The Guru Report: Princeton Rallies From 11 Down to Foil Harvard Upset and Win Fourth Straight Ivy

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

 

PRINCETON, N.J. – In the end it was business as usual when it comes to the Ivy Madness theme for the league’s tourney in March and the team carrying the automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.

 

That would be Princeton for the fourth straight season, though this time the top-seeded Tigers Saturday evening had to rally here in their own Jadwin Gym from an 11-point, third-period deficit, against third-seeded Harvard, and did it with a 17-4 run over the final 10 minutes, going ahead near the finish for a 54-48 victory.

 

Watching and squirming from afar was the team that expected to return from last year in the title round, second-seeded Columbia (23-5), which tied Princeton (23-5) for the league crown, but was taken out by Harvard (17-12), Friday, in the semifinals 72-65 in overtime.

 

The Tigers had an easier time of it playing Penn (17-11) for the second straight game following the season-ender a week before at The Palestra. In this one, the Tigers opened with a 16-0 start that extended to a 19-2 first period before the Quakers responded to make the game more competitive. Losing 60-47.

 

Expecting that getting to the title game for the Lions might be enough for a first-time NCAA appearance, surely their chances would be quickly reduced to zero if the Crimson won and then Princeton for the second time in league and program history would be tapped for an at-large offer from the NCAA tournament committee.

 

This year a plethora of conference tournaments held the last two weeks through Sunday afternoon had their No. 1 seeds fall, the most damaging to hopes for a second Ivy League representative were 16^th-ranked Gonzaga in the West Coast Conference title game to the Portland Pilots and South Florida early in the American Athletic Conference tournament down in Fort Worth, Texas.

 

The entire NCAA 68-team field and draw will be revealed Sunday night at eight p.m. on ESPN, while ESPN2 will continue with analysis an hour later.

 

But first, during the early afternoon five remaining conferences will decide their champion and automatic qualifiers in the Colonial (7-seed Monmouth at 1-seed Towson); Patriot (2-seed Holy Cross at 1-seed Boston U.); Big 12 (3-seed Iowa State vs. 1-seed and 15^th-ranked Texas); Missouri Valley (Drake vs. Belmont); and Northeast (Sacred Heart at 1-seed Fairleigh Dickinson).

 

Back here, for Princeton, the game was a microcosm of the Tigers’ Ivy chase, losing the first two at Harvard and then here for the first time in 27-games to Columbia, before launching a 14-game win streak, that included a non-conference win over Hartford.

 

“We were resilient, tough, and gritty,” said Princeton coach and former UConn star Carla Berube, who took over four seasons ago, though was pandemic deprived the first two, when Courtney Banghart, who built the Tigers into a national force, left to revive the fortunes of North Carolina in the Power Five world of the Atlantic Coast Conference.

 

“You look at them in the huddle and they’re looking back, saying, ‘There’s no way we’re losing this.’

 

“They stuck together and relied on our defense once again, to get really big stops, big rebounds, and found a way to score against a really tough Crimson defense.”

 

Princeton’s Kaitlyn Chen, the Ivy player of the year, voted by the league’s coaches, had 21 points to earn back-to-back tournament MVP honors.

 

Ellie Mitchell had a double-double with 10 points and 15 rebounds. She also turned the game back to Princeton, snapping a tie with three foul shots near the end to win it. Julie Cunningham scored nine points.

 

Harvard’s McKenzie Forbes had another big game with 16 points, while Harmoni Taylor scored 11, and Lola Mullaney scored 10.

 

Of Forbes, first-year coach Carrie Moore, hired after the retirement of longtime coach Kathy Delaney-Smith off the successful staff of Kim Barnes Arico at Michigan, and a former aide when Banghart coached at Princeton, said, “I would want to coach her every day of the week andI’m tremendously sad that I only get one year with her.

 

“She’s been through so much this season … we don’t play here today without her.”

 

After Harvard threatened to be on the verge of another upset, Berube went to a full court press, not a major part of the Tigers’ bag of tools in their vaunted defense.

 

“We don’t press very often,” Mitchell said. “So, the times we do, I think it really shifts momentum and kind of throws our opponent off. We don’t like being pressed either, so it kind of turns the table – it’s a good change of pace.”

 

Chen added to the response, noting, “I feel like it’s just about having the energy, the momentum that propels us when we do press. I think it’s always fun.”

 

Mitchell gave the Tiger their first advantage since the second quarter during the rally, scoring a layup on an assist from Grace Stone.

 

Two foul shots soon thereafter from Mitchell increased the lead to 51-48.

 

Elena Rodriguez missed a chance to get closer when she failed to connect twice from the line but then Chen also missed twice, keeping the game close.

 

Madison St. Rose, the Ivy freshman of the year, went 1-of-2 on the line but then keyed a defensive stop to get back on the line again and this time made both attempts.

 

“No matter how she’s playing, she’s just very level-headed and I think that’s really unique for a freshman you know,” Mitchell said of her teammate.

 

“We have so much confidence in her, you know. She grows every game, especially on the defensive end … that’s going to be big next year when we lose a lot of our senior leadership.”

 

Princeton started the year as the first ranked Ivy team in The Associated Press preseason poll but then went out the first week when Villanova pulled an upset here to get ranked.

 

With anticipation that the Wildcats are likely to get a four-seed if not one higher which would make them one of the 16 hosts of first and second round games this weekend, Berube, who was looking to play away from the Northeast, was asked whether she’d like another crack at ‘Nova, given last year’s first-round upset of Kentucky and near surprise to Indiana that would have sent the Tigers to the Sweet 16.

 

“Oh yeah, they have Maddy Siegrist, if Caitlin Clark isn’t player of the year she is, but so is (South Carolina’s) Aliyah Boston, then smiled at her stars on the podium, saying, “And so is Kaitlyn Chen.”

 

And thar’s the report.