In New Jersey women’s basketball, Princeton is the new gold standard
By beating Rutgers 66-55 on Wednesday, Princeton swept Rutgers and Seton Hall for the second straight season.
PRINCETON – Madison St. Rose is from Old Bridge and starred at St. John Vianney High School, just half an hour down the Parkway from Jersey Mike’s Arena.
If she had come along 10 years earlier, the obvious choice might have been to attend Rutgers, whose women’s basketball dynasty under C. Vivian Stringer needs little re-telling. The Scarlet Knights went to two Final Fours under Stringer and lost to Pat Summitt, Candace Parker and the Tennessee Lady Vols in the 2007 national title game.
These days, Rutgers is in a rebuilding state, led by Coquese Washington in her second season on the job after Stringer’s official retirement in 2022 (Stringer also did not coach in 2021-22 due to COVID-19 concerns). There’ve been promising moments, like hanging tough with defending Big Ten regular-season champion Indiana in a 66-56 loss last Saturday.
But I think Wednesday’s game at Jadwin Gymnasium confirmed one thing: that there’s no disputing the Princeton Tigers are the queens of New Jersey college basketball.
If you’re calling me Captain Obvious right now, I hear you. Princeton became the class of the Ivy League and a near-perennial NCAA Tournament team under Courtney Banghart and now Carla Berube. That much is plain as day.
But consider this: By beating Rutgers 66-55 on Wednesday, the Tigers swept Rutgers and Seton Hall for the second straight season. That’s the first time Princeton has accomplished that as far back as I looked. The schools have not always played each other, and there have been years Princeton beat one and couldn’t schedule the other; all the same, winning four straight against your in-state, power-conference foes is worth underscoring.
“These are really strong opponents, strong programs, storied programs,” Berube said after her program beat Villanova and Rutgers in a span of three days. “For us to compete with them and pull out these victories, yeah, it’s great for recruiting. We recruit all over the country, the world. It’s just great to get these wins against such quality players and programs and coaches.”
For now, the Tigers’ roster has only two New Jersey natives plus Tabitha Amanze, who hails from Nigeria but attended Blair Academy up in Blairstown. But St. Rose knows what the local rivalries mean to her and the extra juice they carry.
“I know a lot of players on the opposing team, Destiny Adams, Antonia Bates,” St. Rose said. “We’ve been competitors since high school, so just to see familiar faces, I kind of just take pride in that. ‘I don’t want you guys to beat me since we’re both from New Jersey, I want to come out with that win.’”
St. Rose said Seton Hall recruited her; she didn’t mention Rutgers, likely because they were in the midst of the COVID-era coaching succession as she reached her senior year of high school.
St. Rose outplayed her old high school foes on Wednesday by easily knocking down her first three 3-pointers and finishing with 17 points on 7-of-13 shooting from the field. Kaitlyn Chen had 19 points and five assists, freshman Ashley Chea had 13 points and Princeton forced 21 Rutgers turnovers, including 13 in the first 14 minutes. It was a 20-point game most of the way before Rutgers cut into the margin in the fourth quarter.
The question becomes whether Rutgers will continue these series.
Seton Hall coach Tony Bozzella has been vocal about the ball being in Washington’s court. Speaking to reporters two weeks ago, Bozzella said Rutgers gave Seton Hall and Princeton each a two-year deal, a home-and-home. Those deals officially have been completed.
Berube pointed out Wednesday that Rutgers will have other considerations next season, namely an expanded Big Ten that will feature top-10 teams UCLA and USC.
“Yeah, I would love to” keep playing Rutgers, Berube said. “Not sure that’s going to happen or not. They have I think a bigger Big Ten schedule coming soon. They’re adding some decent teams to it, so we’ll see. We love to be able to play great competition in our own state and not have to travel far. I thought it was a great environment, too. I think a lot of high school teams are here and you’re getting Rutgers fans, our fans.”
Indeed, the stands were full again, just as they were when Seton Hall visited two weeks prior.
Whether the Rutgers series continues or not, Princeton fans know their team has grabbed the mantle of the best women’s team in the state, and they’ll keep showing up in force. The best recruits in the area, the future Madison St. Roses, may do the same.
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Thanks for stopping by on this Thursday. You have 11 shopping days until Christmas, while Hanukkah is about to wrap up. I know I’ve been extremely busy this month on a number of fronts, but I’m continuing to put out the best local college basketball coverage I can because I am overwhelmingly grateful for the influx in new subscribers recently.
What else is happening around the state? Let’s clean the glass:
Wednesday was a doubleheader at Jadwin that started with the men’s team breezing by Division III Bryn Athyn, 92-40. The starters each played five minutes; Darius Gakwasi hit for a career-high 18 points, Vernon Collins had 10 and freshmen Jackson Hicke, Derek Sangster and Jacob Huggins all scored in double figures. Hicke packed the stat sheet with a 12-point, 15-rebound double-double (six offensive boards), five assists, three steals and two blocks, one coming in the form of a volleyball spike in the final two minutes. “Just taking advantage of the opportunity to get a lot of minutes,” Hicke said. “You’ve got to always give it 100% no matter what the score is and how much time’s left in the game.”
Mitch Henderson appeared to enjoy my comparing Hicke to Caden Pierce, adding there’s also some Spencer Weisz to Hicke’s game. Zooming out, this was a more promising showing than when Princeton committed 29 turnovers in an 88-70 win over Division III Kean just before Christmas last year. “Somebody that doesn’t start is gonna have to save us in the league at some point,” Henderson said. “I saw some good signs tonight.”I wish I could have made it to Seton Hall-Monmouth on Tuesday night; it’s probably going to end up the game of the week in New Jersey. The Hawks gave Seton Hall a fight, especially in the second half, before Seton Hall pulled away 70-61. That Monmouth nearly caught up to and beat a Big East team on the road while shooting 35.7% is impressive. The Hawks had fewer turnovers and made more threes to close the margin, and the clutch 3-pointers Xander Rice provides for this team can’t be undersold. Monmouth center Amaan Sandhu also deserves a shoutout for his best game of the season. He played all 15 of his minutes in the second half with Nikita Konstantynovskyi in foul trouble, and he racked up eight points on 3-of-3 shooting and three rebounds during crunch time.
But the star of this game was Seton Hall freshman Isaiah Coleman, who’s done more than enough by now to prove he needs more minutes in the rotation. Already a two-time Big East Freshman of the Week honoree, Coleman should be the favorite to win his third after scoring 17 points (7-of-12 shooting) and adding four boards, two steals and two blocks to will the Pirates to victory. I’m not finding nearly enough highlight clips online – specifically, after driving the lane a bunch he hit a sweet mid-range turnaround that I’m still thinking about – but this steal and dunk will have to do. I trust Coleman more than Dylan Addae-Wusu or Al-Amir Dawes at the moment if I’m Seton Hall. He’s good enough to start.
Saint Peter’s is turning a corner. The Peacocks improved to 4-5 by winning three of their last four, the only loss in that span coming by nine at a good Duquesne team. They beat UMBC on Tuesday despite shooting 31.9% overall and 2-for-21 from three. Saint Peter’s formula is to rebound so it gets way more shot attempts (a 69-48 discrepancy vs. UMBC) and to outscore you at the foul line (20-9 vs. UMBC). Latrell Reid scored a career-high 20 points.
My schedule for the next few weeks is taking shape: Rider at Monmouth on Saturday, UConn at Seton Hall in both teams’ Big East opener the following Wednesday and Mississippi State vs. Rutgers at Prudential Center on Dec. 23. Then the newsletter will be on holiday break the week between Christmas and New Year’s.