The No. 1-seeded Princeton women’s basketball team takes on No. 4 Brown on Friday at 4:30 p.m. in the first of two semifinal matches to open the eighth edition of Ivy Madness at Newman Arena on the Cornell campus in Ithaca, N.Y.
With a freshly minted, outright Ivy League regular season title under their belt, the Tigers, ranked No. 23 in the nation, enter the Ivy League Tournament as the favorites to cut down the nets.
The Brown Bears, on the other hand, arrive at Ivy Madness for the first time in nine years and just the second time in program history.
Carla Berube’s Tigers swept Monique LeBlanc’s Bears in the regular season series, persevering in a competitive game in Providence, 58-49, on Jan. 24, and then overpowering the Bears in the return matchup at Princeton, 69-37, on Feb. 21.
Overall, Princeton has dominated Brown this century, winning 43 of the last 52 meetings between the two programs dating back to the 1999-2000 season.
Berube has never lost to Brown during her seven-year coaching tenure at Princeton. In fact, the Tigers are riding a 17-game winning streak against the Bears, dating back to the 2016-17 campaign.
What should we expect to see in the third clash this season and 94th overall meeting between these two rivals?
History and experience favor the Tigers, but a “nothing to lose” mentality could give Brown an edge.
It’s clear that Princeton (24-3, 12-2 Ivy) has history and experience working in its favor.
In seven previous editions of Ivy Madness, Princeton has prevailed in nine of 11 games, falling only to No. 1-seeded Penn in 2017 and No. 3-seeded Harvard last year.
The Tigers have won five of the last six Ivy League Tournaments and are battle-tested under the bright lights of the tournament stage.
Brown, on the other hand, has never won a game at Ivy Madness.
The last time Brown (16-10, 8-6 Ivy) appeared in the post-season was 2017, at the inaugural Ivy League Tournament held at the Palestra. The Bears lost in the opening semifinal, 71-60, to the Penn Quakers, who went on to defeat Princeton in the championship game.
Princeton’s edge in experience could play a role in determining the outcome if Friday’s matchup comes down to the wire.
The Tigers have developed a personality of winning in crunch time, outscoring all opponents by 140 points in the fourth quarter (more than five points per game), and coming from behind to win in the final stanza eight times this season, including twice in overtime.
“Those games taught us that when our backs are against the wall, when we’re down, we’re never out,” Berube told reporters at Princeton’s pregame press conference Thursday. “We’re just going to keep fighting and clawing to win these games.”
In contrast, Brown has struggled to meet the moment at times when competing against upper-echelon Ivy teams.
Just two weeks ago, the Bears had then-first-place Columbia on the ropes in the final seconds at the Pizzitola Sports Center.
Trailing by one point, Brown had the ball at halfcourt with seven seconds left on the clock. But senior forward Beth Nelson failed to inbound the ball in time to beat a five-second violation call. Moments later, still with a chance to tie, freshman Isabella Wesley threw an errant pass on another inbounds play, cementing Brown’s defeat.
The loss echoed a similar disappointment last year when Brown had a chance to beat an elite Harvard squad at the Pizz on Feb. 22, 2025.
A win against the Crimson that day likely would have boosted the Bears into Ivy Madness, which Brown was slated to host at the end of the season. But Gianna Aiello missed a game-winning bunny with four seconds to go. The Bears lost the game and missed the postseason for an eighth straight year.
It hasn’t been all bad news for the Bears in close games against top-tier teams. LeBlanc’s squad did hold on to beat Harvard at home earlier this season, 86-82, in a win that made it possible for Brown to finally return to Ivy Madness.
And although Princeton clearly has the edge in experience, there is an argument that Brown’s newcomer status to the postseason may remove pressure and allow the Bears to play looser than a Tigers team burdened by high expectations.
Reminiscing about her first experience as a head coach at the Ivy League Tournament in 2023, Harvard skipper Carrie Moore argued that it’s actually easier to perform as a first-time underdog at Ivy Madness than it is in successive years, especially when it comes down to crunch time.
“I do think that there is a level of looseness that comes with those [final] two minutes, because you’re not supposed to win the game at the end, right?” Moore told reporters at her weekly press conference Tuesday. “You’re not the one seed, you’re not the two seed, and so there is a message that you can say, of like, just go as hard as you can. Just leave it all out there. Surrender to the outcome. And I think that joy, that freedom, makes [Brown] dangerous.”
Is Brown embracing the joy and looseness of being an underdog?
“I see what she means, you know, your first time, you kind of have that feeling of maybe being able to play more loose, nothing to lose,” answered a determined Arnolie at Brown’s pregame presser. “But I just think that we’re looking at ourselves as being on an equal playing field with the teams that we’re up against, and, I just think we have a lot to prove and I’m excited to do that.”
Previous matchups suggest a defensive struggle lies ahead
Brown’s resurgence this season has been fueled by its tenacious defensive play. The Bears rank first in the Ivy League in team defense by allowing only 56.6 points per game, although they drop to fifth place when only Ivy competition is considered.
Defense is usually Princeton’s calling card as well. But this season, it’s been the Tigers’ offense that has powered Princeton to 24 wins in the regular season for the first time since the 2019-20 campaign.
The Tigers rank first in the Ivy League in scoring, averaging 73.1 points per game, compared to Brown’s average of only 61.7, a more than 11-point differential.
Yet a review of the two previous matchups between these teams suggests that how well they defend each other will be the key to the outcome of Friday’s contest.
In both games earlier this season, Brown mixed a collapsing man-to-man defense with a matchup zone against the Tigers.
At first, LeBlanc’s defensive tactics worked. Princeton struggled mightily in the opening minutes of both games against the Bears, missing shots, failing to control the defensive boards, and trailing on the scoreboard.
In the Jan. 24 matchup at Brown, the Bears led at the end of the first quarter, 15-9, one of 11 contests so far this season in which Princeton has trailed at the end of the opening stanza.
But Princeton’s superior athleticism allowed the Tigers to seize control of both games in the second quarter. Led by Fadima Tall, the Tigers turned Brown over and outmuscled the Bears in the paint once they settled down and got into the game.
When Brown traveled to Jadwin just three weeks ago, the Tigers turned the screws, holding the Bears to just 39 points, their lowest offensive output of the season. In a closer contest at Providence, Brown mustered only 49 points against Princeton, their third lowest total of the campaign.
Thus, in two clashes involving two stout defenses, it’s been Princeton, the standard bearer for tenacious defending in the Ivy League for the better part of a decade, that has prevailed.
Will a third matchup between these two elite defenses produce similar results?
Perhaps LeBlanc will have some cards up her sleeve on Friday night.
Although Brown hasn’t pressed Princeton so far this season, a timely deployment of pressure against the Tigers backcourt could unnerve a veteran Princeton squad.
Two key matchups will play an outsize role in determining Friday’s winner
When Brown has the ball, keep an eye on the matchup between Grace Arnolie versus Olivia Hutcherson (and Skye Belker when Hutcherson is on the bench).
This matchup is important because for Brown to prevail on Friday, Arnolie has to have a big game for the Bears, both in terms of scoring and facilitating her teammates, such as Alyssa Moreland, a 5-foot-11 senior who averages a double-double of 11.9 points and 10.4 caroms per game. The leading rebounder in the Ivy League this season, Moreland earned Second Team All-Ivy honors on Tuesday.
Arnolie is a three-level scoring threat who leads Brown with 17.9 points per game, second-highest in the Ivy League. With 1,503 career points coming into the weekend, Arnolie ranks fifth in all-time scoring at Brown. Earlier this week, the 5-foot-8 senior was unanimously voted First-Team All-Ivy for the first time in her illustrious career.
Against Princeton this season, Arnolie has been consistent, tallying 14 points in each of their two previous matchups. But it took her a total of 32 shots to achieve those points, including 4-for-17 from distance.
Berube will likely assign the job of guarding Arnolie to Olivia Hutcherson, a 6-foot forward who drew All-Ivy Honorable Mention recognition after a breakout junior season.
When Hutcherson isn’t in the game, Skye Belker, a tw0-time Second Team All-Ivy guard, will likely defend Arnolie, although Princeton’s active switching scheme means that at any time, virtually any player on the floor wearing orange and black will find themselves trying to contain Arnolie.
Hutcherson’s length and athleticism makes it difficult for Arnolie to find open space to operate, which is one reason she shot only 32% against the Tigers in their two previous matchups this season. Arnolie’s greatest success against Princeton has come after live-ball turnovers or missed shots that allowed the native of Vienna, Va. to get into transition.
Thus, the best way for Princeton to defend Arnolie on Friday will be to limit live-ball turnovers, and react aggressively to missed shots to prevent Arnolie and her teammates from scoring fastbreak points.
“We know that Grace Arnolie is their primary ball-handler and one of their key players, so we just need to make sure that we limit her touches and make it really hard for her to score,” senior co-captain Madison St. Rose told reporters at Thursday’s press conference. “We know she’s a really good scorer, and you know she’s going to make some tough shots, but if we can make all of her shots tough, that would be really good.”
On the other side of the ball, Tall probably creates the biggest matchup headache for Brown, although Madison St. Rose also has a history of scorching the Bears.
After struggling for a stretch of the season with injuries, Tall seems to be rounding into post-season form. The junior forward tallied a game-high 22 points in Princeton’s romp over Yale last weekend on a very efficient eight-for-ten shooting performance.
In Tall’s two games against Brown this year, the Silver Spring, Md. native averaged a double-double of 11.5 points and 10.5 rebounds, and was indomitable in the paint defending, rebounding and snatching the ball away from any Bear who dared to enter her realm.
If Tall, who was named Second Team All-Ivy for the second year in a row (she deserved to be named First Team), turns in a performance similar to her earlier efforts this season, this third tilt with Brown should be a charm for Princeton.
“I still think we have something to prove, because we have unfinished business from last year and last tournament,” Hutcherson said at Thursday’s press conference. “Even though we went to March Madness, we didn’t go the way that we wanted to. So I think this year, we know what we need to do. We’re super-motivated, and we know it really starts tomorrow at the beginning of that game.”