Ashley Chea has a knack for buzzer-beaters.
As a high school senior, she sent the crowd into a frenzy when she turned away before a buzzer-beating three pointer had even made it to the hoop.
This January, Chea delivered at Jadwin, sinking a step-back jumper from the left side to clinch a 52–50 victory against Ivy foe Harvard as time expired.
In the time between and before these two shots lies the story of the sophomore point guard’s rise. From the courts of California to the bright lights of the Ivy League, Chea has grown up alongside the game of basketball. At Princeton, she blossomed into a leader as a sophomore, averaging 12.4 points per game as the point guard.
From Rec League to Ivy League
Born and raised in southern California, Chea learned the game of basketball from her dad.
“My dad played in Asian league games in Los Angeles, and I would shoot at halftime,” Chea said.
The young Chea grew to love the game. When she was just nine years old, she joined one of the Asian-American league’s rec teams. And, as they say, the rest is history.
Chea fell in love with the game and had very early success in her career.
Photo Courtesy of Ashley Chea.
“After that, every time I had the ball in my hands, it was just super fun, and I just realized that it was something I wanted to take further,” Chea said.
Rec league and club team success paved the way for high school, where Chea played at local powerhouse Flintridge Prep. But despite increasing visibility, high school yielded anything but the flashy start many expected.
Her first year at Flintridge Prep, Chea came off the bench, playing fewer minutes than expected. The starting point guard, though, was about as good a leader as Chea could have asked for: Kaitlyn Chen ’24.
“She was there every step of the way my freshman year,” Chea said.
As she adjusted to life in high school, Chea began a major project off the court. Her first year in high school, she was approached about starring in a documentary, and soon after, camera crews began following her for what would later be called “Home Court.” The film follows her through her later three years of high school while telling the story of the Asian-American basketball leagues of California.
“Home Court“ is set to be released on March 24 on PBS.
Growing pains finally caught up to Chea her sophomore year of high school. In the first game of the season, she suffered a season-ending PCL tear, just when she was preparing for a breakout year. And life on camera wasn’t as easy as expected.
“Honestly, in the beginning, I thought that it was going to be super cool to have a camera crew on me 24/7, but it got really annoying super quickly,” Chea said.
Chea described the tension between striving to present herself as a figure on screen and living as her authentic self, initially forcing a presentation of herself as the Ashley Chea she thought viewers wanted to see.
Chea in a youth tournament.
Photo Courtesy of Ashley Chea.
Eventually, though, she described that “I realized that … that’s not what the film was about, and it was about me growing up and facing these challenges where other people could be inspired, and then I opened myself up more.”
As Chea grew more comfortable with the film crew, she simultaneously flourished on the court. Her junior year, Chea averaged a double-double, with 29.7 points and 11.2 rebounds per game. Not shockingly, over two dozen schools reached out, including multiple from the then-Power 5 and, of course, Princeton.
When Chea made her campus visit to Old Nassau, it was love at first sight.
“I told my dad I didn’t want to go to an Ivy League school because I thought they were for nerds,” Chea said. “Then, I came here, and then everything — just like my entire perspective — changed.”
Despite the abundance of other offers Chea had yet to evaluate, she saw enough in Princeton after one trip to campus.
“Everyone was so nice and kind and so welcoming to me,” she said. “I committed on my visit, and I canceled all my other ones.”
Already committed to Princeton, Chea’s senior season at Flintridge Prep was the icing on the cake. Her viral third-quarter buzzer shot that year was emblematic of her ascent to new heights: draining a three as she walked away from her high school court towards a new one in college.
Growing into her stripes at Princeton
Entering Princeton, her first-year experience closely mirrored that of her freshman year of high school. Once again, Chea backed up Chen, and once again, she entered a school that was an academic step up.
Chea leading the offense against Rutgers.
Photo Courtesy of Princeton Athletics.
“[My first year] was kind of the same as it was in high school,” Chea said. “I saw Kaitlyn there, and … I think my high school prepares me to be in schools like Princeton.”
Despite her new stomping grounds being three thousand miles away from home, Chea brought her California style with her to the East Coast. Far from letting her walk-away three be a lost, youthful memory, Chea has embraced the moment.
Now, “she does that in practice,” assistant coach Lauren Dillon said. “We’ll be doing a random shooting drill, and she’s shooting and walking away and sticking her tongue out, and it’s all playful.”
Chea’s fellow sophomore star Skye Belker, who played with Chea on Team Taurasi — an AAU squad in California — comments that Chea’s style is best seen through her passing.
“She’s obviously a great passer, and it was great having that off-court connection show on the court with our chemistry,” Belker said. “She loves those behind the back, behind the head passes.”
While an injury robbed Chea of her breakout sophomore year in high school, she would not be denied a sophomore campaign twice. Starting every game this year except the Senior Day game against Yale, Chea leads the Tigers in minutes, three-pointers, and assists while playing 18 more minutes per game than last year. Dillon credits this improvement to a greater comfort within Princeton’s system and a rigorous commitment to learning from film.
“She puts in the time to really study the game, so that when she’s in the moment, she has all this IQ and can make better reads and realize that there are many ways for her to score,” Dillon said.
Belker, who enjoys spending time with Chea off the court hanging out or exploring the town of Princeton as much as the time on the court, cites familiarity and leadership as two areas of growth.
“I think she’s made a huge step up in also being a leader on the court,” Belker said. “She’s been getting us all into the right spots in the game and handling that pressure, bringing the ball up the court as well.”
That success built up to the Harvard buzzer-beater early in Ivy play, a shot emblematic of Chea’s role on the team and love for the game.
Chea mobbed by teammates following the Harvard win.
Photo Courtesy of Princeton Athletics.
“No one was surprised that not only she took that shot, but that she sunk it, because she is truly someone with the clutch gene,” Dillon said.
This time, when the ball went through, Chea stayed on the Princeton side of the court instead of walking in the other direction.
“She … started running as soon as it got in, and we were just trying to catch up to her,” Belker said.
Chea’s high school buzzer beater was the cherry on top of a rapid ascent and successful youth career. This season, winning the game against Harvard was a coming-out moment, announcing her presence in full to the Ivy League.
As she soars to new heights, Chea looks ahead to more big games and highlight-reel moments to come.
“I’m willing to do anything to make this team great,” Chea said.
Max Hines is a senior Sports writer for The Daily Princetonian.
Please send any corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.
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