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The Princeton women’s basketball team must have enjoyed coming back in the fourth quarter so much on Sunday at Georgia Tech that it decided to do it all over again on Wednesday night at Villanova.
Trailing the Wildcats 57-50 at the end of the third quarter, the Tigers once again turned the screws on their hosts, outscoring Villanova 23-11 in the fourth quarter to steal a 73-68 win at Finneran Pavilion.
While politicians in Washington blame each other for the government shutdown, the Princeton women’s basketball team refused to let flight delays likely caused by the shutdown spoil their season opener against Georgia Tech on Sunday afternoon.
Despite a 12-hour flight delay that resulted in a 3 a.m. arrival at the team hotel last night, the Tigers rallied in the fourth quarter to defeat the Yellow Jackets, 67-61, at McCamish Pavilion in Atlanta.
The game was a triumphant homecoming for junior Olivia Hutcherson, a native of Johns Creek, Ga., who told the ACC Extra announcers before the game, “I have all of Johns Creek here.” The defensive star didn’t disappoint her fan base, tallying a career-high 15 points and grabbing six rebounds.
Hutcherson also played her usual lockdown defense, helping the Tigers claw 26 turnovers from Georgia Tech, including 10 in the fourth quarter.
“Olivia was amazing,” coach Carla Berube told Ivy Hoops Online. “What she was able to do on both ends kept us in the game in the first half when our shots weren’t falling.”
The release of the Ivy League preseason media poll and 2025-26 Media Day revealed Princeton as the favorite heading into the 2025-26 season, followed by three-time defending champion Columbia, 2025 Ivy Madness title-holder Harvard in third and Penn rounding out the upper half of the conference.
Brown, which has tied the Quakers for fourth place the last two years, is the clear choice for the fifth slot. Dartmouth, Cornell and Yale are pegged for the last three spots, with the Big Green one point ahead of the Big Red and seven points in front of the Bulldogs.
In less than a week, the Princeton men’s and women’s basketball teams will tip off their new seasons, and for the first time since 2016, neither program will enter the campaign as the defending Ivy League champion.
What are the prospects for the Orange and Black returning to the top of the Ivy League standings in 2025-26? Let’s investigate the probabilities for both programs, starting with the women:
The 2025-26 Ivy women’s basketball season tips off Friday, so it’s time for Ivy Hoops Online’s preseason poll – not to be confused with the Ivy League-released media preseason poll. Here’s how our contributors collectively predict the league will shake out, with select observations from some of them:
Princeton women’s basketball coach Carla Berube joins Ivy Hoops Online contributor Steve Silverman for an in-depth reflection on her program heading into the 2025-26 campaign, going over how Madison St. Rose looks coming back from injury, the Tigers’ standout Class of 2027, how the team’s offensive attack will be different this season, Princeton’s difficulty of mining the transfer portal, the team’s loaded nonconference schedule and much more:
Last March, the Princeton women’s basketball team reaffirmed a valuable lesson as it celebrated earning its sixth consecutive bid to the NCAA Tournament: If you play a challenging schedule and win games, the NCAA Tournament selection committee will reward you.
The Tigers on Wednesday released their schedule for the upcoming 2025-26 season, and once again, it’s loaded with top opponents.
The schedule includes 13 nonconference matchups, only four of which will be played within the friendly confines of Jadwin Gymnasium. The remaining nine games will be played either on the road or at a Thanksgiving week tournament site that has yet to be announced.
Overall, the Tigers will face at least two teams from the Big Ten, three teams from the Big East, two teams from the Atlantic 10, two teams from the American Conference, an ACC team, and a Missouri Valley Conference opponent, in addition to a full slate of Ivy League matchups. There are no cupcakes on this schedule.
The Princeton Tigers women’s basketball team probably wishes that third quarters could be dropped from the NCAA Tournament.
For the second year in a row, the Tigers squandered a first-half lead in the Big Dance, losing on Wednesday night in the opening game of the 2025 NCAA Tournament to fellow No. 11 seed Iowa State, 68-63, in a play-in game at Purcell Pavilion on the Notre Dame campus in South Bend, Ind.
The Ivy League’s dream of a three-bid Ivy came to fruition on Sunday night when the final invitation to the Big Dance went to the Princeton Tigers.
“It’s awesome,” Princeton coach Carla Berube told reporters on Monday afternoon. “We have a email chain going with the whole Ivy League and head coaches and, yeah, I mean, we’re thrilled, but we’re not shocked or surprised, and we know just the level of basketball and how talented our student athletes are. And we’re going about it the right way with our nonconference schedules and how we have to build that up.”
Princeton, a No. 11 seed, will face off in a play-in game against Iowa State, also a No. 11 seed, in the opening game of the NCAA Tournament on Wednesday at 7 p.m. ET in South Bend, Ind. The winner will face No. 6 Michigan on Friday.
Here are three thoughts about Princeton’s bid and tomorrow’s matchup against the Iowa State Cyclones:
PROVIDENCE, R.I. – It was Turner Time at the Pizz.
With an at-large berth to the NCAA Tournament likely on the line, Ivy League Player of the Year Harmoni Turner erupted for 44-points and led No. 3-seeded Harvard to a 70-67 win over No. 2 Princeton in the semifinals of the Ivy League Tournament. The win advances Harvard to Saturday’s championship game against No. 1 Columbia, which defeated No. 4 Penn in Friday’s first semifinal matchup, 60-54.
Turner’s 44 points broke her own record for most points in a game by a Harvard player, set earlier in the season against Boston College, and shattered the record for an individual performance by a player, men’s or women’s, at the Ivy League Tournament.