Princeton men’s basketball awakens, pounds Portland at the Myrtle Beach Invitational

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Princeton guard Xaivian Lee turns the corner on Portland guard Vukasin Masic in a consolation matchup at the Myrtle Beach Invitational at the HTC Center in Conway, S.C. on Nov. 24, 2024. (Steve Silverman | Ivy Hoops Online)

CONWAY, S.C. – The Princeton men’s basketball team came alive on a bright Sunday morning in South Carolina to rout the University of Portland, 94-67, for seventh place at the Myrtle Beach Invitational.

The win was a welcome relief for Princeton coach Mitch Henderson and his squad after the Tigers had dropped the two previous contests of the tournament to Wright State on Thursday night and Texas State on Friday night at the HBC Arena in Conway, S.C.

The Tigers had to set their alarm clocks for a consolation game that started at 10:30 a.m ET, but the early tip must have suited the three-time defending Ivy League champions (5-3), who exploded for 52 points in the first half and largely put the game away in the first 20 minutes.

Asked after the game what Princeton’s motivation was to win this game, Henderson dryly replied, “Seventh place is better than eighth place.  That’s what I told them.”

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Princeton women’s basketball routs Rutgers, 66-49

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Princeton women’s basketball beat up Rutgers Sunday at Jersey Mike’s Arena, 66-49, before a crowd of 2,281.

The Tigers were tasked with having to take Rutgers senior guard Destiny Adams out of the game. Adams was averaging 21.7 points and 12 rebounds per game, the latter clip good for third in the country.

Princeton coach Carla Berube called Adams “a monster inside” to the Big Ten Plus announcers before the game.

The Tigers tamed the monster.

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Yale men’s basketball demolishes Fairfield, 91-66

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Revenge is sweet.

Yale exacted some against Fairfield Saturday, 91-66, in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame Tip-Off at the Mohegan Sun.

Last season, Fairfield stunned Yale, 75-71, at John J. Lee Amphitheater. The Bulldogs wouldn’t let that happen again en route to what became the 400th win of his coaching career.

“That was a really good Yale basketball win,” Jones said, adding that the 400-win achievement “[j]ust means I have been around a long time.”

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Harvard women’s basketball cruises to 75-50 victory over Northwestern

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If there’s any more conference realignment on the horizon, the Harvard women may want to consider heading over to the Big Ten. For the second time this year, the Crimson traveled to the Midwest and came away with a victory.

While Harvard (6-1) needed overtime to defeat then-No. 25 Indiana, 72-68, on Nov. 7, it easily handled Northwestern (1-3), 70-65, on Saturday afternoon.

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Princeton men’s basketball’s Myrtle Beach Invitational woes persist in loss to Texas State

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Junior forward Caden Pierce jumps ball against Texas State forward Tylan Pope in the Myrtle Beach Invitational at the HTC Center in Conway, S.C. on Nov. 22, 2024. (Steve Silverman | Ivy Hoops Online)

CONWAY, S.C. – The woes continued on Friday night for the Princeton men’s basketball team as the three-time defending Ivy League champions dropped a hard-fought contest to the Texas State Bobcats, 83-80, in a consolation bracket matchup at the Myrtle Beach Invitational tournament in South Carolina.

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Princeton women’s basketball’s Madison St. Rose out for the season with ACL injury

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Princeton’s Madison St. Rose launches a three-point shot over West Virginia’s Kyah Watson in NCAA Tournament first-round action at Hawkeye Carver Arena in Iowa City, Iowa on March 23, 2024. (Steve Silverman | Ivy Hoops Online)

Princeton Athletics announced Friday that standout junior shooting guard Madison St. Rose will miss the remainder of the 2024-25 basketball season due to an anterior cruciate ligament tear in her left knee.

St. Rose suffered the injury last week in the fourth quarter of a road contest against Quinnipiac, which the Tigers lost, 74-66.

The extent of the injury was not immediately known, and fans of St. Rose have been waiting with a sense of dread for several days for more definitive news on the junior’s status.

St. Rose did not play in Princeton’s stirring win at Seton Hall last night, an ominous hint that her injury might be serious.

Princeton coach Carla Berube released a statement Friday expressing optimism that St. Rose will make a full recovery:

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Penn women’s basketball loses in overtime to UC Irvine, 72-68

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The Penn women’s basketball team took another few steps forward Thursday night at the Palestra but came up short in overtime, 72-68, against the University of California at Irvine.
Both sides were tantalizingly close to taking the win in regulation. With a bit more than five minutes left, a three-pointer on a fast break put Irvine up, 60-57. And as the next three minutes ticked away, neither team could score until Penn freshman forward Katie Collins took a pass from Saniah Caldwell and hit a three to tie the game again. A layup for Irvine was quickly followed by another Penn three, this one from freshman Ashna Tambe on a feed from Mataya Gayle. And that one-point Penn lead lasted through an excruciating 90 seconds of missed shots and turnovers for both sides until Irvine’s Hunter Hernandez missed one foul shot but sank the second with five seconds left to send the game into overtime.

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Princeton men’s basketball falls in Myrtle Beach Invitational to Wright State, 80-62

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Princeton forward Caden Pierce shoots over Wright State forward Michael Imariagbe in the Myrtle Beach Invitational first-round action at the HTC Center in Conway, S.C. on Nov. 21, 2024. (Steve Silverman | Ivy Hoops Online)

CONWAY, S.C. — The Princeton men’s basketball team got a dose of its own medicine in the opening round of the Myrtle Beach Invitational in South Carolina on Thursday night.

Facing the Wright State Raiders for the first time in program history, the Tigers lost by 18 points, 80-62, to a hot-shooting, energized team that moved the ball well, protected the defensive glass and converted open threes, all things the Tigers usually take pride in doing themselves.

Princeton coach Mitch Henderson didn’t mince words after the game.

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Yale men’s basketball dominates in 86-64 win at Stony Brook

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Yale came close to playing the perfect first stanza en route to a convincing 86-64 road win over Stony Brook Wednesday evening.

Yale (3-3) held a 48-28 lead at the half. The Bulldogs were 8-for-13 from three and held a 22-16 rebounding edge. They outscored Stony Brook (2-3) in the paint, 16-8.

Senior guard John Poulakidas, the game’s leading scorer, had 15 points at halftime and hit his first six shots.

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Quakeaway from Penn men’s basketball’s 93-49 loss at Villanova

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Disheartening. Discouraging. Disgusting.

Whatever negative adjective you’d want to throw out would probably apply to how Penn performed in a 93-49 loss at Villanova on Tuesday night.

That 44-point margin of defeat is the worst loss Penn has ever suffered against the Wildcats in a series that spans 71 games and dates back to 1910. The prior record-holder was the 43-point loss Penn took to Villanova in the 1971 Elite Eight, which ruined an undefeated season for the Quakers and is widely considered the worst defeat in program history.

This team is galaxies away from that 1970-71 squad. The Quakers actually played pretty well offensively in the early stages on Tuesday, using good ball movement and better three-point shooting to draw even with the Wildcats at the under-eight media timeout in the first half.

What happened from there was nothing short of a collapse. Penn went roughly 14 minutes of game time without scoring a field goal as Villanova used red-hot outside shooting to put together a killer 30-3 run.

As for Tyler Perkins, who got his first chance on Tuesday to face his former Penn teammates after his offseason transfer up the Main Line to ‘Nova? The sophomore guard scored seven points before the game’s first media timeout and finished a rebound shy of a double-double.

There is only one Quakeaway that merits mentioning after Tuesday’s humiliation:

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