PRINCETON — The Princeton women’s basketball team treated the thousands of kids inside Jadwin Gymnasium to quite the field trip. Madison St. Rose scored 22 points to move within four of 1,000 for her career, Skye Belker added 19 and the 25th-ranked Tigers beat Temple, 87-77, in a Monday matinee special for area elementary schools. “It was loud and we were really excited to have all the kids,” junior forward Olivia Hutcherson said. “They brought great energy. When we were kind of low when we weren’t playing as well as we should have been they just helped us to stay locked in and excited.” The Tigers (12-1) finished off their 10th straight victory about an hour after the newest Associated Press poll revealed they held on to the No. 25 spot in the rankings. The top seven teams remained unchanged with UConn, Texas and UCLA on top. South Carolina and UCLA rounded out the top five. LSU, Michigan and Maryland were next. Oklahoma and TCU were tied for eighth with Iowa State 10th. The gameday operations team pulled out all the hits with a crowd that was made up of youngsters. There were Christmas carols, SpongeBob and Taylor Swift. And, of course, the viral ‘6-7’ trend when Ashley Chea sank a 3-pointer to hit the magic number at the end of the third quarter. “The atmosphere was electric,” coach Carla Berube said. “It was awesome. I hope the kids had a really fun time because we did. We hope that they want to come back and see some more women’s basketball.” Fans cheer at the Education Day Game between Princeton and Temple during an NCAA women’s basketball game on Monday, Dec. 22, 2025 at Jadwin Gymnasium in Princeton. (Kyle Franko/ Trentonian Photo) Toby Nweke added 15 points and Chea finished with 10 for Princeton, which shot 50% overall and had 17 assists on 30 made baskets. “Our offense was kind of running on all cylinders,” Berube said. “Our break looked great and we found open shooters. I thought we shared the ball really well.” The Tigers led by as many as 22 with 4:44 left in the fourth quarter before the Owls (6-5) closed the deficit. Kaylah Turner scored a career-high 36 points for Temple. Princeton begins Ivy League play on Jan. 3 against Penn at The Palestra. That comes after a non-league body of work in which it won 12 of its 13 games and has a NET Ranking of 38. “The good thing is we have a lot to work on,” Berube said. “If we were playing our best basketball in December that’s not great. You want to keep building. There’s a lot to improve on, especially on the defensive side of the ball, and we have a lot of practice time before we start the Ivy League season.” Princeton’s Skye Belker puts up a shot against Temple during an NCAA women’s basketball game on Monday, Dec. 22, 2025 at Jadwin Gymnasium in Princeton. (Kyle Franko/ Trentonian Photo) ...read more read less