The No. 25 Princeton women’s basketball team reached rarefied air on Friday night by shellacking the Dartmouth Big Green, 97-47, at Leede Arena in Hanover to record just the second 50-point road win in program history.
Linda Cimino
Tiger Takeaways from No. 22 Princeton women’s basketball dismantling Dartmouth
There’s no place like home.
Playing in the friendly confines of Jadwin Gymnasium for the first time in 2026, the No. 22 Princeton women’s basketball team (15-1, 3-0 Ivy) raced past the Dartmouth Big Green, 69-41, to remain unbeaten in Ivy play Saturday.
Taking the court with a depleted roster, the Tigers led wire-to-wire for the second straight game and were never seriously challenged by the Big Green.
Princeton was led by its junior tandem of guards, Ashley Chea and Skye Belker. Chea led all scorers with 16 points on 5-for-13 shooting, while Belker chipped in 14 points, two rebounds, two assists and three steals.
Though the Tigers didn’t paint a masterpiece today, they nevertheless prevailed for the 16th straight time over Dartmouth at Jadwin, a streak that dates all the way back to the 2008-09 season.
Here are three Tiger Takeaways from Princeton’s 13th consecutive win, their longest winning streak since the 2023-24 season:
Harvard women’s basketball cruises to opening-day win at Dartmouth
The Harvard women completely took Dartmouth out of its comfort zone in the Ivy League opener for both teams, leaving Leede Arena with a comfortable 72-47 victory on Saturday afternoon.
The conference-opening win was the fifth in the last six games for the Crimson and upped the team’s overall mark to 8-6, while the Big Green dropped its third straight game to a Division I opponent and moved to 9-5 on the year.
Dartmouth women’s basketball holds on to defeat Iona
Following the horrific shooting that took place at Brown University on Saturday afternoon, the Ivy League basketball show went on in New Rochelle, N.Y. a few hours later with the Dartmouth women taking on Iona.
The Gaels cut an 11-point deficit to four with 75 seconds left in regulation, but junior guard Nina Minicozzi slammed the door shut on the Iona comeback by drawing two consecutive offensive fouls around the basket, grabbing a big defensive rebound and sinking two free throws.
When the buzzer sounded on the 65-57 victory, the Big Green stretched its winning streak to four and improved to 7-2 on the season, the program’s best start since 1995. On the other side, Iona’s five-game victory streak ended, and the team finished its nonconference schedule at 7-3.
“We have an amazing group of young women, and they’ve bought in. They really believe in each other. They believe in the staff,” Dartmouth coach Linda Cimino said to the ESPN+ reporter immediately after the contest. “It’s all coming to fruition right now, and I’m really proud of them.”
2025-26 Ivy League women’s basketball preview
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.
2025-26 IHO Women’s Preseason Poll
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 overcomes sluggish start to defeat Dartmouth, 67-55
Twenty-four hours after winning an emotional, high-stakes contest at Harvard, Princeton women’s basketball needed to be on guard against a letdown as they took the court at Leede Arena in Hanover for a Saturday showdown with the Dartmouth Big Green.
Despite being aware of the dangers of complacency, the Tigers came out flat against a motivated Dartmouth squad and made just enough plays to scrape out a 67-55 win over the last-place Big Green.
Dartmouth women’s basketball wins at Brown, 64-48, in Ivy League opener
The Dartmouth women used a stifling defense to rout favored Brown 64-48 in the Ivy League opener for both teams at the Pizzitola Sports Center on Saturday afternoon.
Going up against a Bears team (6-8, 0-1 Ivy) which tied for fourth last year and was picked for fifth in this year’s preseason media poll, the road win was a huge boost for a Big Green squad (7-7, 1-0) that was picked for the conference’s last spot.
Ivy women’s basketball Media Day highlights
As the 2024-25 season quickly approaches, the Ivy League hosted its annual women’s basketball Media Day on Thursday. The three-hour event, hosted by Lance Medow, can be viewed on the conference’s YouTube channel.
Prior to the event, the league announced the results of its preseason poll.
Princeton, which has claimed the Ancient Eight title for the last six years, was picked first with 122 out of a possible 128 points and 10 first-place votes. Columbia, which has tied for the top spot in each of the last two seasons, came in second with 110 points and five first-place votes.
Harvard, which has finished the last two years in third placed, was tabbed for third in 2025, earning 101 points and one first-place spot.
Penn, the final participant in last year’s Ivy tournament, was picked fourth with 75 votes, while Brown, which finished last year tied with Penn for fourth, was four points back in fifth place.
Sixth place went to Yale, which was as high as third place in 2022, with 48 votes.
While Cornell and Dartmouth ended last season tied for seventh place, the Big Red got the nod for seventh in this year’s poll with 30 points and the Big Green were eighth with 19 points.
Below are highlights from this year’s virtual Media Day:
Penn women’s basketball demolishes Dartmouth, 79-41
Pity the Dartmouth women’s basketball team. It rolled into the Palestra against a bigger, faster Penn team that needed the win for a chance at the postseason, and it got flattened.