Twenty-four hours after winning an emotional, high-stakes contest at Harvard, Princeton women’s basketball needed to be on guard against a letdown as they took the court at Leede Arena in Hanover for a Saturday showdown with the Dartmouth Big Green.
Despite being aware of the dangers of complacency, the Tigers came out flat against a motivated Dartmouth squad and made just enough plays to scrape out a 67-55 win over the last-place Big Green.
After each team opened the game with a turnover, the Victoria Page show began. The senior guard and sixth-leading scorer in the Ivy League scored 10 points for the home team on a trey, three layups, and a free throw in the first five minutes of the game. Page finished with a team-high 17 points on 6-for-19 shooting.
Princeton coach Carla Berube made a decision to play her bench players for a significant chunk of the first half, but for the most part, the strategy didn’t pay off.
Although the Tigers have a deep and talented roster, Dartmouth’s first team scored nearly at will off of Princeton’s substitutes in the opening stanza, hitting eight of 12 shots. The Big Green led 19-16 at the end of the first quarter.
In the second stanza, Berube continued to lean on her bench and Dartmouth continued to build a lead.
Dartmouth center Clare Meyer turned the tables on Princeton’s usually dominant frontcourt, using a size advantage to score over reserve forward Katie Thiers at the 8:23 mark of the second quarter. Another Meyer layup over Princeton starting center Parker Hill put the Big Green up 27-20 with 7:03 to play in the first half.
After a turnover by Hill, Dartmouth guard Nina Minicozzi drove around Hill and laid the ball in to boost Dartmouth’s lead to nine, 29-20. Berube called timeout for the second time in the first half.
The Tigers finally responded with some urgency. After Meyer missed a layup, Fadima Tall grabbed the rebound and took the ball coast-to-coast for a layup. A strong defensive effort by Princeton forced a shot clock violation, and Tall again took the ball to the cup and earned the hoop and the harm over Meyer. Tall played her usual impactful game, tallying 12 points and grabbing a game-high eight rebounds.
A layup by Hill on a nice drop pass by Ashley Chea capped the first half scoring as Princeton nearly erased Dartmouth’s nine-point lead. Nevertheless, the Big Green took a 32-31 lead into the locker room.
In the second half, the Tigers took control of the game behind the play of Skye Belker. The super sophomore from Los Angeles hit a jumper from the right elbow to give Princeton its first lead, 33-32, since early in the first quarter. Princeton never looked back.
An errant pass by Minicozzi was picked off by Olivia Hutcherson, who motored coast-to-coast for a layup. After playing a superb defensive and offensive game at Harvard the night before, Hutcherson struggled at times on Saturday to defend Page. The sophomore from Atlanta scored four points in 18 minutes of playing time.
A fallaway jumper by Meyer over Hill brought Dartmouth to within a point. And after Hill missed two chances under the Big Green’s basket, Dartmouth had an opportunity to regain the lead. But Tall stripped the ball from a spinning Olivia Austin, and moments later, Belker smoothly swished a long jumper to pad the Tigers’ a lead to 37-34 with just under eight minutes to play in the third frame.
An offensive foul by Austin was followed by a Belker trey and the Tigers finally had a two-possession lead, 40-34, with 7:09 to play in the third quarter. Dartmouth coach Linda Cimino called timeout.
After the stoppage, the Big Green continued to struggle. A shot-clock violation gave the ball back to Princeton, and the Tigers made Dartmouth pay as Belker drove the lane, drew a double team, and dropped the ball to Hill for a layup to put the Tigers up by eight, 42-34.
Hill finished with seven points, four assists and three rebounds in 23 minutes of playing time. After having perhaps the best game of her Princeton career a night earlier in the Tigers’ momentous win at Harvard, Hill was notably less sharp at Dartmouth, missing four of seven shots and turning the ball over three times.
The teams continued to slug it out for the rest of the quarter as fatigue began to set in. Princeton led 46-41 at the end of the third stanza.
In the fourth quarter, Princeton gradually wore down the Big Green.
A late shot-clock airball by Zeynep Ozel led to a layup by Belker, who continued to make shots for the Tigers. Belker finished with a career- and game-high 25 points, along with three rebounds, three assists and a steal.
A three pointer by Chea at the 4:20 mark gave the Tigers their first double-digit lead, 57-46, but the Big Green refused to go quietly into the cold Hanover night.
A 7-0 run highlighted by a layup and an and-one free throw by Page brought the Big Green to within six, but six consecutive free throws by Princeton in the final minute closed out the game as the Tigers escaped with a 67-55 win and a series sweep of Dartmouth.
The win gave Princeton (20-6, 11-2 Ivy) 20 wins for the sixth straight season and locked up the No. 2 seed for the Tigers at the Ivy League Tournament, which starts on March 14 in Providence.
The Tigers will close out the regular season with a third straight road game at the Palestra against rival Penn next Saturday.
The loss extended Dartmouth’s losing streak to nine games. The Big Green (8-18, 2-11) will complete their season next Saturday at home against Harvard.