The Guru Report No. 1 of 2: Penn, Princeton, and Temple Take Road Wins

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

NEW YORK — Penn and Princeton completed weekend road sweeps in the Ivy League Saturday night while Temple made it three straight victories involving the Guru local D-1 teams who were in action.

Here at Levien Gymnasium, Penn got off to a double digit lead on Columbia, succumbed to a rally over the next three quarters to fall a point behind early in the fourth but then clamped down to regain control and head back home with a 72-60 victory and still maintain sole possession of first (13-3, 3-0 Ivy).

Princeton, which fell at home to the Quakers early last month and then go idle for academics until Friday, stayed right behind Penn by winning at Cornell, 75-46, in Newman Arena upstate in Ithaca, N.Y.

Here for the Quakers it was Ashley Russell’s turn back to being star of the night for Penn, shooting 6-for-13 from the field, scoring a team-high 16 points and dishing seven assists while grabbing five steals and five rebounds.

Eleah Parker was contained from her previous explosive career-scoring totals but still had 13 points, eight rebounds, and blocking three shots. Phoebe Sterba had 12 points, all off four three-balls, while Princess Aghayere had 11 points and eight rebounds.

“I just loved the way we responded, long trip to get here after last night,” Penn coach Mike McLaughlin said referencing the postgame bus trip down here from Ithaca. “Credit to Columbia. They had a tough game last night but it’s a great win for us.”

Penn has won 15 straight in the series with the Lions, but the squad has improved over the three years since Megan Griffith, a native of King of Prussia in the Philadelphia western suburbs, returned to her alma mater from a long stint as an assistant at Princeton’s powerhouse.

Penn connected on nine three-balls, which might have been enough to build a cushion on the opposition but Columbia was also hot from the outside, particularly Madison Hardy, who had 16 points, shooting 6-for-12 from the field of which four connected from beyond the arc.

In all, the Lions (5-12, 1-3) had 10 long rang shots find their mark. Sienna Durr had a game-high 18 points, while Riley Casey and Janiya Clemmons each scored 10.

Columbia had chances to pull an upset once ahead in the final period but missed a bunch of shots and made several turnovers, enabling Penn to score 10 of the game’s last 12 points helped by hitting all eight foul shots.

“We had them exactly where we wanted, we had them frazzled, but we just made mistakes at the end of the game,” Griffith said. “It’s tough when you start a game the way that we did … but we’re at a much better place than we’ve ever been at this point in the season.”

The Columbia coach noted Penn’s experience — “Mike’s done a fantastic job there. I played in the league. They weren’t always like that.”

But she also said the goal is to get into the top four spots at the end to become one of the participating teams in the third annual tournament, which this season moves from Penn’s Palestra to Yale’s Lee Amphitheater in New Haven, Conn.

The Quakers head back home for their pages in next weekend’s Ivy chapter, hosting Brown at 7 p.m. on Friday night and Yale at 6 p.m. on Saturday night.

Princeton Cruises Over Cornell

Reigning Ivy player of the year Bella Alarie didn’t top her newly established Ivy single game scoring record of 45 points set Friday against Columbia but was still a force for the Tigers in upstate New York against the Big Red with a double double of 21 points, including 13 in the third period, and 10 rebounds to help an easy 75-46 victory to keep pace with Penn.

Alarie also had five assists, a pair of blocked shots, and a steal for Princeton (10-8, 2-1) while reserve Lexi Weger scored 13 points.

Princeton in the final year of its current academic schedule, had been off three weeks since the home loss to Penn early last month at Jadwin Gym to open league play.

Coach Courtney Banghart used the idle period to shore up weaknesses that were costly in the loss. 

The Tigers had also spent the front part of the schedule missing Alarie with a broken shoulder rehabilitation and three other injured players, resulting in a seven-game losing streak after an opening win at nearby Rider.

In Saturday’s game, Laura Katalinich-Basgwell had 12 points for Cornell (7-8, 1-3).

Princeton is back home next weekend on Friday hosting Yale at 6 p.m. on NBC-Sports, Philadelphia and hosting Brown at 5 on Saturday with both games streamed on ESPN+.

Temple Extends Win Streak With Strong Defense

The Owls made it three straight and set a program best-ever defensive quarter stand outscoring Wichita State in the final period 20-1 to beat the Shockers on the road in Kansas 65-40 in an American Athletic Conference game.

Heading to the final period Temple held a slim six-point lead before tossing a near-shutout at the Shockers (9-12, 2-6 AAC).

Mia Davis set a career record with 30 points and grabbed 13 rebounds for the Owls (7-14, 3-5) while Aliya Butts had 14 points, five rebounds and five assists. Shantay Taylor had a near double double with 8 points and 10 rebounds.

Wichita State’s Carla Bremaud had 12 points and Seraphine Bastin scored 11.

Temple comes home to play its second and final game of the season in the larger Liacouras Center on Tuesday at noon against Houston in a league matchup on ESPN3 that serves as the annual School Day game.

And that’s Guru report No. 1.