Ivy Champs, Again

TigerBlog turned on his TV yesterday afternoon just in time to see the Princeton women's basketball starting five huddle together after introductions.

They looked calm, he thought.

Then the camera panned out, and TB got his first look at the crowd gathered in Columbia's Levien Gym. It was enormous. It was like every Columbia student was in the building.

This, TB figured, would be a great test for the Tigers, and not just physically. How would Princeton respond in such a hostile environment, against a team whose only hiccup in the league to date was a Tiger wipeout in Jadwin?

Princeton came into the game unbeaten in the league. Columbia had only that one loss at Jadwin. A Princeton win meant another Ivy League title. A Columbia win meant the teams were tied for first in the league with two to go.

Those were high stakes. 

Columbia scored first. 2-0. The crowd erupted. Princeton's first two possessions came up empty. The crowd was ready.

And then, in a blink, it was basically over. It took Princeton less than a quarter to build the lead to double figures, less than 15 to push it out to 25 and less than 17 to get it to 30 (at 43-13, which would be the biggest lead). Even after Columbia put some offense together late in the second quarter, it was still a 47-21 Tiger lead at the break. 

Final score: Princeton 73, Columbia 53.

It's hard to imagine anyone can have a better first half than Kaitlyn Chen did. In fact, as the teams went into the locker rooms at the break, Chen had the same number of points that Columbia did: 21. Her previous career-high of 15 didn't make it through the second quarter, as Chen scored in basically every way you can.

She hit three three-pointers. She drove through the Lion D in transition. She hit floaters. She even posted up. As remarkable as her 21-point first-half explosion was, it would have been 24 had 1) her shot at the first-quarter buzzer not been waved off and 2) she hadn't had her foot on the line for what otherwise would have been a fourth three-pointer.

Grace Stone had a huge first quarter, with 13 of her own. Princeton's two leading scorers, Abby Meyers and Julia Cunningham, had just seven in that first half between them.

The nearly perfect first half did not stop Columbia from trying to attempt what would have been the second-best comeback in Division I women's basketball history. How does TB know this? He looked it up during the third quarter, when Columbia got it back under 20.

That largest comeback, by the way, was from a 2006 game, when Texas State rallied from 32 down (40-8) to beat Texas-San Antonio 73-71. Only five times in Division I history has a team ever rallied from as many as 24 down.

It's not easy to make those kinds of comebacks. It's even tougher against a team that defends the way Princeton does. 

Columbia got it down to 15 during the third quarter. The crowd was back into it. Was there a chance for something historic?

Nope. Any hope that the Lions had vanished when Cunnigham hit a jump shot and drew a charge, leading to a gorgeous feed from Chen to a cutting Meyers for a basket and the and-one. That made it 20 again.

The win improved Princeton to 12-0 in the league. Columbia, at 10-2, can still tie the Tigers should Princeton lose to Harvard Saturday in Cambridge and then at Penn next Friday and the Lions sweep Brown and Cornell. No matter what, Princeton will be the No. 1 seed in the Ivy tournament.

Princeton also is assured at least a share of the Ivy League championship. the program's ninth in the last 12 seasons and Carla Berube's second in two years as head coach. 

Chen finished with 27. Stone had a career high too with 19, and Meyers was in double figures, as she has been in every game this year, with 12. Ellie Mitchell did her thing, with 13 rebounds, eight on the offensive end.

It wasn't a night about stats, though, as impressive as some of them were.

It was a night about rising to the moment, about walking into a full gym filled with students who wanted nothing more to storm the court after it ended.

Instead, they all filed out quietly. Maybe a few of them considered that they had just seen a pretty special team, one that did what special teams need to do to become champions.