PRINCETON — The Princeton women’s basketball planned on cutting down the net after its regular-season finale.
The only question was whether the Tigers would be doing it as the outright Ivy League regular-season champion or as as co-champ.
Turns out Princeton is alone atop the Ivy League and the No. 1 seed in the ILT that gets underway next weekend in Ithaca, N.Y.
Fadima Tall scored 22 points, Madison St. Rose added 17 and the 23rd-ranked Tigers turned it on in the fourth quarter after slogging through the first 30 minutes to beat Yale, 78-55, on Saturday afternoon at Jadwin Gymnasium.
“I’m so happy to be here and celebrate with my team,” St. Rose said in an interview on ESPN after the game. “The fact that it’s my last home game and we can celebrate in the regular season I couldn’t ask for a better day.”
St. Rose and Taylor Charles were the two seniors playing in their final home game.
“The blood, sweat and tears … it matters,” St. Rose continued. “We all work hard and every single day we all pursue the same goals. Then we’re just on the court and having fun.”
The Tigers (24-4, 12-2) then got great news when Harvard came from behind to beat Columbia and give Princeton the outright crown. Had the Tigers and Lions both finished at 12-2 then Columbia would have been the No. 1 seed at the ILT because it swept the two games between the teams.
Skye Belker finished with 14 points to give Princeton three in double figures.
The Tigers got off to a slow start — they trailed 18-4 at one point in the first quarter — and didn’t pull away until outscoring the Bulldogs (7-20, 3-11) by 13 in the fourth quarter.
Men’s Basketball
Yale 78, Princeton 53
NEW HAVEN, Conn. — The season came to an end with a 20th loss after the regular-season champion Bulldogs (23-5, 11-3) pulled away from the Tigers (9-20, 5-9) in the second half.
Princeton lost 20 games in a season for the first time since a 6-23 campaign in 2007-08, which was Sydney Johnson’s first season in charge.
Yale, led by 17 points from Nick Townsend, outscored Princeton, 46-23, in the second half.
Malik Abdullahi, Landon Clark and Dalen Davis had 11 points each for the Tigers.
