Carla Berube

SALT LAKE CITY – Trailing by 18 points in the third quarter at Utah Sunday, the Princeton women’s basketball team had a choice:  throw in the towel, as they did on Friday night at Portland, or fight back.

This time, the Tigers fought back but fell just short at Utah in a 79-76 defeat against a powerful Utah team hosting at the Jon M. Huntsman Center.

Less than 48 hours after suffering their worst defeat in more than two years, the Tigers found themselves once again on the brink with 2:29 to play in the third quarter. They trailed 62-44 and appeared to be headed toward another demoralizing defeat.

But Fadima Tall and her Tiger teammates had other ideas.  The sophomore swing player from Silver Spring, Md. hit back-to-back jumpers to shave the deficit to 14.  Tall finished the game second in scoring for Princeton with 13 points on 5-for-12 shooting.

A corner three by Skye Belker with 30 second left in the third quarter completed a 7-0 Princeton run and sparked hope for a comeback.

The Tigers’ rally continued in the final stanza.  A fadeaway jumper in the paint by senior forward Katie Thiers gave Princeton the first points of the fourth quarter.

Then after getting a stop, the Tigers beat Utah’s 1-2-2 zone press and Belker scored an easy layup to get the deficit under q0, 64-55, with eight minutes and change to play. Belker led all scorers with 24 points on an incredible 8-for-9 shooting performance, including 5-for-6 from behind the arc.

A rare three by Thiers further cut the deficit further to seven, 65-58, with 7:17 to play.  A steal by Tall led to a reverse layup by Ashley Chea, and suddenly it was a two-possession ball game.

But Utah pushed back.  Gianna Kneepkens, a junior who played well against Princeton when the teams last met in the second round of the 2023 NCAA Tournament, drove to the hoop and drew a foul on Thiers.  The 6-foot guard from Duluth, Minn. sank both free throws to restore Utah’s seven-point lead with just over six minutes left in the game.

Utah again deployed a 1-2-2 press, but Chea beat it with ease and found Belker in the corner for a signature trey.  Utah immediately responded with a three of its own by Reese Ross to make it 70-63 with 5:45 to go.

But the Tigers refused to yield. After beating Utah’s press again, Belker drove into the paint, splitting two defenders and finishing off the glass for a layup.  The deficit was down to five again.

After the final media timeout, the teams traded turnovers before Parker Hill pivoted in the lane and arched a layup off the glass over Mayè Tourè, Utah’s 6-foot-3 center, for the fourth time in the game.  Hill finished with eight points on 4-for-4 shooting.

The deficit was now only three.

After a Princeton stop, Chea found Belker open on the wing.  The sophomore sensation drilled a three, her fifth of the game, to knot the contest at 72 with 2:52 to play.  The crowd was getting antsy.

Utah punched back with a drive and finish by Kneepkens to put the Utes back on top by two.  A Tiger turnover resulted in a clutch trey by Matyson Wilke, and it looked like the Utes would survive after all.  The home team led by five, 77-72, with just under two minutes to go.

But the Tigers weren’t done. Freshman Toby Nweke made the biggest bucket of her young collegiate career when she swished a corner trey to make it a one possession game again, 77-75.  Berube called timeout.

After getting a stop, Princeton had a chance to tie or take the lead.

The Tigers put the ball in the hands of Belker, who drove into the lane.  The referees whistled her for a charge, a questionable call that caused Berube to fall to her knees in protest on the sideline.  The officiating had tilted toward the home team throughout the contest, including eight straight foul calls against Princeton to start the game.

Trailing by two with under a minute to play, the Tigers badly needed a stop, and they got it when Hill blocked and rebounded Jenna Johnson’s attempted layup.  Chea then took the ball aggressively to the hoop and drew a foul, but the sophomore sharp shooter only converted 1 of 2 free throws.

The Tigers were within a single point, 77-76, with 40 seconds left on the clock.

Once again the Tigers needed a stop and once again they got it when Matyson Wilke was whistled for an offensive foul with 11 seconds to go.  The home town crowd of over 4,000 howled in protest, but the referees had called Princeton for similar infractions multiple times throughout the game.  Turnabout was fair play.

Berube called timeout to set up a game-winning play, but with eight ticks left, the officials called a touch foul on Utah’s Inês Vieira, sending Belker to the line with a chance to put the Tigers in front for the first time since early in the first quarter.

An 87% free throw shooter last season, Belker missed the first shot a bit long. The crowd roared in approval.  Perhaps overcompensating for the first miss, Belker short-armed the second shot, barely grazing the rim.  A Utah rebound sealed Princeton’s fate.

Two free throws by Kneepkens finished the scoring and Utah escaped with a win, 79-76.

After the game, a gracious Belker agreed to talk about her missed free throws.

“It was really hard to get back to a point where we could get it down to free throws, and in the future I’ll be hitting those,” Belker said with a broad smile.

Although the record book will reflect this game as a loss, the way the Tigers fought back provided a young Princeton squad with something to build on.

“[D]uring a timeout, . . . I said to them, we can either let this game go the way it went on Friday night, or we can really, you know, fight back and compete and and get back into this game, get stops and . . . let that fuel our offense,” coach Carla Berube told Ivy Hoops Online after Princeton’s effort at Utah fell short.  “And so we did that, and we had our opportunities to to win the game. And so I was really proud of them for just fighting back, for competing, for playing Princeton basketball, [the] type of basketball the way we we know that we’re capable of playing.”

While the Tigers can feel proud of their comeback, they certainly will not be satisfied to finish any game with a loss.

“Down 18, [I’m] very, very proud of us, however, it’s not like it’s complete happiness, because we could have won that game,” Fadima Tall told Ivy Hoops Online. “We’re all upset we didn’t, but this was a huge step for us this season.  And now we have the ability to win these types of games in March and in January, Ivy League games start, so it’s not all tears.”

For the Tigers (5-4), the loss concluded a brutal road swing in which Princeton played eight of its first nine contests away from Jadwin Gym.  The good news for the Orange and Black is that the Tigers will play their next seven games at home, staring on Wednesday night at 7 p.m. ET against the Rhode Island Rams.