What Indiana Women's Basketball Can Expect from Princeton in the NCAA Tournament Second Round

The last time Indiana saw the Princeton Tigers was in 1978. This time, the stakes are higher as the No. 3-seed Hoosiers prepare to host the No. 11-seed Tigers in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Indiana hasn’t played Princeton since 1978. Forty-four years later, the No. 11-seed Tigers are in Bloomington ready to compete with the No. 3-seed Hoosiers in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

In the last meeting, Princeton defeated Indiana 62-51 in New Jersey, but those players are well into their sixties now. It’s time for Indiana to make new history.

It’s also the final time Indiana will play in Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall this season and for some, the last time ever.

Ali Patberg

Indiana's Ali Patberg (14) leads a bench celebration Saturday at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall, as IU rolls past Charlotte, 85-51, in the first round of the NCAA women's basketball tourney.

“I love Assembly Hall,” graduate student guard Ali Patberg said. “I grew up coming to games. Dreamed about playing here, and I'm just thankful that I had two more games than I normally wouldn’t have. I'm just trying to stay in the moment.”

Patberg doesn’t know when her last college game will be. But she knows she has at least five more if the Hoosiers can execute the game plan at a high level.

“This is a team, and again they're Princeton, yeah, probably you could consider them, they're really smart kids,” Indiana head coach Teri Moren said. “But I think that they really truly do have high basketball IQs as well. I think they just really allow you defensively to make a mistake, and as soon as you make a mistake, they make you pay because of their patience that they show.”

The Tigers blew through their conference posting a 14-0 record and are coming into Monday’s game on an 18-game winning streak. They’re averaging 68.8 points per game but aimed a little higher to defeat Columbia 77-59 in the Ivy League Tournament championship game.

“If they don't get the first option off their stuff, they're willing to be patient enough to maybe get the second or the third or the fourth,” Moren said. “So they're really going to test us defensively. We're going to have to really be solid in our guarding tomorrow night, and we're going to have to do a great job on Meyers.”

Moren added the Hoosiers will need to take care of the ball as the Tigers are known to force around 19 turnovers per game. They also need to look out for senior guard Ivy League Player of the Year Abby Meyers as she leads the Tigers averaging 18.2 points per game.

Abby Meyers (1)

Kentucky's Jazmine Massengill (3) shoots around Princeton's Abby Meyers (1) during the second half of the Kentucky versus Princeton women's NCAA First Round game at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall on Saturday, March 19, 2022.

“She's a great player,” Patberg said. “It's going to take not just one person guarding her but just all five of us. Knowing where to be in positions, gaps, but she can score at all three levels. We're just going to have to make it tough on her. It's going to take our whole team to slow her down.”

In Princeton’s 69-62 win over No. 6-seed Kentucky in the first round of the tournament, Meyers scored a game-high 29 points. Patberg will be tapped to guard Meyers because Patberg always rises to challenges, Moren said.

Sophomore guard Chloe Moore-McNeil and graduate student guard Nicole Cardaño-Hillary will also be on standby to step in and help.

“She (Meyers) has a quick trigger,” Moren said. “But she also has a little spin, floater game, up-and-under game. She can score in a lot of different ways. She has a lot of tricks in her bag.”

Meanwhile, Indiana has plenty of tricks in its bag that they will reveal tomorrow night at 8 p.m. ET tipoff.

“So tonight I'm going to try to stay up later so that I sleep in a little later so my day starts a little later so I'm not just waiting all day,” Patberg said.

The con to playing an exciting night game is waiting around all day before. Patberg said the team will have a shootaround and watch more film to prepare for the matchup.

Moore-McNeil admitted she’ll probably be skipping her structural kinesiology lab at 4:10 p.m., but her professors are sure to understand.

“I think really the most important and biggest thing for us is staying off our feet. No matter what, just getting rest, staying focused so we can be locked in tomorrow.”

Moren said ball security will be a key to winning the game, and she knows the matchup will be tough. If anyone can plow through, it’s the Hoosiers.

“I'm trying to be prepared mentally for our game, because I want to win,” Patberg said. “I want to win bad.”

How to watch Indiana vs. Princeton

• Who: Indiana Hoosiers (23-8) vs. Princeton Tigers (25-4)
• When: 8 p.m. ET, Monday, March 21
• Where: Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall, Bloomington, Ind.
• TV: ESPNU
• Radio: WHCC 105.1 FM

Related stories on Indiana women's basketball

• GRACE BERGER - INDIANA'S QUIET LEADER: She may not be that loud, but her competitive spirit says enough. The talented guard Grace Berger will return for her fifth year at Indiana next season, but until then Berger has more work to do and more players to lead deep into the NCAA Tournament. CLICK HERE.
• INDIANA CRUISES PAST CHARLOTTE IN NCAA TOURNAMENT FIRST ROUND: No. 3-seeded Indiana showed Charlotte what Big Ten basketball is all about, with the Hoosiers winning 85-51 in the first round of the NCAA women's basketball tournament Saturday at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall. Junior forward Mackenzie Holmes led the Hoosiers with 19 points, her best showing since returning from knee surgery. CLICK HERE.
• HOOSIERS TO PLAY CHARLOTTE IN FIRST ROUND: For the first time in program history, No. 3-seed Indiana will host the first and second rounds of the NCAA Tournament. First, the Hoosiers will face No. 14-seed Charlotte, the C-USA's regular season and tournament champions, in the first round. CLICK HERE.