The Guru Report: Penn Routs La Salle While Penn State Suffers First-Ever Loss to Duquesne

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

PHILADELPHIA – The Penn women quickly turned La Salle into looking like the Ghost of Quakers Past Wednesday night in The Palestra and in doing so rolled away to one of the program’s largest lopsided triumphs ever, a 65-34 Big Five triumph over the Explorers.

In seeking revenge for two straight tough series losses, one of which last year ultimately cost Penn an outright City Series crown, Penn built a 40-point 59-19 lead at the end of the third quarter.

The triumph pushed the Quakers to 5-2 overall and 2-0 in the Big Five. The other two teams which are still perfect in the round robin are Villanova (2-0) and Temple (1-0) who will meet Sunday on the Main Line at 1 p.m. at the Wildcats’ Finneran Pavilion.

Then after that, mark down two Wednesday night Palestra dates next month when Penn hosts Villanova Jan. 16 followed a week later on Jan. 23 by Temple, both games at 7.

The Owls, who beat Saint Joseph’s early last month will host La Salle Dec. 30. The Hawks are already 0-3 with just La Salle left with a visit from the Explorers on Jan. 20 counting also as an Atlantic 10 game as will the visit to Tom Gola Arena on Feb. 17.

As for this one, the outcome, if not the final score, was headed early for the record books in the first quarter when Penn opened with a 13-0 run and led 25-13 at the end of the period. 

The next one was even worse for the Explorers (0-8, 0-2 Big Five), a 16-4 Quakers shutdown, while the Penn domination in the third was 18-2.

Eleah Parker, the reigning Ivy and Big Five rookie of the 2018 season, loomed large again with 15 points, the only Penn player in double figures, and seven rebounds along with four blocked shots and a steal.

Princess Aghayere had nine points and five rebounds while Ashley Russell dealt six assists and grabbed eight rebounds.

Statistically, the Quakers owned the boards to win this with a 54-34 advantage leading to Penn’s 36-6 production in the paint. And despite committing 22 turnovers, giving coach Mike McLaughlin something to discuss in the film room, his team also gleaned 22 points off of La Salle miscues to just 11 for the Explorers.

And in a battle of reserves Penn prevailed in that stat also 38-11 meaning the only other way he could have been easier was to run outside here  in West Philadelphia and offer 30-minute scholarships.

It’s only the third time Penn, a previous longtime local doormat, started 2-0 in the City Series and off its sharing the local crown with Villanova last season, the Quakers now own a program record five-game Big Five win streak.

As for more general stats out of the slaughter on 33rd Street, the Explorers were held to just four points in the third and one two-point field goal tying the record low for a defensive quarter sent against Ivy rival Harvard on March 5, 2016.

The last team held to 34 by Penn was Ivy rival Cornell in February 2017 and the 31-point win over the Explorers was the second widest in the series and largest since 1975.

“I thought we played the second quarter really efficient,” McLaughlin said of when it put the game out of reach. “We got up and down the floor, scored the ball a little bit easier, started separating ourselves.”

As for the revenge factor, “they outplayed us, well deserved, and it was an opportunity to play again on our floor and we did a good job tonight,” McLaughlin noted.

As for the ghosts of the past, if La Salle needs inspiration after its 0-8 start under new coach Mountain MacGillivray, the former associate head coach of the Mid-Major powerhouse Quinnipiac, it can look to this Penn program, which greeted McLaughlin on his arrival from D-2 power Holy Family with just two wins his inaugural season before growing a group that won three Ivy titles over four seasons.

“I know Mike went through this his first year. I’ve been saying the same every day, “said MacGillivray in an upbeat voice who did get 13 points from Deja King. “I’ve been looking for effort and intensity and if you watched us play, this was not our best effort in intensity.

“So they’re much better right now,  but we could have gone harder. I was a little disappointed in our effort.”

The game was a homecoming of sorts for La Salle associate head coach Chris Day who served under McLaughlin when the Ivy title run began.

La Salle next hosts Norfolk State Sunday at 1 p.m. The Explorers men have yet to win also under new coach Ashley Howard, going 0-9.

Penn visits Iona Saturday at 1 p.m. in New Rochelle, N.Y. 

Ironically, the Gaels are at Temple Thursday night at 7 in McGonigle Hall in the Owls’ first home game after a six-game road trip that began with a win at Saint Joseph’s and then went into a slide losing at Mississippi, Marist, Radford in Florida, and at nationally-ranked Miami and nationally-ranked DePaul.

Other Thursday night games has Auburn visiting Saint Joseph’s at 7. Visiting Tigers head coach Terri Williams-Flournoy is a former Penn State player and Georgetown coach while assistant Clarisse Garcia is a former Villanova player.

The Wildcats before hosting Temple this weekend are visiting George Washington at 7 in the Smith Center in the nation’s capital.

 Delaware is at George Mason.

Just one game Friday as Drexel comes out of academic dry-dock to play predetermined opponents in Manhattan’s tournament, first meeting the host Jaspers in Riverdale, N.Y., before meeting Wright State on Saturday.

Also on Saturday, Princeton hosts Quinnipiac at 7 at night in Jadwin Gym, while Rider visits Binghamton.

A local D-2 game of note has Holy Family visiting Jefferson U at 2 p.m. in the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference at 2 p.m.

Duquesne Upsets Penn State

In the only other team in action Wednesday from the Guru’s D-1 Group, Atlantic 10 Conference pre-season favorite Duquesne made in-state and program history as the squad from Pittsburgh gained its first-ever win over Penn State, the 64-58 triumph no less occurring in the Lady Lions’ Bryce Jordan Center in State College.

Coming in the 17th game in the state rivalry, Duquesne bagged its second-ever Big Ten opponent and the first since Ohio State eight seasons ago.

Julijana Vojinovic had 15 points for the Dukes while Amanda Kalin had a career-high 13 points, and Paige Cannon had 10 points and 12 rebounds. Libby Bazelak dealt a career-tying seven assists while Kadri-Ann Lass had 10 points and eight rebounds.

Duquesne is now 4-3 after getting untracked with a three-game win streak.

Kamaria McDaniel had a game-high 18 points for Penn State (4-4), which recently also lost at home to Stony Brook, another first-ever win from a visitor. Teniya Page had 15 points, seven assists and five rebounds, while Siyeh Frazier had 10 points.

“We just don’t quite have our rhythm, offensively,” said Penn State coach Coquese Washington.

Penn State next hosts St. Bonaventure Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m.

And that’s the report.