The Guru Report: Princeton Thrives With Captains in Ivy Opener at Penn

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

PHILADELPHIA – Princeton turned its first showdown in the Ivy League here with Penn in the Quakers’ Palestra into a captains’ cakewalk Saturday afternoon as the No. 25 Tigers tore away from a slim 33-30 halftime lead to move into domination of the next two quarters on the way to a 75-55 victory.

Longtime coach Courtney Banghart may have moved on to the Power 5 world of the Atlantic Coast Conference where she is already gaining success at North Carolina, but her stamp is still on the Tigers in terms of the roster, especially senior Bella Alarie, the expected high WNBA draft pick, who had 25 points, 11 rebounds and pairs each of steals and blocks.

Alarie’s senior co-captain Taylor Baur had 15 points and 13 rebounds while Abby Meyers scored 14 points off the bench.

In the past, a front wall from Penn (10-2, 0-1 Ivy) under Mike McLaughlin had been forceful enough to allow to make a presence with three Ivy crowns and  a shared one in the regular season last time around besides taking the first Ivy tourney title here over Princeton (13-1, 1-0) in 2017 but yielding the two ensuing ones since.

Eleah Parker is still around but on Saturday her statistics showed two points and six rebounds, though Tori Crawford scored 13 points for a career-high and grabbed eight boards.

But the overall rebound work was scary with Princeton having a huge 44-25 advantage, including 17-6 on the offensive boards enabling the Tigers to outscore the Quakers 26-9 on second chance points.

This game had even more hype because of the gaudy unprecedented combined non-conference records of the two teams that was unique in overall Ivy history for a matchup this early.

“Taylor Baur, my co-captain was relentless, and I think that was the mindset for all of us,” Alarie said. “You had to attack the boards, because not everything is going to go in, so we just tried to be as relentless as possible and just go after it.

“And I think it makes a huge difference for a team like Penn, who really is dominant in rebounding, so I think we did a good job, there.”

Alarie owns one freshman and two player of the league honors in the Ivies and next Monday, the star from Bethesda, Md., is getting the amateur athlete of the year award from the Philadelphia Sportswriters Association at their annual banquet in Cherry Hill across the river in South Jersey.

Of course, marquee games are nothing new in terms of experience for Banghart’s replacement, Carla Berube, who played on the first Connecticut national championship and spent a long stint making Tufts into a national power at the Division III level.

After winning her first Ivy contest, especially this one, Berube said, “Yeah, it was a great atmosphere, a great crowd, and it was a tough game. 

“I know the score at the end looks like a great margin but every single possession was tough on both ends and they’re a very talented and strong team and coached well.

“Yeah, we put together a great 40 minutes, that third quarter was key the way we came out at halftime and sort of defended them better than we had in the first half.”

When it came to debuts, Penn rookie Kayla Padilla in her first Ivy game lived up to all she has shown to date that has earned a bunch of Ivy weekly freshmen awards and even a pair of player/freshman combo awards.

Padilla had a game-high 27 points, shooting 10-of-14 from the field, including 4-of-7 three-pointers and her first half getting 17 points kept Penn alive until the Princeton 21-12 and 21-13 third and fourth quarters.

Phoebe Sterba had 11 points for the home team.

“That was the difference,” McLaughlin said of the rebounding onslaught. “To their credit, they just stormed the glass, made big plays, they had the ball way too many times. You get that many second opportunities...

“I thought they took the momentum right from the gate (after the half). They were struggling. We were struggling, so we had to plod our way through a bunch of tpossessions and to their credit they made a couple of tough threes that just broke our back a few times.

“I thought we did ok in the first half, but I’ve been at Penn 11 years and they’re one of the better ones I’ve seen.”

As for Padilla’s debut, he said, “Oh man, I gotta tell you, she’s super in all ways, her approach to the game, 10-14 against that level of competition, they’re keying on her, they’re trying to take the ball out of her hands, to be that efficient, at that age, she was fatigued at the end, we played her too much, we played her a lot, she was really special.”

Princeton is off for three weeks for the academic break at the school, which will be the last time since the calendar changes next year and the Ivies will be playing a whole new structure yet to be announced.

The other change in recent years has been the introduction of the Ivy tournament, which this year will be at Harvard, leading to an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.

Penn will be making use as it has in the league gap their next two games finishing the Big Five slate. The Quakers are 2-0 and the only team left with a chance to win outright, though winning one of the two clinches another shared title.

They will travel to Villanova, Wednesday at 7 p.m. while the following week they travel to Temple. Both those teams are in play to gain a tie with a win.

“This league is going to be a dogfight from everyone, not just us and Princeton,” he said of the Ivy chase and then, “We got Villanova and Temple, a chance to win the Big Five, we’re looking forward to that, this is a good basketball game that we just came up  little short.”

In the past before the tournament, far more pressure went on the losing team in the first meeting, though Penn won its first title under McLaughlin in the pre-tournament era, taking Princeton the last game of the season on the road.

Last year the Quakers stole the Ivy opener at Jadwin Gym, but then lost at The Palestra and Yale.

Temple Win Streak Reaches Four

The Owls came home from their two narrow road victories and this time managed to win in thrilling play in a game that wasn’t an edge of the seat thriller in that Temple cruised to an 85-62 win over SMU (7-8, 1-2) in an American Athletic Conference game in McGonigle Hall.

“Today I was happy,” said Temple coach Tonya Cardoza, who was not pleased across the board since the narrow loss last month to now No. 4-South Carolina and in several wins such as the one recently at La Salle.

Mia Davis had another double-double, this one for 23 points, shooting 10-for-13 from the field, grabbing 11 rebounds and dealing six assists for Temple (10-6, 3-1). Marissa Mackins rode 5-of-11 three pointers on the way to 20 points, while Niang scored 11 points, Asonah Alexander dealt 10 points, and Shannen Atkinson had 9 points and 8 rebounds.

Johnasia Cash had 15 points for SMU, while reserve Kayla White scored 13, and Amber Bacon scored 11.

Temple next hosts South Florida Thursday at McGonigle Hall at 7 p.m.

Saint Joseph’s and La Salle Take A-10 Road Losses

The Hawks and Explorers both struggled on the road in league play in the Atlantic 10 with Saint Joseph’s falling to Massachusetts 61-43 at the Mullins Center in Amherst.

No one scored in double figures against UMass. (13-3, 3-0 AAC) but the Hawks’ Gabby Smalls, Lula Roig, and Jaden Walker all scored eight points.

Hailey Leidel scored 18 points for the home team, while Vashnie Perry scored 15, and Destiny Philoxy scored 12.

The Hawks (7-8, 1-2 A-10) next host Rhode Island Wednesday night in Hagan Arena at 5 p.m. before the men play.

La Salle, meanwhile, fell to Duquesne 82-56 in Pittsburgh for the Explorers‘ ninth straight loss since they matched last season’s win record. 

Duquesne (11-5, 1-2 A-10) broke from an already sizeable halftime lead at nine points with a 15-4 run in the third to make it 20 points over the Explorers (6-10, 0-3 A-10) and went on to build the differential by 10 more points.

Kayla Spruill had 12 points for the visitors, while Jordon Lewis had 10 points, nine rebounds and blocked a pair of shots.

Kate Hill dealt eight assists without making any turnovers.

It’s La Salle’s turn next to head to UMass in Amherst Wednesday night at 7 p.m. 

Looking Ahead: Drexel and Delaware Eye Weekend Sweep

With Drexel and Delaware looking to complete the weekend successfully off the switch of visiting opponents in the Colonial Athletic Association, Drexel hosts Hofstra Sunday at 2 p.m. in the Daskalakis Athletic Center, while likewise the Blue Hens hope to down Northeastern at 1 p.m.

  Rutgers hosts Nebraska at 2 p.m. in Big Ten action in the Rutgers Athletic Center in Piscataway, N.J., while Penn State will be after a second straight Big Ten win at Ohio State in Columbus at 2 p.m.

Villanova will be looking to bounce back from Friday morning’s loss when the Wildcats host Xavier at 1 p.m. in a Big East game in Finneran Pavilion on the Main Line.

On the national front, No. 3 Oregon State after barely escaping No. 18 Arizona will be looking to stay in the win column on the road meeting Arizona State in the PAC-12 with a chance to gain a first-ever No. 1 ranking with a win while the Sun Devils will be trying to get back into the rankings with a win after upsetting No. 2 Oregon on Friday.

The Ducks at Arizona will be in a PAC-12 game in which both teams will be trying to avoid more damage after Friday losses.

No. 8 UCLA will try to keep pace with Oregon State as the last two unbeaten teams in Division I when the Bruins visit Colorado in PAC-12 action.

North Carolina having upset No. 9 North Carolina State will be chasing a ranking by causing another upset when the Tar Heels visit No. 11 Florida State which fell in its last game, both in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

No. 17 Maryland coming out of another loss visits No. 24 Michigan in the Big Ten.

Small Colleges: Holy Family, USciences, Jefferson, Lincoln Gain Wins While Rowan Gets Upset

It was a sweep for Holy Family, USciences and Jefferson out of the Southern Division of the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC).

Holy Family stayed unbeaten in the conference and for a change won more comfortably on a road stop at Nyack 74-60 as Mia Ehling and Elizabeth Radley each scored 14 points for the Tigers (9-5, 7-0 CACC) in Bowman Gymnasium, and Anjelai Hayes scored 11 against the Warriors (5-8, 3-3).

Next up is a home game Wednesday in the conference against Georgian Court in Campus Center Gymnasium at 5:30 p.m.

USciences also in a crossover division game on the road blasted Bloomfield 82-41 in North Jersey in  Bloomfield Gymnasium as Jordan Vitelli  scored 16 points, Isla Brennan scored 14, and Irisa Ye scored 11 for the Devils (13-3, 6-1) and Jess Huber’s 100^th three-ball came against the host Bears (4-12, 3-4).

The Devils have two home games this week, the first on Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. hosting Caldwell in Bobby Morgan Arena in Southwest Philadelphia.

Jefferson got back into win column in a crossover game at home in the Gallagher Center beating Concordia (N.Y.) 73-57 on the strength of a 20-8 second quarter and 21-10 in the fourth for the Rams (6-8, 3-3).

Sabria Lytes had a double-double career high 17 points, shooting 8-for-10 from the field against the Clippers (3-12, 2-4), while Alynna Williams also scored 17 points, and Maddie Henry had 13 points and 12 rebounds.

Jefferson coach Tom Shirley picked up his 783^rd win of which 634 are with his current team.

The Rams next host Goldey-Beacom at 6 p.m. on Wednesday.

Lincoln University completed its three-game road trip in North Carolina in Raleigh bouncing back from Thursday’s loss to beat St. Augustine 70-61 holding off a late rally to improve to 14-3 in the game designated non-conference.

The CIAA designation will be applied to the return visit to Lincoln later this season.

Reserve Skydajah Patterson scored 19 points for the Lions while DeAshia Young scored ten points against the Falcons (5-8).

On Thursday Lincoln was upset by Shaw 61-53 in C.C. Spaulding Gym in Raleigh in a game in which Kenzie Spencer got her 100^th three-pointer while the reserve scored 16 points. 

Shaw improved to 6-8 in the game that was also declared a non-conference matchup.

Bryanna Brown scored 15 for Lincoln, which next hosts Virginia Union Wednesday at 5:30 p.m.

Rowan suffered its first conference loss, being upset on the road in North Jersey by Montclair State 76-50 to fall to 12-2 overall and 6-1 in the NJAC.

Nickie Carter had 22 points for the host Red Hawks (10-4, 5-2).

Savannah Holt scored 10 for Rowan, which next visits Kean at 6 p.m. in an NJAC game Wednesday in Union.

And that’s the report.