Sole possession of first place in the Ivy League is on the line Saturday night when the Columbia Lions’ women’s basketball team travels to central New Jersey to face their biggest rival, the Princeton Tigers, at Jadwin Gymnasium. The game tips off at 5:30 p.m. ET and will be televised on ESPN+.
The clash provides Columbia (18-5, 9-1 Ivy) with an opportunity to regain control of the Ivy League regular season title chase after the Lions dropped a hard-fought battle to Harvard last week, 60-54, at Levien Gymnasium in Morningside Heights.
Princeton (18-5, 9-1) can also seize control of the Ivy race with a win and close out its home schedule on Saturday with a 12-0 record. The Tigers are currently riding a 30-game home-court winning streak, the longest such streak in the nation.
Who was the last team to defeat Princeton at home? You guessed it, the Columbia Lions. On Jan. 6, 2023, Megan Griffith’s squad strode into Jadwin Gym and took down the Tigers, 58-55, in an overtime thriller.
Columbia was also the last team to beat Princeton this season. Four weeks ago, the Tigers invaded Levien Gym sporting a seven-game winning streak and looking to gain a stranglehold on its quest for a seventh consecutive Ivy League regular season title. After jumping out to a 30-20 lead at halftime, the Tigers collapsed in the face of a furious Columbia rally, losing to the Lions, 58-50.
Columbia’s win over Princeton not only propelled Lions into first place in the Ivy standings, it also provided a measure of revenge for the Light Blue, who fell hard to Princeton, 75-58, at Levien in the Ivy League Tournament championship game last March.
But if you listen to Griffith, the Lions haven’t yet quenched their thirst for revenge.
“[T]his is a big game,” Griffith told reporters on Tuesday at her weekly media availability. “ … And I don’t think that we forgot that they celebrated on our court, in our locker room last year after winning an Ivy League championship. So I think we’re pretty ready for this one.”
Princeton coach Carla Berube’s squad is also amped up for the rematch.
“We’re excited,” Berube told Ivy Hoops Online. “It was a tough loss, you know, at Columbia, but I think we’re a different team than we were a month ago. You know, I think we were a little banged up that day, and now I think we’re feeling much, much better and more confident. [We’re] looking forward to this challenge of taking on a very good Columbia Lions team.”
Here are three keys to the matchup:
1. Will Columbia’s pressure force Princeton into turnovers and forced shots?
By now, it’s become nearly trite to talk about how Princeton has struggled against pressure this season. The Tigers infamously fell apart at Portland in December against the Pilots’ press, coughing the ball up 29 times, a program record for giveaways.
In Princeton’s collapse at Columbia four weeks ago, the Tigers surrendered the ball 24 times. In fact, going back to the end of last season, when Princeton had three seniors in the lineup, the Tigers initially fared well in handling West Virginia’s withering zone press in the first round of the NCAA tournament. But Berube’s club turned the ball over 12 times in a ruinous third quarter and eventually fell to the Mountaineers, 63-53.
Did the Tigers learn anything from these experiences, and more importantly, have they made adjustments and better prepared themselves for Columbia’s pressure? Berube thinks so.
“We’ve been working on it, you know, in the last month, but even before that and in different situations on how we’re going to break their press,” Berube said. “We’ve worked really hard, the players have worked really hard to be prepared for the kind of pressure that they put on you.”
While Columbia surely will bring pressure on Saturday, the Lions aren’t quite certain what to expect from Princeton in terms of adjustments because Princeton hasn’t played a pressing team in over a month.
“You’re watching [Princeton] play all these games against teams that don’t pressure them and want to play underneath them and are smaller than them,” Griffith told reporters. “So it’s like, it’s really hard, you know, simulating what our game will look like. So I just think you have to see how they’ve evolved as a program.”
Beyond forcing turnovers, Columbia’s press can be effective in limiting an opponent’s time in setting up their offense even if they manage to get past the midcourt line. Berube understands the importance of not only beating the press, but exploiting opportunities to score easy baskets off of it and maintaining an aggressive posture.
“They’re long up front, and so you’ve got to be really smart and strong and disciplined with the basketball,” Berube explained. “But you also need to be in attack mode. You can’t be back on your heels. You need to, you know, look to score off of it.”
Making sure her Tigers work for good shots is also a priority for Berube.
“What’s going to be imperative is that once we do get the ball over half court, can we get into something in time, like you know, that we can get a good shot off. Because that’s key, is getting a good shot every possession, not only for us to score, but also not letting them get out in the break, right? If you’re not taking good shots, that’s where they can really beat you in their transition offense.”
2. Can Princeton contain Columbia’s dynamic offense?
One intriguing aspect of this matchup is the contrasting strengths that both teams bring to the contest. Columbia leads the Ivy League in offense, scoring 73.8 points per game, while Princeton has the League’s second rated defense, allowing only 56.1 points per game. (The Tigers have been even stingier in its 10 Ivy contests, allowing only 48.6 points per game).
Typically, Berube-coached teams are adept at limiting the other team’s best player, but Columbia’s diverse attack is less vulnerable to a lockdown approach. Rather than being led by a single, dynamic scorer, the Lions more resemble a three-headed monster, with seniors Kitty Henderson (13.4 ppg) and Cecelia Collins (13.9) and sophomore Riley Weiss (17.7 ppg) each providing potent, three-level scoring threats.
How will Berube’s squad defend against Columbia’s multi-dimensional attack?
“You need to know the personnel and know what their their strengths are,” Berube told Ivy Hoops Online. “You want to know what they’re looking for within their offenses, to get those players good looks at the basket and try to take those away. And they have a lot of sets, they love a lot of actions, and their actions have counters. So, you just got to be on your toes, and you’ve got to be able to communicate really, really well, trust each other [and] be confident in each other.”
Keeping the Lions off the offensive boards will also be key to Princeton’s defensive effort. Columbia leads the league by a wide margin in offensive rebounding, hauling in an average nearly 16 second-chance caroms per game. “A lot of their offense comes from offensive rebounding,” said Berube. “So you’ve got to do a great job of boxing out and getting loose balls.”
3. Will either team be capable of staying in the moment?
In Princeton’s and Columbia’s previous matchup last month, neither team shot the ball nor executed their game plan particularly well, especially in the first half. The same was true last weekend in Harvard’s and Columbia’s slugfest in Manhattan.
Maybe this failure to execute was due to nerves or simply the challenge of responding to the intensity of a really big game. As the famous quote attributed to Mike Tyson goes, “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.”
Looking back on her team’s loss to Harvard, Griffith emphasized the importance of staying in the moment.
“We got unhinged early in the game, and I think that, like whatever happened going into that, whether it was because we thought we should win the game or I don’t even think it was one thing. I think it was maybe something different for all of them. But I do think there [were] a lot of emotions going into that game. And, you know, we didn’t come together in a very unified, like, trusting way for the rest of whatever that was, 20 minutes, 10 minutes, whatever we needed to win it.”
Considering that Columbia’s core group of players consists mainly of seniors and juniors, while Princeton starting five consists of four sophomores and one senior, one would have to give the advantage to the Lions as far as having the right mix of experience and maturity to meet the moment of Saturday’s high-stakes matchup.
Then again, the Tigers will be playing at home. And Princeton’s sensational sophomores, including Ashley Chea, Skye Belker, Fadima Tall and Olivia Hutcherson, are no newcomers to the spotlight or high-pressure situations.
“It’s going to be a great battle of two very good teams. It’s going to come down to who’s making the plays, who’s going to get those 50-50 balls, those offensive boards, you know, just making those winning plays,” Berube said. “So yeah, looking looking forward to Saturday, it’s our Alumni Day for both men’s and women’s basketball, so we’re hoping for a really great turnout in Jadwin.”
Just got our tix for this game and the Men’s game that follows!
Should be a good one. Last 2 Women’s games (v Vermont and Dartmouth) for us were blowouts so looking forward to this one!