Mataya Gayle

Reporter’s Notebook: Ivy Madness day four

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The final remnants of the 2024 Ivy Tournament being packed away for another year (Photo: Rob Browne)

The final day of the 2024 Ivy League Tournament was an incredibly chaotic one, which started hours before the noon tipoff of the thrilling men’s championship and ended with a near-midnight zoom celebratory conference call with Columbia women’s basketball coach Megan Griffith.

For the second day in a row, the tournament provided its fair share of emotional highs and lows. There may still be people who haven’t taken to the thought of Ivy Madness, after eight years and six events, but it is an amazing weekend to celebrate the talented players and coaches and showcase this shouldn’t-be-under-the-radar conference to the nation.

I’m still in a bit of a stupor from the last few days, but I’ll try my best to recount scenes from a lengthy final day:

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How No. 1 Princeton women’s basketball held on to defeat No. 4 Penn, 59-54, in Ivy League Tournament semifinal

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NEW YORK – The No. 1 Princeton women’s basketball team withstood a furious rally by the No. 4 Penn Quakers on Friday evening to advance to the championship game of the Ivy League Tournament in a 59-54 victory.  

The Tigers entered the contest with an 11-game winning streak against their rivals from Philadelphia.  The 12th win was anything but easy.  The Tigers were led by sophomore Madison St. Rose, who tallied 19 points, all but three of them coming in the second half.

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No. 4 Penn women’s basketball showed how to bake – but not quite pull off – an upset in 59-54 loss to No. 1 Princeton

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NEW YORK – Going into the kickoff for Ivy Madness, it seemed clear what it would take for the Penn women to upset top-ranked Princeton:

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Reporter’s Notebook: Ivy Madness day one

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A great eight greets fans at the 120th Street entrance (photo: Rob Browne)

NEW YORK – Welcome to Ivy Madness VI!

For the first time, the Ivy League Tournament visits New York City, home to the largest collection of Ancient Eight alumni and Levien Gymnasium. The 2,700-seat arena, situated on the heart of the Columbia campus, is the fourth smallest venue in the conference and fans are right on top of the action.

When packed, which it often has been for the 2023 and 2024 regular season championship women’s team, it can get incredibly loud and cause problems for opposing players. Fortunately for league, fans and ESPN, Levien will be packed. As of Thursday evening, the Saturday women’s final is sold out, as well as the Saturday men’s semifinals and Sunday men’s final.

There are a small number of tickets remaining for the second women’s semifinal, featuring No. 2 Columbia and No. 3 Harvard, as well as a larger number of tickets for the opening game, which pits No. 1 Princeton against long-time rival No. 4 Penn.

Over the next several days, Ivy Hoops Online will be in Morningside Heights (and watching the world-wide leader) to bring you all the action. With lots of great coverage from George Clark, Steve Silverman, Palestra Pete and Richard Kent, I’ll be around to fill in the spaces and scarf down as many snacks as possible.

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Ivy League Tournament: Women’s press conference highlights

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If it’s not on the MTA map, it should be (Photo: Rob Browne)

NEW YORK – The opening day of the Ivy League Tournament brought the four women’s teams to Levien Gymnasium on the campus of Columbia University.

Below are highlights of the press conferences and links to the videos. (Check out the game previews from Steve Silverman)

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2023-24 IHO Women’s All-Ivy Awards

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The Ivy League announced its major women’s awards Tuesday, but we know this is the moment you’ve all been waiting for: Ivy Hoops Online’s 2023-24 All-Ivy Awards, as determined by IHO’s contributors:

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WATCH: Q&A with Princeton women’s basketball coach Carla Berube

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In an in-depth interview with Ivy Hoops Online contributor Steve Silverman Tuesday ahead of this weekend’s Ivy League Tournament, Princeton women’s basketball coach Carla Berube talks about the challenge of beating tournament opponent Penn three times in one season, whether the team has a chip on its shoulder, how the team prepares for multiple potential tourney opponents and much more:

 

Princeton women’s basketball beats Penn to secure sixth straight Ivy League title

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The Princeton women’s basketball team celebrated Senior Day on Saturday afternoon at Jadwin Gymnasium by beating the Penn Quakers, 72-55, for a sixth straight Ivy League regular season title. 

It was a triumphant day for Princeton’s spectacular troika of seniors:  Kaitlyn Chen, Ellie Mitchell and Chet Nweke.  Chen finished the game with 19 points on 9-for-13 shooting and 11 assists, a career high for the reigning Ivy League Player of the Year.  Asked by the ESPN+ broadcast crew to reflect on having played her final game at Jadwin Gym, Chen said,  “I honestly don’t think it’s hit me yet.  It just sort of felt like another game.  We had a job to do and we did it.”

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