When hostilities got underway in the first Ivy League Tournament action in three years, it was obvious that the Crimson were inspired by the gravity of the situation. They gave the Tigers all they could handle.
In the end, however, the Tigers held on in the closest Ivy game in Carla Berube’s two-season career at Princeton, 72-67. The Tigers needed six straight free throws from Kaitlyn Chen and Grace Stone in the closing moments.
“Is there even a clock in March?” – Yale head coach Allison Guth in response to a question about the possibility of playing two games against higher seeds in 26 hours
Congratulations to Carla Berube and her Tiger quintet upon clinching at least a tie for the Ivy League regular season championship, her second in two seasons. The Tigers achieved their goal by soundly thumping their closest pursuers, the Columbia Lions, 73-53, at a delightfully packed Levien Gym on Wednesday afternoon. Can Kyrie’s return to Brooklyn be far behind?
As the calendar moves into February, we have reached the midpoint of the Ivy season. While this weekend brings the first back-to-back games of the season, Saturday night looks to be the more pivotal evening for the women’s division. Each game pits teams from the four tiers of the conference against one another.
The second meeting between the Tigers and the Big Red was a bigger blowout than the first. On Jan. 8, the Berube Brigade rolled over the Big Red in Ithaca, 65-41. This evening’s rematch at Jadwin Gym was a defensive tour de force for the Tigers as they held Cornell to 9.25 points per quarter while scoring 18.75 themselves.
The question going into their game Monday against Princeton was whether the Penn women, who have been inconsistent, could put together their best game against the Ivies’ best. The Quakers played well, but the Tigers played so much better, winning 70-50.
The overmatched Brown Bears were spanked by Carla Berube’s Princeton Tigers on Saturday in Providence, 72-39.
The vaunted Tiger defense had single-digit yields in the first (nine) and third (eight) quarters, holding the Bears to under 10 per period for the game.
On offense, Ellie Mitchell was the first of four Tigers to register 12 points for the game. Mitchell went 6- for-6 in the first quarter, an unusual output for the rebounding and defensive specialist. The Tigers led 24-8 after one period and never trailed. Mitchell collected her usual 11 rebounds to record her fifth career double-double.
Abby Meyers, Julia Cunningham and Kaitlyn Chen also contributed 12 points each to fuel the runaway.
Berube used the lopsided contest as an opportunity to give 14 players the chance for some game action. Chet Nweke went 4-for-4 from the field in 13 minutes.
The Tigers could not be accused of looking ahead to Monday’s visit to The Palestra where their bitter rivals, the Penn Quakers, await. Penn-Princeton meetings are always fun and usually offer a surprise or two. Stream the game on ESPN+.
Consistent with her strategic plan to challenge her team, Carla Berube squeezed in a very difficult matchup for the Tigers’ final out-of-conference game of the season. She invited to Jadwin Gym another group of Tigers, the Towson Tigers of the Colonial Athletic Association – a top 50 club nationally.