Quick Start Lifts Princeton Women’s Basketball to Ivy Madness Final

ITHACA, New York — Princeton women’s basketball will play in the Ivy Madness championship game for a seventh time after sprinting to an early lead and surviving a third-quarter run by Brown in the tournament semifinals at Cornell’s Newman Arena Friday afternoon.  

Head coach Carla Berube said she was proud of her team’s strong start and resilient finish. “This time of the year, it’s not always pretty,” she said. “A lot of credit to Brown: They came out of halftime and really shot the ball well, executed well. They were tough. They were getting loose balls. … But we weathered the storm and made the plays that we needed to down the stretch.” 

The Tigers, ranked No. 23 nationally in the Associated Press poll, showed their versatility on offense from the opening tip. Forward Maidson St. Rose ’26 started the game by draining a 3-pointer and a followed with a runner in the paint. Fadima Tall ’27 grabbed an offensive rebound and banked in the putback. Skye Belker ’27 added a 3-pointer as Ashley Chea ’27 split two defenders for a driving layup as Princeton jumped ahead 12-3.  

“I feel like we were really sharing the ball, we were executing what we need to execute, and we were just playing really tough defense,” St. Rose said. “So I just feel like we were playing Princeton basketball.” 

Brown’s offense struggled to find options inside, settling instead for 3-point attempts and failing to match the Tigers’ early offensive fireworks. The Bears shot 4-for-27 from the field in the first half. Princeton led 36-14 at the break. 

But the game quickly shifted in the third quarter when Brown — playing a four-guard lineup after star forward Alyssa Moreland was forced to the bench with an apparent leg injury — hit six 3-pointers in a span of about six minutes, Princeton began to turn the ball over, and the 22-point halftime lead dwindled to 13. 

St. Rose, Princeton’s leading scorer for the season and the game with 18 points, staunched the bleeding with back-to-back baskets toward the end of the third quarter, and Chea hit a buzzer-beating jump shot to push the lead back to 17.   

Brown’s perimeter shooting cooled somewhat in the fourth quarter (they would finish the game with 11 made 3-pointers, on 33 attempts). Princeton handled the Bears’ full-court pressure, slowed the game’s tempo, and converted free throws to hang on for a 65-51 win.  

Chea, who has seen her scoring average decline in the past two months, finished the game with 12 points, five assists, and eight rebounds. “Everyone knows she’s had a little bit of a shooting slump this season, but she’s in the gym all the time, getting reps,” Berube said. “So for her to shoot pretty well tonight, and shooting with a lot of confidence, I’m not surprised by that. … She’s playing with that swagger that she has.” 

Four of Princeton’s starters scored in double digits and the fifth, Olivia Hutcherson ’27, was close behind with eight points and nine rebounds. Tall led all rebounders in the game with 10. 

Princeton improved to 25-3, reaching the 25-win mark for the fourth time in Berube’s six seasons as head coach. Her overall record with the Tigers is 146-28. 

In the old Ivy League schedule, teams would play Friday-Saturday games six times each season (it’s now down to three), and the Ivy Madness draw keeps that back-to-back tradition alive, giving the Tigers about 23 hours to rest and recover before tipoff in the championship where they will play the winner of Friday’s late game between Columbia and Harvard.  

Tall said afterward that they’re used to it. “Luckily we had the early game, so we can watch some of this next game and then hit the hay,” she said. “Lots of fluids, some food in there, too. … Ice bath.” 

Princeton’s two potential opponents have been their top league rivals in recent years. Columbia is the only Ivy team that’s beaten Princeton this year, and the Lions did it twice. Harvard, on the other hand, knocked the Tigers out of Ivy Madness in the semifinals last March. 

When St. Rose and Tall were asked which team they’d like to play in the final, neither voiced a preference. Of the second semifinal, Berube joked, “We hope it goes into quadruple overtime.”