The Guru Report: Princeton and Penn Win Big While Yale Completes Ivy Field

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

NEW YORK – The Ivy women’s tournament field is set.

 With one night left the seeding is not.

The one exception is those Princeton Tigers, who on Friday night went a different direction by necessity to post their 21^st straight triumph in another lopsided win, this time beating Columbia here 77-52 in the Lions’ Levien Gym to continue on a path leading to where no Princeton team has gone, let alone any other Ivy team in  the league’s history.

First-year coach Carla Berube had already wrapped another regular season title and the No. 1 seed a week ago for the fourth annual men’s and women’s combined four-team tournaments, this year being hosted at Harvard’s Lavietes Pavilion in Boston.

But for the first time in the event’s short history the Crimson (15-11, 6-7 Ivy) won’t be there in uniform and though Harvard broke a dubious five-game Ivy slide, beating Brown, Friday, they were finished off when Yale routed Dartmouth to become the fourth and final team.

For the moment, Penn’s winning rout of Cornell 67-46 up at Ithaca, N.Y., before heading here for Saturday’s showdown with the Lions (17-9, 8-5), put the Quakers (19-7, 9-4 Ivy) all alone in second place where they’ve either been in the past or No. 1, and dropped Columbia into a two-way tie for third with Yale (18-8, 8-5), who concludes the Bulldogs’ business playing Harvard Saturday night.

But Columbia can steal the second spot, possibly, with a win, assuming Yale loses to Harvard. But there could be a three-way tie needed to be broken if Columbia and Yale win.

As for game action involving the Guru’s two local D-1 squads in the Ivies, let’s begin here with the Tigers,  who finish up at Cornell Saturday at 5 p.m. The Penn game here is at the same time.

Columbia, on a six-game win streak that sent the Lions into their first Ivy tourney, had notions of giving the Tigers their one workout before the NCAA tournament since they will likely be in the 64-team field as an automatic qualifier, which would be their third straight, or as an at-large pick, repeating that feat of several years as the only Ivy team ever given an alternative way into the field.

Plus, there was some personal fun involved since fourth-year coach Megan Griffith at her alma mater out of King of Prussia, Pa., is a former assistant on the staff of former coach Courtney Banghart, who built the Tigers into a nationally-prominent  program – they are ranked 21^st this week, the only Ivy ever to appear in the Associated Press women’s poll.

And for a while the Lions held their own and managed to lock down two-time reigning Ivy player of the year Bella Alarie.

However, in recent games, Princeton has reached a spot in the second half where the Tigers suddenly hit the accelerator leaving the opposition in a cloud of dust.

This time it was a 15-0 run across the third and fourth quarters as they tucked away another.

If the Tigers win out, there is a possibility they could sneak into a four-seed which would give them hosting privileges for the first and second rounds of the Big Dance.

 “It came down to us getting stops, and then being able to execute, just making plays in transition or making plays defensively in the break,” Berube said.

“And Carlie (Littlefield) really had a great game (24 points), and I thought it was really a great team effort. When teams double Bella, we have to find other ways to score, she did a great job finding her teammates and offensive boards and we did a great job as well.

“Yeah, a great team effort. Really happy to come in and play a really hot Columbia team and have a great win like this.”

The 24 points by Littlefield were one short of her career high and before the end of the first half she became the 26^thTiger to reach 1,000 points.

Meanwhile, Alarie might have been held to six points besides still dominating with 11 rebounds but with 8:28 left in the game, the native of Bethesda, Md., hit a foul shot to become Princeton’s all-time women’s career scorer with 1,684 points.

“It didn’t come easy,” Alarie said. “I knew I needed three points, but I wasn’t going to put a lot of pressure on this game. Going into the game with that attention, I don’t think the game doesn’t come through that way. Yeah, it took a while, but it was exciting, nonetheless.”

As to those separation boosting points that Princeton seems to have, she observed, “We’re a great third quarter team, I think, it’s nice to regroup at the half and let our coach tell us what we need to do, but we just want to run on  teams and defend and when we do that, we end up extending the lead, and that gives us a cushion and we can play more comfortably and play together.

”Yeah, that was awesome tonight when we sealed the deal.”

Columbia freshman Abbey Hsu had 12 points and Janiya Clemmons 10.

“I thought we were very solid to start the game,” Griffith said after noting she had told her players beforehand this was a matchup of the league’s future playing its past. I thought we had a great defensive game plan that we just did not execute well in the second half. We just had too many turnovers.”

Columbia committed 19 turnovers leading to a 25-7 scoring advantage for the visitors, who also had 16 offensive rebounds leading to a 16-4 advantage on second-chance points.

“You don’t win this game if you don’t get offensive rebounds and you don’t put shots up,” Griffith said.

“We didn’t get enough shots for us. They had way too many second changes.

“It’s a really experienced team,” Griffith said of the opposition. “I recruited all those kids. I know every single one of them.

“I know how good they are. I know what kind of kids they are. How tough they are. And Carla’s coached them well. They defend now. You’ve got to be more resilient. You’ve got to be able to match their fire power.”

As for Penn, “It’s a totally different team. I have full confidence that if we do what we need to do and take care of business, but to me, you got to play smart and we’re playing four freshmen. They’ve to grow up in this process right now.

“They’ve shown tremendous growth this year, don’t get me wrong, I’m very proud of them. But we need to start growing up now for two primary people. You have to step up for each other. I have full confidence for tomorrow night. How can you not be excited,” she added.

“I think I can win every game. I think I’m going to win every drill. I think I’m going to be the best in everything I’m going to do. What I do know, I want to finish in second place.”

Comparing this Princeton team to the unbeaten one of several seasons ago, Griffith said, “They don’t play as free and fast as that team, but this team defends better. I’d like to see them play each other.     

“There’s some matchups I’d like to see. I don’t know who guard would Blake (Dietrick) on this team. But I don’t know who would guard Alarie, though I think Alex Wheatley was a super player who was underrated. But a lot of firepower on that 30-0 team. But this team can defend and that makes a difference.”

Princeton’s sole loss was in overtime at Iowa in overtime by two points.

“From last year, this is a completely different defensive team,” Griffith said. “And that’s because Carla’s a defensive coach.”

In Penn’s win in Newman Arena, Eleah Parker and Kayla Padilla each scored 16 points and Kendall Grasela had nine points, nine assists, a career-high seven steals, four rebounds and a block against Cornell (10-15, 3-10).

The Quakers beat Columbia at the Palestra in Philadelphia in their previous meeting 82-80 in overtime, rallying for the triumph.

If Penn and Columbia finish 2-3 either way, they would meet in one of Friday’s semifinals while Princeton would meet Yale in the other. It could be, assuming Princeton wins the whole thing, that all three teams would land in the WNIT, though the second seed goes as the automatic qualifier if it is not NCAA bound.

American Athletic Conference: Temple Beats ECU to Advance Against UConn

The Owls got revenge for one of their narrow losses in a four-game streak that got snapped Friday afternoon at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn., when Temple had a strong first half and held on to beat ECU 67-57 as the eighth seed topping the ninth in an opening round game in the American Athletic Conference tournament.

That’s at least one more win to add to the collection, now at 16-14 to land an at-large bid for the WNIT.

Mia Davis had her 18^th double double for the Owls with a game-high 24 points and 12 rebounds while Temple as a team had a 50-40 edge on the boards. Davis also had six assists.

Alexa Williamson had 12 points and seven rebounds, while Marissa Mackins scored 11 against the Pirates (9-21).

“I’m super excited for my team,” said Temple coach Tonya Cardoza. “We just played them a couple of weeks ago and we were very disappointed how we performed there.

“Today, I felt all the things we didn’t do down there, we tried to be better at, and that was taking care of the basketball. We still had some turnovers, but we actually scored against their press and did some good things.

“In the third and fourth quarter they made a run, but I thought we handled our composure and got stops when we needed and made big shots.”

In other opening round games, fifth-seed Tulane topped 12^th-seed Tulsa 67-61 and will meet No. 4 USF in the opening quarterfinal on Saturday at noon.

On the other side of that, Temple’s dubious prize now is advancing to the next game on the Saturday card, playing top-seeded UConn, which had a bye, at 2 p.m. Those winners meet in a Sunday semifinal at 4 p.m.

No. 7 Wichita State beat No. 10 Houston 72-64 to advance to Saturday’s 6 p.m. game against No. 3 UCF, while No. 11 Memphis upset No. 6 SMU 76-65, and will meet No. 3 Cincinnati in the last quarterfinal game at 8 p.m. and those winners meet in the other Sunday semifinal at 7 p.m.

The championship is Monday at 7 p.m.

Ironically, Temple did a favor to the league by playing UConn back on Nov. 17 in Philadelphia, quite early for a conference game, but the Huskies had a loaded non-conference schedule bleeding into the January-February portion..

Cardoza was an assistant to UConn Hall of Famer Geno Auriemma for 14 seasons and her good friend Jamelle Elliott, a former Huskies star, is back on the staff where they served together.

In the seven-year history of the league the Huskies have won every regular season game and all previous six tourney titles, and this is the farewell weekend because UConn is headed back to the reconfigured Big East.

“We’re approaching it like a regular game, so just coming prepared,” Davis said of playing UConn more time, though down the road the two programs could meet in scheduled non-conference competition.

“Obviously, you’re playing against UConn, it’s our last opportunity, with them leaving, we’ve talked about it, last couple of days, win or go home. It’s just a great opportunity, no one has beaten them yet, so we’re hoping that tomorrow is the day for us.

“They’ve had a really good year. Geno is usually someone who’s never happy unless you can go 35-0 and he’s never happy until he has a championship. But I thought throughout the year they might have had struggles, but I thought every single one of those players worked hard over the summer,” Cardoza said.

“Even Megan Walker. I thought she changed what her body looks like, changing her game. And again, for us , it’s an opportunity to play against the best team in the conference and give it our all and see what happens,” she said.

“Usually, you say, you have to lose (sometime). Eventually, it has to happen. I know everyone wants to be the team that beats them. So that’s going to be our mindset, to go out there and make sure they have one loss before they leave.”

Big East: Villanova Rides Overtime to a Win Over Xavier

The seventh-seeded Wildcats extended longtime coach Harry Perretta’s 42-year career into one more conference event, beating 10^th-seeded Xavier 64-56 in overtime in an opening round game at DePaul’s Wintrust Arena in Chicago.

Villanova (18-12), which could start becoming involved into the NCAA discussion with another couple of wins, will meet No. 2 Marquette, which had a bye, in a quarterfinal game Saturday at 7 p.m.

Raven James had a game-high 20 points, including a key pair of three-pointers.

It’s the third win this season over Xavier (3-27) against which the Wildcats are 15-1 all-time.

Mary Gedaka had 19 points and 12 rebounds.

Perretta is retiring after this season and the conference showed a tribute video before the game.

A Xavier three-pointer at the end of regulation extended the game.

“I thought we might be done at that point, we might be done,” Perretta said. “But they really did a good job in overtime and we made more shots in overtime than they may have made in some of the quarters.”

In other first-round games, No. 8 Providence beat No. 9 Georgetown, 49-46, and will meet No. 1 DePaul, ranked 18^th, at 1 p.m., while in the other quarterfinal in that sector between teams that had byes, No. 5 Butler will meet No. 4 Seton Hall at 3:30 p.m.

Those winners meet Sunday in a semifinal at 6 p.m.

No. 6 Creighton meets No. 3 St. John’s at 9:30 p. m. and in Sunday’s other semifinal game that winner meets the Villanova winner at 8:30 p.m. 

The championship is Monday at 8 p.m.

Big Ten: Rutgers Eliminated by Indiana

The Scarlet Knights, the fifth seed, fell in a quarterfinal game to the No. 4 Hoosiers, 78-60, and will wait to see what the postseason picture is, though Rutgers (22-9) is expected to get an NCAA at-large bid.

Indiana (24-7) is ranked 20^th in this week’s AP Poll.

“That was a hard-fought battle,” said Rutgers coach C. Vivian Stringer. “I’m not surprised at all. We had a tough game at our place, as well. The players really desperately wanted to win, and we weren’t seeing shots fall.”

Arella Guirantes had a game-high 30 points, tying a school record making 15 of 16 foul shot attempts. 

The 15 were also a tournament record.

In other games, No. 1 Maryland, ranked sixth, beat No. 9 Purdue 74-62, to meet Indiana in a Saturday semifinals at 6:30 p.m. in Bankers Life Field House in Indianapolis.

No. 2 Northwestern, ranked 11^th, was upset by No. 7 Michigan 67-59, while No. 3 Iowa, ranked 19^th,  was upset by Ohio State, 87-66, and those winners will meet Saturday at 9 p.m.

The championship game is Sunday at 6 p.m.

And that’s the Report