There’s no place like home.
Playing in the friendly confines of Jadwin Gymnasium for the first time in 2026, the No. 22 Princeton women’s basketball team (15-1, 3-0 Ivy) raced past the Dartmouth Big Green, 69-41, to remain unbeaten in Ivy play Saturday.
Taking the court with a depleted roster, the Tigers led wire-to-wire for the second straight game and were never seriously challenged by the Big Green.
Princeton was led by its junior tandem of guards, Ashley Chea and Skye Belker. Chea led all scorers with 16 points on 5-for-13 shooting, while Belker chipped in 14 points, two rebounds, two assists and three steals.
Though the Tigers didn’t paint a masterpiece today, they nevertheless prevailed for the 16th straight time over Dartmouth at Jadwin, a streak that dates all the way back to the 2008-09 season.
Here are three Tiger Takeaways from Princeton’s 13th consecutive win, their longest winning streak since the 2023-24 season:
1. The Big Green never had a chance against Princeton’s smothering defense.
During the nonconference part of the season, it was Dartmouth, not Princeton, that had turned heads with its team defense.
In only her third season at the helm, Dartmouth head coach Linda Cimino has built the Big Green into a defensive machine. Coming into Saturday’s contest, Dartmouth had allowed an average of only 54.7 points per game, the 17th-stingiest defense in the nation.
But under Carla Berube’s leadership, Princeton takes a backseat to no one when it comes to team defense. The Tigers turned up the heat from the get-go, employing a full-court press and never allowing the Big Green any space to operate.
The Tigers’ tenacious defense forced the Big Green into 18 turnovers and a dismal 14-for-51 (27%) shooting performance.
In the opening stanza, the Big Green came up empty on their first 10 possessions and scored only one field goal, a corner three by Nina Minicozzi after the first media timeout.
The junior sharpshooter from Belmont, Mass. provided the sole bright spot for Dartmouth on the day, coming off the bench to score a team high 12 points on 4-for-6 shooting from behind the arc. It may be time for Cimino to return Minicozzi to the starting lineup.
The Tigers held Dartmouth to just five points in the first quarter, the lowest output allowed by Princeton in a quarter this season, and 41 points overall, equaling a season low.
2. Once again, Princeton’s bench came up big.
During Princeton’s challenging non-conference season, Berube relied nearly entirely on her starting five to pace the Tigers to a 12-1 record.
But in Princeton’s first three Ivy League games, the bench has not only come alive, at times it’s come to the rescue.
Against Dartmouth today, Princeton’s four available bench players played a total of 92 minutes and scored 18 points, equaling a season high for Berube’s club.
For the second game in a row, sophomore Emily Eadie turned in an impressive performance. The 6-foot-1 forward from Newport Beach, Calif. tallied six points and grabbed a career-high and game-high 10 rebounds, including six offensive boards.
Eadie provided a much needed physical presence in the paint for Princeton today. In addition to her 10 rebounds, Eadie blocked two shots and dished three assists.
The as yet unpolished forward needs to work on finishing her put backs, but overall, the Princeton coaching staff has to be pleased with Eadie’s progress over the last several weeks.
The Tigers also got encouraging play from sophomore guard Cristina Parrella.
Playing in only her second game of the season since returning from injury, Parrella displayed the shooting touch she gave glimpses of during her freshman season, tallying seven points on 3-for-5 shooting, including a bomb from three-point range.
Freshman Grace O’Sullivan also got onto the scoresheet with her first made triple in a Princeton uniform.
3. A sudden rash of injuries has cast a shadow over the rest of the season.
Princeton fans tuning in to watch today’s game received a jolt of worrying news when it was announced that senior co-captain Madison St. Rose would not play due to an injury to her right knee, the same knee that forced St. Rose to miss most of last season.
No details have yet been provided about the extent of St. Rose’s injury. Did she aggravate her knee in Princeton’s win at Yale last weekend? Did something happen in practice this past week? Or perhaps the coaching staff merely employed some preventive maintenance given that the Tigers have another grueling game coming up in less than 48 hours against conference rival Harvard.
Orange and Black Nation will anxiously await the answer to these questions and keep its fingers crossed that Princeton’s co-captain and leading scorer will soon return to the starting lineup.
The loss of St. Rose for any extended period of time could be devastating to a team that already has a shortage of players.
At no time this season has Berube and her staff had more than 10 players in uniform available to play in a game. Today, they had only nine as freshman Sarah Lessig also didn’t dress due to an ankle injury she apparently sustained in practice this week.
And then to make matters potentially even worse, sophomore guard Toby Nweke may have tweaked something during today’s contest.
Given an opportunity to make her first career start in place of St. Rose, Nweke played for only 12 minutes and sat on the bench next to St. Rose and Lessig for the entire second half.
Meanwhile, there was some rare good news on the injury front for the Tigers today. Junior forward Fadima Tall returned to action after missing Princeton’s previous game with an undisclosed injury.
The indefatigable Tall looked mostly like her old self against Dartmouth, tallying 15 points, grabbing seven rebounds, dishing an assist, and recording two steals in just 21 minutes of playing time.
The Tigers will host Harvard on Monday at Jadwin, hoping to avenge last season’s loss to the Crimson in the semifinals of the Ivy League Tournament. Dartmouth (9-7, 0-3) will travel across the Delaware River on Monday to take on the Penn Quakers at the Palestra.