Is there such a thing as a good loss in college basketball? If you’re a top-25 team riding a 15-game winning streak, probably not.
And yet …
Home of the Roundball Poets
Is there such a thing as a good loss in college basketball? If you’re a top-25 team riding a 15-game winning streak, probably not.
And yet …
The Columbia women’s basketball team toppled No. 25 Princeton, 67-65, before a sold out and raucous crowd at Levien Gymnasium on Senior Day. The win pulled Columbia (19-5, 10-1 Ivy) into a tie with Princeton (20-4, 10-1) for first place in the Ivy League with three games remaining for each team in the regular season. Both teams have already clinched spots in the Ivy League tournament, which will be held in three weeks at Columbia.
After nearly spoiling its undefeated Ivy League season at Brown on Friday night, the Princeton women’s basketball team rode into New Haven on Saturday looking to make a statement as it closed out a back-to-back road weekend in the Ivy League.
Statement made.
No. 25 Princeton women’s basketball notched a 67-54 win at archrival Penn Saturday. Tigers coach Carla Berube reflects on the clutch play of senior forward Ellie Mitchell, senior guard Chet Nweke’s emergence as a leader and more after the win for Princeton (18-3, 8-0 Ivy) over Penn (11-10, 3-5) with Ivy Hoops Online contributor George “Toothless Tiger” Clark:
For the second time in 24 hours, the No. 25 Princeton Tigers fought off a fierce challenge from an Ivy foe, defeating the Brown Bears, 76-63, on Saturday night at Jadwin Gymnasium.
The Princeton women’s basketball team held off a determined Yale squad on Friday night at Jadwin Gymnasium, 79-59, to stay undefeated in Ivy League play.
Princeton (16-3, 6-0 Ivy) entered the first back-to-back weekend of the Ivy League campaign sporting a shiny, new No. 25 ranking in both the AP Top 25 and Coaches polls, but that honor appeared to hang like a lead weight around the Tigers’ neck early in this contest.
The contrast in demeanor could not have been starker.
Trailing 3-2 at the 8:23 mark of the first quarter, Columbia coach Megan Griffith gathered her team while officials reviewed a play to check for possible head contact. Griffith smiled broadly, exuding confidence as she leaned into her team’s huddle. Her players listened and nodded while she spoke, their arms wrapped around each other in a tight circle.
On the other sideline, a grim-looking Carla Berube paced while her Princeton players stood apart from each other, hands of their hips.
Was there meaning in this moment? Did Griffith’s sureness foretell an upset or was she simply trying to radiate belief in her team in the biggest game of the Ivy League season so far?
Ivy Hoops Online contributor George “Toothless Tiger” Clark brings us the postgame press conference after a 80-65 win for Princeton women’s basketball (14-3, 4-0 Ivy) over Columbia (12-5, 3-1) in a key matchup in the Ivy League championship race Saturday. Senior guard Chet Nweke, sophomore guard Madison St. Rose, freshman guard Skye Belker and coach Carla Berube held court at the presser after engineering the win on the court at Jadwin Gym:
Ivy Hoops Online contributor Rob Browne recaps the action:
The Tigers, winners of nine straight, claimed sole possession of first place in the Ancient Eight, while the Lions, which had their own 10-game winning streak stopped, slipped into a three-way tie for second place with Harvard and Brown.
Princeton women’s basketball delivered one of its best defensive performances of the season to notch a wire-to-wire win over Harvard, 72-49, Saturday afternoon at Lavietes Pavilion.
Although this contest was billed as a rematch of the 2023 Ivy League Tournament championship game, also won by Princeton, the Tigers might have had revenge on their minds dating back to last season’s road trip to Lavietes. A year ago, the Tigers lost their Ivy opener at Harvard in shocking fashion, 67-59. It was the first league loss for Carla Berube in her coaching tenure at Princeton.
Kaitlyn Chen put the Princeton women’s basketball team on her back and carried the Tigers over the finish line on Monday night in a thrilling 61-58 triumph over the Villanova Wildcats at Finneran Pavilion.