Coming off six straight Ivy titles and five straight March Madness appearances, excluding the 2020 cancelled tournament, Princeton women’s basketball (21–6 overall, 12–2 Ivy League) will seek to extend both streaks this weekend at Brown. At stake is not only the Ivy League’s automatic bid to the Big Dance, but potentially an at-large bid for a lucky loser.
“It’s March Madness; it’s the most exciting time of the year,” Head Coach Carla Berube said in the pregame presser on Thursday. “You want to play at this time of the year and you feel very grateful because not everybody is able to play.”
The Tigers, seeded second in the tournament, play third-seeded Harvard (22–4, 11–3) in the semifinal on Friday night at 7:30 p.m. The winner of that game will face the winner of the game between top seed Columbia (22–5, 13–1) and fourth-seeded Penn (15–12, 6–8) in the championship.
While the tournament winner receives an automatic bid to the field of 68, the trio of Harvard, Princeton, and Columbia have strong enough resumes that one — or potentially both — of the teams that lose could be selected for an at-large entry into March Madness. A traditional one-bid league, the Ivy has only sent an at-large team into the Big Dance twice before, with Columbia losing to Vanderbilt in the First Four last year, and Princeton losing to West Virginia in 2016.
Currently, with Columbia leading the Ivy standings, the Lions have the projected auto-bid. According to a range of bracketologies — experts’ best guesses at what the bracket will look like — Princeton and Harvard currently both sit on the very edge of the bubble.
While Berube or Harvard Head Coach Carrie Moore would likely rather take a vow of silence than admit it, Friday’s semifinal may function as an at-large play-in: win and your resume gets a strong enough boost to likely make it into the tournament, lose and you’re on the wrong side of the bubble. At the end of the day, these teams would rather clinch the bid themselves than leave their fate in the hands of the Selection Committee.
“This is not something we can control right now,” Berube said when asked if the league should be a three-bid league. “The only thing that we’re thinking about is beating Harvard tomorrow night and playing the best basketball that we can possibly play, and the chips will fall where they fall and we’ll see how things play out.”
The Daily Princetonian previewed the four teams in the tournament, starting with Princeton and Harvard before looking at Columbia and Penn, Princeton’s potential opponents should they make it to the championship game.
Fountain of youth: Princeton’s 2024–25 campaign
Princeton came into this season losing three starting senior captains: Chet Nweke ’24, Ellie Mitchell ’24, and Kaitlyn Chen ’24, the latter two of whom have received multiple postseason All-Ivy awards.
Coming into the season, junior Maddie St. Rose was expected to pick up the reins as the Tigers’ top scorer. However, in just the fourth game of the season, St. Rose suffered a torn ACL, leaving her out for the season.
Starting after that game — and every game after that except for Senior Day — has been senior Parker Hill, along with the sophomore four: Skye Belker, Ashley Chea, Olivia Hutcherson, and Fadima Tall. While Belker started every game last year and Chea averaged over 15 minutes off the bench, Tall and Hutcherson averaged just under six and three minutes per game, respectively, last year.
“I think this year has definitely been a lot of practice of me being a leader, which has been great,” Belker said.
This year, Princeton’s young core along with Hill have thrived in Ivy play. Chea has taken over Chen’s role as point guard, earning unanimous First-Team All-Ivy honors. Belker and Tall earned Second-Team All-Ivy, while Hill collected an All-Ivy Honorable Mention in addition to earning Princeton’s spot on the Academic All-Ivy team.
As always, Princeton’s ethos under Carla Berube is defense first. The Tigers rank 25th in the country with just over 56 points allowed per game, consistent with past performance. Princeton will try to suffocate their opponent’s offensive plans and bring the ball back down the court.
Offensively, Chea serves as the Tigers’ “floor general” as point guard. Both Chea and Belker average around 12 points per game as threats from deep as well as anywhere else on the court. Fadima Tall has been expanding her range as of late, connecting on three three-pointers in four of the last six games.
Standing at six feet four inches, Hill leads the way for the Tigers on the inside, scoring tough points in the paint. While Chea, Belker, Tall, Hill, and Hutcherson will see the majority of the minutes, expect first-year Toby Nweke, senior Katie Thiers, and junior Tabitha Amanze to receive meaningful minutes off the bench.
A look at Harvard: a defensive juggernaut
While Princeton holds the historic stronghold on Ivy League defensive supremacy, Harvard reigns supreme this year. The Crimson lead the nation with 51.2 points allowed per game. In two games against the Crimson, Princeton are 2–0, thus far averaging 61 points. However, it won’t be easy to beat Harvard for the third time in a row.
“There’s certainly some things that that we needed to get better on — taking care of the ball is one of them,” Berube said. “Their high octane press is difficult to deal with, especially in that fourth quarter.”
The Crimson are led by Ivy League Player of the Year Harmoni Turner, who averages 21.6 points per game. Elena Rodriguez, who nearly single-handedly powered a Harvard comeback in Princeton’s first matchup with the Crimson, recently earned a spot on the All-Ivy Second Team. The two have a wealth of experience playing against the Tigers and will be sure to be seeing red and eyeing revenge as they line up against Princeton on Friday night.
With the bubble implications at stake, viewers across the country — particularly fans of Virginia Tech, Washington, and Minnesota, who share the final spots on the bubble with the Tigers and the Crimson — will be tuning in. Expect the game to be won late in a defensive battle. Whoever can get a late three or a crucial late stop will likely be advancing to the final against Columbia.
Previewing Penn: just happy to be here?
Not discounting a strong season, in which they went 6–2 against non-Big Three Ivy competition while getting swept by Princeton, Harvard, and Columbia, Penn will have something to prove in Friday’s semifinal against Columbia. They nearly shocked the league against top-seed Princeton in last year’s Ivy tournament, and Head Coach Steve Donahue will be looking to once again shock the world in an ouster of the top-seeded Lions this year.
Penn revolves around the trio of Stina Almqvist, Mataya Gayle, and Ivy League Rookie of the Year Katie Collins. The three all average 10 or more points per game and will be driving the Quakers’ offense.
Columbia: the favorite
The favorite in the tournament is none other than the Columbia Lions. For the first time in program history, the Lions head into Ivy Madness as the No. 1 seed. Should the Tigers advance to the Ivy Madness finals, their opponent will likely be the Lions.
On Tuesday, the Lions were awarded the league’s coaching staff of the year while guard Kitty Henderson was named the Ivy League’s Defensive Player of the Year. Sophomore guard Riley Weiss was also a first-team All-Ivy honoree. In two games against Columbia, Princeton are 0–2 thus far, averaging just 55 points against Head Coach Megan Griffith’s squad.
The trio of Weiss, Henderson, and Cecelia Collins, who is second team All-Ivy, lead the high powered offense that is averaging a league best 74 points per game. Griffith’s squad is also a threat from beyond the arc, where they average nearly eight triples per game.
The stat that sets Columbia apart from the rest of the league is their offensive rebounding. The Light Blue average a staggering 16.4 offensive rebounds per game, nearly four more than Harvard who is in second place with 12.9 per game. The offensive rebounds allow the Lions to have more possessions than their opponents, giving them more opportunities to put the ball in the basket.
With St. Rose’s injury significantly weakening the Tigers squad, the stars are aligned for the Lions to earn their first Ivy Madness championship.
Ivy Madness tips off on Friday at 4:30 p.m. eastern on ESPN+. The Lions play the Quakers first followed by the marquee Princeton-Harvard matchup. The winners play at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday on national television (ESPNU).
“This is a brand new season right now, when you’re in the playoffs,” Berube said.
Hayk Yengibaryan is an associate News editor, senior Sports writer, and Education Director for the ‘Prince.’
Max Hines is a senior Sports writer for the ‘Prince.’
Please send any corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.
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