BOSTON – No. 24 Princeton led by double-digits for most of the second half as the Tigers defeated Columbia, 77-59, to win the 2022 Ivy League Women’s Basketball Tournament Championship.
 
The win completes an undefeated Ivy League season for the Tigers as well as an Ivy League three-peat as Princeton won the tournament championship in 2018, 2019, and now in 2022 after seeing the 2020 and 2021 tournaments cancelled.
 
Kaitlyn Chen was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player after leading all players with 30 points on a hyper-efficient 9-of-13 shooting and 11-of-14 from the free throw line. Abby Meyers followed-up her 22-point effort yesterday with 16 points today and joined Chen on the Ivy League All-Tournament Team. Julia Cunningham also scored 16 points and Grace Stone had 12 points as the starters combined for 74 of the 77 points scored.
 
Columbia also had four of five starters reach double-figures, Abbey Hsu leading the team with 16 points, and shot 42 percent from the floor, but the Lions were plagued by their turnovers, as Princeton forced Columbia to turn the ball over 20 times on the evening.
 
The first quarter met everyone’s expectations for a championship game between the top two teams in the Ivy League in 2021-22. There were four lead changes and four ties alone in the first quarter as it was a 16-16 game after 10 minutes of play.
 
Columbia hit its first two shots of the second quarter to open up a 21-18 lead, but that three-point lead would be short-lived as Princeton came back and tied the game on a Chet Nweke free throw at 23-23 just a minute later. From the 7:54 mark of the second quarter until halftime, Princeton took control of the game. The Tigers forced eight Columbia Turnovers and limited the Lions to just two points on a pair of free throws as Princeton closed the half on a 14-2 run to open a 37-25 lead at the half.
 
Princeton led by double-digits for nearly the entire second half, having an answer for any kind of Columbia run in the final 20 minutes of play. Columbia trailed by as much as 15 in the third quarter and faced that same deficit early in the fourth quarter, but they would put together one last charge to try to get back into the game. The Lions strung together a 9-2 run in a two-minute stretch early in the fourth quarter to make it a 59-51 game, but that would be as close as Princeton would let Columbia get as the soon to be champs shut the door in the ensuing minutes out of their timeout. The Tigers finished the game on an 18-8 run to secure the 77-59 victory and their third Ivy League Tournament Championship in a row.
 
All-Tournament Team
Kaitlyn Chen, Princeton*
Abby Meyers, Princeton
Abbey Hsu, Columbia
McKenzie Forbes, Harvard
Camilla Emsbo ,Yale
 
* Most Outstanding Player