Princeton Rolls Past Columbia For Fifth-Straight Ivy Tournament Title And NCAA Bid

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November 9, 2PM

at Georgia Tech

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November 12, 7PM

at Villanova

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November 16, 12AM

at Maryland

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November 19, 7PM

vs Rice

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November 22, 12AM

vs College MTE

This wasn't Madness, be it the Ivy kind or the March kind. This was more "Maddening," as in: "It's usually maddening to play against the Princeton women's basketball team."

No matter what you do, no matter how hard you try to get something easy, those moments, quite maddeningly, are very few and very far between. No matter how you try to cover up mistakes, these Tigers never let you.

And that is especially true come Ivy League tournament time. Princeton, for the fifth time in six of these Ivy Madness events, left all comers maddeningly unhappy. This time, it was Columbia who got to experience it, as Princeton did everything it does while knocking off the Lions 75-58 on their home court at Levien Gym in the ILT championship game.

Princeton is now 11-1 all-time in Ivy League tournaments, with 10 straight wins and five straight automatic NCAA bids. The Tigers, who would have been a lock for an at-large bid no matter the outcome of the final, will find out their seed and opponent for the NCAA tournament Sunday night at 8. Princeton has won a game in each of the last two NCAA's.

Ellie Mitchell was again extraordinary, with 12 points, 10 rebounds and four charges drawn, not to mention being the leader of the defense that held the Lions, the highest scoring team in the Ivy League at 77 points per game, nearly 20 points below that average.

There were four Tigers in double figures, led by Madison St. Rose with 18 and Kaitlyn Chen with 17. Ashley Chea was great in just 16 minutes, finishing with 10 points, three rebounds, two assists and even a block.

Columbia was led by Abbey Hsu, who had 20, but the Tigers threw a blanket on her from the time she pushed her total to 11 with 4:54 to go in the second quarter and when she scored again, with 8:33 to go in the game. In between, Princeton built its lead from 27-22 to 57-39.

Princeton and Columbia tied for the Ivy League championship by going 13-1, each winning against the other at home and both going 12-0 against the rest of the league. Both teams won tough semifinal games Friday, setting up the final that didn't happen a year ago, when Princeton and Columbia also tied before Harvard knocked off Columbia in the semifinal.

Princeton never trailed in Saturday's final, getting out to leads of 9-4 early and 34-27 at the half. The second half was all Tigers, who twice built the lead to 19. Once the Tigers got it to double figures on a Chen jump shot with 4:32 left in the third to make it 43-32, Columbia never got any closer the rest of the way, with the final margin of 17.

The win was also Carla Berube's 100^th as Princeton head coach, and it came in her 116^th game with the Tigers, giving her an .862 winning percentage.

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