Neither rain, nor sleet, nor a winter storm on the East Coast could keep the No. 20 Princeton women’s basketball team from grinding out another road win, 58-49, over Brown on Saturday afternoon at the Pizzitola Sports Center in Providence, R.I.
Trailing 15-9 to start the second quarter, the Tigers locked down on defense and stopped the Bears on 12 straight possessions over an eight-minute span.
Princeton’s defense led to offense as the Tigers went on a 14-0 run to take control of the game.
The Tigers (17-1, 5-0 Ivy) never looked back after that, holding on to beat Brown to remain unbeaten in Ivy League play.
The win was Princeton’s eighth triumph on the road so far this season, the most of any team in the top 40 of the NET rankings.
After starting the Ivy season 3-0, Brown (11-6, 3-2) lost its second straight in the Ancient Eight and fell into a tie with Harvard for third place in the league standings.
Here are three Tiger Takeaways from Princeton’s 15th consecutive win overall and 16th straight win over Brown:
1. Cold starts continue to plague Princeton
Last Monday, the Tigers dug themselves into a pit against Harvard after turning the ball over five times in the first quarter.
Today, it was frigid shooting that got Princeton off to a bad start.
The Tigers missed 10 of their first 11 shots and finished the first stanza with only nine points for the second game in a row.
The recent slow starts echo a pattern from the beginning of the season when Princeton consistently stumbled in the early going, only to find its footing in the second half of games.
The Tigers have now lost the first period seven times this season, an unusual statistic for a nationally ranked team with only one loss on the season.
Some of this can be explained by Princeton having played only seven of its first 18 games at home.
In fact, of the seven contests the Tigers have trailed at the end of the first quarter, only two have been at home. It’s harder to get in sync and find the range in enemy territory than in the friendly confines of Jadwin Gymnasium.
But knowing that slow starts have been an issue this season, perhaps the Tigers need to begin games focusing on high percentage shots and drives to the hoop to draw fouls.
Despite having matchup advantages with Brown at several positions, the Tigers settled for long jumpers for most of the first half, earning zero trips to the charity stripe before intermission.
2. Halftime adjustments helped awaken the slumbering Tigers
During the intermission, it was clear coach Carla Berube instructed her team to attack the basket.
On Princeton’s first possession of the second half, Madison St. Rose took the ball straight to the cup for an and-one hoop (although she missed the bonus free throw). It was the senior co-captain’s first tally of the day and a signal that Princeton intended to play with more aggression.
“We knew that we definitely weren’t playing as hard as we could [in the first half],” Fadima Tall told ESPN+ after the game. “We weren’t giving enough effort.”
Tall hit back-to-back moonshots early in the second stanza to erase Brown’s first quarter lead, but it was her play making in the post in the second half, along with that of teammate Olivia Hutcherson, that allowed Princeton ultimately to assert its dominance in the contest.
When Tall wasn’t driving to the hoop and generating old-fashioned three point plays, she was threading entry passes to Hutcherson, who converted back-to-back fadeaway jumpers in the paint early in the fourth quarter to stem a Brown comeback effort.
The play of the game came at the seven-minute mark of the third quarter when Tall out-muscled Grace Arnolie for a loose ball and then threw it down court from her knees to a streaking St. Rose who collected the ball and deposited it for two points to give the Tigers a 31-27 lead.
3. Toby Nweke may be the best sixth player in the league
Once again, Toby Nweke came off the bench to boost the Tigers on both offense and defense.
The sophomore sharpshooter hit back-to-back treys to suppress a Brown push early in the fourth quarter. She also collected three rebounds and finished with 10 points, third-highest on the team, in 23 minutes of playing time.
Nweke has been by far Berube’s most reliable and impactful player off the bench this season, although Emily Eadie also made waves today by rattling in a three at the end of the first half, her first triple of the season.
Nweke would probably start on any other Ivy League squad, but on this Princeton team of destiny, it’s hard to crack the starting lineup when all five starters average double-digit scoring.
And yet Nweke is on the brink of becoming a sixth Princeton player to average double-digits.
The 5-foot-10 guard from Woodbine, Md. is averaging over eight points per game in her last seven games and has developed into a solid defender and rebounder in addition to her scoring ability.
The emergence of Nweke provides a much-needed outlet for Berube and her staff when either of Princeton’s starting guards, Skye Belker and Ashley Chea, has an off night or needs a break.
Princeton will return home for two of the most important games of the season.
The Tigers will host Columbia on Friday night and Cornell the following day in their first of three upcoming back-to-back Ivy League weekends.
The Lions were the only team to beat Princeton at Jadwin last season, something that likely will be on top of mind for Berube’s club as they prepare for the weekend slate.
Brown will travel to Hanover and Cambridge for back-to-back contests against Dartmouth and Harvard.