After taking down two power-conference opponents on the road to open the season, the Princeton women’s basketball team finally met its match at Maryland, falling to the No. 9 Terps, 84-68, at the XFINITY Center in College Park, Md. Sunday.
This intriguing matchup of two NCAA Tournament teams from a season ago turned out to be a game of runs. Unfortunately for Princeton, the Terrapins ended up having one more run in them than the Tigers.
Overall, the Tigers acquitted themselves well against a national power in a challenging road environment.
But what has to concern Carla Berube and her coaching staff is that for the third game in a row, the Tigers came out cold and dug themselves a deep hole to start the game.
A triple by senior Madison St. Rose followed by a power move to the hoop by Fadima Tall got Princeton off to a promising, 5-2 start.
But everything quickly went south for the Tigers after that.
Three straight misses followed by three straight turnovers resulted in six empty possessions and a 12-0 Maryland run.
A key culprit in Princeton’s first quarter collapse was Maryland’s zone press, a tactic that has bedeviled the Tigers in the past.
Junior guards Ashley Chea and Skye Belker took turns throwing the ball away in an extended sequence of miscuues reminiscent of Princeton’s flustered performance at Portland last season.
By the time the smoke had cleared from a dumpster-fire opening quarter, the Tigers trailed by 16 points, 26-10.
In the second quarter, Berube and her Tigers turned the tables on the Terrapins by feeding them a dose of their own medicine.
The turnaround began with Princeton installing its own 1-2-2 zone press. Like magic, the tactic worked and began producing Terrapin turnovers.
Of course, the comeback was led by Tall, who led her Tigers to two comeback victories over the past seven days at Georgia Tech and Villanova.
Playing in front of her hometown community, the junior forward from Silver Spring, Md. stripped the ball from Saylor Poffenbarger and turned it up court for a layup. Tall would tally 13 points, seven rebounds and three steals on the day.
A corner three by Belker cut Maryland’s lead to 11, 26-15, with just eight minutes to play in the first half.
Moments later, a pair of corner threes by Toby Nweke, a Woodbine, Md. native playing before her family and friends, brought the Tigers to within six, 34-28, with 1:52 remaining in the half.
A layup by Olivia Hutcherson capped the second quarter scoring, and Princeton ran to the locker room trailing by only four, 34-30.
But there’s something about visitor locker rooms that seems to cool off the Tigers this season. In three road games played so far, the Tigers have been outscored by 42 points in six quarters after emerging from the locker room.
The pattern bit the Tigers again on Sunday.
After returning to play in the third quarter, the Tigers again went cold, missing eight straight shots early in the stanza.
Meanwhile, the home team started to connect from distance.
After failing to score in the first half, Yarden Garzon, a sharp shooting senior guard from Israel, hit a three to open the scoring for Maryland. Moment later, Garzon added another triple.
Overall, the Terps barraged the Tigers with 27 points in the third quarter and led 61-48 entering the fourth.
Trailing by 13 to begin the final stanza, the Tigers once again looked to stage a comeback. And it first, it appeared another miracle might be in store.
A trio of layups and a free throw by Hutcherson paced a rejuvenated Tigers offense in the fourth quarter. The forward from Johns Creek, Ga. played tenacious defense against Maryland’s bigger post players while wearing a face mask, but the junior also provided a huge scoring lift with a career-high 19 points on 8-for-10 shooting from the field.
A pair of free throws from St. Rose got the Tigers to within 11, 65-54, with just under eight minutes to play. The senior co-captain put together her best all around performance of the season with a game-high 20 points on 6-for-14 shooting. She also dished a team-high four assists.
But Maryland had an answer for every Princeton push in the fourth. A gratuitous corner three by Garzon capped the scoring for Maryland (5-0), as the Tigers fell for the first time this season, 84-68.
There were some bright spots in this game for Princeton (2-1) despite the setback on the scoreboard.
For the third time in three games, the Tigers showed tremendous resilience in nearly erasing a 16-point first quarter deficit.
And the grit that defined Princeton’s first two wins was certainly present against a much larger Maryland squad, particularly in the play of Tall and Hutcherson.
But to beat an elite team like Maryland, the Tigers needed to get great guard play from their two main ball handlers, Belker and Chea. Instead, the talented, All-Ivy backcourt tandem continued a troubling trend of panicking against the zone press, turning the ball over a combined seven times.
Even worse, the duo continued to struggle to make shots.
Belker managed to score 10 points on 4-for-12 shooting, but Chea had her worst game as a Tiger, failing to score any points on two shot attempts in only 19 minutes of playing time.
In three games so far this season, Chea, a unanimous First Team All-Ivy guard last season, has averaged only four points per game. On Sunday, Berube benched her star guard for long stretches. Was Chea 100% healthy for this contest? Her play looked lackluster at times.
Despite the loss, the Tigers should be pleased with a 2-1 record to open the season.
Few if any teams in Division I have faced a more challenging schedule thus far than Princeton.
Securing two road wins over Georgia Tech and Villanova and showing the ability to compete nose-to-nose with Maryland will pay dividends down the road for these Tigers once the postseason arrives.
In short, the dream remains alive for the Tigers to have a special season.The magic carpet ride continues on Wednesday night when Princeton hosts Rice in the Tigers’ season opener at 7 p.m. ET at Jadwin Gymnasium.