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The Princeton-Columbia women's basketball game at Jadwin Gym wasn't even a minute old when the Tigers' Kaitlyn Chen put up a shot that fell short.

What happened next? Ellie Mitchell came away with the offensive rebound. What happened after that? Madison St. Rose dropped in a three-pointer.

Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. 

Princeton defeated Columbia 80-65 Saturday afternoon in the first of what could end up being three meetings this season between the two. The Lions had come into the game having won 10 straight. Princeton had won eight straight, now nine. 

They were the only two unbeaten teams in the league beforehand. This was a big early Ivy League season game.

No Princeton basketball player, male or female, has ever made the impact on Tigers' success while having a career scoring average of 5.4 points per game than Mitchell. What she has done for Princeton women's basketball is almost immeasurable. 

Forget the 14 points she had against Columbia. The bigger number is 11. 

Mitchell finished with 15 rebounds to go along with those 14 points, including seven offensive boards. Those seven offensive boards turned into additional possessions that resulted in 11 Princeton points. 

That's 11 points that Princeton would not have had were it not for the offensive rebounds that Mitchell hauled in. Those are also an unknowable number of points that Columbia didn't get because Princeton had another chance.

And that's in a game where Princeton won by 15. 

Mitchell has 392 offensive rebounds in her career. If you use 11 points per seven offensive rebounds as an average, then that's 616 points Princeton has that it otherwise wouldn't have.

You want to say that the game Saturday wasn't average? Okay, so take 50 points away. That's still a lot of extra points. 

Mitchell's 15 rebounds against Columbia pushed her past the 1,000-rebound mark for her career. To show you how rare that is, Princeton has had 65 players between the men's and women's programs reach 1,000 career points. Mitchell is now just the third to get to 1,000 rebounds.

That's 65 versus three. This isn't to say that getting to 1,000 points is easy. It obviously is. But 1,000 rebounds? That's almost unheard of.

Margaret Meier, who graduated in 1978, holds the women's record with 1,099. Bill Bradley had 1,008, the most in the history of the men's program. 

Nobody else who has ever played basketball at Princeton ever got there other than those two — until Saturday. Mitchell came into the game with 993, which means she now has 1,008, even with Bradley, 91 from Meier's once seemingly untouchable record.

With 11 regular season games to go, Mitchell would have to average 8.3 boards per game to catch Meier. Mitchell averages 11.1 so far this season, which is the best in the league and 14th in Division I; her 4.3 offensive rebounds per game rank eighth in the country (and also first in the league).

As for the rest of the game against Columbia, St. Rose finished with 21 points, six rebounds, three assists and three steals, and Skye Belker had the highest-scoring game of her freshman year with 21 more. 

Most crucially, Princeton did what it does when games are on the line. It upped the defense.

Columbia led 37-33 at the half, but Princeton took the lead in the third quarter and never gave it back. Still, it was 60-57 Tigers with 8:17 to go. 

From there, Princeton allowed Columbia only one field goal in its next eight attempts, with four turnovers mixed in. Princeton, during the final 8:17, shot 8 for 11 on its end. 

Next up for Princeton is a home game against Cornell Saturday. Looming down the road is the return game at Columbia, which will be Feb. 24, and the Ivy League tournament, which will also be at Columbia.

This isn't, of course, just a two-team race. Princeton is now 4-0, followed by Columbia, Brown and Harvard, who are all 3-1, and 2-2 Penn. There's a long way to go until the top four get to New York City.

For Princeton, the win Saturday was an important early statement. 

For Ellie Mitchell, it was a spot in Princeton history. Remember the key numbers:

* 65 1,000-point scorers, only three 1,000-rebound members
* 11 points off of possessions from her seven offensive rebounds
* somewhere around 600 or so extra points that Mitchell's offensive rebounding has gotten for her team

Yes. That's historic stuff.