ROLLING STONE: Princeton University women’s basketball player Grace Stone fakes out a foe in a game earlier this season. Last weekend, junior guard Stone came up big as Princeton defeated Cornell 75-37 on Friday and then topped Columbia 57-39 in clash of teams that entered the game unbeaten in Ivy League play. In the victory on Friday, Stone contributed 14 points, seven rebounds, and five assists and then had 10 points, seven rebounds, and two assists against Columbia. The Tigers, now 16-4 overall and 8-0 Ivy, play at Dartmouth on February 12. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

By Bill Alden

With the Princeton University women’s basketball team hosting Cornell on Friday and Columbia a night later in a clash of Ivy League frontrunners, Grace Stone set the tone for the Tigers.

Princeton junior guard Stone notched the first bucket of the weekend, putting in a layup against Cornell, helping the Tigers jump out to an 18-5 first quarter lead and they never looked back on the way to a 75-37 win.

“We really wanted to just come out and dominate Cornell,” said Stone. “We set goals for ourselves and I think that we met those. We are happy with the win.”

Princeton met its goals at the defensive end, stifling the Big Red from the opening tip.

“It is something that we always stress, that is something that is very important to us,” said Stone, reflecting on a defensive effort that saw the Tigers hold Cornell to 32.6 percent shooting from the floor (14-41) and forcing 22 turnovers.

“We are always trying to hold teams, especially in the first quarter and the first five minutes. We always want to start off well. I think we did that, we were really aggressive.”

Stone was aggressive in looking for her shot, tallying a game-high 14 points on 5-11 shooting.

“I think I was just trying to find spots where I could get good shots,” said Stone. “I knew they were going to play us in a zone a little bit. I was just trying to find the gaps and take my shots in the rhythm and it went well.”

Showing her all-around game, Stone contributed seven rebounds and five assists against Cornell.

“We have worked on our offense against a zone, I knew where my teammates were going to be so it made it easy,” said Stone, a 5’11 native of Glen Cove, N.Y.

“It was just, ‘get the ball in the middle and have them collapse and then just kick it out to open shooters.’ As far as the rebounding, it is always just an emphasis of ours to box out.”

A night later, Stone chipped in 10 points, seven rebounds, and two assists as the Tigers rolled to a 57-39 win over Columbia in a game that saw both teams enter the night with 7-0 Ivy records.

“This past year I have just tried to be aggressive,” said Stone, who is currently averaging 9.3 points, 3.7 rebounds, and 2.4 assists per game, which would all be career-highs.

“In the past we have had really prolific scorers, so I was never the first option necessarily. This year, I just tried to come in and be aggressive, take the shots that I know I am good at taking and just find opportunities where I can.”

Stone didn’t enroll at Princeton last year with the 2020-21 season being canceled by the Ivy League due to COVID-19 concerns, staying home in Long Island and doing what she could to hone her game.

“I played a lot with my older brothers; we were at our local YMCA, working out a lot but it was definitely tough,” said Stone. “It was hard to really simulate what I was going to get when I came back. I worked really hard and I tried to stay in really good shape throughout the year, get my shot better and be consistent.”

Princeton head coach Carla Berube liked the way her squad came out playing hard to start the weekend.

“We wanted to make sure that we came in here tonight to take care of business,” said Berube. “I didn’t want us to look ahead at all because Cornell is a talented team and we respect them a lot. We came out with a lot of energy and we shared the ball really well. We did a good job of making plays for each other and making plays from our defense. Cornell played really hard, they got a lot of offensive rebounds and made some shots. I thought our bench really came up big too and gave us some really good minutes. It was good for us to have those contributions. This is our first back-to-back Ivy League weekend.”

Berube is thrilled with the contribution she has been getting from Stone.

“Grace does a lot of great things, sometimes they end up on the stat sheet, sometimes they don’t,” said Berube. “She plays really hard, she has a really high basketball IQ. She does a great job on both ends of the floor and today she found her openings in the zone. She is a really good mid-range shooter and she found some shots at the free throw line and in the short corners and made some big buckets.”

Building on the win over Cornell, Berube knew that her squad would need to make a big effort to overcome Columbia.

“They can score a lot of points in a short amount of time, they have got some very good outside shooters,” said Berube, whose team put the clamps on the Lions, jumping out to a 35-16 halftime lead and cruising to victory, improving to 16-4 overall and 8-0 Ivy.

“It is going to take a great team effort from us. We are going to have play really tough defense, we are going to have to control the boards, and make plays in the offensive end.”

Stone, who ended up making the final basket of the weekend with a jumper in the last minute of the win over Columbia, is determined to keep making noise as Princeton returns to action by playing at Dartmouth on February 12.

“I think especially since I took gap year; I have all of those years of experience but I am still a junior so I have always tried to have a loud voice, a helpful voice,” said Stone. “I just really try to lead defensively, more than anything else. I want to make sure that my team knows where they need to be and have us play together. All I have been trying to do is to play really hard and just lead my team with my voice as much as I can.”