Princeton women’s basketball dominated its in-state rivals Wednesday night, casting aside the Rutgers Scarlet Knights, 66-55, at Jadwin Gymnasium.
The Tigers were led by senior co-captain Kaitlyn Chen, who followed up her 31-point performance on Monday against Villanova with another standout performance against Rutgers.
The senior guard from San Marino, Calif., scored 19 points, dished five assists, grabbed two rebounds and was named the Player of the Game by the ESPN+ broadcast crew. Chen finished the game 13 points shy of 1,000 for her Princeton career.
Sophomore guard Madison St. Rose had a big night for the Tigers, pouring in 17 points, while freshman guard Ashley Chea also reached double figures and notched a career-high 15 points off the bench.
The Tigers blitzed the Scarlet Knights right from the opening tip, ripping off 13 straight points to open the contest. The run began with senior co-captain Ellie Mitchell finding a cutting freshman guard Skye Belker for a pretty layup. A block by junior forward Parker Hill led to a turnaround jumper by sophomore guard Madison St. Rose. After another Princeton stop, Mitchell netted a short jumper in the lane to make it 6-0 barely a minute into the game. Rutgers called timeout.
The Princeton onslaught continued after the stoppage. St. Rose’s close guarding forced a Rutgers turnover, one of 21 by the Scarlet Knights in the contest. The Old Bridge, N.J. nstive then hit another turnaround jumper to make 8-0. Mitchell rebounded a Rutgers miss and found Parker Hill on a runout layup extending the lead to 10-0. Another Rutgers turnover led to a St. Rose corner trey, giving the Tigers a 13-0 lead. It felt like the game was over less than four minutes into the contest.
Rutgers finally got on the board midway through the first quarter when Kassondra Brown, a 6-foot-2 graduate student from Abington, Penn., got a friendly roll on a mid-range jumper. The first quarter ended with the Tigers up 22-10.
The Tigers continued to pour it on in the second quarter and the Scarlet Knights continued to turn the ball over. The first half ended with Princeton ahead by 21, 38-17. Rutgers’ first-half output was the lowest allowed by Pinceton this season.
The third quarter’s start mirrored that of the first. St. Rose took a feed from Chen to the hoop for two points. After another Rutgers turnover, St. Rose lined up a corner three and swished it through to put the Tigers ahead 40-17. It was the largest lead of the game for Princeton, and Rutgers called another early timeout.
Although Rutgers chipped away in the fourth quarter to make the final score respectable, it never challenged the Tigers. One bright spot for the Scarlet Knights was the play of Kaylene Smikle, a sophomore guard from Farmingdale, N.Y. The 6-foot guard led Rutgers with 14 points, four rebounds and four assists.
Although coach Carla Berube probably wasn’t pleased with the lackluster way her team closed out this game, the Tigers nevertheless head into the exam break on a confidence-boosting three-game winning streak.
At 8-3 on the season, the Tigers will take 16 days off before traveling north to take on the Vermont Catamounts on December 29. The Tigers will wrap up their non-conference season on the road on New Year’s Eve at Le Moyne, a member of the Northeast Conference.
I have followed Kaitlyn Chen since her sophomore year in high school because she was the the most athletic women’s basketball player I had seen. It was no surprise she is doing so well at Princeton.
But what I wonder is how could the Princeton coach lose a year of eligibility for her by allowing her enroll there as a freshman when there was no basketball. Can you believe how good the basketball team would be next season with Chen? They would be the best team in Princeton women’s basketball history. That was a serious mistake. Has Berube questioned about this?