Princeton’s championship pedigree shines through
NEW YORK >> There is no stopping the Princeton women’s basketball team’s Ivy League dynasty.
The Tigers just keep churning out titles.
You can now make it five in a row after topseeded Princeton pulled away from secondseeded Columbia, 7558, on Saturday night at Levien Gymnasium to hoist the Ivy Tournament title and punch a ticket to the NCAA Tournament for the 11th time in program history.
“They look at those banners up in the rafters at Jadwin,” coach Carla Berube said, “and they want another one.”
The Tigers have appeared in all six Ivy Madness finals that have been played, winning all but the very first one in 2017. This is the third straight NCAA berth for Berube’s club since the league returned from its self-imposed Covid year.
The NCAA Tournament selection show is Sunday night. ESPN projected Princeton (25-4) as a No. 9 seed in a pod with No. 1 seed Stanford in its most recent bracket, while Columbia (23-6) is in the category of first four out.
“It’s just an amazing feeling because you only get to do it so many times in your life,” said senior guard Kaitlyn Chen, who scored 17 points and was named the Most Outstanding Player for the third consecutive time. “It’s super special.”
Princeton was trying to avenge its lone league loss from back on Feb. 24 when Columbia held on for a twopoint win in this building and knocked it out of the top-25.
It was evident from the opening tip that this was a locked-in team and not the one that was fortunate to survive its semifinal on Friday against Penn thanks to a debatable block/charge whistle in the final minute.
The Tigers led wireto-wire, but really put the clamps down in the third quarter by outscoring Columbia, 21-12, and stretching a sevenpoint halftime advantage to 16. The fourth quarter was a party in the orange-clad portion of the sold out gym as Princeton poured it on.
“When we came here last time, didn’t play our best basketball,” Chen said. “We just sort of focused on us. It was very much us-based and if we take care of business on our end we’re going to win this game.”
Madison St. Rose tallied a team-high 18 points, Ellie Mitchell finished with a 12-point, 10-rebound double-double and Ashley Chea netted eight of her 10 points during the third quarter run that burst the game open.
Ivy League Player of the Year Abbey Hsu led the Lions with a game-high 20 points, but found nothing easy against Princeton’s smothering defense. The 2,000-point scorer was shut out in the third quarter and didn’t attempt a shot.
“We knew Abbey has the ability to get up some quick shots and get them right back in the game,” said Mitchell, the Ivy’s Defensive Player of the Year. “Throughout the year, even when we’ve had leads, we’ve kind of struggled to put the game away. We knew against a team as talented as Columbia, we had to lock in and it was going to be a full team effort.”
There’s been no better team in the Ivy League than Princeton.
“I’m really proud of this group from one through 17,” Berube said. “Really proud of representing Princeton. Couldn’t be happier right now.”