Princeton’s corps of forwards is all smiles in a pregame huddle at the Ivy League Tournament in Providence, RI on Friday. (Steve Silverman | Ivy Hoops Online)
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:
Harvard senior guard Harmoni Turner rises up for a jump shot over Princeton sophomore guard/forward Fadima Tall in semifinal action at the Ivy League Tournament at the Pizzitola Sports Center in Providence, R.I. Friday. (Steve Silverman | Ivy Hoops Online)
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.
The Princeton women’s basketball team closed out the regular season on Saturday afternoon with a satisfying 67-53 win over Penn at the Palestra.
Here are three Tiger Takeaways from a triumph that gave Princeton 20 wins for a seventh consecutive season, tying a program record set during the Courtney Banghart era:
Fadima Tall knocked down a career-high 20 points on 6-for-11 shooting along with 10 rebounds and four steals Saturday as Princeton women’s basketball warmed up for the Ivy League Tournament with a 67-53 win at Penn.
Penn’s loss, combined with Brown’s win, means that we won’t know which team will be the fourth entrant for Ivy Madness at Brown’s Pizzitola Sports Center till the NCAA releases its updated NET rankings to determine the tiebreaker. As the winner of the regular-season conference title, Columbia will play Penn or Brown in the tournament’s first round Friday, and Princeton will face Harvard; the championship game comes Saturday.Penn’s NET ranking was No. 162 as of Saturday night – 22 slots ahead of Brown at No. 184.
Six days after having its 30-game home winning streak snapped by the Columbia Lions. Princeton women’s basketball hit the road and took out its frustrations on the Harvard Crimson, beating its host, 70-58, at Lavietes Pavilion Friday.
The win gave Princeton a two-game sweep of Harvard during the regular season, setting up a likely third clash in two weeks in the semifinals of the Ivy League Tournament.
Princeton women’s basketball coach Carla Berube has accumulated so many talented players on her roster over the years that pundits have often wondered how Princeton’s bench would fare against another team’s starting lineup. They got their answer on Saturday at Jadwin Gymnasium as Berube started all five members of her senior class in a 71-42 Senior Night romp over Yale.
Before tipping off against Dartmouth women’s basketball on Saturday afternoon, Princeton took the court at Jadwin Gymnasium wearing freshly minted warmup shirts with the team’s “Get Stops” slogan colorfully displayed on the front.
The Tigers forcefully delivered on their wardrobe messaging.
The hosts held the Big Green to under 40 points in a dominant 63-39 triumph.
The Princeton women’s basketball team started its run for a seventh consecutive Ivy League championship in style on Saturday afternoon with a dominating win over Cornell, 72-39, at Jadwin Gymnasium.
Princeton led wire-t0-wire for a fifth consecutive game to open Ivy League play at 1-0. The Tigers have not trailed in their last 200 minutes of basketball.
A whiteboard used by Princeton women’s basketball coach Carla Berube and her coaching staff sits on a sideline chair af the Jon. M. Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City on Dec. 8, 2024 (Steve Silverman | Ivy Hoops Online)
Princeton women’s basketball ended 2024 on a high note, vanquishing the Le Moyne Dolphins, 75-43, on New Year’s Eve and finishing its nonconference schedule with a 9-4 record.
With the curtain rising on the Ivy League season in only three days, it’s time to take stock of how the Tigers have fared during the first half of the season and look ahead to the prospects for the six-time-defending Ivy League champions grabbing yet another conference title.
Here are four Tiger Takeaways from the conclusion of the nonconference season:
Princeton sophomore guard Skye Belker hits a mid-range jump shot against the Utah Utes at the Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City on Dec. 8, 2024. (Steve Silverman | Ivy Hoops Online)
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.
Princeton senior forward Parker Hill scores over Utah’s Mayé Touré at the Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City on Dec. 8, 2024. (Steve Silverman | Ivy Hoops Online)
