Ivy 1-2 Showdown: Princeton Ties Penn at Top On Bella’s Palestra Act Against Quakers

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

PHILADELPHIA — Back in the early fall when the time came to cast preseason ballots for the Ivy race and off who graduated and who was still around when it came to assess Penn and Princeton, what happened Tuesday night in The Palestra  involving the home team Quakers and visiting Tigers is the way voters thought it would play out.

But that was then and this was now in terms of how Penn fans’ expectations were prior to tipoff after the Quakers had pulled a 66-60 upset back in the Ivy season opener at Jadwin Gym on January 5 to grab hold of sole possession of first with the second meeting to be played here with so-called home advantage.

There were additional reasons for the change but in round two it was back to the future per conventional wisdom last Autumn. 

Basically, for Princeton the evening was a Bella-ringer affair as in reigning Ivy player of the year, 6-foot-4 junior guard-forward Bella Alarie, who poured 33 points, shooting 10-for-21 from the field, while grabbing 10 rebounds and blocking three shots in a 68-53 victory that brought the Tigers (16-9, 8-2 Ivy) back from a two-game deficit to even the season series with the Quakers (18-5, 8-2 ), forcing a first-place deadlock with four games in two Friday-Saturday weekends left in the regular season.

“Bella was a warrior tonight,” Princeton coach Courtney Banghart said of the performance. “Obviously, Penn is a good team, they’re tough on the glass, they got great players at every position, you had two heavyweights playing for first place.”  

If it were the earlier days of the (Penn’s) Mike McLaughlin- Banghart era in which the two coaches have produced the last nine Ivy titles, this narrative would say if the two teams stay deadlock there will be a playoff at a neutral court to determine the automatic NCAA bid.

That has since been amended to say even if they don’t stay knotted, there will be a playoff, as in the three-year-old, four-teams each, men’s and women’s Ivy Madness tourney, this year at Yale’s Lee Amphitheater in New Haven, Conn., after the previous two here at The Palestra, on March 16-17, to determine who goes to the Big Dance.

The regular season second place team, at worst, is assured of a WNIT berth, though as now if neither team gets to its number one season goal, that group is likely to make the WNIT with an at-large invite.

If the two make the Ivy event, there may be a third meeting in the semifinal or final, after each beat each other in the previous title games — Penn in 2017 and Princeton in 2018.

The teams have a two-game lead on Dartmouth and can clinch berths, if not the eventual seed, this weekend when the Big Green visits Princeton’s Jadwin Gym at 6 p.m. while Harvard is here at Penn Friday night (7 p.m.), before the visitors switch to Dartmouth here Saturday at 6 p.m. and Harvard at Princeton at 5 p.m. the same nite.

The tourney has caused several changes in how the Ancient Eight gets scheduled, which is why these two no longer play the final date of the Ivy schedule.

“This likely won’t be on a Tuesday night next year,” Banghart said, “since I get to pick the home night (the second game in the home-and-home) and we’ll likely do what the men did playing back-to-back weekends this year.”

McLaughlin said the discussion hasn’t occurred yet but acknowledged that is likely what might happen.

Of course given the 1-2 nature of the Penn-Princeton standings domination in recent years, the drama of the February/March second meeting of the two usually involving first place would have to wait for the tournament clash if it happens because they would finish their series ahead of the rest of the league schedule.

But the old mind set in terms of change won’t involve the players as Alarie said Tuesday night since she has not been involved in the former regular season winner-take-all format.

“I never played in any season except with the Ivy tournament, but I think our mindset stays the same,” the native of Bethesda, Md., outside Washington, said.

“The games matter less in terms of getting to the NCAA tournament (through the automatic bid), but the culture of Princeton is we want to win, we want to be champions no matter what, so though the mentality has changed, I think what we have remains the same.”

Things changed quickly on both sides off the early forcasts  by the time this season began  because a bunch of intangibles – like injuries and youth on the Princeton side and unexpected rapid growth involving the youthful roster on the Penn side – got into the mix.

Alarie  was sidelined rehabbing a broken shoulder soon to be joined by other role players sidelined. 

Thus after an opening night surprisingly easy win down the road at Rider,  Banghart had to deal with a seven game slide not experienced since the former Dartmouth star guard arrived prior to the 2007-08 season from an assistant position at her alma mater to build the Tigers into prominence while McLaughlin’s best hopes, given the number of former reserve players who had moved up with new and major responsibilities, were quickly exceeded. 

Princeton’s skid finally stopped with a win over surprising Atlantic 10 contender Davidson and then the next time out Alarie returned in a 54-42 win over Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference powerhouse Quinnipiac and looked exceptionally rust proof with 16 points and 19 rebounds, though her shooting from the field was off the mark.

But that soon returned to normal and the budding win streak continued five more times heading into the annual Ivy opener with Penn this year playing first at Jadwin Gym.

The Quakers were still an underdog, however, despite just a competitive loss at defending NCAA champion Notre Dame, ranked No. 1 in mid-November, and a last-second loss to America East frontrunner Maine.

But Penn played surprisingly well and poised and aided by Phoebe Sterba’s three-point shooting got the win with a  proclamation that the idea of a Tigers cakewalk was no longer true. 

The two teams then went their own way for the rest of the month, Penn playing Big Five games splitting with a win over Temple and loss to Villanova to finish second in the City Series.

Banghart went back to the drawing board, taking advantage of the three-week shutdown caused by the school’s academic calendar.

“Obviously I was disappointed with the loss my first time against Penn, but we had a lot of time to figure out who we are as a team, get our individual pieces a lot better and I think that really worked to our advantage and we came out and beat a lot of good teams, great teams on the board, but, yeah, that month was definitely hard, but definitely worth it for us,” Alarie said.

She had two monster, record-setting performances on successive weekends once the Ivy schedule kicked back in, scoring 45 points at Columbia, and 41 at Dartmouth.

However, it got worse before getting better for the Tigers chasing the No. 1 seed because they suffered a home upset 96-86 loss to Yale in overtime, while Penn was working a combo of Friday night cruises and then suspenseful escapes 24 hours later to build a two-game lead with a cushion to still grab the No. 1 seed if the Quakers took the hit they got Tuesday night.

Then the proverbial tide turned with Yale taking a slip and the Quakers dropping an 80-72 game at Harvard in double overtime.

Still, McLaughlin noted the first focus of his staff was  in good shape, get to the tournament and then adjust the goals once the berth was in hand.

But the Quakers have pride also and given the recent history and the way the Tigers handled Penn in three games last year, Tuesday would tell just where things are with still a chunk of regular season and tournament ahead. 

Reason for confidence on the Penn side was the season play of 6-4 sophomore center Eleah Parker, who with the improved play of senior Princess Aghayere, allowed the Quakers to have a continued strong post defense in the wake of shot-blocking star Sydney Stipanovich having graduated as did career-assist leader Anna Ross.

In the first half Penn was hurt by quick foul trouble to Aghayere, who played just 25 minutes and ultimately fouled out, though she finished with 14 points in 26 minutes, 17 seconds of action.

Princeton threatened to take strong hold after temporarily being held by Penn by building an eight-point lead with 6:19 left to the half. The Quakers, however, rallied to get to the half just a basket behind at 33-31.

Alarie was already on the way to another dynamite performance with 13 points but Penn was aided by Germantown Academy’s Kendall Grasela matching a career high with 11 points.

Parker had 10 but neither she nor Grasela would score the rest of the game with Parker only playing around 10 more minutes.

Princeton’s Gabrielle Rush had 11 for the visitors but would score just two more while Carlie Littlefield, who had seven over the first two quarters, added seven more for 14.

Alarie, though became more of a problem in the second half as Princeton opened the third period with her gaining eight of the Tigers’ 10-0 run right out of the break for a 12-point lead.

But Penn fought back and by the end of the third trailed just by four at 50-46.

That was the last hurrah in this one for the Quakers as Alarie and Littlefield turned the fourth quarter into a lopsided 18-7 affair.

“We still have a lot of games left and against good teams,” Banghart said. “That doesn’t work to our advantage.”

Besides dealing with Harvard and Dartmouth also fighting for berths next weekend, a week later the Quakers and Tigers will travel to Yale, fighting to get a spot in a tournament the Bulldogs are hosting, and last place Brown.

“We started two games behind Penn,” Banghart noted. “I just told these guys, we’re a better team and we  play hard. We didn’t play hard  the first time out and we knew it and we had to play from behind because of it so it’s nice to get on top.

“We learned after the Penn loss that we don’t play hard and Bella’s got to be more dominate. Even though she had 22 and 17 (last month), we knew she just needed to be better.

“And then after the Yale loss, we learned we knew we had to get more from our pieces. Actually, this weekend was the first weekend we finally had all 14 together in uniform. So it was good to come in here — and Harvard — these are two tough places to win.”

In performing the autopsy of Penn’s demise, though there is still a lot of life left, McLaughlin said, “(Alarie) presents a challenge on both ends of the floor.

 “She just scored too many baskets, especially in the second half, we just had too many breakdowns against a quality opponent, and she made us pay for every one.

“Give them credit. To beat a quality opponent in all areas of the game, especially in the second half we had four, five, six breakdowns that cost us, and good teams make you pay,” he added.

Looking ahead, McLaughlin said of the stretch leading to the weekend, “It’s a tough stretch, we have five games in eight days, you have to be aware of time management and physical fatigue.

“ Great league, we’re in the prime of it and we have to respond Friday, (Harvard) is very good and Dartmouth is going to be a tough out, too.

“I think we’ll be better because of this. We’ll be back at it tomorrow. We’ll look at some film and be ready for Friday.”

Coming Up: Making The Best of What’s Left

The Penn-Princeton game involved the only game on the slate with Guru local D-1 teams, while on Wednesday Temple in the first of two final home games  this week on the season in McGonigle Hall hosts Tulsa at 7 playing for positioning in next month’s American Athletic Conference tourney, again at the Mohegan Sun near New London, Conn.

Saint Joseph’s is at George Mason in Fairfax, Va., seeking a win that could lock up a home game in the first round of next week’s Atlantic 10 tournament that begins Tuesday with the top two teams getting byes and the nexts six  hosting games against the bottom six sending the winners to join the bye teams at Duquesne in Pittsburgh for the final three rounds Friday-Sunday.

La Salle is at St. Bonaventure looking for its second A-10 win and just trying to get better, knowing the Explorers will be on the road next Tuesday for the conference openers.

Penn State, in 12th in the Big Ten, is at Michigan State for a makeup game from the recently weather-causing postponement.

On Thursday, Rider can clinch second seed for the MAAC tourney and a place in the WNIT if it doesn’t win next week’s conference war in Albany, N.Y., for the NCAA berth.

The Broncs will also have another shot Saturday at Fairfield.

Rutgers, playing without coach C. Vivian Stringer, advised by doctors to take a rest through the end of the regular season and Big Ten tourney, hosts Minnesota at 7 looking for revenge and locking up a double bye for the conference tourney next week in Indianapolis.

And that’s the report.

   

 

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