slowed down, Yale’s offense never woke up, and the two sides headed into the fourth quarter with Princeton holding a commanding 60–21 lead.
Even with most of the starters resting on the bench in the fourth, Princeton’s defense only got better. Over the first nine minutes of the fourth quarter, Yale could only muster two points, before tacking on two more in the closing seconds to bring their grand total to four in the quarter. Princeton tacked on 10 of their own, led by efficient shooting from the bench.
As the final buzzer sounded, Princeton defeated Yale 70–25. Once again, Chen led the scoring for the Tigers with 18 points in only 29 minutes of play, and when all was said and done, 10 Tigers scored on Saturday, with nine people playing over 10 minutes.
“I think everyone just really brought it. Everyone was really locked in,” Mitchell said.
For the Tigers, the team hasn’t allowed so few points in 43 years, when the Tigers defeated Barnard — who no longer has a basketball team — with a score of 96–14. 25 points also represents Princeton’s third-lowest total points allowed ever against a conference opponent.
“We had great help defense,” Mitchell added. “If you know your teammates are there in the right position where if you get beat, they’ll be there, that makes the on-ball job a lot easier.”
Now, the Tigers head into another week of practice before their toughest regular-season matchup remaining against the Columbia Lions (18—5, 9—1). The game will tip off at 2 p.m. Saturday on ESPN+ from Levien Gym.
Max Hines is a staff Sports writer for the ‘Prince.’
Please send corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.
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