The Guru Report: Penn Survives While Drexel Falls in Overtime Thrillers

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

PHILADELPHIA — It didn’t even get close to 24 hours after the first date of the month arrived Friday at midnight for the frenzy of March Madness to begin to play out right here in West Philadelphia.

Penn, trying to keep pace with Princeton at the top of the Ivy League in terms of gaining official entry into the third  annual conference tourney in two weeks at Yale in New Haven, Conn., fought physical injuries, a bad break down the stretch, foul trouble and scoring deficiency to pull out a 75-70  overtime win here at The Palestra against Harvard to achieve their qualifying tourney goal and bounce back from Tuesday’s loss to the Tigers that forced the deadlock.

The win also avenged last month’s double overtime loss to the third-place Crimson (14-10, 7-4 Ivy) that removed the cushion to maintain an edge over Princeton, should the Tigers do their own payback for the Quakers’ league schedule-opening upset at Jadwin Gym in early January.

While this was happening, a few blocks away, Drexel trying to stay close to Colonial Athletic Association preseason favorite and league leader James Madison got ambushed and after fighting back several times with the outcome in the balance succumbed in the third overtime to William & Mary 77-72 at home in the Daskalakis Athletic Center.

The loss snapped a 12-game win streak that dated back to after the CAA opening weekend when the Dragons got taken down by surprising Towson and then fell to JMU.

Drexel  is still second but now two games back of the Dukes and just one ahead of Towson with three games left prior to the CAA tourney, which will be at Delaware’s Bob Carpenter Center in Newark a year after the Dragons hosted and lost in the championship to Elon.

Meanwhile in the Midwest Friday Villanova needed some key plays in the closing minutes before beating Xavier 68-63 at the Musketeers’ Cintas Center in Cincinnati to hold onto fourth place in the Big East heading into Sunday’s final at third-place Butler, which got stung 72-46 at home in Indianapolis by Georgetown.

The Bulldogs’ loss wasn’t the only Big East upset of note with league leader and No. 13 Marquette being felled at home by Creighton 71-65.

As for the other three Guru local D-1 teams in action, Delaware took down Elon 71-59 at home to flip back a half-game ahead of UNCW in fourth in the CAA while Princeton rode the momentum of its Penn win to punch its Ivy Madness ticket with a 64-47 win over Dartmouth at home in Jadwin to force the Quakers into a must-win here.

Elsewhere, the NCAA Division III tourney in the small colleges world  got under way and two neighbors within minutes of each other out on the Main Line met up at Tufts in Medford, Mass., near Boston and it was over quickly in terms of Rosemont’s magical and historic season as the Ravens’ 19-game win streak was pulverized by Haverford 80-37.

And there were some national stuff.

But let’s lead from here in the Cathedral of Basketball where Penn had enough prayers to win and move on to new priorities on its pre-NCAA task list.

Penn Avenges Harvard And Looks to Weekend Sweep

Since the beginning of last month when the weekend Friday-Saturday back-to-back marathon got under way, Penn has been cruising home and on the road on Fridays and then been in nail-biting thrillers on Saturdays.

But this weekend there was no easy stuff on Friday, to no surprise considering Penn’s opponent, which is holding third but had a chance to perhaps move closer to the leaders with a pair of Ivy victories.

Harvard bolted with a 6-0 opening array but then Penn (19-5, 9-2) answered with an 8-0 run and the two stayed close to each other through the rest of the first two quarters with the Quakers going to the break with a slim 28-27 lead.

But danger was signaled in the Penn group having to manage the inside tandem of Eleah Parker and Princess Aghayere each having a pair of early fouls.

Rescue work, however, was provided with Ashley Russell shooting 4-for-7 from the field with a pair of three-pointers while reserve Mia Lakstigala, whose nine minutes in the half were within two of her overall most on the Ivy portion of the schedule, hit a pair of three-pointers for six points.

Parker, limited to under 14 minutes, was still able to score six and grabbed five rebounds.

Jadyn Bush was Harvard’s key performer in the same half with nine points, while Jeanine Boehm and Madeline Raster each scored five.

In the third Penn did enough to gain momentum for the win in outscoring the Crimson 24-15 with Phoebe Sterba, who was the star in the Ivy season-opening upset at Princeton, shooting 4-for-6 from the field with 3-for-5 on three-balls for 11 points.

But Parker’s fouls reached one short of disqualification with still another period of regulation left, though Penn had reached a double digit lead at 52-42.

However, then the lights went out. Penn scored just four points in the period, none from the field, as Harvard chewed into the lead.

With 2 minutes, 41 left in regulation, Harvard’s Nani Redford tied it 54-54 with a trey.

Russell was gone just before with an undetermined left ankle injury and Kendall Grasela, who had been contributing in recent games, was in and out managing an injury.

Sophomore Michae Jones, who had been contributing more in recent games off the bench and had a career high of 15 in the last Harvard meeting and was to be the heroine in this one, hit two foul shots to get Penn back in front 56-54 with 36 seconds left in regulation.

Then Bush missed a layup for the Crimson, Aghayere was fouled after the rebound and went to the line with six seconds left to wrap it up.

But neither foul shot dropped.

 The Crimson came down as time was expiring, Raster launched a long three for all the marbles but the ball missed and fell into Bush’s hands in perfect position for a putback and overtime with the 56-56 tie.

In the opening minutes, neither team scored but Parker was disqualified with her fifth personal.

Then Jones snapped the combined spell with with 3:13 left on a layup and Penn had a lead not to lose though nothing was yet guaranteed.

Tori Crawford, another sophomore who has stepped up in reserved situations, got a rebound after Aghayere blocked a shot and went to the line and made one of two for a three-point lead with 2:54 left.

Redford missed a shot and then Sterba poured another trey to double the lead at 62-56 with 2:01 left.

Katie Benzan cut the advantage to four with two foul shots but then with 1:37 left Aghayere went inside to stretch the Penn advantage back to six.

Benzan missed at the other end, Jones grabbed the ball and connected twice more from the line for the biggest lead this late at eight for the Quakers with 1:11 left.

Then Sydney Skinner nailed from beyond the arc to get Harvard back within five with 54 seconds left.

The wheels were turning on both benches with time outs blended into the clutch moves by both teams.

Two Grasela foul shots made it seven with 53 seconds left but Skinner with another trey sliced it to four.

Then Jones went to the line and went 1-for-2, her first miss in the overtime, but it was five for Penn in the lead with 38 seconds left.

Skinner drew a foul and scored twice to get Harvard within a possession with 26 seconds remaining.

Jones and Skinner than exchanged a pair of foul shorts with  18 seconds left and Penn still with the fragile three-point lead.

Then one more time Jones and Skinner exchanged scoring a pair of free throws and it was 73-70 with 12 seconds on the clock in overtime.

Jones, quickly fouled, then got two more making it 9-of-10 down the stretch and as time ticked down Benzan’s three was off the mark and Penn had survived.

“I really liked the way we rebounded the ball,” Penn coach Mike McLaughlin said of the 53-42 differential. “Second half was a grind, third quart was smooth, fourth quarter we struggled.”

“And then to lose the ball when we defended the play well,” he said of the shot from the Crimson at the end of regulation. “The ball landed in the right spot for them.

“And then to play without your leader, Ashley, on the sidelines.”

But the bottom line was achieving the initial quest drawn up last fall.

“That was our goal, to make the tournament and everyone is in the moment right now,” McLaughlin said.

Jones, who had a career-high of 19 points, fed by her 13-for-15 from the line, talked about meeting one of the Quakers’ fiercer rivals.

“ We knew this was going to be a tough one,” Jones said. “In this game we found a way. We kept composure which was big. We lost one of our key players and someone had to step up. The bench players came up big and that was a key to this game.”

A key for Penn was the early season reserves had enough playing time to be ready when their moments might be called with the outcome in the balance.

For Jones, being on the line was not nerve wracking, just doing what she does making the same attempts during practice.

“Find an anchor and my anchor is do this thing with my shoulder, and that’s how I get into my zone,” she said. “I follow the same rhythm in practice and that translates into the game. Mike harps on finding a rhythm and doing the same thing for each free throw. It’s muscle memory.”

Sterba, who had 15 points, noted, “It was important we got the win. ‘Coach is really harping on resilience. Our mentality is to keep on punching. The defense was good and that’s how we were punching in this game.”

Despite the foul problems, Parker still had a near double double with 10 points and nine rebounds, while Aghayere finished with eight points and 10 rebounds, while Russell had 11 points before she got hurt.

Skinner scored 17 for Harvard, while Redford, Benzan, and Raster each scored 10, BVush had a double double with 14 points and 10 rebounds, and Boehm had 11 rebounds.

“It’s not the end of the world,” said longtime Harvard coach Kathy Delaney-Smith, in her 37th year with the Crimson that makes her one of four active coaches with 36 or more seasons art the same institution.

The tournament, of course, does that since three teams besides the top team will still have a chance to grab the NCAA automatic bid, though the No. 1 seed gained it the last two seasons won at The Palestra and in 2017 Princeton became the first Ivy team in the NCAA women’s history to receive an at-large bid.

But the Tigers have been more about the trophies, winning six under Courtney Banghart, and pursuing one more as the defending champs and preseason favorites.

Coming off the Penn win, the Tigers (17-9, 9-2) Friday at home bolted from a half-time deficit to finish the game on a 37-19 run and 74-47 victory to keep Dartmouth (12-12, 5-6) locked in a fourth-place tie with Yale (15-11, 5-6), which fell to Cornell 66-56.

Dartmouth has the tie-breaker right now for the fourth seed when the slots are finalized after the regular season ends next weekend.

Carlie Littlefield had 18 points for Princeton in the win while Bella Alarie, the reigning Ivy player of the year who crushed Penn with 33 points, had 12 points and 10 rebounds in this one, shooting 6-for-7 from the field and blocking three shots.

Elle Louie had 12 points for Dartmouth.

Saturday night, which has Penn hosting Dartmouth at 6 here and Princeton hosting Harvard at 5, is senior night for both home teams.

Baring unexpected occurrences next weekend when Penn visits Yale on Friday and Brown Saturday while Princeton does the opposite calling on Brown first and Yale second, the next game will likely determine the one and two seeds.

Basically, Penn needs Harvard to beat the Tigers while they try to handle the Big Green and go back up by a game.

The Tigers in a tie likely have the breaker because a sweep of Harvard off a win Saturday would top Penn sweeping Yale if the Bulldogs qualify.

Since the 1-7 overall start for Princeton due to injuries sidelining players, such as Alarie, the Tigers have now won seven straight and are 16-2.

Drexel Upset By William & Mary in Triple OT While Delaware Tops in Elon

While Penn survived its extended suspense affair here, Drexel, which has a history of overtime thrillers, was just one rally too short in its 77-72  CAA loss to William & Mary up 33rd  Street at the Dragons’ Daskalakis Athletic Center.

The 12-game win streak is now in the history books behind two 16-game runs for Drexel (20-6, 12-3), which can still pursue it’s current nation-leading true road triumphs next weekend finishing up at James Madison Thursday and Towson Saturday but the thrill of last season’s closing tie with JMU and get the top seed is likely out the window.

But they must keep plugging away because Towson in third is now only a game behind since finishing No. 2 totally assures a WNIT bid, though the Dragons are likely to get an at-large invite if they don’t win the CAA and automatic bid to the NCAA.

Still, there was much squandered in this one at times when another win was in the grasp, which can be blamed on an evening of shooting blanks.

The Dragons had the ball with the tie and chance to win in regulation and the first overtime, and, also with less than 10 seconds in the double overtime.

When it came to long-range action, Drexel was 2-for-28 from beyond the arc seeking three-pointers.

Bailey Greenberg was again the Dragons’ leading scorer, as she has been in most games, this time collecting 24 points and grabbing eight rebounds besides adding a career-high of eight steals playing the entire 55 minutes.

Niki Metzel also had a career night with 21 points, of which 19 came after intermission, though she was lost in the second overtime with her fifth foul.

Aubree Brown was also among the leaders with 13 points.

 6 As referenced earlier about Drexel’s extended play, this one was one of the three longest in program history, joining an NCAA record five-overtime 98-90 victory over Northeastern on Feb. 22, 2007, and a triple-overtime 79-73 win over UNCW on Jan. 9, 2005.

 It is just the second time in program history that the Dragons lost a game that went to multiple overtime periods. They are 6-1 all-time in double overtime, with that loss also coming at the hands of William & Mary, 72-68 at the DAC on Feb. 6, 2015.

Bianca Boggs had a game-high 32 for the Tribe (13-13, 6-9).

Drexel, never leading in the first overtime, tied it on Metzel’s two foul shots off an offensive rebounds with 11 seconds left.

William & Mary never led in the second extra stanza but Boggs tied it with 1-of-2 from the line with 36 seconds left. The Dragons turned it over on the next possession but the Tribe couldn’t make a three-pointer go down with time expiring.

The home team went ahead in the third but then the visitors went on a 6-0 run to go ahead 74-70 with 1:16 left in the period.

 Greenberg hit two free throws to get the Dragons within a basket with 28 seconds left but as the Tribe went 1-4 from the line, two trey attempts from Drexel were off and William & Mary scored twice from the line to end the marathon.

Unlike Penn, which is back to work less than 24 hours after winning here, the Dragons get a day between games before hosting defending champion Elon, which is coming up from Delaware after the Phoenix’s loss to the Blue Hens.

It’s senior day for the Dragons with the farewell ceremony to start 1:45 approximately just ahead of the 2 p.m. tip.

Delaware  off its’ 71-59 home win over the Phoenix (8-18, 3-12) had a good time by all on the home team with the defending champs on the other side a different unit in the wake of graduation.

Bailey Kargo had all 16 points courtesy of four three-balls, while Alison Lewis had 10 points and 11 rebounds, Samone DeFreese had 14 points, and Rebecca Lawrence had 10 points and nine rebounds for the Blue Hens (14-13, 9-6), now a half-game ahead of UNCW after their fourth straight home win.

They finish their program home stand  Sunday at 2 p.m. against William & Mary after Senior Day ceremonies but of course will be back at least one more time as part of hosting the CAA tourney in two weeks. A deep run could land a WNIT berth like last season.

Villanova Tops Xavier

 The Wildcats joined Penn and Drexel in the nerve-racking finish act, though a little less than the other two in a Big East 68-63 win over Xavier (11-17, 2-15 Big East) at the Cintas Center in Cincinnati to hold fourth in the conference with one game left.

Jannah Tucker had a career-high 22 points and also matched a career-best six three-pointers for ‘Nova (17-10, 9-8) in a game of runs.

Mary Gedaka, who is third in the country in field goal shooting, had 12 points and 12 rebounds, while Adrianna Hahn scored 11, and Kelly Jekot scored 10.

Gedaka is 98-for-133 in her last 13 games for a 7.36 shooting percentage, while on Tucker is 22-for-39 on three-point attempts in her last five games for a 56.4 percentage.

Midway in the second period the Wildcats led 29-20 and al tmost lost all of the lead on a 9-0 Xavier run but answered the Musketeers with an 8-0 dash of their own to be up at the half 37-28.

Villanova led 64-61 with 19 seconds left in regulation when Xavier stole the ball, but called a timeout the Musketeers no longer had available, causing a technical foul assessment and Hahn went to the line for the Wildcats and hit both foul shots for a 66-61 lead.

Xavier scored as time expired for the game’s final points.

Villanova finishes Sunday at Butler at 2 p.m. trying to hold onto fourth and avoid a potential four-way tie.

Small Colleges: Haverford Bests Rosemont in NCAA D-3 Opener

In the neighborhood battle played out of the neighborhood far away near Boston, Haverford, the Centennial Conference champs, jumped to a 20-6 lead in the first quarter at Tufts, and went on to an 80-37 victory to bring a close to the Rosemont’s program-record season that gained the Ravens (24-4) their first-ever Colonial States Athletic Conference title.

The wins by Rosemont tops the previous mark of 17 while the 19-game win streak far exceeded the previous run of nine.

Tufts downed Western New England 70-41 to advance and host the Fords (22-6) in Saturday’s second round.

It was a tough shooting night for Rosemont, connecting on 13 of 58 shots and nothing off of 13 three-point attempts.

Shawn Dowd of the Ravens scored 15 points and Ashley Murray grabbed 11 rebounds.

Haverford’s Megan Furch and Caroline Anderson each scored 14 points, while Maddie Gallic and Anna-Sophia Capizzi scored 13.

Meanwhile, locally in Division II, USciences, holding a one-game lead on Jefferson U. in the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference, finishes their season Saturday as do the the Rams.

The first-place and fourth-ranked Devils host Chestnut Hill at 1 p.m. in Bobby Morgan Arena in Southwest Philadelphia near the Palestra while Jefferson University will travel to Holy Family in Northeast Philadelphia, both games at 1 p.m.

USciences have lost just one game all-year that came at Jefferson but later avenged the setback beating the Rams at home. 

But Jefferson, ranked 14th, recently wasted a big lead and fell at Georgian Court at the buzzer in Lakewood, N.J.

The Devils would host the conference playoffs but if they and the Rams get back to a tie, a coin flip will determine the site, unless someone knows if some other tiebreaker will be used.

Looking Ahead: Saint Joseph’s Finishes Seeking A-10 Home Game

Besides the two Ivy games mentioned at the top of this report, another key game among the Guru’s local D-1 seven is being played at noon is on Hawk Hill where Saint Joseph’s will be hosting Fordham in an Atlantic 10 regular season final in Hagan Arena.

It is also senior day for all but Rider, on the road, at the other six games.

Saint Joseph’s is tied for eighth with George Washington for the last of six home sites next Tuesday in the A-10 first round behind Fordham and VCU which have byes.

Those two and the six winners then advance the following weekend to Duquesne in Pittsburgh for the three rounds leading to the NCAA automatic bid.

The Hawks have the tie-break in an 8-9 finish right now with the Colonials but have the taller order in that the Rams want to finish as high as possible to help persuade an unlikely unmovable NCAA committee to take Fordham as an at-large team if they don’t win the conference.

Meanwhile seventh-place George Mason is at La Salle at 2 p.m. with the Explorers feeling good off their upset win at St. Bonaventure.

 In last place, La Salle will travel but a George Mason loss potentially puts the Patriots in a three-way tie with Saint Joseph’s and George Washington.

However, the Pats have beaten the other two so seventh is theirs. George Washington is at Richmond.

If the Hawks can’t win, they will need the Spiders to help out with GW. Otherwise its off to Washington on Tuesday if the Colonials aren’t coming here.

The GW-Richmond game tips at 11 a.m. so the Hawks may have a good idea of their fate before taking the floor at Hagan.

Temple finishes its home season hosting Wichita State at 2 p.m. in McGonigle Hall in an American Athletic Conference game and then will finish up  Monday at Memphis.

The AAC tourney highlighted by No. 2 UConn and second place UCF continues where it’s always been at the Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, Conn., near New London next weekend.

The Owls are headed nowhere per se so it’s a case of finishing as strong as possible to carry some momentum into the off-season.

Rider has already clinched the No. 2 seed and will finish its season at Fairfield at 2 p.m. ahead of next weekend’s Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference in Albany, N.Y.

Penn State, in 12th place in the 14-team Big Ten finishes at 3 p.m. against Nebraska at home in the Bryce Jordan Center in State College ahead of next week’s conference tourney in Indianapolis.

And that’s the report.