Bummer Weekend: Penn, Drexel, USciences Felled by Late Rallies

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

NEW HAVEN, Conn.  — The last two hopes of the Philly Six to advance to the NCAA women’s basketball tournament went crashing down in similar fashion in their respective conference championships in a less-than-24 hour period up here late Sunday afternoon in the Ivy League showdown between regular season co-champions Penn and Princeton after Drexel succumbed to a rally by Towson Saturday in the Colonial Athletic Association title game in Newark, Del.

And the bad karma that smothered the two neighboring rivals from West Philadelphia also felled another neighborhood team in USciences that suffered a fourth-quarter flameout Saturday night at home in the Devils’ Bobby Morgan Arena to Le Moyne from Syracuse in a semifinal of the NCAA D2 East Regional.

Princeton, however, is part of the overall Guru Local D-1 mix so in that regard is a representative to the dance as is Rutgers, which finished third in the Big Ten and advanced last weekend to the semifinals.

The Scarlet Knights are considered a lock for an at-large invite for their first appearance since 2015,  though Hall of Fame coach C. Vivian Stringer will not be on the sidelines having been given doctors order to take a rest, beginning with the close of the regular season and then last week extended to as long as Rutgers lasts in the 64-team field.

Tim Eatman is running the squad in Stringer’s absence.

The complete NCAA field and draw will be revealed Monday night at 7 on ESPN.

The losses of several D-1 locals in conference play, however, did not preclude them from more basketball with appearances slated in the 64-team WNIT, whose field will be announced soon after the NCAA participants and pairings are all presented.

Penn and Rider own the WNIT automatic qualifiers as the highest finishers not heading to the NCAAs from the respective Ivy League and Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.

Drexel, finishing second and a past WNIT champion, had the CAA automatic until No. 1 James Madison was upset in the conference quarterfinals and not likely to be rescued by the NCAA committee. 

However, the Dragons will receive an at-large bid as will Villanova, which finished fourth in the regular season but quickly ousted by fifth-seeded Georgetown in the Big East quarterfinals last weekend.

The Ivies for a few minutes while Penn was still ahead were alive to have two teams in the field for the second time in league history when ESPN from the committee presented the Debatable Eight — the final teams under discussion for the last four spots.

Princeton, which received the Ivy’s only at-large bid, several years ago, was part of that discussion but taken off the list once the Tigers had grabbed their 65-54 victory.

Penn was not posted as a replacement and while a very late lobbying effort was launched on behalf of the Quakersa, in a manner of speaking the train had already left the station before Penn could board.

Alarie Leads Princeton to a Repeat  Ivy Title Conquering Penn

In the past decade Princeton and Penn have become the old Connecticut-Tennessee heavyweights of the Ivy League competing in all three Ivy tourney title games, the last two going to the Tigers after Penn captured the first.

We are now up to the last ten regular season crowns going to one or the other with Princeton winning six outright, Penn three and this season a shared 12-2 rule over the Ancient Eight.

In early January, the Quakers (23-6) surprised the preseason favorites at their Jadwin Gym when the Tigers were finally getting healthy enough from a slew of injuries, including one to now two-time Ivy player of the year Bella Alarie, which resulted in a seven-game slide following a season-opener rout at nearby Rider.

That gave coach Mike McLaughlin’s squad a one-game lead that went to two when Yale also upset the Tigers on their Turf.

But Penn’s second-meeting with Harvard, who they destroyed in one of Saturday’s semifinals, resulted in a double-overtime loss on the road in Cambridge, Mass.

The Quakers’ standings lead was reduced to a game and on Feb. 26 the Tigers came to The Palestra and Alarie singlehandedly brought Princeton to a standings tie in a 33-point performance that led to a Tigers 68-53 victory.

And so they finished deadlocked and cruised in Saturday’s semifinals at John J. Lee Amphitheater on Yale’s campus here with Princeton bouncing fourth-seeded Cornell, 68-47, while Penn dispatched second-seeded Harvard, 91-62.

The previous two tourneys in the new era were held at Penn’s Palestra.

Going into Sunday, McLaughlin thought his team had the adjustments to avoid the Tigers’ mayhem of their second meeting and after Princeton (22-9) took an early close lead that was two points at the end of the first period, midway through the next, the Quakers went in front going ahead by as much as seven and still ahead by three with one ten-minute period remaining.

Alarie was still a force but Penn’s defense was enough to get key stops and control the flow.

Princeton edged in front in the fourth but it was still anybody’s game as Kendall Grasela tied it for Penn, 51-51 with 6 minutes, 28 seconds left.

That was to be the last hurrah for the Quakers.

Gabrielle Rush, who finished with 18 points behind Alarie’s 24, put Princeton in front and after Grasela made one of two to trail by a point, Carli Littlefield, who scored 13 for the champs, hit a shot and then after a Penn turnover, an unlikely three came from Julia Cunningham for a six-point lead with 2:19 left.

Though Sydney Jordan fouled out for the Tigers with 1:59 left, Princess Aghayere was just 1-for-2 from the line.

Littlefield was 1-for-2 to get it back to six and then Alarie turned over Aghayere with 1:23 left.

Penn was forced to foul to get Princeton to the line with a chance to rebound potential missed shots.

But Penn could not hit a field goal, connecting once on a 1-for-11 effort for the quarter and Princeton just kept extending the differential on the way to its victory.

In all from the 51-51 tie earlier in the period, the Princeton run the rest of the way was 14-3.

Ashley Russell, who became a surprise contributor of sorts her senior season, had a team-high 14 points but while Eleah Parker, referred to as “another pro” by Banghart, had a double double 10 points and 11 rebounds, she was also defensed by Alarie (5 blocks) to a 5-for-23 effort from the field.

"It doesn't hurt to have Bella Alarie on your team," Banghart said. "Those people who are just getting to see her … come back. She held another pro in Eleah Parker to 5-of-23 from the field and that's a stat line that speaks for itself."

Alarie was named the most outstanding player with Littlefield, Rush, and Cunningham from Princeton, and Penn’s Russell and Parker making the all-tournament team.”

“Congratulations to Princeton, it was one heck of a basketball game,” McLaughlin said. “We competed as long as we possibly can.

“Outside of the result, I think we stood up to the challenge, we played in the moment, we competed at the highest level, (though) we struggled on the offensive side in the fourth quarter.

“I’d like to have a couple of possessions back, but that doesn’t happen. I’m proud of our group, they were resilient, we represented our league. I wish we were sitting here on the other end of the score, but I respect the sport, these guys too, … it will be a tough ride home.”

Russell noted, “… the first half and third quarter, we were right there, our defense was really locked in, and in the fourth quarter, we weren’t getting good flow and that’s when it got the best of us. Everybody gave their all each possession, and it just didn’t go our way.”

When it came Princeton’s turn to take the podium, Banghart said, “I want to give credit to Penn. Anyone who watched that game, anyone who watched that game saw two great teams who played with great toughness and discipline.”

As for the change in momentum at the finish, Alarie said, “We decided it’s now or never. Our freshman Julia hit that huge three-pointer for us, we just put our heads down and played the rest of the game.

“They’re a great team,” Alarie said. “At the end we wanted it so much more. You could see everybody’s eyes on the court. We wanted it.”

Drexel Falls at Finish as Towson Wins First CAA Title

NEWARK, Del. - Poised to win its first CAA title in a decade since 2009 and second overall, second-seeded Drexel’s offense and ball control went cold and fourth-seeded Towson rallied in the closing minutes to win its first CAA in a tournament that had all kinds of upsets here in the University of Delaware’s Bob Carpenter Center.

It’s the second straight year that the Dragons (24-8), losing in the title game, were unable to prosper from someone else doing the dirty work knocking top-seeded James Madison out of the tournament.

Last season defending champion Elon had taken JMU down in the semifinals at Drexel, but the Phoenix kept going to repeat their automatic NCAA bid.

This time it was worse. At least the loss was decided long before the actual game ended a year ago.

But 12 months later Drexel could see the trophy on the horizon before the offense and ball control died in the closing minutes to the Tigers (20-12), whose Diana Richardson in her second season led the Tigers to the promised land after her CAA peers gave her the coach of the year award before the tournament got under way.

In Thursday’s quarterfinals, ninth-seeded Hofstra upended JMU, which missed two key players, including Kamiah Smalls, who won preseason accolades. Lexie Barrier got hurt 47 seconds into the Hofstra game.

It’s the first time a No. 1 seed got ousted in the quarterfinals.

On the season, the Tigers (20-12) upset the Draqgons in Philadelphia at the buzzer the first weekend in CAA play before Drexel came back and blasted Towson in Maryland in the final game of the regulasr season.

On Saturday, the game was an epic confrontation with neither team getting much of a lead.

But the pace was to Drexel’s liking.

Aubree Brown scored for the Dragons to make it 46-43 with 3 minutes, eight seconds left in the game.

Drexel then got a steal and in its system a score on the next possession might all but secure the win.

Then Niki Metzel’s shot was blocked, but freshman Keishana Washington stole a ball only to lose it seconds later and Murray scored to get the Tigers within a point with 1:41 left.

Bailey Greenberg, the CAA player of the year, missed a three-pointer, Towson rebounded and Nukiya Mayo, the tournament’s most outstanding player with 20 points in the championship, scored to put Towson in front.

Then Brown turned it over with 49 seconds left and Kionna Jeter, the other Towson player in double figures with 10 points, extended the lead to three points with 25 seconds left.

Greenberg then lost the ball and Mayo hit two foul shots to make It Towson 51-46 with 11 seconds left.

Brown made it close with a three-ball with two seconds left but Drexel, behind 52-49, had to foul and Mayo went to the line for the game’s final points.

Greenberg finished with 15 points and Metzel had 10 to make the all-tournament team from Drexel while Jeter, Northeastern’s Jess Genco, also made it.  Hofstra’s Boogie Brozoski rounded the award winners      off her record 42 points in the opener the first day when the Pride ousted the eighth-seeded defending champion Elon group.

“We always preach it’s a game of possessions, and that’s what it came down to,” said longtime Drexel coach Denise Dillon. “We had the ball, we had a little cushion, and we tried to execute a play to get Bailey another look, and Towson’s overly aggressive, and we don’t pay attention to detail and Towson comes up with the basketball.

“Then we came down again, so it was just two crucial turnovers.”

Said Richardson of the rapid rise of her team, “I was just blessed with some super super athletes and great people that really wanted this.”

Towson’s only other championship game appearance in a conference was in 1983-84 beating Delaware in the old East Coast Conference.

USciences’ Road to the Sweet Sixteen Ruined by Le Moyne

After trading losses with arch-rival Jefferson University in the D2-Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference and losing also to the Rams by a point in overtime in the CACC title game, the ultimate villain to No. 6 USciences’ season Saturday night was NE-10 Conference’s Le Moyne from Syracuse, which rallied over the No. 6 Devils, 63-56 in front of a packed Bobby Morgan Arena in Southwest Philadelphia.

The Devils had built a 10-point lead at 38-28 with 5 minutes, 37 seconds left in the third period, only to then yield the momentum the rest of the way to the opposition whose coach Gina Castelli, formerly with Siena, decided to gamble with full court pressure in the NCAA D2 _East semifinals.

Jefferson was eliminated in the first round Friday night by Stonehill after the Rams had enjoyed a historic season.

That left the Devils as the only local still standing for what became just until 24 hours later among the area’s small college brigade.

Le Moyne (26-5) rallied all the way back to tie the score at 39 when a layup in the final minute of the period capped an 11-1 surge, but Irisa Ye's late 3-pointer put USciences back on top entering the fourth quarter. 

The Dolphins scored the first 12 points of the final period though, holding the Devils scoreless for the first 5:34, to take their largest lead of the evening, 51-42, when a layup capped a 23-4 run with 4:45 remaining. 

Le Moyne made 27 of its 34 free threes, while USciences made 10 of its 14. 

The Devils also turned the ball over 19 times to the Dolphins' 11, which led to a 26-11 disparity in points off turnovers. 

The Devils finished with a second straight 30-win season, matching last year's program record. 

USciences also set or tied program records for regular season wins (26), Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference victories for a 19-game league schedule (18), national ranking (No. 4), East Region Ranking (No. 1) and win-streak (18).

The season culminated in USciences hosting the first NCAA Regional in the history of the University.   

Saturday evening capped the careers of seniors Colleen Walsh, Alex Thomas, Hadiya Tucker, Micah Morgan, Alyx McKiernan and Marissa Sylvester. 

They graduate as the all-time winningest class in program history. 

“That right there makes them very special," said coach Jackie Hartzell, who previously coached Archbishop Ryan in Northeast Philadelphia. "They came in and worked hard every day and they really turned the program around. 

“As good as they were on the court, they are even better off the court. They are going to be really successful in life, and we are going to miss them."

Ye led USciences with 25 points on 8-of-10 shooting, including a perfect 3-of-3 3-pointers to break the program's NCAA era single-season scoring record with 561 points.  

McKayla Roberts had 28 points for Le Moyne, who will meet Saint Anselm Monday night for the right to move on to the Elite Eight as the East champs.