No. 24 Princeton women win, Harvard honors Delaney-Smith
Mar 11, 2022, 1:56 AM | Updated: 3:58 pm
FILE - Harvard head coach Kathy Delaney-Smith, left, talks to Sydney Skinner (25) during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game against Notre Dame, Friday, Nov. 9, 2018, in South Bend, Ind. Coach Delaney-Smith is retiring after 40 years as Harvard's women's basketball coach, at the end of the 2021-2022 season. (AP Photo/Robert Franklin, File)
(AP Photo/Robert Franklin, File)
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) — Abby Meyers scored 22 points, Ellie Mitchell had 11 points and 16 rebounds for her sixth double-double, and No. 24 Princeton beat Harvard 72-67 on Friday in the final game for coaching icon Kathy Delaney-Smith.
Delaney-Smith, the winningest basketball coach in Ivy League history in men’s and women’s, will retire from Harvard with 11 conference championships and the six trips to the NCAAs — including the one that produced the biggest upset in the tournament’s history in 1998 when No. 16 Harvard beat top-seeded Stanford.
Princeton (23-4) advances to the championship game of the Ivy League tournament on Saturday.
Princeton led 52-39 midway through the third quarter before Harvard battled back.
McKenzie Forbes made 2 of 3 free throws with 6:44 remaining in the fourth quarter to tie it at 54, nearly giving Harvard its first lead since it was 32-30 late in the second quarter. But Kaitlyn Chen answered with a three-point play to start a 9-2 Princeton run.
Chen was fouled far from the basket and made two free throws for a 68-64 lead at 44.8. After a timeout, Harvard sophomore Lola Mullaney sank a 3-pointer from the wing with 32.6 left to make it 68-67. Chen made two more free throws for a 70-67 lead and after Forbes didn’t hit the rim on a contested 3-pointers, Grace Stone sealed it with two free throws.
Chen finished with 18 points and Julia Cunningham had 12 for top-seeded Princeton (23-4).
Meyers, the Ivy League player of the year, started an 10-0 Princeton run with five straight points and Chen capped it with a jumper from the free-throw line for a 35-32 lead at the break. Princeton improved to 21-0 this season when leading at halftime.
Forbes scored 21 points for fourth-seeded Harvard (13-14). Harmoni Turner added 19 points and Mullaney had 15.
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