LEAVING IT ON THE COURT: Princeton University women’s basketball player Ellie Mitchell hits the floor to get a loose ball last Friday against Harvard. Senior star forward Mitchell came up big last weekend for the Tigers, scoring six points with nine rebounds as Princeton defeated Harvard 60-49 on Friday and then had six points along with six rebounds, one assist, and two steals in a 68-42 win over Dartmouth a day later. The Tigers, now 22-4 overall and 12-1 Ivy League, host Penn on March 9 in their regular season finale. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

By Bill Alden

With the Princeton University women’s basketball team coming off a tough 67-65 loss at Columbia to end February, Ellie Mitchell sense that the Tigers were primed to get back on the winning track as they hosted Harvard and Dartmouth last weekend to start March.

“We know there was a lot we could improve on, hopefully there is a lot left for us in March,” said Princeton senior forward Mitchell. “We were excited to get back on the court and try to make a statement game with Harvard and then Dartmouth, one at a time.”

Realizing that there is not a lot of time left in her Tiger career as she played in her next to last weekend at Jadwin Gym, Mitchell is looking to leave everything on the court.

“I try not to think about it because it is very sad,” said Mitchell. “Basketball and Princeton basketball, especially, has been my world for a very long time. It just makes it more special. I am really trying to make the most out of it and play with that much more excitement and remind the younger ones they have a lot of years left, but me, Kaitlyn [Chen], and Chet [Nweke], this is going to be the end for us. It makes it a little more personal and still a lot more fun.”

Mitchell ended up having a lot of fun against Harvard and Dartmouth. She scored six points with nine rebounds as Princeton defeated Harvard 60-49 on Friday and then had six points on 3-of-3 shooting along with six rebounds, one assist, and two steals in a 68-42 win over Dartmouth a day later. The Tigers ended the weekend at 22-4 overall and 12-1 Ivy, remaining atop the league standings along with Columbia.

“I am always trying to look for my shot — I know I have been saying that for a while,” said Mitchell, a 6’1 native of Chevy Chase, Md. who is averaging 5.0 points and a team-high and league-best 10.0 rebounds a game. “Sometimes I sort of forget. My teammates and coaches have a lot of confidence in me; they are reminding me to shoot the ball. That is always helpful. At this point in the season, teams are sagging off sometimes because they know us. If I get some of those openings, I have to be ready to shoot them.”

Princeton head coach Carla Berube enjoyed seeing Mitchell produce a perfect shooting day in the win over the Big Green.

“Ellie actually told me this morning that her elbow was a little banged up and she said, ‘I don’t think I am going to shoot today,’” said Berube. “Then the one day she actually took some outside shots was today — some reverse psychology maybe.”

Mitchell’s aggressive play has been a major influence on Princeton’s team psychology.

“She is just a great teammate and shows the underclassmen here is how we play Princeton basketball,” said Berube of Mitchell. “She has been awesome, she has been a great leader and captain. She shows it in the way you have to play. When you play that hard with that intensity and aggressiveness, you can impact a game in a lot of different ways.”

Berube liked the intensity she got collectively from her players this weekend.

“These back-to-backs are challenging, we are getting prepared for two teams,” said Berube. “I thought we took care of business like we needed to. We got the big win last night. They got up this morning, went to the shootaround, and were really focused on the challenge of playing Dartmouth and how we needed to defend them what we wanted to work on offensively. They came in ready to work this morning, it was a great weekend.”

Princeton got a superb
offensive performance against the Big Green from freshman guard Skye Belker, who scored 10 points on 4-of-4 shooting.

“It is a testament to Skye’s hard work and attention to detail,” said Berube. “She is very serious about her craft and Princeton basketball and being a great teammate. I am really proud of her freshman year, just staying pretty steady and consistent. Not every game is she scoring 10 points but she is usually guarding our opponent’s best player. She has been really important for us.”

Belker’s output exemplifies the depth that the Tigers possess as 12 players scored against Dartmouth.

“We are just looking for the open player whoever it is; I don’t think we just have one or two who scores, everybody is capable,” said Berube, who got 12 points from sophomore star Madison St. Rose with senior guard Kaitlyn Chen and freshman guard/forward Fadima Tall chipping in nine points apiece.

“When you are playing against a zone, you just keep trying to find the next open player. I thought everybody was aggressive. We took a lot of threes in the first half, there were some wide open ones that we just weren’t hitting. I thought we did a better job of hitting the high post and hitting the low post in the second half. We have capable scorers, everybody has the green light in their range. It is nice to have a lot of different options.”

Princeton broke the game open in the third quarter, outscoring the Big Green 20-6, turning defense into offense.

“We just picked up the defensive intensity and then really moved the ball offensively,” said Berube. “When you are playing against a zone, you try to find those openings and gaps. We were hitting the high post, swinging it and getting Maddie [St. Rose] some good looks and finding Chet [Nweke] underneath. I thought Kaitlyn [Chen] was distributing the ball really well and finding the open players. Our third quarter was great, our second and fourth we weren’t fantastic defensively. We had pretty good offensive output in all four quarters.”

The squad’s intensity and skill has been pleasing the throngs the program has been drawing to Jadwin Gym this winter.

“I hope that we are putting a good product on the court that people enjoy watching, that is really important to us,” said Berube, whose team played before crowds of 1,500 plus in both games last weekend. “We have got young fans excited about women’s basketball, boys and girls. Princeton is such a great community. They can come out and watch our team, watch the men’s team, or any of our athletic teams. These are some amazing student athletes. I hope it keeps growing. I have seen the growth over these four years I have been coaching. It is fun, it makes the experience for our student athletes even better when we have such a great crowd and they are into it.”

Mitchell, for her part, is looking to end her Princeton career with a great stretch drive.

“I think a big thing is that we can’t get complacent, we saw at Columbia that we have to keep working,” said Mitchell, who will play in her Jadwin finale when Princeton hosts Penn on March 9 in its last regular season game before competing in the Ivy Madness postseason tournament from March 15-16 at Columbia.

“Anything can happen, obviously with the tournaments and hopefully later in March. We have got to keep showing up — everyone is going to give us their best game. At the end of the day, we have got to do the same. We have to keep fighting and just take it one game at a time.”