The No. 23 Princeton women’s basketball team rediscovered its identity en route to victory in the second half of Friday night’s clash with arch-rival Penn.
Trailing by two at the intermission, the Tigers (19-2, 7-1 Ivy) deployed their trademark suffocating defense to fuel a second-half rally and defeat Penn, 69-50, at Jadwin Gymnasium.
“We were turning the ball over a lot in the beginning of the game, and that was giving them a lot of easy buckets,” Olivia Hutcherson, told ESPN+ after being named the Player of the Game. “But we turned it around. We took care of the ball, we found the open players and we made our shots. And I think that made a big difference for us.”
The Tigers got out to a fast start in this one, something they’ve struggled with throughout the season.
Princeton coach Carla Berube shook up the starting lineup by inserting Toby Nweke in place of Ashley Chea and Taylor Charles in place of Fadima Tall. The gambit worked as Princeton executed to near-perfection in the early going.
A layup and three-pointer by Madison St. Rose, back in the lineup after missing most of last weekend’s action due to injury, drove Princeton in a fast-paced beginning to the game.
Princeton led by four, 15-11, at the end of the first stanza.
In the second quarter, Princeton expanded its lead to 26-17 behind a second-chance three-pointer by Skye Belker with under five minutes to go. Belker finished with 16 points, including 4-for-7 shooting from behind the arc.
But then Penn suddenly shifted into high gear.
Four consecutive field goals by Mataya Gayle sparked a 13-2 run by the Quakers to close out the first half, and remarkably, Penn led at the intermission by two, 30-28, despite trailing for 77% of the game.
The Quakers were paced in the first half by Gayle’s 10 points on 4-for-5 shooting. The junior playmaker from Woodstock, Ga., finished with a team-high 16 points, but also committed a team high three turnovers and missed all three of her three-point attempts.
In the third quarter, the Tigers came out with high energy and seized control of the game.
A moonshot corner three and put-back layup by Tall sparked the Tigers to a 9-2 run late in the stanza as the Tigers finally opened up their first double-digit lead of the game, 52-41, with just under two minutes to play in the third quarter.
A drive to the hoop and finish by Gayle on Penn’s last possession cut Princeton’s lead to nine, 52-43, and gave the visitors hope for a fourth-quarter rally.
But a Princeton blitzkrieg to open the final stanza quickly dashed any hope of a Penn comeback.
A nifty inside-outside exchange between Hutcherson and Toby Nweke resulted in a corner trey by Nweke. The sophomore guard from Woodbine, Md., tallied seven points, grabbed four rebounds and dished four assists in only her third start of the season.
Then, after the Tigers got a stop, Hutcherson found herself wide open on the block for an easy layup to put the Tigers up 57-43. The Tigers coasted to victory from there, winning by a comfortable margin of 19 points.
Hutcherson led all scorers with 19 points, one shy of her career high, on eight-for-12 shooting. The Ivy League’s leading shooter at 55 percent also grabbed a team high seven rebounds and stole the ball five times, matching her career high.
Here are three Tiger Takeaways from Princeton’s 16th consecutive win over Penn:
1. The Tigers got back to their roots by playing lockdown defense.
With all of the success Princeton has enjoyed so far this season, it’s hard to believe that Berube’s squad is ranked second-to-last in the Ivy League in team defense, ahead only of bottom-dweller Yale.
The Tigers have yielded an average of 64.5 points per game this season, nearly nine more than Brown, the current league leader in points allowed per game.
Some of Princeton’s porousness on defense undoubtedly stems from its rigorous nonconference schedule, which was by far the toughest of any Ivy this season. But even taking into account the quality of Princeton’s early opponents, Princeton’s defensive efficiency has been lacking at times.
Not so on Friday night.
The Tigers guarded Penn closely all night and with great vigor, especially in the second half, when the Tigers took care of the ball and failed to provide the Red and Blue with any fastbreak points off live-ball turnovers.
Princeton’s tenacious defensive effort held Penn to just 20 second-half points, by far the fewest of the season for the latter.
It’s likely no coincidence that Berube’s squad turned in perhaps its best defensive effort of the season after having its 15-game winning streak snapped last weekend by Columbia. The Tigers seem to have used the loss to the Lions at home as fuel to regroup and rediscover their roots as a team that wins first and foremost by getting stops.
Look for the Tigers to build on this trend in the coming weeks as they begin to round into form for the postseason.
2. Olivia Hutcherson has emerged as Princeton’s MVP and top contender for Ivy Player of the Year honors.
An important trademark of Princeton so far this season has been the balanced play of its starters.
The Tigers are the only team in the Ivy League to have all five starters average double-digits in scoring, with St. Rose leading the pack at 16.5 points per game.
Berube and her staff have watched a different group of starters step up to lead the team to victory on any given night.
Early in the season, Tall seemed to be the one carrying the team, especially in crunch time. The junior forward twice won Ivy Player of the Week honors during the nonconference season for her all-around effort and leadership.
In later games, the hero was Skye Belker or Ashley Chea, both of whom have likewise received POTW honors this season.
But there’s no denying that since the beginning of the Ivy League season, Hutcherson has been Princeton’s top performer and primary scoring threat.
Hutcherson has averaged 14.4 points per game since conference play began and leads the team in scoring in Ancient Eight contests.
She has taken over games with her dominating play in the paint and indefatigable defense.
Hutcherson is the current reigning co-Ivy Player of the Week, an award she has won twice in the past five weeks.
With her difference-making performance again tonight against Penn, Hutcherson may be poised to win a third POTW award on Monday.
3. Injuries continue to plague Princeton.
While Princeton continues to rack up wins and remains in sole possession of first place in the Ivy League, injuries keep nagging the Tigers and clouding their prospects for winning an Ivy League championship.
Tall went to the bench late in the third quarter, holding her shoeless right foot and wincing in pain. Tall never returned to action.
Princeton’s leading rebounder and most fearless defender has been ailing off and on all season with a series of nagging injuries.
Last weekend, it was St. Rose who was forced to the bench after tweaking her right knee in the third quarter of the Columbia game.
Taken together, Tall and St. Rose have missed all or part of five of Princeton’s last seven games, a concerning trend for a Tigers squad that has never been able to dress more than 10 players this season.
Princeton will hit the road next week for the most important back-to-back weekend of the season, beginning with a Friday night game at Columbia and concluding on Saturday with a contest at Cornell.
The Tigers will be hunting for revenge against the Lions in a game scheduled to be nationally televised on ESPNU at 6 p.m. ET.
Penn (13-8, 3-5) will make the same road trip as Princeton, but in reverse order, playing at Cornell on Friday at 6 p.m. and on Saturday at Columbia at 5 p.m.
The Quakers likely will need to achieve a weekend split at a minimum to remain in contention for a berth to Ivy Madness in March.
Thanks for the report, Steve. A few notes on Penn’s performance:
That impressive first half carried impressive numbers, of which this was most important: 52%. Penn hit 13 of its 25 shots in the first two quarters. That’s heady stuff.
After the break things fell apart, slowly at first, then completely. A 5-for-16 third quarter yielded to a 2-of-13 fourth (15.4%). That’s not a function of a smothering Princeton defense so much as of a Penn offense that went off the rails.
Mataya Gayle and Simone Sawyer had great games regardless. Each scored 16 points with few wasted shots (Sawyer hitting six of 10, Gayle seven of 15). Each played relentless defense. But Penn’s bigs — Tina Njike and Katie Collins — struggled against Princeton’s and were rushing shots as a result.
Penn Coach Mike McLaughlin said after the first Princeton game that holding the Tigers to 76 points was an accomplishment. His mix of 3-2 and man defenses was even more effective this time.
A defeat of this Princeton team would have been remarkable for this Penn team, though we’ve seen twice this season that it could happen. Even as unpredictable as the Ivies are this year, I bet the Quakers will be back at Cornell in March for the tournament.