Women’s Basketball: Princeton Reaches Tournament Final, Falls to Penn

Princeton women’s basketball recovered from a slow start to the regular season, and later recovered from a slow start to the Ivy League season. The Tigers could not do the same after a slow start in the inaugural Ivy Tournament championship game March 12.

Second-seeded Princeton fell 57–48 to Penn, the Ivy’s regular-season champion, in the tournament final at the Palestra. Bella Alarie ’20 led the Tigers with 11 points and 11 rebounds despite first-half foul trouble. It was her second tournament game with a double-double. Afterward, she talked about what she’d learned in her first collegiate season.

“I think it takes a whole lot of heart,” Alarie said. “It takes rebounding, it takes outhustling the other team, playing with a lot of energy. Throughout the season, we’ve had our ups and downs, and it’s all come to how you come together as a team and just play together. ... That’s something I picked up on this year and will hopefully go on for the next couple years.”

Princeton earned a spot in the Women’s NIT, where it lost a close first-round game to Villanova, 59–53, March 17 at Jadwin Gym.