A whiteboard used by Princeton women’s basketball coach Carla Berube and her coaching staff sits on a sideline chair af the Jon. M. Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City on Dec. 8, 2024 (Steve Silverman | Ivy Hoops Online)
Princeton women’s basketball ended 2024 on a high note, vanquishing the Le Moyne Dolphins, 75-43, on New Year’s Eve and finishing its nonconference schedule with a 9-4 record.
With the curtain rising on the Ivy League season in only three days, it’s time to take stock of how the Tigers have fared during the first half of the season and look ahead to the prospects for the six-time-defending Ivy League champions grabbing yet another conference title.
Here are four Tiger Takeaways from the conclusion of the nonconference season:
1. So far, the Tigers have successfully navigated a series of daunting challenges.
Heading into the 2024-25 campaign, coach Carla Berube and her Tigers knew they would face a stiff challenge replacing the leadership, skill and experience provided by Kaitlyn Chen, Ellie Mitchell and Chet Nweke, a special trio of seniors who graduated from last year’s championship team.
That task became considerably tougher when Berube’s club lost their superstar team captain, Madison St. Rose, to injury only four games into the season.
The challenge of dealing with the loss of St. Rose was compounded by a stacked schedule that required the Tigers to run a gauntlet of eight road games in their first nine contests against a top-10 slate of opponents.
But the Tigers won nine games, notching a three-game sweep of Big East opponents Villanova, Seton Hall, and DePaul. Princeton also dominated in-state rival Rutgers, a member of the Big Ten, and scored impressive wins over several brand-name mid-majors, including Middle Tennessee State, Rhode Island, Temple and Vermont.
There were a few blemishes along the way, which was to be expected given the youth of Berube’s roster, especially with St. Rose gone.
The low point of the nonconference season occurred during a two-game western road swing that began with Princeton falling hard to a surprisingly strong Portland Pilots team of the Big West Conference. The youthful Tigers lost their composure against Portland’s relentless pressure, committing 29 turnovers, the most in recorded program history, in a 74-55 rout.
Two days later, the Tigers found themselves on the brink of another blowout against a powerful Utah team in Salt Lake City.
Trailing by 18 points in the second half, the Tigers confronted a moment of truth: Would they throw in the towel as they had in Portland or fight back? They chose the latter and scratched their way to within a point of the mighty Utes. Only two missed free throws in the dying seconds of the game by Skye Belker, perhaps Princeton’s best free-throw shooter, prevented the Tigers from pulling off a monumental upset.
Although the Tigers were disappointed with their back-to-back losses out West, the comeback at Utah has proven to be a turning point for the Orange and Black.
Since returning home from Salt Lake City three-and-a-half weeks ago, the Tigers not only haven’t lost a game but haven’t trailed in their last 160 minutes of basketball.
Simply put, the lights have turned on for a group of talented players who have quickly found chemistry and confidence.
2. A trio of sensational sophomores has filled a scoring void.
After 13 games, the character of this team has been defined by a trio of sensational sophomore guards in Skye Belker, Ashley Chea and Fadima Tall.
With St. Rose sidelined for the season, Belker has emerged as Princeton’s most reliable scorer and playmaker. She leads the team with 13.3 points per game and is second in assists.
A starter in every game last season as a freshman, Belker is a steadying force who since St. Rose’s injury has averaged about 35 minutes of playing time per game.
Belker’s streak of 42 consecutive starts was snapped on Tuesday against Le Moyne after the star guard from Los Angeles tweaked her ankle during a recent practice. Resting Belker was apparently a precautionary measure as she is expected to play on Saturday in Princeton’s Ivy League opener against Cornell.
Chea played in every game last season as a freshman and has flourished in her new role as a starter. The 5-foot-8 guard from Montebello, Calif. is averaging 12.8 points per game, second-best on the team, and leads the team in assists with 3.6 helpers per game, which ranks sixth-highest among all Ivy players.
Chea has also emerged as Princeton’s most dangerous three-point shooter. She’s averaging 2.2 made treys per game, which ranks second-best among all players in the Ivy League. Chea displayed her shooting prowess against Le Moyne, canning 4-for-7 from deep and leading all scorers with 16 points in only 26 minutes of playing time.
Both Belker and Chea were expected to step up and contribute more in their sophomore campaigns, but the emergence of a third sophomore sensation, Fadima Tall, has been the most pleasant surprise of the season so far for the Tigers.
Tall saw limited action last season as a freshman, but the 6-foot swing player from Silver Spring, Md. has emerged in her sophomore campaign as a linchpin defender, scorer and leader.
Since St. Rose’s injury, Tall’s minutes per game have grown from the high teens to the low thirties. Her contributions to the scoring sheet have likewise ballooned. In her last 10 games, Tall’s scoring average has grown from 4.8 to 11.2 points per game. She also leads the Tigers in rebounding and steals and has recorded two double-doubles in Princeton’s last seven games.
Beyond the numbers, Tall has contributed grit and leadership both in the locker room and on the floor. At the moment, she seems to be the glue holding this talented team together.
3. Twin Towers are providing Princeton with a powerful force in the post.
Senior Parker Hill and junior Tabitha Amanze both stand at 6-foot-4 and take turns protecting the rim for the Tigers. On Tuesday, they did it on the court at the same against Le Moyne, perhaps unveiling an intention by Berube to unleash a “Twin Towers” look just in time for Ivy League opponents.
Hill and Amanze are much more than imposing defenders; they’re also potent scorers. Against Le Moyne, they demonstrated in one play how Princeton can use its size to exploit smaller defenses in the Ivy League. Setting up at the top of the key, Hill cleared the paint for Amanze to roll to the post. Hill then lobbed a perfect entry pass to Amanze, who caught the ball in stride and gracefully laid it in for an easy two points.
Hill has started every game in her final campaign at Princeton and is stuffing the stat sheet with 4.8 points, 5.8 rebounds, 2.1 assists and one block per game in less than 19 minutes of playing time.
Amanze has typically come off the bench in relief of Hill, but once on the court, she provides a powerful scoring punch, averaging 7.7 points per game. Amanze has been showing increased confidence and fluidity in recent weeks, and Berube has rewarded her with more playing time as a result. In her last 10 games, coinciding with St. Rose’s injury, Amanze has scored in double digits six times.
The rotation of Hill and Amanze in the post provides Berube with her first true center combination to work with during her tenure at Princeton. What’s more, should Hill or Amanze falter, Berube has capable bigs off the bench in senior Katie Thiers (6-foot-2) and junior Taylor Charles (6-foot-2).
No other team in the Ivy League has as big or talented a front court as Princeton’s, which gives the Tigers a key advantage in nearly every Ivy matchup.
4. Improved defense has fueled Princeton’s recent surge.
After the Utah game, Berube made clear in postgame comments to Ivy Hoops Online that she wanted to see continued improvement in her team’s defense. Since then, she’s gotten what she wished for.
In Princeton’s last four games, the Tigers have yielded an average of only 48 points per game, down from an average of 67 points in the team’s first nine contests.
One might suspect such a dramatic reduction in points allowed would be due to a reduced strength of schedule. Yet Princeton’s last four opponents have included three teams with NET rankings in the top 120, including a top-60 Middle Tennessee State squad that came into Jadwin averaging nearly 68 points per game. The Tigers held the Blue Raiders on Sunday to only 51 points.
Playing at home over the last four games has undoubtedly aided the Tigers’ defensive efforts, as the team has looked more focused and disciplined since returning to the friendly confines of Jadwin Gymnasium three-and-a-half weeks ago.
The team has also looked more confident in recent weeks than it did at times earlier in the season Again, the comeback against Utah seems to have galvanized this young group of Tigers into a more connected unit.
As conference play approaches, it will be interesting to see if Ivy League opponents decide to employ full-court pressure against the Tigers given the difficulty Princeton has had at times in handling the press. Princeton’s last four opponents applied only spare pressure against the Tigers and for the most part allowed Princeton to set up its offense. They paid the price, falling to the Tigers by an average of 18 points.
Overall, this Tigers team looks poised to make another run at an Ivy League championship.
Berube and her coaching staff deserve tremendous credit for guiding a young team though early adversities. The Tigers have steadily improved and are playing their best basketball of the season just in time for the beginning of the all-important Ivy League season.
But the road to a seventh consecutive Ivy League championship will be anything but easy for the Tigers, as at least three other Ivy squads look capable of going toe-to-toe with Princeton, including Harvard (NET No. 34), Columbia (NET No. 57), and Penn (NET No. 135). And don’t count out the Brown Bears, who took down a talented Colorado State team and nearly upset Providence.
The quest for an Ivy League title begins on Saturday when Princeton hosts Cornell at 2:30 ET. Then, a week later, Harmoni Turner and her high-flying Harvard Crimson invade Jadwin for one of the most anticipated matchups of the entire college basketball season.
Get your popcorn (and blood pressure medicine) ready. It should be quite a ride.