It’s beginning to look a lot like the 2019-20 season for the Princeton women’s basketball team.
In that season, Carla Berube’s first at the helm of the Orange and Black, a dominant Princeton team led by superstar Bella Alarie won 11 of its 12 nonconference games, defeating Penn State and Seton Hall, while falling only to a powerful Iowa team on the road in overtime.
Fast forward to the present day and another dominant Princeton club, after routing Rutgers, 81-63, on Wednesday night at Jadwin Gym, has now mowed down 10 of 11 nonconference foes, including Penn State and Seton Hall.
As with the 2019-20 season, the only blemish on the Tigers’ record (so far) is a tough road loss to a powerful Big Ten program, the Maryland Terrapins.
And who is playing the role of Bella Alarie in this Princeton (10-1) parallel?
That would be Fadima Tall, the junior forward from Silver Spring, Md.
Tall put on a show against Rutgers (7-4), exploding for a career-high 28 points, grabbing four rebounds, dishing three assists, and raking a career-high five steals.
Asked after the game whether she was prouder of the 28 points or the five steals, Tall had an immediate and emphatic response.
“Definitely the steals,” Tall told the ESPN+ broadcast crew. “I’ve been really slacking recently, but [I’m] forever back.”
In the 26th meeting between the in-state rivals, both teams struggled to execute in the early going.
The Tigers missed their first four shots and turned the ball over once before a Tall moonshot splash-landed from orbit to put the Tigers on the scoreboard first, 3-0.
Rutgers turned the ball over four consecutive times to start the game and couldn’t get a shot to fall until Kaylah Ivey drained a corner three at the 6:26 mark of the first quarter.
The senior guard from Forestville, Md., kept the Scarlet Knights close by drilling three triples in the first quarter and five overall to finish the contest with 15 points.
But Ivey’s sharp shooting wasn’t enough to outduel Tall. The 6-foot playmaker drove to the tin for an old-fashioned three-point play and then splashed a corner three to cap the first quarter scoring.
The Tigers led 21-19 at the end of the first stanza.
In the second quarter, sophomore reserve Emily Eadie got the Tigers off to a positive start by bodying up Rutgers’ Imani Lester in the paint, preventing the 6-foot-3 center from gaining an entry pass deep in the post.
When Lester finally got the ball high in the post, Eadie’s defense forced the Rutgers big to dish the ball to Faith Blackstone, who missed a jumper. Eadie then deployed a perfect box-out on Lester to grab the defensive board.
The entire sequence was a textbook example of how the defensive culture inculcated by Carla Berube’s into every Princeton players results in stops against bigger opponents.
Meanwhile, Tall continued to take the action right to the Rutgers defense. Tall drove repeatedly to the basket, drawing five fouls and converting nine of 10 free throw attempts.
Tall explained after the game that attacking the rim was a central part of the Princeton game plan.
“I think listening to the scout like coach Berube told us, we knew if we attack the basket, that’s where we get our points and get them in foul trouble,” Tall said.
The Tigers led 36-31 at the half behind Tall’s 18 points in 18 minutes of play.
In the third quarter, Ashely Chea showed off her shooting prowess.
The junior guard from Flintridge Prep in southern California hit two triples in the first four minutes to put the Tigers up by eight, 47-39. Chea finished the game with 16 points on 5-for-10 shooting, including 4-for-7 from distance.
But Chea also made a pair of silly plays that landed her in Berube’s doghouse.
With the Tigers leading by seven and looking to mortally wound the Knights, Chea led a three on two breakout after stealing the ball from Lester. Perhaps looking to make another appearance on SportsCenter’s Top Ten, Chea then threw the ball wildly behind her back to nobody.
The play mimicked a similar no look pass in the paint that Chea attempted to Skye Belker in the first quarter to no avail.
An unhappy Berube strutted on the court to have a little chat with her star point guard, but ulimately decided to leave Chea in the game.
The Tigers led by seven entering the fourth quarter, 51-44.
In the fourth quarter, the Tigers turned the screws on defense, as they seemingly always do. And once again the chief instigator was Tall.
Determined to force the action inside, Zachara Perkins attacked the rim, only to have Tall swat the ball out of bounds off of Perkins’ thigh. Moments later, Lester tried to bully Tall in the paint, but the Princeton forward took a charge as Lester elbowed Tall to the floor. The play was emblematic of Tall’s season-long heroics in the paint against bigger opponents.
Meanwhile, the Tigers opened the final stanza with seven straight points on two Chea free throws, a Chea trey, and a triple by Madison St. Rose to effectively seal the contest.
Another moonshot trey by Tall with 2:23 to go put the exclamation point on Princeton’s eight straight win, and fourth straight win over Rutgers, 81-63.
In addition to Tall’s game-high 28 points, three other Tigers finished in double figures, including Chea and Oliva Hutcherson, who both finished with 16 points, and St. Rose who tallied 11 points, grabbed three rebounds and contributed three assists.
The triumph gave the Tigers a 2-1 series win over the Big Ten this season, to go along with a 3-0 sweep of the BIG EAST. Princeton has also notched victories over the ACC (Georgia Tech), the Missouri Valley (Belmont), the A-10 (Rhode Island) and Conference USA (Rice).
With no other contests this week, it’s likely Princeton will garner its first national ranking of the season when the Associated Press releases its next Top 25 poll on Monday, December 15. In the most recent AP poll released earlier this week, Princeton received 31 votes, good enough for 26th place, and placing the Tigers on the cusp of gaining its first national ranking since February 2024.
The 2019-20 Tigers also broke into the national rankings in early January and rose as high as No. 21 before COVID-19 prompted cancellation of the postseason.
The Tigers will enjoy a 10-day break before traveling south yet one more time this season to face George Mason, a NCAA Tournament team last March, at EagleBank Arena in Fairfax, Va. on Dec. 20.