The Princeton women’s basketball team must have enjoyed coming back in the fourth quarter so much on Sunday at Georgia Tech that it decided to do it all over again on Wednesday night at Villanova.
Trailing the Wildcats 57-50 at the end of the third quarter, the Tigers once again turned the screws on their hosts, outscoring Villanova 23-11 in the fourth quarter to steal a 73-68 win at Finneran Pavilion.
Three days ago, Carla Berube’s squad needed a 24-11 rally in the fourth quarter at Georgia Tech to secure a 67-61 win in the Tigers’ season opener.
After their gutsy, come-from-behind win in Atlanta on Sunday, the script called for the Tigers to suffer a letdown at Villanova. And for the first three quarters, it looked as though Princeton might oblige.
For the second game in a row, Princeton’s shooters struggled to find their range, especially from distance. After hitting just two of their final ten shots in the first quarter, the Tigers trailed 19-13 at the end of the first stanza.
In the second quarter, Villanova’s expanded its lead behind the play of First Team All-BIG EAST sophomore Jasmine Bascoe. The 5-foot-7 guard from Ontario tallied five straight points to put the Wildcats up by double digits, 24-12.
Bascoe led the Wildcats with 16 points, but she needed 15 shots to get there and was limited by a solid defensive effort by Princeton junior guard Skye Belker.
A layup by Madison St. Rose as time expired at the end of the first half gave the Tigers a bit of momentum as Villanova led 37-29 at the intermission.
As was the case in Princeton’s opener at Georgia Tech, the Tigers struggled mightily to make shots in the first half, netting only 10 of 26 attempts for a 38.5% shooting performance.
Princeton’s marksmanship continued to suffer in the third quarter as Villanova built its lead to 47-33 at the seven-minute mark behind a layup by Brynn McCurry.
But as she did on Sunday at Georgia Tech, Princeton forward Fadima Tall put the Tigers on her back and refused to let her team fail.
The 6-foot-1 junior clawed her way to the rim repeatedly, drawing fouls and canning six of six free throws to keep the Tigers in the game.
Tall tallied eight points in the third stanza, setting the stage for another dramatic fourth-quarter comeback.
But the comeback didn’t begin right away. After St. Rose missed an open jumper and a layup on Princeton’s first two possessions of the fourth quarter, Princeton’s prospects appeared bleak.
A Bascoe jumper and a free throw by McCurry boosted Villanova’s lead to ten, 60-50, with just under eight minutes to play.
That’s when the lights finally came on for Princeton.
A runout by Taylor Charles netted a layup, the senior’s first basket of the season. Moments later, a steal by St. Rose led to a layup, and suddenly the Tigers were down by only two possessions, 60-54, with 7:45 to play.
Villanova called timeout.
But the time stoppage could not blunt Princeton’s momentum.
After two Bascoe free throws, St. Rose found a wide open Tall under the basket for an easy lay-in.
From there, it was the Skye Belker show.
The junior guard from Los Angeles struggled for the second game in a row to make shots, but with the game on the line, Belker hit two free throws, a mid-range jumper, a layup, and her first three-ball of the season (after six straight misses) to propel the Tigers into the lead, 70-68, with 57 seconds left on the clock.
Belker finished the game with 13 points and three assists.
On Villanova’s next possession, the most critical of the game for the Wildcats, Bascoe missed a baseline jumper, and Olivia Hutcherson secured the defensive rebound. Princeton closed out the contest with three free throws to register a second consecutive comeback win on the road against a power-four conference opponent.
After the game, St. Rose explained to the ESPN+ announcers how the Tigers seem to have developed a penchant for fourth-quarter comebacks during the young 2025-26 campaign.
“I think that’s when we really lock in,” St. Rose said. “We try to stay together, we stay connected and just try to slow the game down. When we play too fast, things can get out of hand. But when we truly just focus and try to get a stop and execute on offense, that’s when we’re at our best.”
St. Rose finished her second contest back from a season-ending injury last year with 17 points, three steals, two rebounds and an assist.
But the real hero for the second game in a row was Tall.
The dynamic junior from Silver Spring, Md. tallied a career-high 21 points and five steals, and nearly registered her second consecutive double-double with nine rebounds. She also did yeoman’s work on defense, containing 6-foot-4 Kylee Watson, a grad student transfer from Notre Dame, who scored only five points for the Wildcats in 18 minutes of playing time.
The win moved the Tigers to 2-0 on the season and gave Princeton its third win in a row over Villanova in the 24th overall meeting between the two rivals.
The Tigers jump back into action this weekend with perhaps their highest-profile clash of the season — a Sunday matinee matchup against the mighty Maryland Terrapins of the Big Ten.
With two quality wins already notched, the Tigers will look to pull one of the biggest upsets in program history against the No. 9 Terrapins at 1 p.m. at the XFINITY Center in College Park, Md.