It’s not called Ivy Madness for nothing.
After handily beating Penn in both matchups this season, top-seeded Princeton (24–4 overall, 13–1 Ivy League) narrowly defeated the fourth-seeded University of Pennsylvania (15–13, 7–7 Ivy League) by a 59–54 margin in a game that saw Princeton finish the first half with a point deficit. The nerve-wracking Ivy League semifinal was played at Levien Gymnasium on Columbia University’s campus in New York City as part of this weekend’s Ivy Madness tournament.
After Penn won the opening tip, the two sides traded turnovers before senior guard and captain Kaitlyn Chen started the scoring off with an easy layup.
Trading points, the two sides headed into the first media timeout knotted at six apiece. In the next five minutes, the Quakers found their groove, forcing five turnovers — none bigger than a steal and layup from guard Simone Sawyer, which brought the score to 14–6 and the Penn crowd to its feet up.
Instead of taking a timeout, Head Coach Carla Berube trusted her team to claw away at the Quaker lead. Quickly, Chen took the ball down the court for a layup to make it 14–8, and sophomore guard Madison St. Rose then drained Princeton’s first three of the game to make it 14–11 in the dwindling seconds of the first.
Princeton turned their 5–0 run into a 9–0 run to start the second thanks to layups from junior forward Parker Hill and senior guard Chet Nweke. Penn answered right back with a three from forward Jordan Obi, followed by a layup from wide open forward Floor Toonders to make it 19–15 in Penn’s favor.
On the following Princeton possession, Kaitlyn Chen took a three-point attempt as she was fouled, converting a rare four-point play as she drained both the basket and the free throw. Heading into the media timeout, both sides added two more points, and after 15 minutes of play, Princeton and Penn were tied at 21.
In the final minutes of the half, Penn went on a 9–2 run, led by guard Mataya Gayle with 11 points. The Quakers led 30–28 at the break.
“She’s really a talented, skilled, athletic, smart player that plays really, really hard,” Berube said of Gayle in a postgame presser.
In the first half, the Tigers committed an uncharacteristically low 14 turnovers, with Penn having a wide 17–4 advantage in points off turnovers, turning Princeton’s strength into a weakness.
“There were some times when there was a miscommunication on our part,” St. Rose said after the game. “I feel like no matter if they scored, we always came together and always talked about it.”
The Tigers and Quakers last played each other only a week ago, so Penn’s familiarity with the Tigers may have factored into the offensive jitters.
“We just played each other last week, so we know our offenses,” Berube said. “They were tough; they’ve got some great athletes in their backcourt — guards that are athletic and they were difficult to play against. Credit to them, it was definitely a challenge.”
St. Rose started the scoring in the second half, netting a jumper to tie the game at 30. Following an exchange of points from Chen and Gayle, the two sides headed into the media timeout with the Tigers up 36–34.
Following the break, Penn tied the game at 36 on a layup from guard Stina Almqvist. In one of the most memorable moments of the game, first-year guard Ashley Chea sunk a three for the Tigers, after two missed threes and two offensive rebounds gave the Tigers a third-chance opportunity.
After a flurry of back-and-forth points to close the third, Gayle opened up the fourth with a jumper to bring her total to 18 and the score to 46–44 in Princeton’s favor.
The Tigers then widened their lead to six as Ellie Mitchell collected her twelfth rebound of the day and 1,100th of her career, passing Margaret Meier Benchich ’78 as the leading rebounder in Princeton history.
“There’ve been a lot of greats that came before me,” Mitchell said. “It’s really cool to have my name come up in conversation with them.”
“She’s a joy to coach. There isn’t a rebound that is for sure the other team’s; she’s either in on the play or if they think they have it, she’s going to go in and grab it,” Berube added about Mitchell. “She just makes plays for us to win ball games.”
Gayle and St. Rose continued their back-and-forth, trading key shots as Princeton widened their lead and Penn stormed right back.
As the clock ticked down in the fourth quarter, the crowd of 1,552 in Levien Gym withstood over two and a half minutes of tense, scoreless play before Obi converted a jumper to cut Princeton’s lead to six with just over a minute left.
With a minute to go and Princeton with the ball, St. Rose drove to the hoop, but was called for an offensive foul. Feeling a glimmer of hope, the Penn faithful watched as Obi drained a three, assisted by Gayle, to bring the score to 57–54 and make it a one-possession game.
In a hectic next possession, Princeton called two separate timeouts before turning the ball over on a sloppy inbounds pass. It was once again Mitchell coming up huge defensively for Princeton, giving them the ball with 12 seconds left.
“She just makes life so much easier for me and Maddie,” Chen said of Mitchell. “I feel like I just look up and there’s Ellie with the ball.”
While the final minute was far from clean, Berube took responsibility for the avoidable errors.
“Not pitching the ball on the sideline, just trying to space it out a little bit better — just using screens a little bit better, these are things we work on all the time,” Berube said. “It’s on the coach for not getting them prepared to make the plays, so I think if it comes down to that again, we’ll do a better job.”
After the nerve-wracking last few minutes, Princeton could soon exhale. St. Rose was fouled on yet another sloppy inbounds pass and netted both shots to bring the final score to 59–54.
It was far from the Tigers’ best or most complete game, but nonetheless, the Tigers will advance to the championship game tomorrow.
“This time of the season, of the year, is about surviving and advancing. I’m really proud of our team that just stayed with it, stayed together, stayed connected,” Berube said postgame. “What we hang our hats on is defense and getting stops, and I thought for the most part, we did that in the second half when we really needed to.”
“We’re confident in ourselves,” Mitchell said. “No matter what gets thrown our way, we’re going to grit it out and we’re going to finish plays, and that’s what we did today.”
Princeton will play Columbia tomorrow in the final at 5 p.m. Although some bracketologists predict Princeton could make the NCAA Tournament win or lose through an at-large bid, there is no doubt the team wants to take the guaranteed path to the national stage by securing the Ivy Championship.
Max Hines is a staff Sports writer for the ‘Prince.’
Please send corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.
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