By now it’s a familiar recipe: Start the game with tenacious defense, add a heavy dose of imposing play in the paint and mix in a strong measure of sharpshooting from the outside.
When Princeton women’s basketball succeeds in combining these ingredients, it’s nearly guaranteed to win, as it did on Saturday afternoon in a 74-60, wire-to-wire putdown of Penn at Jadwin Gymnasium.
The triumph was Princeton’s 13th straight win over its arch-rival and the 500th head coaching win of Carla Berube’s career. Berube is 116-22 at Princeton after posting a 384-96 at Tufts for a career .809 winning percentage.
The game began the way Princeton has started nearly Ivy game this season: with the Tigers getting early stops, fast buckets, and a commanding first-quarter lead.
After losing the opening tip, the Tigers got a stop when Parker Hill pulled down a defensive board and started a runout that led to a beautifully executed drop-off pass to Fadima Tall for a lay-in to give Princeton the first points of the game.
Tall drew the short straw and was given the primary assignment of defending Penn star guard Stina Almquist, whose 18 points per game are second highest in the Ivy League. But as she has done often this season, Tall met the challenge, holding Penn’s best player to eight points and a single bucket on 1-for-5 shooting.
Meanwhile, Princeton executed well on offense and padded its lead to 6-0, forcing Penn coach Mike McLaughlin to spend an early timeout.
The time stoppage didn’t slow down the Tigers. A Quakers turnover led to a spectacular over-the-shoulder layup by Chea to make the score 8-0.
The sophomore sensation from southern California was just getting warmed up. After Mataya Gayle finally got Penn on the scoreboard with an old-fashioned three-point play, Chea responded with a step-back trey from straight away.
Moments later, Chea hit another bomb from beyond the arc to extend Princeton’s lead to 15-5 with 5:46 to play in the first quarter.
Yet another Chea trey at the 2:23 mark of the opening stanza ballooned Princeton’s lead to 24-6. A long jumper by Tabitha Amanze and two free throws by freshman reserve guard Cristina Parrella finished the first quarter scoring as Princeton led 28-6 at the end of the first frame.
In holding Penn to just two baskets and six points in the first quarter, the Tigers extended to 10 games their streak of holding opponents to single digits in at least one quarter.
Princeton coach Carla Berube was obviously pleased with how the Tigers opened the game.
“I thought we came out with a lot of energy,” Berube told ESPN+. “I thought our defense was awesome. We were . . . just taking away what Penn wanted to do, we rebounded the ball well and [we] executed our offense.”
In the second quarter, the Quakers served notice that they would not go quietly into the night.
Freshman sensation Katie Collins hit a midrange jumper to draw first blood. Collins led Penn with 18 points on 7-for-13 shooting in 27 minutes before fouling out early in the fourth quarter.
The Tigers responded with a 9-2 run, but Penn refused to yield.
A kick0ut by Gayle to Collins netted three for the Quakers. Chea responded with another trey, but Simone Sawyer’s drive resulted in a hoop and the harm and shaved Princeton’s lead to 39-15 with five minutes to play in the half.
After a TV timeout, the Katie Collins show took over. The 6-foot-1 guard from Manasquan, N.J. hit back-to-back-t0-back treys to pull Penn back into the contest, 39-25, with 3:20 to play in the first half.
Chea responded with a trey as the Tigers took a 44-29 lead into the intermission.
Princeton was led by Chea’s 21-first half points on 8-for-11 shooting, while Penn was led by Collins’ 14 points. The Tigers shot nearly 55% from the field in the first half, compared to only 34.6% for Penn. The Tigers outmuscled the Quakers on the boards, 21-11.
After the intermission, the Tigers came out determined to reassert their authority.
Two layups and a smooth midrange jumper by sophomore guard Skye Belker sparked a 13-6 run to open the third quarter.
Another layup by Belker at the one-minute mark seemed to push the game out of reach as Princeton led 62-41 at the end of the third stanza. Belker finished with 15 points on 7-for-11 shooting.
In the fourth quarter, Princeton put the game away by reestablishing Hill in the post. The 6-foot-4 senior from Bethesda, Md. finished a layup from the right post. Hill then grabbed a defensive rebound and took a lob pass from Chea to the tin for another bucket to give the Tigers a 66-43 lead.
With Princeton resting its starters down the stretch, the Quakers closed the game on a 7-1 run to the narrow the final margin to 74-60.
Princeton’s potent brew of tight defense, superior post play and lethal three-point shooting never allowed Penn to mount a serious challenge. The Tigers utterly dominated in the paint, outscoring the Quakers 38-16.
The obvious MVP of the contest was Chea, who scored a career-high 25 points on 10-for-15 shooting, including 5-for-8 from long distance. Chea added four rebounds, two assists, a steal and a block to her impressive stat line.
“I think that we just ran all of our plays correctly,” Chea told ESPN+ after the game. “We worked so hard all week to prepare for him, and I think that we just played our game today.”
The Tigers have now won 28 consecutive games at Jadwin, the second-longest home-winning streak in the nation.
Princeton (16-5, 7-1 Ivy) will continue its four-game home stand by hosting Brown next Friday night and Yale on Saturday in a back-to-back slate of weekend games.
Penn (11-10, 2-6) likewise will host the same teams next weekend in the opposite order.
It was great to be in Jadwin to be on hand for Coach Berube’s 500th career win. She deflected attention away from herself as she always does. But she is in a class by herself. We are so blessed to have her.