In a physical game beset by a fourth-quarter offensive drought, the women’s basketball team (10-10, 4-3 Ivy) snapped their three-game win streak in a 60-47 loss to Princeton (15-5, 6-1 Ivy) at the Pizzitola Sports Center on Saturday night.
The loss shifted the Bears to fourth place in the Ivy League standings.
“I thought the team battled really hard today and played to win with a lot of confidence,” said Head Coach Monique LeBlanc in a statement to Brown Athletics. “I think we can point to a couple of stretches at different points in the game where we allowed Princeton to go on a run, and then had to spend a lot of energy and fight really hard to get back in front in those situations.”
But Saturday’s final score does not reflect the game’s course. Despite being the underdog, the Bears were aggressive from tip-off, out-hustling the Tigers for loose balls, dominating the glass on both sides of the ball and playing tenacious defense possession after possession. This impressive effort, which featured a 6-0 Bruno run, kept it a two-possession game as the first quarter ended 20-15 in the Tigers’ favor.
The Bears had no signs of slowing down yet, as the second quarter proved to be the Bears’ best. Fueled by Grace Arnolie ’26, who found her offensive rhythm anywhere on the court, Brown outscored a potent Princeton offense in the quarter, leaving the game tied with just a minute to go.
Just as the buzzer was about to sound, Arnolie drew a foul and headed to the free throw line, knocking down two go–ahead free throws that eclipsed the 1,000th career point mark. Arnolie became just the 25th player in program history to do so.
“It was awesome,” Arnolie said. “It feels great to hit one thousand on the home court and have my family and teammates around me. I couldn’t have done it without them.”
After a moment of celebration for Arnolie’s historic mark, the Bears headed to the locker room with a narrow two-point lead over the Tigers.
The third quarter was more of the same for both sides, as the two strong offenses went toe-to-toe. Princeton was fueled by three players — Fadima Tall, Skye Belker and Ashley Chea — all of whom scored in double figures and posed challenging assignments for Brown defenders. But despite Princeton’s offensive success, the Bears kept pace. Beth Nelson ’26 was phenomenal, knocking down shots from inside and outside of the arc and keeping the Bears alive. At the end of the third quarter, the game was all tied up at 43.
The fourth quarter was troubling for the Bears, as the Princeton defense suffocated any offensive life Brown had. Forcing turnovers, trapping the corners and blocking shots, Princeton was a force to be reckoned with on the defensive end, building an insurmountable lead late in the game that silenced a formerly-energetic Pizz crowd. The Bears were outscored 17 to 4 in the final quarter of Saturday’s contest, with buckets from Arnolie and Alyssa Moreland ’26 being the only Brown scores of the quarter.
“I think Princeton’s a super tough team,” Arnolie said in an interview with The Herald. “I think we did a good job of sticking with them for the first three quarters, but they really turned it on in the fourth quarter, and I think we ran out of gas a little bit.”
“I think from the game today we have a lot to build off,” LeBlanc added.
The Bears will have to shake off Saturday’s struggles and prepare for their next opponent, Columbia (16-4, 7-0 Ivy), whom they will host on Saturday in the Pizz at 2 p.m. The game will be an enormous opportunity for Brown to bounce back and defeat the Lions who have won their last nine games and currently sit atop the Ivy League standings.
Cooper Herman is a senior staff writer covering sports. He is a sophomore from Alexandria, Virginia studying Economics and International and Public Affairs.
