Ivy Hoops Online contributor George “Toothless Tiger” Clark brings us the postgame press conference after a 80-65 win for Princeton women’s basketball (14-3, 4-0 Ivy) over Columbia (12-5, 3-1) in a key matchup in the Ivy League championship race Saturday. Senior guard Chet Nweke, sophomore guard Madison St. Rose, freshman guard Skye Belker and coach Carla Berube held court at the presser after engineering the win on the court at Jadwin Gym:
Ivy Hoops Online contributor Rob Browne recaps the action:
The Tigers, winners of nine straight, claimed sole possession of first place in the Ancient Eight, while the Lions, which had their own 10-game winning streak stopped, slipped into a three-way tie for second place with Harvard and Brown.
Last year’s co-champions were evenly matched throughout the opening quarter, with Princeton holding onto a slight 19-16 edge.
The Tigers had the lead at seven, 29-22, with just over three minutes to go, before the Lions closed out the half on a 15-4 run and went into the locker room with a 37-33 advantage.
Columbia shot 61% in the first twenty minutes, including 57% (4-for-7) from three, while Princeton hit 42% from the field. The Tigers managed to make 38% (3-for-8) of its triples but was 0-for-4 from long range in the second quarter.
The end of the first half gave fans hope that the game would go down to the wire, but Princeton would dash those plans by the middle of the fourth quarter.
With the Lions up 41-39 at the 6:30 mark of the third frame, the Tigers used a 6-0 run over the next two minutes to go up four. By the end of the quarter, Princeton was up 56-51.
Columbia cut the lead to three twice over the first two minutes of the fourth quarter and looked primed for one last challenge, but a Princeton 12-2 run made it 76-59 with two minutes left in regulation and the game was effectively over.
Through the last two quarters, the Tigers shot an incredible 80% (20-25) from two, including 90% (9-10) in the fourth quarter, and 0% (0-for-3) from three. The Lions, meanwhile, could only manage 42% (10-for-24) from inside the arc and 20% (2-for-10) from downtown.
On the day, Princeton had 10 and 12% more rebounds (+11 and +11% in the second half), 16 more points in the paint, 13 more second-chance points and eight more points off turnovers.
The Tigers were led by Ellie Mitchell, who threw her body all over the court and always found herself in the right spot on both sides of the ball. The reigning Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year finished with 14 points (11 in the fourth quarter), 15 rebounds, two assists, two steals and a block.
Madison St. Rose, last year’s Ivy Rookie of the Year, had 21 points, as well as six rebounds, three assists and three steals.
Skye Belker matched St. Rose with 21 points to go along with her four assists. Chen, last year’s conference Player of the Year, managed to put up 11 points, four rebounds and four assists despite spending large parts of the game on the bench.
Chet Nweke, making the first start of her career, added nine points, six rebounds and two assists.
For the Lions, Abbey Hsu, who was hounded by the Tigers all day, put up 21 points but did it on 36% (8-for-22) shooting. Kitty Henderson, who entered the game averaging 12.8 points per game, was held to four points by Princeton, but she did manage to grab six rebounds and dish out seven assists.
Riley Weiss, last week’s league Rookie of the Week, totaled 12 points on 63% (5-for-8) shooting.
While the conference schedule is only four games old, Princeton now has two comfortable victories over the two teams, Columbia and Harvard, expected to challenge the Tigers for the conference championship. With a successful uptempo offense added to its nationally top-rated defense, it is going to be very difficult for the rest of the league to stop Carla Berube’s squad from claiming its sixth straight regular season and fifth straight Ivy League Tournament titles.