The Princeton women’s basketball team closed out the regular season on Saturday afternoon with a satisfying 67-53 win over Penn at the Palestra. 

Here are three Tiger Takeaways from a triumph that gave Princeton 20 wins for a seventh consecutive season, tying a program record set during the Courtney Banghart era:

1. Princeton took care of business at the Palestra and put itself in position to earn an at-large berth to the NCAA Tournament.

Two weeks ago, Carla Berube’s Tigers were licking their wounds after the Columbia Lions marched into Jadwin Gymnasium and swept the season series from Princeton, snapping the Tigers’ 30-game home court winning streak in the process.

The loss severely dented Princeton’s chances of winning a seventh straight regular season Ivy League title and sent a shockwave down the spine of Orange and Black Nation. Suddenly, the entire postseason was at risk. 

There was only one solution: The Tigers had to go on the road and sweep the final three games of the season. With Saturday’s win over Penn, the tenacious Tigers have now done exactly that. 

First, the Tigers traveled to Cambridge and dominated Harvard to notch their first quad-one win of the season. Then, less than 24 hours later, the Tigers persevered in Dartmouth on the back end of a back-to-back travel weekend. 

Finally, on Saturday afternoon, the Tigers completed the “Trifecta at the Palestra,” capping their three-game road odyssey with a nearly wire-to-wire win against a solid Penn team that had a lot on the line.

By beating Penn for a 14th consecutive time, the Tigers put a damper on Senior Day at the Palestra and dropped Penn into a tie with Brown for fourth place and the final berth in Ivy Madness. 

The Tigers buckled down against Penn and executed their offense to near perfection in the first ten minutes, putting themselves into position to win after building a 15-point lead. They lost their focus in the second quarter, as they often have this season, but got back on track in the second half and ground out a convincing 14-point win in a hostile environment.

The win sets the table for an epic clash against Harvard in the semifinals of the Ivy League Tournament next Friday in Providence, a clash that could turn out to be a de facto play-in game for a second Ivy bid to the NCAA Tournament.  

A loss to Penn in the regular season finale would have jeopardized the possibility of an at-large berth and sent the Tigers to Ivy Madness under a cloud of doubt. Instead, the Tigers’ businesslike win over Penn solidifies their tournament bona fides and infuses them with confidence as they look to take down Harvard for a third time this season.

2. Fadima Tall proved that she is a First-Team All-Ivy player.

After Madison St. Rose went down with a season-ending injury in early November, coach Carla Berube knew she needed someone to step in to fill the scoring and leadership gap that comes with losing your best player. Fadima Tall has been that someone. 

The sophomore guard/forward from Silver Spring, Md. has emerged as Princeton’s most valuable player, contributing key baskets on offense, locking down the other team’s first or second best player in every game, and dominating the boards. 

Tall is Princeton’s third leading scorer at 10.3 points per game and the team’s top rebounder with 6.3 caroms per game, sixth best in the Ivy League.

On Saturday, Tall powered her way to a double-double, scoring a game and career high 20 points, grabbing 10 rebounds and coming away with four steals in 31 minutes of playing time. She came up big at every turning point, scoring back to back treys early in the game to put Princeton on top and making key defensive plays whenever the Tigers needed a stop to halt a Penn run.

Tall has been Berube’s most consistent producer on both ends of the court throughout the season and she has provided fearless leadership time and again when her team needed a boost. 

You can make a good argument that Skye Belker, Ashley Chea and Parker Hill deserve consideration for all Ivy honors, but no player has made a stronger case for First Team honors than Tall, the heart of soul of this resilient Tigers team.

3.

The good news for Princeton heading into Ivy Madness is that Skye Belker is back. The super ophomore shooting guard tweaked her ankle and knee early in the Ivy season and appeared to struggle for several weeks with a limited range of movement.  In recent games, however, Belker has looked fully back to normal, creating plays with dribble penetration and pulling up for Bill Bradley-esque jumpers. 

Last Saturday night at Dartmouth, when nearly every Princeton player seemed stuck in the mud, Belker rescued the game for the Tigers, scoring a career high 25 points. In Saturday’s regular season finale against Penn, Belker dominated again, scoring 16 points, grabbing five rebounds and dishing a game-high five assists. 

The bad news is that two key bench players have been slumping lately. Tabitha Amanze has come off the bench throughout the season to spell Parker Hill at the five position, giving Princeton a potent one-two punch combination in the paint. 

But Amanze seems to have lost confidence in recent weeks. Or maybe she’s fighting an injury.

On Saturday at the Palestra, Amanze came off the bench for two short stints and missed a couple of short range shots in only four minutes of play. The junior from Nigeria hasn’t scored since February 22, when she contributed six points in 10 minutes against Columbia.

The good news is that Berube seems to have found a highly capable replacement for Amanze in senior forward Katie Thiers. At 6-foot-2, Thiers gives up two inches to Amanze, but she offers more experience and is a more polished finisher around the basket. 

On Saturday against Penn, Thiers came up big, contributing nine points, five rebounds and a block in only 12 minutes on the floor.

Another bench player fighting through a slump is freshman guard Toby Nweke.

During most of  the Ivy season, Berube has turned to Nweke as her primary guard off the bench. The freshman from Georgetown Visitation Prep has played more minutes in Princeton’s last four games than any other bench player, but she’s only scored 10 points during that span, coming up empty on Saturday against Penn on 0-for-4 shooting.

Berube doesn’t need Nweke to score a lot of points or carry her team. But earlier in the season, the freshman sharpshooter provided valuable secondary scoring, often hitting late threes to help lock down a victory. 

Next week at Ivy Madness, Nweke could be a X-factor for the Tigers.

Regaining her shooting touch and hitting a trey or two in Providence could provide a huge boost as Princeton looks to cut down the nets at the Ivy League Tournament for a sixth consecutive time.