Julia Cunningham: Helping Set The Princeton Women's Basketball Standard

"Communication is number one," said Julia Cunningham about Princeton's defensive principles. "There are going to be situations where its low shot clock or they're (opponents) running something we haven't seen before, and it all comes down to falling back to defensive principles and communicating with each other."

It had been 666 days since the Tigers' last Ivy League contest before Sunday's 68-50 victory over Harvard.

One thing did not change during the time between …

Princeton's calling card … defense.

The Tigers put the game away in the third stanza, allowing just one basket, jumping out to a 25-point advantage. Princeton outscored Harvard, 23-9, in that stretch, forcing the road squad to go 1-of-15 from the floor.

One thing that has changed is Cunningham's role on the team.

"Two years ago, I had a very different role, I was third or fourth in line scoring wise and that honestly sometimes was a lot of pressure because if Bella or Carlie were having an off night, it was on one of the other starters to step up and fill that hole," said Cunningham. "Now coming into this year and having more pressure on me to being a scoring threat, it's nice to have that, a lot of people would want that job."

The junior has seen a major uptick in scoring, registering 14.2 points per game (which would be a career high) on 39.0 percent shooting. She's hit 16 three-pointers and is knocking down 83.9 percent from the charity stripe. She has recorded double-digit performances in 10 of 12 games this season.

Every shooter has an "In The Zone" moment. For Cunningham, that came against Delaware as she collected a career best 26 points on 10-of-19 shooting.

"It's a great feeling," said Cunningham. "I started the game with a wide-open layup and it doesn't get much better than that. You get an open layup and three to start the game, hit both of them, then it turns into a heat check every time down the floor. For me, things ended up falling my way that game, so it was exciting."

Cunningham has seen the work she put into her game last year come to fruition. She took 2020-21 academic year off from school which allowed her to focus on basketball and provide clarity on what she wants to do after Princeton.

She lived with her teammates Maggie Connolly and Ellie Mitchell in an apartment, got a job at a physical therapy office near her hometown of Watchung, N.J., and took science classes at a local community college.

There was also time for basketball. She spent a lot of that stretch working out, lifting, and playing at a gym that Maggie and Ellie worked at.

"I used the year as a silver lining in what I want to do for the rest of my life," said Cunningham. "I want to go to PA school after I graduate, and I would have needed to take year after undergrad to finish my science courses, so I used this year off in the middle of my college career to do that instead."

Coming into this season, the team was more than happy to see each other.

"Everyone needed to take a collective deep breath," said Cunningham. "It was a great feeling being back on the court. Everyone was so excited to be back in the gym that they didn't even care if it was for the run test."

The junior also came into the season with a new title.

Captain.

"It was huge especially this year because we have so many underclassmen who are basically freshmen," said Cunningham. "They have no idea what Princeton Women's Basketball is about. "That's been my main focus as captain to get everyone on the same page and making sure we're holding everyone accountable and to the same standard because Princeton's Women's Basketball has a legacy of winning Ivy League championships, Ivy League tournaments, and going to NCAA Tournaments. I think I have made that very clear from day one when I was named captain."

23 percent of Princeton's minutes this year has been played by players who had not played collegiate basketball before. In the 2019-20 season, that number was at 11.5 percent.

The results so far have seen Princeton go 8-4 with impressive wins over Villanova, Delaware, No. 22 Florida Gulf Coast, Buffalo and Harvard. Their losses have been to Rhode Island, Fordham, Seton Hall, and No. 12 Texas. Princeton is No. 42 in the NCAA NET Rankings, a formula that the NCAA committee uses in its process to determine the NCAA Tournament teams.

"I'm pleased where we're at," said the junior captain. "The coaching staff has done a really great job of constructing our non-conference schedule to prepare us for the conference and postseason. Coming in and beating Harvard in game one, it's been forever since we've played an Ivy game, so it's a good feeling. Everyone is confident now into the rest of conference play and we made a statement with that game."

Being one of three captains with Abby Meyers and Connolly, Cunningham has embraced the leadership and responsibility of being one of the main cogs on the team.

"I've had a lot of great captains since high school and college," said Cunningham. "My freshman year, we had great leaders and of course with Bella (Alarie), Carlie (Littlefield) and Taylor (Baur) sophomore year, there's always been really strong leadership. Being an underclassman on a team with leaders has been part of it for me and then growing into myself. My role has expanded so I put a lot of pressure on myself to perform and I think I can do that because I have a lot of faith in my teammates that they're going to step up and have my back and building that trust as a leader has been important for us."

One of the games that Cunningham is most proud of is the team's comeback victory over Buffalo. Trailing by eight in the second half, Princeton rallied to force overtime. The Tigers had three starters foul out by the time the game ended, but they took down the Bulls, 79-77. Head coach Carla Berube's unit had five players score in double figures in the win.

"At the end of the day, it's a game of runs," said Cunningham. "Especially going into overtime with three starters fouling out, you're watching us on the bench with so much emotion. Seeing the bench players step up, they knew the scout and knew exactly what we were doing defensively. It was a strong victory, and it shows we have that depth on the bench and can bounce back. "

Cunningham and Princeton continue their Ivy League journey this weekend with a national televised game at Columbia on Friday (7 p.m.) before a contest at Cornell (4 p.m.) on Saturday.

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