No. 25 Princeton needs two OTs to beat Seton Hall in women’s hoops classic
Two strong New Jersey programs authored a memorable chapter in their series' history, as Tony Bozzella hopes to continue growing women's basketball in the state.
PRINCETON – Jadwin Gymnasium was still as a referee spoke to Carla Berube and Tony Bozzella on the far sideline near halfcourt. If any spectators thought they knew the pending outcome of this conversation, they were about to be proven wrong.
All at once, Bozzella spun around and pumped a fist as he strode back to his Seton Hall players, who erupted into a second celebration. Berube returned to her Princeton Tigers, ranked No. 25 in this week’s AP poll, who now felt that they had to go win this game all over again.
Two Princeton turnovers in the final 11 seconds (and countless trips to the monitor by officials) led to the Tigers coughing up a five-point lead at the end of regulation. Seton Hall’s Micah Gray banked in a catch-and-shoot 3-pointer with exactly 1 second left on the clock that tied the game at 59. But it looked late coming off her hand when juxtaposed with the backboard’s red light.
“I was yelling, ‘They started the clock too early, started the clock too early,’ and (the officials) were like, ‘I got it, I got it, I got it,’” Bozzella recounted afterward. “And to their credit they stopwatched it and she did (make it). I thought she got it off during the game. I was surprised when I looked at the scoreboard that it was red before she shot it. But (the officials) were great and they handled themselves well.”
Over on the other bench, Parker Hill and the other veterans on this relatively young Princeton team knew what to say.
“When we practice we play 5-minute increments, so we all huddled up and said, ‘It’s just one 5-minute game. It’s 0-0. It’s a new game, and it’s just 5 minutes,’” Hill said. “And that’s easier to push through in smaller increments. We knew that we could finish out the game strong and we just had to persevere through it.”
It turned out to be two 5-minute games, though. Skye Belker’s jumper from the elbow with 37 seconds left and some Pirate turnovers allowed the Tigers to win the double-overtime marathon, 75-71.
I headed to Princeton on Wednesday night after taking in Rutgers’ 82-48 win over Delaware State earlier in the day. In planning this doubleheader, I’d pictured writing a general roundup of how New Jersey’s women’s teams were doing roughly a month into the season. That’s what’s great about sports – you never know when an instant classic is going to break out.
Princeton-Seton Hall was beautifully messy. Both teams had committed at least 21 turnovers at the end of regulation, never mind the two overtimes. Both coaches would tell you it was not their teams’ finest displays of passing. The pace slowed to a crawl with the number of official reviews.
But I don’t know if I’ll cover a more thrilling matchup the rest of this season. It will go down as one of the most memorable games in a series littered with close results.
Bozzella seized the opportunity to talk up the rivalries in New Jersey women’s basketball – and point to the fact that Seton Hall and Rutgers do not yet have a long-term deal to keep playing.
“One of the things that we’re trying to do, Carla and myself and hopefully Coquese (Washington), is play the best teams in the state,” Bozzella said. “… As we try and grow the game here in Jersey, part of our responsibility as head coaches, Carla and mine, is to play. Now Coquese, the ball’s in her court. (Former Rutgers coach C. Vivian Stringer) gave us a two-year deal and gave Princeton a two-year deal. We’re trying to play, and hopefully Rutgers will play. That’s something we’re anxious on, talking to Carla before the game as well, we’d love the best teams in the state to play.”
Seton Hall has played Princeton tight for six straight meetings now. Before Wednesday, the road team had won five in a row – the Tigers by four, two and two points at Walsh Gymnasium and the Pirates by 10 and four points in their previous two visits to Jadwin.
“They try to take you out of what you want to do,” Berube said of Seton Hall. “They rebound hard. It’s hard to get to the rim and they took some really great charges in the first half, too. There’s just a toughness about them. I mean, they take on the character of their coach, too. He coaches really hard and they play very, very hard. We know every time we play Seton Hall it’s a battle.”
Seton Hall’s greatest success of the night was to disrupt Princeton’s game on the interior. Bozzella saw it as a major win to limit rebounding machine Ellie Mitchell to nine boards in 31 minutes. She had 23 against the Pirates last year. (That’s not a typo of 13. She had 23.) Seton Hall played fearlessly down low, matched Princeton’s 28 points in the paint and outrebounded the Tigers by seven.
The Pirates, led by Gray’s 15.7 points per game and that aggressive defense, are 4-3 with close losses to Princeton, a perennially good Columbia team and No. 6 USC. The fight they’ve shown against a daunting schedule may bode well when they reach Big East play and try to qualify for their first NCAA Tournament since 2016.
As for Princeton, Wednesday’s turnovers weren’t a one-time problem that popped up. The Tigers now average 15.7 per game as they try to smooth out the wrinkles of a new rotation that relies heavily on several freshmen.
But man, those freshmen may have something special. Top scorer Kaitlyn Chen finished the game with 21 points, but she didn’t have a field goal in the first half. Princeton responded to an early deficit with a 10-0 run fueled entirely by its bench – with freshmen Belker, Mari Bickley and Ashley Chea getting buckets along with Chet Nweke. All 10 players in the rotation, including top-100 freshman Fadima Tall, scored Wednesday.
“Even when we’re missing, our coaches are saying, ‘Shoot the ball, you got it. Keep shooting,’” said Belker, who scored 18 points. “When we catch it we’re looking to score … It’s gonna sink eventually.”
Rutgers visits Princeton two Wednesdays from now, another opportunity for the women’s game to take center stage in New Jersey. No one can promise another 2OT nailbiter, but these coaches certainly don’t seem to mind getting a gray hair or two in service of an exciting game.
“I told the kids in the locker room, ‘This was a great game. There’s no reason to hang your head,’” Bozzella said. “I’d much rather play in a game like this and lose than play in a 40-, 50-point win every time.”
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Thanks for reading, as always. There’s plenty more to tackle after a busy Wednesday, so let’s clean the glass:
Princeton forward Tabitha Amanze hasn’t played since the season opener and is wearing a boot on her left foot and calf, but Berube said her injury is NOT long-term. Amanze missed her freshman season due to injury and the Tigers had high hopes for what the 6-foot-4 Blair Academy product would do this season.
I didn’t spend enough time earlier on Gray’s big game. She scored a game-high 24 points on 7-of-13 3-point shooting. Her game-tying bank shot propelled her into the first overtime, where she made two more triples. She was last year’s SWAC Freshman of the Year at Texas Southern for good reason – she heats up in a hurry.
On to the Rutgers women, who actually trailed winless Delaware State 20-16 after the first quarter on Wednesday. They flipped that around with a 25-7 second quarter and didn’t look back. They badly needed a solid result after narrowly losing twice in Las Vegas last week. “It starts with the defensive end of the floor,” Washington said. “We want to get better at being able to play man-to-man defense and have that be a force for us.”
Kaylene Smikle has a new career high in points, having scored 33 on 13-of-20 shooting (5-of-9 from three). Even though she’s sharing the ball this year with Destiny Adams, who also profiles as a high-level scorer, Smikle can go off like this without warning. She had 29 against a good Maryland team last year and I want to see how her sophomore Big Ten campaign goes.
On the injury front, Rutgers guard Mya Petticord missed her third straight game but Washington said she ought to be back soon.
The Princeton men escaped Bucknell with an 85-71 win to remain undefeated. The Bison led most of the way before the Tigers erased an eight-point deficit by ending the game on a 28-6 run. Caden Pierce, Matt Allocco, Zach Martini and Xaivian Lee accounted for all but 11 of Princeton’s points, with Martini supplying a career-high 15.