The Princeton women’s basketball team opened the Ivy League season in impressive fashion on Saturday afternoon with a dominant win over the Cornell Big Red, 79-38, at Newman Arena. The 41-point margin of victory was Princeton’s largest since the Tigers defeated Brown by 43 points last February.
With the win, the Tigers moved to 11-3 on the season and 1-0 in the Ivy League.
In an Ivy Hoops Online interview published Thursday, Princeton coach Carla Berube expressed little concern that her players would look past this contest to the Tigers’ marquee matchup against Harvard next weekend.
“I think they understand how important every one of these Ivy League matchups are,” Berube said. “You take nobody lightly, you take nobody for granted. You respect them and play your very best in each of these contests.”
Berube’s confidence proved to be prescient. Her Tigers jumped on Cornell (6-7, 0-1) from the opening tip. Madison St. Rose hit a mid-range jumper and a straight-away three-pointer to open the scoring for Princeton. The sophomore guard led the Tigers in scoring with 20 points.
A Skye Belker steal led to a floater in the lane by Kaitlyn Chen and the Tigers led 7-1 less than 90 seconds into the contest. An Ellie Mitchell offensive rebound, one of 10 rebounds on the day for the senior co-captain, resulted in a Chen trey, forcing Cornell to call an early timeout with the Tigers up 10-1.
The timeout did not stop the bleeding for the Big Red. After Cornell missed its eighth straight shot, Chen hit another jumper, followed by a long two-pointer by Mitchell. A steal by Mari Bickley led to a Chen runout and layup, expanding Princeton’s lead to 16-1. Cornell coach Dayna Smith called another timeout, but the game effectively was over after only six minutes of play.
A putback by Cornell sophomore Emily Pape finally netted Cornell’s first field goal of the game with three minutes to play in the first quarter. Princeton led 20-6 at the end of the first stanza.
Princeton’s stifling defense never allowed Cornell to get comfortable in this game. The six points allowed by the Tigers in the first quarter were the fewest by a Princeton opponent this season.
The second quarter started with a 5-0 run by the Big Red as Princeton missed its first four shots of the quarter. But a Chen layup sparked a 13-0 run as Princeton built an insurmountable lead at the half, 37-18. Chen finished the game with 15 points and a game-high seven assists.
Princeton did not let up in the second half, shutting down any hope Cornell had to fight its way back into the contest. The Tigers defense continued to get stops while the offense kept making opportunistic plays. A long pass from Chen to St. Rose netted a layup and pushed Princeton’s lead to 30, 53-23, with 2:41 to go in the third quarter.
The fourth quarter started with all of Princeton’s starters watching from the bench. The highlight of the final stanza was the play of Margo Mattes and Fadima Tall, two more members of Princeton’s fabulous freshman class. Mattes, a 5-10 guard from Brookline, Mass., scored five points in the fourth quarter, including a smooth corner three, for her first points in a Princeton uniform. Tall, who at 6-0 is aptly named, tallied a career-high eight points, all in the fourth quarter.
Tabitha Amanze, a 6-4 sophomore from Nigeria, also registered the first two points of her Princeton career after missing the 2022-23 season due to injury.
The way the Tigers dominated this game bodes well for Berube’s club as it continues their quest for a sixth consecutive Ivy League title. During the nonconference slate, the Tigers’ trademark defense often appeared less stalwart than in past seasons, causing Berube to confess in her Ivy Hoops Online interview that her team’s defensive play at times this season has kept her awake at night. She’ll likely sleep well after Saturday’s performance by the Tigers as her squad forced 23 turnovers and held Cornell to under double digits in both the first and third quarters.
With the triumph, the Tigers expanded their winning streak to six games and notched their eighth true road win of the season. They’ll have an opportunity to push those numbers to seven and nine, respectively, when they take on the Harvard Crimson next Saturday at Lavietes Pavilion.