The rims were friendly to both the Brown Bears and the Princeton Tigers on Friday night at Jadwin Gymnasium. Hoping to snap a 14-game losing streak to Princeton, Brown drained 12 three-pointers, a season high.

Unfortunately for the Bears, the Tigers were also hot, making 11 treys of their own, including 7-for-8 in the first quarter as Princeton raced out to an early, 29-point lead and hung on to sweep the season series against the Bears, 78-67.

The game started on a positive note for the visitors. After Gianna Aiello stole a Skye Belker pass intended for Parker Hill, Bella Mauricio canned an open three to give Brown an early 3-0 lead. Mauricio finished with 10 points, one of three Bears to tally double digits.

The Tigers responded with an offensive barrage. A jumper from Ashley Chea from just inside the arc made it 3-2. Then, after Princeton got a stop, Fadima Tall rattled in a three to give the home team their first lead, 5-3. The Tigers never looked back.

Olivia Hutcherson picked off a Beth Nelson pass near the side line and took it to the house for an and-one to push Princeton’s lead to 8-3. Hutcheron finished with nine points on 4-for-5 shooting. After another Princeton stop, Chea rattled in a shot from distance to make it 11-3.

Nelson responded with a three to halt Princeton’s 11-0 run, but Chea knocked down another trey from the top of the key to push Princeton’s lead to 14-6. Chea led all scorers with 19 points and three assists.

After a Tigers stop, Belker lined up her first three of the night from the corner to give Princeton its first double-digit lead, 17-6, at the 4:52 mark of the first quarter. Belker finished with 14 points on the night.

Three more Princeton bombs by Chea, Toby Nweke, and Tall ballooned the Tigers’ lead to 30-10 with 1:33 to go in the first quarter. Yet another three point launch resulted in a Brown foul on Belker. The sophomore guard calmly sank all three free throws to give Princeton a commanding 33-10 lead at the end of the first stanza.

In the second quarter, things got worse for the shellshocked Bears.

After Nweke stole the ball from Grace Arnolie, a well-executed pick and roll led to a layup by Tabitha Amanze to extend Princeton’s lead to 35-10. Another Princeton steal, this time by freshman guard Cristina Parrella, led to a runout layup by Chea. A putback by Amanze provided Princeton with a massive 29-point lead, 39-10, only two minutes into the second quarter.

A three-ball by Olivia Young stopped the bleeding for Brown, but the game appeared to be over.  Or was it?

Slowly, the Bears tried to claw their way back into the contest, led by Young’s three-point shooting. The 5-foot-11 sophomore guard hit a corner three and was fouled by Hutcherson. Young made the bonus free throw for a rare, four-point play. Moments later, another Young trey got Bruno to within two dozen, 46-22, with 3:13 to play in the first half.

A layup by Aiello, assisted by Young, closed out the second quarter as Princeton took a 49-26 lead into the intermission.

The Tigers were led in the first half by Chea’s 13 points on 5-for-8 shooting, including 3-for-6 from deep. Brown was led by Young’s ten points off the bench. Both teams shot over 55% from beyond the arc.

In the third quarter, a complacent Princeton squad yielded the first six points to Brown, causing Princeton coach Carla Berube called timeout.

A layup by Chea high off the glass momentarily stopped Brown’s run, but back-to-back treys by Arnolie and Young cut further into Princeton’s lead. The quarter ended with Princeton up 18, 66-49.

In the fourth quarter, Brown continued to chip away against a Tigers squad that lacked urgency. With 1:20 to play, Nelson tallied a layup to cut Princeton’s lead to 12, 76-64.

Moments later, a three by Mady Calhoun made it a single-digit game, but it was too late. Two free throws by Taylor Charles capped the scoring as the Tigers hung on for a 78-67 triumph.

The win, Princeton’s 15th consecutive over Brown, clinched a berth in Ivy Madness for the Tigers. It also stretched Princeton’s home winning streak to 29 games, second longest in the nation.

After the game, Fadima Tall, who scored 10 points and grabbed a game high nine rebounds, explained to the ESPN+ broadcast crew how Princeton had prepared to use the long ball against Brown.

“I think we knew that Brown was going to come in and really sag in,” Tall said. That’s what really hurt them in the last game, so we shot a lot this week and [made] sure we were ready to make those if we were open.”

Although the Tigers will take the win as they prepare for the second contest of a back-to-back weekend, Berube and her coaching staff probably aren’t thrilled with the way the Tigers closed out a game they led early in the second quarter by 29 points.  The Bears outscored Princeton 41-27 and outrebounded the Tigers 22-13 in the second half.

Princeton (17-5, 8-1 Ivy) will host Yale tomorrow evening at Jadwin, while Brown (10-12, 4-5) will face Penn at the Palestra in a Saturday afternoon contest that has serious implications for determining the fourth and final spot in the Ivy League tournament.