No. 21/No. 17 Princeton women defeat Columbia as Alarie and Littlefield make history

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Princeton (AP No. 21, Coaches No. 17) pulled off another patented second-half runaway at Levien Gym Friday night and made history in the process.

The Tigers looked like they could be in for their first real fight of Ivy League play as the Lions trimmed their lead to 36-31 1:56 into the third quarter.

But Princeton outscored Columbia 19-8 the rest of the quarter en route to a 77-52 win to stay unbeaten in conference action.

The history for Princeton (25-1, 13-0 Ivy) came in two parts: a Carlie Littlefield bucket late in the second quarter gave her 1,000 career points, and two-time reigning Ivy Player of the Year Bella Alarie made a free throw with 8:28 remaining in the game for her 1,684th point, surpassing Sandi Bittler ’90, Princeton Athletic News women’s basketball Player of the Century, for the most in program history.

 

The Lions’ loss snapped their six-game winning streak, though Columbia (17-9, 8-5) did well just to score in double digits in all four quarters against what remains the nation’s top defense by far. The Tigers allow 47.8 points per game, well below second-place Gonzaga’s 51.3 points per contest.

Littlefield was the only Tiger to score in double figures, contributing 24 points on 9-for-19 shooting from the field. But Princeton enjoyed a balanced scoring effort, with seven players scoring at least six points. In her next-to-last home game, Taylor Baur came up just shy of a double-double with nine points and nine rebounds in just 22 minutes.

Playing without Sienna Durr and Mikayla Markham, Columbia was led by Abbey Hsu and Janiya Clemmons with 12 and 10 points, respectively.

Princeton has now won 21 games in a row, its only blemish coming in a 77-75 overtime loss at Iowa (AP No. 19, Coaches No. 20) on Nov. 20. Columbia still needs two wins for a new highest single-season win total in program history.