Out-of-character quarter sends Princeton home
There will be no primetime date with a megastar and her thousands of screaming fans.
Princeton missed a golden opportunity to put itself in the national spotlight after it unraveled in the third quarter and lost to West Virginia, 63-53, in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Saturday night at CarverHawkeye Arena in Iowa City.
The ninth-seeded Tigers (25-5) were trying to win a first-round contest for the third straight season and in the process earn themselves a highlight game against Caitlin Clark and top-seeded Iowa. Instead, it’s the eighthseeded Mountaineers (24-8) headed to the 8 p.m. Monday night tip-off after they hassled Princeton into 16 second-half turnovers.
“This stings,” coach Carla Berube said. “I didn’t think our season would be over tonight.”
JJ Quinerly scored a gamehigh 29 points and Jordan Harrison added 15 for West Virginia, which missed 18 free throws but survived thanks to that swarming defense.
The third quarter has usually been reserved for the Tigers putting their foot down on the opponent, but that didn’t happen this time. The Mountaineers, who rank third nationally at forcing turnovers with 24 per game, rattled Berube’s team with traps after a passive opening 20 minutes.
Princeton committed more turnovers (12) than it had points (7) in the quarter and never recovered as West Virginia maintained a lead of at least five for the entire fourth quarter. In total, the Mountaineers got 21 points off turnovers to offset a minus-seven rebounding differential. This marked the sixth time the Tigers turned the ball over 20 or more times in a game, but the second time in the last three after they had 21 in the Ivy Tournament semifinal against Penn.
“They just turned it up, turned that pressure up,” Berube said. “We got a little bit careless. There were a couple times they just kind of ripped it from us and then they took advantage of those opportunities on the offensive end.”
Madison St. Rose led Princeton with 22 points and Kaitlyn Chen scored 17 in her final game wearing the orange and black. But the Tigers got little offense from anybody else — other than Ellie Mitchell’s 15 rebounds (eight offensive) — and no other player had more than five points. Princeton finished 33.3% form the floor (17-for-51; 6-of-21 on 3s) and also missed eight free throws.
The Tigers largely handled the Big XII side’s pressure in the first half — it was more a soft press than the aggressive traps that came in the second half — and led by nine in the second quarter and probably should have been up by more than the two-point advantage they had at intermission.
“We went in at the half and coach said that’s not us,” Quinerly said. “Our defense is way better than that. We picked it up, showed some intensity and you saw what happened.”
This loss brought to an end a wonderful three-year run for Princeton since the Ivy League returned from its self-imposed Covid year. The group of seniors — Chen, Mitchell and Chet Nweke — went 74-16 overall and 39-3 in the league. They won all three Ivy Madness titles to give the program five in a row and have won a pair of NCAA Tournament games.
“Playing for Princeton has meant everything to me,” Chen said. “I couldn’t have done anything without my amazing coaches and teammates. That what I’m going to miss the most. It’s going to be tough not to be able to play next to Maddie, Ellie, Chet and for our amazing coaching staff. This program has given me the best three years of my life.”
But another night in the spotlight, perhaps the brightest college basketball has to offer, would have been nice.
“When the season ends you are like ‘gosh, that group, how are we going to replace them?’” Berube said. “It’s hard because Ellie was there with me when I started. Kaitlyn and Chet, it was a different start to their college experience during covid. It’s a special class. They’ve left a great legacy and blueprint on how you go about things, how you work, how you care about this program and your teammates.”