ITHACA, N.Y. – The No. 1-seeded Princeton women’s basketball team opened Ivy Madness in style on Friday afternoon, storming past No. 4 Brown, 65-51, in the opening semifinal at Newman Arena.
A Tigers team that has struggled at times this season to find its footing early in games wasted no time taking control of this contest.
After the Bears won the opening tip, the Tigers forced a turnover and converted a three pointer on a late shot clock bomb by Madison St. Rose. The First Team All-Ivy senior scored the first five points of the game and sparked the Tigers to a 12-3 lead, forcing Brown coach Monique LeBlanc to spend a timeout only five and a half minutes into the contest.
It only got worse for the Bears after that, who were appearing in the post-season for the first time in nine years.
Out of the time stoppage, Taylor Charles swatted away a driving layup attempt by Charlotte Adams-Lopez. Moments later, Olivia Hutcherson made two free throws to put every Princeton starter onto the score sheet only six minutes into the game.
Brown’s disastrous start compounded when Alyssa Moreland, a Second Team All-Ivy forward and the leading rebounder in the Ivy League this season, hit the deck and injured her left leg with a minute left in the first quarter. She never returned to the game.
The Tigers led 23-6 at the end of the first quarter.
“Going into this game, we knew that if we had a bad start again, and let Brown get a lead, then it was going to be a really tough game because they are such a good team,” St. Rose said in the postgame press conference. “So we really made sure that in this game we had a good start. And I feel like we were really sharing the ball. We were executing and just playing really tough defense.”
In the second quarter, Brown continued to miss shots and throw the ball away while Princeton continued to drill three pointers.
A Skye Belker triple pushed Princeton’s lead to 26-6. The junior guard for Los Angeles played only 22 minutes due to the lingering effects of an illness, but she still managed to score 11 points on 3-for-9 shooting, including three three-pointers.
Overall, four Tigers reached double-figures, including St. Rose, who led all scorers with 18 points.
Slowly, the Bears scraped their way back into the game.
Two free throws by Ada Anameweke finally pushed Brown into the double digits, 32-10, at the three-minute mark of the second quarter.
An Arnolie three-pointer just before the buzzer sent the Bears to the locker room with a modicum of hope as the Tigers led 36-14 at the intermission.
Princeton was led by Ashly Chea and St. Rose in the first half, each with seven points, while Brown was led by Arnolie’s five points on 2-for-11 shooting.
Overall, the Bears shot a woeful 4-for-27 from the field for only 14.8%, including an astonishing 1-for-15 from two-point land. Princeton, on the hand, shot 14-for-28, including an impressive 6-for-11 from distance.
In the third quarter, the game turned into a three-point shooting contest.
The fun began with Arnolie picking up where she had left off at the end of the second quarter and hitting a triple to open the scoring.
Back-to-back treys by Tall and Belker pushed the Tigers lead to 47-20, and gave the Tigers a 27-point lead, their largest of the game.
But Brown responded.
A pair of threes by Arnolie followed by back-to-back bombs by Oliva Young shrank Princeton’s lead to 15, 47-32, forcing Tigers coach Carla Berube to call timeout with 4:14 to play in the third quarter.
Looking to restore order, the Tigers went to their reliable senior co-captain, St. Rose, who tallied two runners in the paint, including a pretty shot off the glass, to give Princeton a 51-34 lead with two minutes to play in the stanza. St. Rose led all scorers with 18 points on 6-for-9 shooting. She also added four rebounds and three assists.
After an Arnolie turnover, Princeton had a final possession with four seconds to go in the third quarter. The Tigers ran their standard play to get the ball to Chea, who took a pass from Belker, dribbled to her left, and rose up to swish a mid-range jumper to give Princeton a 53-36 lead going into the final frame.
It was a variation of the same play that Chea has used to beat many foes, including Harvard twice over the past two seasons.
The junior sharpshooter looked like her old self in tonight’s contest, scoring 12 points on 5-for-9 shooting and grabbing eight rebounds, one short of her career high.
“I’m really proud of her,” Berube said postgame. “Everybody knows she’s had a little of a shooting slump this season, but she’s in the gym all the time getting reps, so for her to shoot pretty well tonight, and shooting with a lot of confidence, [I’m] not surprised by that.”
Trailing by 17 with only 10 minutes to play, Brown fought back against the No. 23 Tigers.
Beth Nelson opened the quarter by drainng a three. Moments later, Anamekwe worked her way into the paint and hit a baby hook to narrow the lead to 53-41 with nine minutes to play.
The Tigers countered. A second-chance Chea trey restored Princeton’s lead to fifteen, 56-41.
With just over five minutes to play, LeBlanc decided to deploy a full-court press, hoping to befuddle the Tigers.
The tactic backfired. After receiving a long outlet pass, Toby Nweke dropped the ball to St. Rose in the paint for an easy lay-in to put the Tigers up by 58-43.
But Brown refused to yield.
After a missed three by Arnolie, Oliva Young skied for the offensive board and hit a fadeaway jumper and drew a foul to make it ten-point game, 58-48, with one-minute and change to go.
Young’s bonus free throw was no good, and, from there, the Tigers closed out the game to advance to their seventh Ivy League Tournament championship game in the eight years the tournament has been played.
Brown’s loss does not diminish a resurgent season for the Bears.
“It feels great to be able to look back on my career here and know that I had a great coaching staff behind me and a great team around me the whole time,” reflected Arnolie after the game. “Our senior class just means so much to me, being together all four years. I think as time goes on, that’s less and less common in Division I athletics, and especially basketball. So to be able to have the six of us that have spent all this time together and really just worked super hard together to get to where we wanted to be, it just adds another layer of pride, and I’m just so proud of the work we’ve put in.”
With the win, Princeton (25-3) earns a chance to redeem itself in Saturday’s championship game whether they play Columbia or Harvard, who clash in Friday’s second Ivy Madness semifinal.
The Lions have swept the Tigers during the past two regular seasons, while Harvard ousted Princeton from Ivy Madness last year in a rollercoaster semifinal in Providence.
When asked whether the Tigers have a preferred opponent to emerge from the second semifinal, no Tiger would take the bait.
“We hope it goes into quadruple overtime,” Berube quipped.
The championship game tips on Saturday at 5:30 p.m. and will be televised by ESPNU.