Perfect Start Leads Princeton Past Penn In Ivy Semifinal

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During the final 32 minutes of the first Ivy League women's basketball tournament semifinal Friday, Penn hounded Princeton everywhere the Tigers went. The Quakers got backdoor layups. They caused turnovers. They held Princeton to 1 for 9 three-point shooting while knocking down five of their own, one of which came from the other side of halfcourt at the buzzer of the first half to send Penn flying into the lockeroom. Nothing was easy for the Tigers during those final 32 minutes, during which Penn outscored Princeton by three. The Quaker bench was into it. The Quaker fans seated behind the bench were loud.

Hey, when you play as beautiful, as flawless — as perfect — an eight minutes of basketball as the program has ever seen, you can afford what happened in the final 32 minutes. In the end, Princeton did what its coach Carla Berube said the goal was, which was to survive another day and get to play another game.

Top-seeded Princeton defeated fourth-seeded Penn 60-47 in the first semifinal matchup, advancing to Saturday's 5 pm championship game against the Harvard Crimson, who defeated Columbia, 72-65.

Kaitlyn Chen, the Ivy League Player of the Year, led Princeton with 24 points, and Ellie Mitchell, the league's co-Defensive Player of the Year, had her 11th career double-double with 10 points and 12 rebounds.

The real story of this one, though, were those first eight minutes. They were glorious, the kind of basketball that could be shipped straight to Springfield for enshrinement, since they were exactly what Mr. Naismith had in mind when he invented the game.

From the opening tip until Penn's Mandy McGurk hit a shot in the lane with 2:14 left in the first quarter, here is what Princeton did:

* after missing its first three shots, Princeton made seven of its next 10
* had four different players score
* held Penn to 0 for 9 shooting
* forced five Penn turnovers
* did not allow a Penn offensive rebound
* did not commit a foul

By the time McGurk's shot went in, Princeton had built a 16-0 lead. It actually grew to 19-2 at the end of the quarter.

"I was pleased with how the first quarter went," Berube said in an understatement. "But give Penn credit. It kept fighting."

The game was hardly over with three quarters to go, but the hill was too massive for Penn to climb, even after the Quakers were able to finally get going on both ends. The game was 32-18 Princeton when McGurk beat the first-half buzzer from 50 feet away or so, and when Penn got a turnover and score to start the third quarter, the lead was suddenly single digits. It was just a six-point game at the end of the third at 46-40, but Penn got no closer in the fourth quarter.

Chen's 24 points came on an 11-for-21 night, and Mitchell's 10 points were huge, with eight of the in the second half. Madison St. Rose, the Ivy Rookie of the Year, had a 12-point night.

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