Guru Report: La Salle and Princeton Rally to Wins

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

PHILADELPHIA – Second-year La Salle coach Mountain MacGillivray got out from under last season’s 45-point wipeout loss at Harvard Friday night with a freshmen twin-sister attack from Down Under as Australian 6-0 reserve guards Amy and Claire Jacobs combined for 32 points to key a rally from a 16-point deficit in the second period and send the Explorers to a 75-69 upset of the Crimson (3-1) here at Tom Gola Arena.

“That one felt good,” he said. “It didn’t feel so good at halftime, to be honest.”

The Explorers trailed by 14 points at the time.

“But really, really pleased with the way the team responded at halftime. I felt we had the personnel to turn them over and I didn’t think they were going to turn us over a lot,” MacGillivray said.

Good outlook considering La Salle (2-1) forced 24 turnovers and only committed 10.

“The way we took care of the ball tonight, I was really pleased,” the La Salle coach said. “These two stepped up big time. All of the team made big plays the whole game.

“She’s a legend,” he said of longtime Harvard coach Kathy Delaney-Smith. “All of her teams are well-coached teams. 

“It’s not the team that blew us out by 45 last year, there’s a lot of different players out there, but it’s a team that came in here 3-0. So that’s a real good win for this young team.”

Defensively, La Salle, coming off a tough setback here last weekend in overtime to Robert Morris, finally caught the Ivy power for the first time in the game in the fourth quarter at 55-55 with 8 minutes, 49 seconds left in regulation.

Harvard, however, went back ahead by three points until the home team countered for another tie at 58-58. 

The visitors then went ahead again by a bucket that was quickly erased by the Jacob sisters, Amy with a three-ball for La Salle’s first lead, followed by Claire with a 3-pointer and the Explorers would never trail again.

It was still anyone’s game, however, over the final 6:01 but Amy’s field goal made it 66-60 with 4:04 remaining.

Junior guard Deja King from Trenton applied the lock in the final minute, after missing a foul shot, she sank the next seven and was 9-for-10 overall with a field goal to be a third Explorer in double figures with 11 points.

Amy had a career-high 17 points, tops for the Explorers Friday night, shooting 6-for-9 from the field, including 4-of-6 three-pointers, while Claire scored 15, shooting 6-for-16, including 3-of-8 from beyond the arc.

Harvard, which is back in town in February to visit Penn at The Palestra and also is the Ivy tourney host, had four players in double figures: a double double 20 points and 13 rebounds from Rachel Levy, 15 from Mackenzie Barta, 13 from Jeannie Boehm, and 10 from Tess Sussman.

However, freshman guard Lola Mullaney, who averaged 30.5 her first two games, is sidelined with an injury.

La Salle’s and MacGillivray’s first win last season did not come until early December and this season the Atlantic 10 coaches picked the team to finish last after its 6-25 record. 

Harvard was picked third in the Ivies behind Penn and Princeton, who tied regular season and tied for first in the Ivy media forecast vote.

So how did MacGillivray, a former associate head coach under Delran (N.J.) native Trish Fabbri at annual MAAC contender Quinnipiac in Connecticut, find the Aussies and how did they come to choose La Salle?

“They sent out some film,” MacGillivray said. “We watched the film, we had two spots available, and they both, as you saw, can really get up the floor, so they both run really well.

“It jumped out that these are two kids who can really run well and we need a post, neither one of those are posts, but two for the price of one, we’re good to go.

“ And I think we had the distinct advantage of there probably weren’t a lot of schools at our level who had two spots. It’s worked out so far.”

As for the view of La Salle from across the Pacific, “We heard of La Salle because coach Mountain reached out to us,” Amy said. “And we really loved him and the school really looked like it was going somewhere.

“And we did our research. They looked very fresh and we could make a difference in it.”

Added Claire, “It was very important that we remained together because we came from so far away. 

“And the fact they offered us both a spot was very exciting to us and the fact he was super nice when we met him.”

La Salle snapped a four-game losing streak in the series and overall trails Harvard 4-2 after winning their first meeting here in the city.

The Explorers Sunday head to Penn State (2 p.m.), which lost to Rider at home a week ago but Wednesday beat defending Atlantic 10 champion Fordham in the Bryce Jordan Center.

Harvard the same day will be at Rutgers, also a tipoff at 2 p.m.

No Bella, No Courtney, No Problem

When Courtney Banghart left Princeton after last season for North Carolina after having built the Tigers to a formidable power in the Ivy League, most of the Ancient Eight rivals began to contemplate, “now once (senior) Bella (Alarie) graduates … “

The first taste of that experience arrived Friday night with Alarie sidelined with a hyper-extended knee suffered in the previous win at George Washington last Sunday.

However, toss that idea in the trash.

In the only other game involving a team of the Guru’s local 11, it was another rally win as Princeton came back from a 10-point deficit to triumph at Seton Hall 79-76 at the Pirates’ Walsh Gym up the road in South Orange, N.J.

It took a missed three-point attempt as time expired by the home team until Princeton could move to a 3-0 unbeaten mark under new coach Carla Berube, a former UConn star who made Tufts in the Nutmeg State into a national power in Division III.

While the Tigers, the defending Ivy tourney champs, tied Penn for first in the media forecast vote, Seton Hall (3-1) was picked third by the Big East coaches, who also made the Pirates’ Shadeen Samuels the conference preseason player of the year.

However, she only got to play two minutes on Friday night but a high-scoring committee almost carried the home team to a win.

Alexis Lewis, shooting 9-for-12, scored 27 points, Barbara Johnson scored 21, and Desire Elmore scored 20, while Selena Philoxy scored 11 rebounds.

Princeton was able to ride its other big engine, who scored 19, while three other Tigers scored in double figures – Grace Stone with 16, Taylor Baur with13, and Julia Cunningham with 10, all out of the starting lineup.

Seton Hall’s largest lead came in the first quarter, but the Pirates still held on to a narrower 40-37 advantage at the half.

The Tigers then made their move, though the lead kept exchanging until Princeton finished the third ahead 63-60.

That advantage in the final quarter grew to a 74-63 advantage with Berube bringing a bit more of a defensive execution to the school in central Jersey.

However, Seton Hall would not yield and the last minute became a wild affair with a run featuring Johnson’s four-point play to get the Pirates within a point at 77-76 with 43 seconds left in regulation.

Princeton then committed a turnover, but Seton Hall missed a layup, got an offensive rebound and  then was charged with a travel violation.

Forced to send the Tigers to the line, Princeton’s Maggie Connolly made one-of-two, setting the stage for the Pirates’ game-winning three-point attempt that missed the mark and allowed Princeton to stay perfect.

The Pirates on Sunday go to Fordham to play Saint Joseph’s in the Bronx at 2:30 p.m. before the host Rams play Villanova at 5 with each team still looking for its first win.

That same day Princeton hosts Florida Gulf Coast at 1 p.m. in Jadwin Gym.

As far as what’s just ahead of Saturday, Rider is hosting Xavier at noon in Alumni Gym in Lawrenceville, N.J., while the Guru travels to Drexel at 2 p.m. for a Preseason WNIT consolation round game inserted into the schedule that has the Dragons hosting Pacific in the Daskalakis Athletic Center.

The previous report has all of Sunday’s action but we’ll come back on the overnight with the report that covers both Saturday local games and any other news of note.

Until then, that’s all there is.