Do you believe in miracles? How about two of them?
Trailing 63-56 late in the fourth quarter, the Princeton women’s basketball team scored seven points in 15 seconds to force George Mason into overtime.
Then, like Lazarus, the Tigers rallied from the grave in the extra stanza to pull out yet another road win, 71-69, on Saturday afternoon at EagleBank Arena in Fairfax, Va. It was the first ever meeting between the two programs.
The triumph, the ninth in a row for the No. 25 Tigers, may be the most memorable and improbable comeback in the storied history of Princeton women’s basketball.
There were heroes aplenty for the Tigers in this instant classic.
Let’s start with Toby Nweke.
The 5-foot-10 guard from Woodbine, Md., playing before family and friends in the Washington, D.C. area, made the play of the game at the end of regulation to push the Tigers into overtime.
With her team trailing 63-60 and with only eight seconds left on the clock, Nweke rebounded and put back a desperation three-ball attempt by Madison St. Rose, drew a foul in the process, and then calmly drained the game-tying free throw.
Then, in overtime, Nweke tallied a layup on a long outlet pass from Ashley Chea with 10 seconds left to put the Tigers ahead by a point, 69-68, for the first time since early in the fourth quarter.
And yet Nweke’s heroics were not enough to get the Tigers completely over the finish line.
That job would belong to Chea.
After Nweke’s layup put the Tigers on top by a point, George Mason still had a chance to win the game.
Patriots head coach Vanessa Blair-Lewis spent her final timeout to advance the ball, gathered her team, and drew up a play.
When play resumed, the Patriots predictably in-bounded the ball to their star guard, Zahirah Walton, who drove the baseline and drew a questionable blocking foul call on Olivia Hutcherson, fouling out the Princeton forward in the process. It was one of dozens of head-scratching whistles, the majority of which seemed to favor the home team.
Walton, a 77% free throw shooter, missed her first attempt from the charity stripe, but converted the second to knot the game at 69-69 with eight ticks left on the clock.
Enter Princeton’s second hero, Chea.
The junior sharpshooter awed Orange and Black Nation a year ago with a buzzer-beating jumper on a designed out-of-bounds play to beat Harvard, 52-50, last January at Jadwin Gymnasium.
But apparently George Mason’s coaching staff failed to study enough tapes of Princeton, because after calling timeout to advance the ball, Carla Berube and her staff decided to run the identical play, which calls for Chea to receive the inbounds pass from Skye Belker, fake a handoff back to Belker, wheel sharply to her left, and then pull up for a game-winning jump shot.
Belker and Chea, who struggled all game long with ball control, executed the play to perfection with identical results.
The only difference this time was that Chea banked the winning shot off the glass instead of swishing it through the net.
Chea also tallied a gorgeous reverse layup late in overtime to give the Tigers a chance to win on their final possession.
Princeton entered this thrilling contest with an eight-game winning streak, a national ranking in the Associated Press Top 25 Poll, and a gaudy No. 36 ranking in the NET. All of those laurels appeared to have been frittered away in Princeton’s shakiest performance of the season.
In truth, both squads were shaky during long stretches of the game, likely because they both were coming off lengthly exam breaks.
Despite the rust, the Tigers came out strong at the beginning, tallying the first points of the game after Madison St. Rose drove to the tin for a layup to put Princeton ahead 2-0. The senior guard finished with a game-high 19 points before fouling out early in overtime.
The Tigers led 16-13 at the end of a turnover-riddled first quarter.
In the second stanza, the Tigers continued to grind out stops and build a double-digit lead, 34-33, behind a layup from Hutcherson.
The stalwart stopper stuffed the stat sheet with 17 points, seven rebounds, three steals, two assists, and two blocks.
Even more important, Hutcherson stymied Walton in the first half, holding Mason’s leading scorer to zero field goals and only three points in the first half.
The Tigers led by seven at the intermission 34-27.
In the third quarter, Princeton went on an early 7-0 run behind two layups by St. Rose and an old-fashioned three-point play by Hutcherson. The Tigers led by 14, 41-27, with 8:31 to play in the third frame.
And then the Tigers simply unraveled.
For the remainder of the third quarter, Princeton couldn’t buy a bucket. Or take care of the ball. The Tigers missed nine straight shots and turned the ball over three times. By the time the horn sounded to end the third quarter, Princeton’s lead had been shaved to just four points, 45-41.
Despite the erosion in their lead, the Tigers took solace as they entered the fourth quarter in knowing that they have dominated the final stanza throughout the season.
They also believed they could rely on Fadima Tall, the reigning Ivy League Player of the Week, to lead them in closing out the game as she has repeatedly done in close games this season.
But not today.
The six-foot center from Silver Spring, Md. tallied a career high 28 points in her last outing in Princeton’s 81-63 romp over Rutgers. But today, playing in her home region, Tall struggled mightily to score, tallying only four points on 1-for-3 shooting. The Tigers leading rebounder didn’t disappoint on the boards, however, grabbing a team-high 10 caroms.
As Tall stumbled, so did her Tigers. The missed shots and turnovers continued to mount while the home team began to get hot from outside. A three-point bomb by Kennedy Harris with 8:31 to play gave the Patriots their first lead, 46-45, since early in the first quarter.
Give credit to George Mason. The Patriots, an NCAA Tournament team last season after winning the A-10 Tournament, fed the Tigers a dose of their own medicine, playing tenacious defense and pressuring the Tigers front court into turnover after turnover.
“It was tough out there,” confessed Berube to the ESPN+ broadcast crew after the game.
A layup by St. Rose briefly put the Tigers back in front, 47-46, but the Mason onslaught continued. An astounding fall-away jumper by Walton over a Tall and Hutcherson double-team put the home team ahead by three, 50-47, with 6:32 left in regulation.
Moments later, a corner three by Louis Volker stretched the Patriots’ lead to six, 55-49 with four minutes to play.
On Princeton’s next possession, an errant Tall pass gave the ball back to George Mason. It was Princeton’s 20th turnover of the game. A free throw by Walton stretched Mason’s lead to seven, 56-49 with three and change on the clock.
Time was running out on the Tigers.
But Berube’s club refused to yield.
“We have a never quit attitude,” Berube told ESPN+. “It’s just a resilient bunch.”
A long jumper by Chea cut the lead to four. After Mason responded, St. Rose drove the lane and drew a foul. She converted both free throws to make it a four-point game, 60-56, with 1:31 to go.
The Tigers employed a full court press down the stretch, desperate to force a turnover. But the Patriots repeatedly broke the press, drew fouls, and made three of four foul shots to restore their seven-point lead, 63-56, with only 25 ticks left on the clock. The game was over.
Or was it?
In this holiday season of giving, the home team bequeathed a series of gifts to their visitors, breathing life into the all but vanquished Tigers.
It started with Walton fouling St. Rose on a three-point attempt. After sinking the first two free throw attempts, St. Rose missed on the third and George Mason rebounded with 17 seconds left and a two-possession lead.
Once again, the game was over, right? Not so fast. A lane violation by George Mason put St. Rose back on the line. This time she sank the third free throw, making it a one-possession game, 63-60.
The Tigers were desperate for a steal on Mason’s ensuing inbounds pass, and probably caught a break when Blair-Lewis subbed in Paige Greenburg, a reliable free-throw shooter, to receive the pass. Coming in cold, Greenburg allowed herself to be tied-up in the corner with the possession arrow pointing toward the Tigers. With this enormous gift, the Tigers had a final chance to tie with a three.
That’s when Nweke’s three-point play came to the Tigers’ rescue and got Princeton into overtime.
But in the extra stanza, the Tigers stumbled as they had throughout most of the second half and allowed George Mason to jump out to a five-point lead, 68-63, with three minutes to play.
Once again, Princeton responded. Belker blew past a defender to the cup for two to make it 68-65 with 1:45 left. George Mason decided to milk the clock, but there was too much time left to go completely into turtle mode.
After the Tigers got a stop, Chea converted her gorgeous reverse layup to make it a one-point game, 68-67, with 47 seconds to go in overtime. Mason continued to turtle, and when Harris missed a long jumper at the end of the shot clock, Chea found Nweke on a fast break layup to set up the final heroics.
Call it a miracle, a gift, or just another gritty win. Whatever you call it, there’s no denying that this Princeton squad looks like a team of destiny.
The Tigers (11-1) will complete their nonconference schedule with a home tilt on Monday against longtime rival Temple while George Mason (7-6) will resume conference play at home against Dayton on New Year’s Eve.