The No. 23 Princeton women’s basketball team wore down Yale on Senior Day at Jadwin Gym, 78-55, to claim its 19th Ivy League regular-season title, the most of any program in Ancient Eight history.
After trailing by 14 points in the first quarter, the Tigers outscored the Bulldogs, 74-37, for their fifth straight win.
Combined with Harvard’s upset of Columbia in Morningside Heights, the win returned Princeton to the top of the Ivy mountain with an outright regular season championship.
Princeton’s come from behind triumph today was the perfect way for senior co-captains Madison St. Rose and Taylor Charles to end their brilliant careers on Peter Carril Court.
Both senior co-captains made key contributions, with St. Rose scoring 17 points on 7-for-11 shooting, while Charles registered a team-high four rebounds and three blocks in her Jadwin finale.
“I’m so happy to be here, to celebrate with my teammates,” St. Rose told ESPN+ after the game. “The fact that it’s my last home game, and the fact that we can celebrate a regular-season title, I couldn’t ask for a better day.”
The day may have ended perfectly for Princeton, but it was Yale that looked like the nationally ranked team in the first five minutes.
The visiting Bulldogs scored on their first three possessions, highlighted by Marisa Chapman’s three-point bomb, to take a 7-0 lead, and forced Carla Berube to burn a timeout only 1:45 into the contest.
After the early time stoppage, the Bulldogs continued to fire on all cylinders, converting their next three possessions into points and stretching their lead to 18-4 with 4:39 remaining in the first quarter.
The Tigers regrouped and fought back.
The comeback began with Skye Belker driving to the hoop for two.
The junior shooting guard from Los Angeles contributed 14 points, including a momentum-shifting, old-fashioned three-point play to end the quarter. Nevertheless, the Bulldogs led 22-15 at the end of the first stanza.
The Tigers continued to elevate their play in the second quarter behind the playmaking of Fadima Tall.
Tall tallied a pair of and-ones in the paint against Yale’s bigs, Ana Guillen and Mary Meng. The 6-foot forward from Silver Spring, Md. led all scorers with 22 points off the bench on a very efficient eight-for-ten shooting performance.
Tall also contributed a team-high five rebounds and four steals to the Tigers’ cause.
A jumper by Ashley Chea at the 3:40 mark of the second quarter finally put the Tigers in front, 30-28.
After that, a seven point scoring spree by reserve guard Toby Nweke helped the Tigers pull away as the home team ran to the locker room with a 40-32 lead at the intermission.
In the third quarter, the Tigers came out cold again, missing their first six shots of the stanza. But Yale had its own struggles, turning the ball over and missing shots.
A gorgeous fallaway jumper from just below the free throw line by St. Rose followed by a strip and score by Princeton’s co-captain gave the Tigers their biggest lead, 52-42, at the end of the third quarter.
In the fourth quarter, Tall put the game away for Princeton. Two free throws, a straight away, moonshot trey, and a long jumper by the junior forward pushed Princeton’s lead to 17, 67-50, with four minutes to play.
From there, the Tigers (24-3, 12-2 Ivy) cruised to victory and then celebrated what turned out to be an unexpected outright championship as the word spread within Jadwin that Columbia had fallen to Harvard.
Here are three Tiger Takeaways from Princeton’s 13th straight win over Yale and 19th Ivy League championship.
1. Princeton’s outright title redeems a special season for the 2025-26 Tigers.
With four returning starters and St. Rose coming back from injury for her senior season, Carla Berube’s squad was picked by the media to win the Ivy League this year after finishing second to the Columbia Lions in the regular season a year ago.
The 2025-26 Tigers have largely lived up to expectations, winning 24 games in the regular season for the first time since the COVID-shortened 2019-20 campaign.
With Ivy Madness looming on the horizon, the Tigers have already accomplished part one of this season’s mission by winning an outright regular season title for the first time in four years.
“It’s an emotional day,” Berube told ESPN+ after descending from the step ladder she used to cut down the final piece of net at Jadwin. “This day is about the seniors and the culmination of their four years and what they’ve given to this program. And we certainly wanted to play really well for them to win the Ivy League regular season championship. And then the icing on the cake, we win it outright, right?”
The outright title not only gives the Tigers the no. 1 seed next weekend at the Ivy League Tournament, it also redeems Princeton’s season after getting swept by Columbia for the second year in a row.
The title restores Princeton to the top of the Ivy mountain, a place they have occupied by themselves for long stretches during the past 16 years.
The Tigers will travel to Ithaca for Ivy Madness sporting a national ranking, an outright Ivy title, and a top 40 NET ranking.
Berube’s Tigers seem to be peaking at just the right time and should be favored to cut down the nets on East Hill a week from today.
2. Madison St. Rose triumphed in her final home game and final season at Princeton.
No one knew what to expect when St. Rose, one of the highest rated recruits in Princeton history, returned to action this season after missing nearly all of her junior year due to a season-ending ACL injury.
At first, St. Rose seemed a bit tentative, expressing uncertainty whether she still had the speed and explosive power she demonstrated as a freshman, when she won Ivy League Rookie of the Year honors, and as a sophomore when she was named Second Team All-Ivy.
Despite a few hiccups and injury concerns, St. Rose’s return to the hardwood has been an inspiring triumph.
The smooth shooting playmaker from Old Bridge, N.J. has led the Tigers in scoring throughout the season, averaging nearly 16 points per game, fourth-best in the Ivy League.
Much has been stated about Princeton’s balance this season with all five starters averaging double digits in scoring.
But only one Tiger, St. Rose, has filled the stat sheet in game after game. Princeton’s other starters have all suffered highs and lows at times during the long campaign.
Throughout the season and again today, St. Rose has been Princeton’s rock.
In today’s game, St. Rose provided her usual, steady leadership, calmly restoring order with a take to the hoop whenever Princeton needed a bucket to quell Yale’s upset intentions. Her 17 points were the second most tallied by a Princeton player in their regular-season finale, as were her three rebounds.
It’s fair to say that without St. Rose’s leadership and consistent production, there’s little chance the Tigers would have been able to cut down the nets at Jadwin Gymnasium this afternoon.
3. Despite another 20-loss season, Yale’s future looks bright.
It may seem difficult to find a silver lining for Yale (7-20, 3-11) after the Bulldogs ended the season with a disappointing record of 20 losses and only three Ivy wins for the second season in a row.
But the good news for Dalila Eshe’s club is that every Bulldog on Yale’s young roster is slated to return next season, save Kiley Capstraw, who will graduate this spring after completing a stellar four-year career wearing the Blue and White.
Capstraw played in her 105th game today for Yale, tallying only four points in her final game as a collegiate player.
The 5-foot-11 guard from South Orange, N.J. has averaged more than 26 minutes per game every one of her four seasons in New Haven and led the Bulldogs in assists the past two seasons.
Despite the loss of Capstraw, Yale has a solid returning corps of talented players, led by Ciniya Moore, who has transformed in her sophomore year into a bona-fide Ivy star. Moore sparkled again today, hitting her season average with 17 points and contributing five rebounds and two assists.
The 5-foot-10 playmaker from Bradenton, Fla. finished her second campaign as the Ivy League’s third leading scorer.
Along with Princeton’s Olivia Hutcherson, Moore should get serious consideration for Ivy League Most Improved Player honors.
In addition to Moore, Yale has a big and talented front court returning in the form of center Mary Meng, a 6-foot-5 center from Grafton, Ohio, and Luisa Vydrova, a 6-foot-1 forward from Prague.
Assuming Eshe can keep her roster intact, look for the Bulldogs to be a factor in the Ancient Eight next season and beyond.