The Guru Report: Penn and Princeton Get Ivy Wins

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

Penn and Princeton got their Ivy road trips off to a successful start in the two games involving Guru local D-1 teams Friday night, while out West in the super-charged PAC-12 conference in two games of note, No. 3 Oregon had little difficulty visiting No. 7 UCLA for an 80-66 outcome but across town unranked Southern Cal upset No. 11 Oregon State 72-66.

Parker Excels in Penn Win Giving Coach McLaughlin a Career Milestone

Vintage Elena Parker continued her play of last weekend with a 26-point, 17-rebound performance to lead the Quakers to an 85-73 Ivy win at Brown in the Bears’ Pizzitola Sports Center in Providence, R.I., resulting in coach Mike McLaughlin earning his 600^th career victory.

It’s the fourth straight win for the Quakers (14-5, 4-2 Ivy) following a rare four-game losing streak that had setbacks to Princeton and Harvard in the league and at Villanova and Temple in the Philadelphia Big Five as McLaughlin became the 19^th active coach to get to 600.

When he won 400 at the time, he was the fastest of any coach at any NCAA level to reach that milestone.

His latest milestone comes in his 11^th season at Penn following a long career at Holy Family, which he built to a Division II powerhouse in Northeast Philadelphia. 

With his record with the Quakers now at 193-121, he is close to the 200-win at Penn, Overall, he is 600-182.

Tom Shirley at Division II Jefferson is getting close to his 700^th victory.

The Quakers, with one more stop on the weekend trip coming Saturday, are now in fourth, two games ahead of Columbia in the loss column but could move up at least one more spot with an eye to the Ivy tourney next month at Harvard where the top four teams in both the men’s and women’s  competition get to play in the two-day affair chasing an automatic bid to the NCAA tourney.

Parker, who had been one of the city’s top individual forces her first two seasons, seemed off the mark this time until several weeks ago. 

Against Brown (7-3, 1-6), she registered her fourth double double her last six games with her points just three off her personal best.

The native of Charlotte, N.C., also had four blocks. 

Kennedy Suttle came off the bench to provide a career-high 13 points and 10 rebounds, making it the first time in almost a year the Quakers had two players in the same game achieve double doubles.

Rookie sensation Kayla Padilla scored 18 out of the backcourt, the 15^th time she’s scored at least 15 points, while Kendall Grasela just missed a career mark getting nine rebounds, one short of her personal best.

Penn on the way back home on Saturday travels to Yale for a 4 p.m. tip in the John L. Lee Amphitheater at 4 p.m. in New Haven, Conn.

Princeton Getting Separation After Win at Yale

Dropping behind 12-0 it seemed Yale might disrupt Princeton’s win streak and bring the two-time defending Ivy tourney champions back to the pack. 

That goal still seemed plausible with a Bulldogs’ 18-10 advantage with 7:57 left in the half.

But then the Tigers had enough and tossed their No. 1 defense in the NCAA at Yale to rally to a 55-39 victory in the Lee Amphitheater in New Haven, Conn., and open a two-game lead in the loss column on Yale (15-5, 5-2 Ivy) and Harvard (14-6, 5-2) that could do some more growing pending Saturday’s results.

The Bulldogs began the day with the top scoring offense in the Ivies (73.6) and were held 34.6 points below that average – their lowest scoring total since Feb. 28, 2015.

Princeton (18-1, 6-0) has now won 14 straight games with the Tigers’ sole setback early in the season by two points in overtime at Iowa.

Carlie Littlefield had a game-high 20 points for the visitors, scoring 14 in the second half, while two-time reigning Ivy player of the year Bella Alarie had nine points and 10 rebounds, while Ellie Mitchell had 14 rebounds.

Princeton finishes the weekend going north first before heading home, playing at Brown in Providence, R.I., with a tip called for 5 p.m.

PAC-12: Oregon Maintains Lead as Ionescu Sets Another Mark While USC Upsets Oregon State

Several weeks ago, Oregon State was poised to be the second team from the state to earn a first-ever No. 1 ranking in the Associated Press women’s poll before beginning an intermittent series of narrow losses, the latest being the now No. 11 Beavers being upended by unranked Southern Cal 72-66 Friday night at the Trojans’ Galen Center in Los Angeles.

Alissa Pili had 26 points and 13 rebounds for USC (13-11, 5-8 PAC-12), while Aliyah Jeune scored 12 points.

Mikayla Pivec scored 16 points for the Beavers (19-6, 7-6), now fifth in the PAC-12, while Taylor Jones and Destiny Slocum each scored 12.

It was a bad day for Oregon State before arriving at the game off the news from the PAC-12 office that coach Scott Rueck had been reprimanded for comments on the officiating following last weekend’s loss to Arizona.

The Beavers go to UCLA Monday night.

Meanwhile, No. 3 Oregon, which began as preseason No. 1, then slipped a bit, but has been rolling since routing then-No. 4 Connecticut two weeks on the Huskies’ campus, gained the upper hand in another conference battle of Top 10 teams, winning at No. 7 UCLA 80-66.

It was another milestone occasion for Ducks senior Sabrina Ionescu, likely the overall No. 1 pick in April’s WNBA draft, who had 18 points, eight assists, and seven rebounds. She also joined former Gonzaga star Courtney Vandersloot as the only two NCAA players with 2,000-plus points and 1000-plus assists.

Her 24 career triple doubles are tops for both men and women in NCAA history.

Oregon’s coach Kelly Graves coached both, having mentored Vandersloot when he previously was with the Zags.

However, the buzz in the arena in this one in the Bruins’ Pauley Plavilion in Los Angeles, was as much over Ruthy Hebard, who had 30 points and 17 rebounds for Oregon (23-2, 12-1 Pac-12), which is a game in front of Stanford and two in front of UCLA (21-3, 10-3).

“We knew unless they had someone quickly become eligible, they weren’t going to be able to match up with her,” Graves said after Oregon won its 11^th straight game. “We worked all week on getting the ball to her. She is too big and skilled for them.”

Michaela Onyenwere had 23 points for the Bruins and Japrece Dean scored 14. UCLA only connected on two of its 23 attempts on 3-point shots.

“I think UCLA is playing the best basketball in the country now,” said UCL coach Cori Close, whose squad had a 14-game home win streak snapped. “They are really talented.”

Oregon finishes the weekend in Kos Angeles Sunday visiting Southern Cal.

Hall of Fame Bound?

The Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass., named eight finalists for this year’s induction at the end of the summer, highlighted by the recently deceased Kobe Bryant.

The announcement came at the NBA All-Star events in Chicago.

Three of the finalists emerged from the women’s subcommittee, which could have forwarded a fourth, and the trio are former WNBA and Tennessee star Tamika Catchings, announced earlier this week as an inductee this June in the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in Knoxville, Tenn., Baylor coach Kim Mulkey, a former Louisiana Tech star who has guided the Bears to three NCAA titles, including last season, and Bentley’s Barb Stevens, who has won over 1,000 games.

Mulkey and Stevens are past finalists and are both previous inductees to the women’s hall in Tennessee.

Former UConn star Swin Cash, also named earlier this week to the women’s hall, did not make it out of the subcommittee, which considered several other candidates, including former Immaculata star and new WNBA Indiana Fever coach Marianne Stanley, who was an assistant on the champion Washington Mystics last fall.

The women’s veteran group did not name a direct elect this season but former Immaculata star Theresa Grentz is considered a leading candidate.

Looking Ahead:  Temple Goes After Conference Bye

The Owls, one of six Guru local D-1 teams playing Saturday, two against each other, will try to snap a two-game skid when Temple hosts Houston, at 2 p.m. in an American Athletic Conference game at McGonigle Hall.

Coach Tonya Cardoza’s group is looking to land in the upper part of the standings to earn a bye in next month’s Americcan tourney, likely the last to be played at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Connecticut since UConn heads  to the Big East, which is under discussion to take over the site for its playoffs.

La Salle, coming off a win Wednesday at George Washington, visits Saint Joseph’s at 2 p.m. at the Hawks’ Hagan Arena trying for a sweep in their Atlantic 10 series  after snapping a seven-game skid against the Hawks last month at Tom Gola Arena.

 That game also counted in the Big Five final standings, which had already been won in a tie with Temple and Villanova.

Already mentioned, Penn and Princeton continue their Ivy weekend road trip with the Quakers at Yale while the Tigers are at Brown.

Rider, a half-game behind Marist, will be after its second straight win in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference  when the Broncs, whose 14-game win streak had been snapped at home by Marist, visit Manhattan College in Riverdale, N.Y. at 2 p.m.

On Sunday, Drexel will look to expand its 10-game win streak and stay ahead of preseason favorite James Madison in the Colonial Athletic Association and claim a season sweep over geographic rival Delaware when the Dragons travel to play the Blue Hens at 1 p.m. at the Bob Carpenter Center in Newark.

In their meeting last month in Philadelphia, Drexel won narrowly pulling the game out in overtime.

Villanova will look to move up a spot in the Big East when the Wildcats travel to Georgetown for a 2 p.m. game in the nation’s capital. They beat the Hoyas at Villanova in the first meeting last month.

Next Sunday when DePaul visits is veteran Villanova coach Harry Perretta’s final regular season home game heading into retirement after 42 seasons with the Wildcats.

In the Big Ten, the local duo of Penn State and Rutgers are home, with the Lady Lions hosting No. 10 Maryland at 2 p.m. in the Bryce Jordan Center, while the Scarlet Knights will host Michigan at noon in Piscataway, N.J.

Earlier Friday, Rutgers announced that Nola Peleg Pelc, an Israeli, was leaving the program and putting herself in the NCAA transfer portal.

Small Colleges: Teams Jockeying with Streaks and Standings Slots at Stake

Everyone among the locals in the Guru’s radar are playing Saturday.

Rowan, with a one-game lead over Montclair State and two games remaining before the New Jersey Athletic Conference tournament, will be at Rutgers-Newark in North Jersey at 2 p.m. in a Division III contest.

In the Division II Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC), USciences has a 15-game win streak and two-game lead on Holy Family in the South Division when the Devils travel to Felician in North Jersey at 1 p.m. before hosting Holy Family next Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. at Bobby Morgan Arena in Southwest Philadelphia.

Holy Family, which upset the Devils in the CACC opener at home, stayed ahead until a two-game losing streak dropped the Tigers into second place and after halting the slide they took another narrow loss Wednesday to Goldey-Beacom, squandering a huge lead.

The Tigers host Caldwell University at 1 p.m. at Campus Center in Northeast Philadelphia.

Jefferson, which has played better of late and is now over .500 overall, hosts Nyack at 2 p.m.

And D-II Lincoln, with a record 23 wins overall, continues finishing on the road in the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA), visiting nationally ranked Virginia Union at 2 p.m. and then returning to action next Saturday at Bowie State in Bowie, Md.

And that’s the report.