After recording historic wins last week, it was a good bet that either Princeton women’s basketball or Rhode Island would suffer a letdown in their following contest.
It ended up being both teams.
In an excruciating back-and-forth tussle between two of the best mid-majors in the nation, the visiting Tigers had just enough in the tank to get past a determined Rams squad, 67-59, in a Wednesday matinee at the Ryan Center in Kingston, R.I.
This matchup became appointment television for college hoops fans after both programs pulled off significant triumphs over power-conference opponents last week.
The Tigers dropped 100 on Penn State at the Battle 4 Atlantis last weekend, while the Rams popped corks in their locker room after upsetting then-No. 16 North Carolina State, 68-63, at Raleigh.
It was against that backdrop that the Tigers locked horns with the Rams for the fifth year in a row with series supremacy on the line. The two programs have clashed six times in total, splitting the series 3-3 in consistently tight, back-and-forth fashion.
Wednesday’s rock fight was no different.
The game opened perfectly for Princeton, with the Tigers defense standing Tall (as in Fadima) against the Rams’ Albina Syla, a 6-foot-5 center from Finland. The undersized Princeton forward bodied up Syla in the paint and forced the sophomore big to shoot from just beyond her comfort zone. Syla’s shot fell off the rim and Princeton had a coveted opening stop.
Then, on Princeton’s first possession, Tall struck from distance over Syla’s outstretched hand to put the Tigers up 3-0. The indefatigable junior schooled Syla all day long and was one of two Tigers to register a double-double with 19 points and 12 rebounds.
But after Tall’s opening trey, the Tigers struggled to execute on offense, a pattern that has afflicted coach Carla Berube’s squad throughout the early season.
Despite playing great defense and limiting Rhode Island to just 10 points in the opening stanza, the Tigers missed all but four of their fourteen shots and turned the ball over five times.
The Rams were no better. Facing Princeton’s tenacious defenders, Rhody converted only five of 16 first-quarter shots and matched Princeton’s miscues with five turnovers.
When the smoke had cleared from the first-quarter futility, the Tigers clung to a one-point lead, 11-10.
The second quarter began as a carbon copy of the first.
The Rams insisted on establishing Syla in the paint, but the Tigers’ defense collapsed on her and the Rhode Island center again missed a bunny on her team’s first possession of the frame The Tigers responded with a long jumper by Madison St. Rose to take a three-point lead, 13-10.
St. Rose had another sensational game, leading all scorers with 21 points and grabbing a career-high 13 rebounds for her first double-double of the season. St. Rose has now tallied 20 or more points in three of Princeton’s first seven games of the campaign. She should be a strong contender for Ivy Player of the Week honors.
But as the quarter wore on, both teams again struggled to execute on offense, mirroring each other with missed shots and lost opportunities to cash in on each other’s mistakes. Chalk it up to solid defense and maybe a bit of pre-holiday fatigue on the part of both squads.
Two free throws by Skye Belker at the seven-minute mark put the Tigers up by five, 17-12. But Rhody responded.
A dazzling fadeaway jumper by freshman phenom Vanessa Harris over Olivia Hutcherson resulted in an and-one bonus and sparked the home team to its first lead of the game, 18-17, with just under six minutes to play in the half. The The reigning A-10 Rookie of the Week came off the bench to boost the Rams with 11 points on 5-for-7 shooting and five rebounds, before fouling out late in the fourth quarter.
But perhaps Harris’s greatest contribution was her defensive effort against Skye Belker, at least through the first three quarters of the game.
The freshman guard closely shadowed Belker throughout the game, preventing the junior sharpshooter from getting any good looks until late in the game. Belker, who earlier in the week won her first career Ivy League Player of the Week award, finished the first half with just two points and no field goals.
The contest see-sawed for the remainder of the second quarter with both teams struggling to make shots. The stanza ended exactly where it had started, with the Tigers up by a single point. In its lowest scoring game of the season, Princeton led at the intermission by a sliver, 23-22.
In the third quarter, both teams began to heat up.
The Tigers got a boost from Tall, who hit a signature moonshot three to spark Princeton to a 7-0 run and a six point lead, 30-24.
But the Rams charged back.
Back-to-back jumpers by Ines Debroise and Harris cut the lead to two, 30-28.
Minutes later, a drive to the tin by Debroise and an and-one bonus gave Rhode Island their first lead of the second half and largest lead of the game, 39-37, with 2:22 to play in the third quarter. It was the ninth lead change of the contest.
The tenth lead change came immediately thereafter, when St. Rose swept through the air to rebound and put back a miss by Taylor Charles. The ensuing and-one free throw but the Tigers back on top, 40-39.
But two free throws by Brooklyn Gray closed out the third quarter scoring and knotted the game at 43-43. Gray, a 5-foot-11 senior from Rockford, Ill., led the Rams with 19 points and five assists.
With game knotted at 43 entering the fourth quarter, the Tigers figured they had the Rams right where they wanted them. After all, Berube’s club has made a habit of rallying in the final stanza to win games this season, especially on the road.
And guess what? They did it again, though not without some drama.
The quarter began on a promising note, with St. Rose getting the roll on a three-pointer to put the Tigers up 46-43. Despite the tally, Princeton once again struggled from distance in this one, going only 5-for-20 from behind the arc for a pedestrian 25% success rate.
But Rhody again responded with a Gray jumper at the top of the elbow to cut the Tigers’ lead to one, where it had seemingly stayed all game long.
That’s when the Skye Belker show began.
Suppressed all afternoon by Harris’s excellent defense, Belker decided to play with more aggression and force the action. After receiving a perfect entry pass in the paint from Hutcherson, Belker ducked under and laid in her first field goal of the game to give Princeton a 48-45 lead.
Harris responded with another jumper from the elbow to, wait for it, make it a one point game again, 48-47.
Moments later, Gray tied the game at 50-50 with an and-one layup. The Rams’ run continued with a three-pointer by Palmire Mbu, and suddenly the home team had its biggest lead of the game, 55-50, with six minutes to play.
Staring into the abyss, the Tigers fought back behind the outstanding playmaking of Belker. The junior guard drove straight at Harris and tallied a layup and an and-one bonus to make it a one-possession game, 55-53, with 5:44 to play.
After getting a stop, Tall drove the lane before dropping the ball off to Ashley Chea on the baseline. The All-Ivy First Team selection rose up and hit an open jumper, her first of the game, to tie the game at 55. Chea struggled mightily again in this contest to find her shooting touch, converting just one of ten shots from the field and turning the ball over three times.
The Princeton run continued when Belker leaned into a bank shot over Harris and got it to go to put the the Tigers back into the lead, 57-55, with four minutes to go. Moments later, Belker struck again with another off-balance shot that banked in to put the Tigers up by two possessions, 59-55, with only three minutes left.
A clutch conversion in the paint by Hutcherson at the 2:17 mark essentially put the game away as the Orange and Black used a 13-1 run to spark another fourth-quarter rally and secure another quality road win, 67-59.
Although nothing was easy for the Tigers, Berube will be pleased to cash another win in a grueling stretch of challenging road games to open the season.
At 6-1, the Tigers now have wins over three power conference opponents (Georgia Tech, Villanova, and Penn State) and two wins over highly regarded mid-majors. And they’ve accomplished this with a short bench and inconsistent shooting, especially from the squad’s best pure shooter, Chea.
Coming into the week, Princeton garnered four votes in the Associated Press Top 25 poll, effectively ranking the Tigers 32nd in the country. Their vote total should rise considerably higher when the new poll comes out on Monday, after the holiday weekend.
The Tigers will take a well-deserved Thanksgiving break before hitting the hardwood again on November 30 at home against Big East opponent DePaul. Last year, Princeton traveled to Chicago to defeat DePaul for the first time in program history, registering an impressive 79-58 victory.
Rhode Island (6-2) will lick its wounds before going on the road to open its A-10 season at St. Joseph’s on Dec. 2.