The Guru Report: New Highs Set in Wins By Penn and Penn State While Rutgers Suffers Upset

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

PHILADELPHIA —  The Palestra doors were opened for game dates Tuesday night for the first time in 619 days as the Penn women’s and men’s team swept their doubleheader, the women beating D-3 King’s College 91-55, while in the middle of the state Penn State set a team scoring record in destroying Delaware State 120-51.

But to the not so far north from here involving the third of the three of 11 Division I’s in the Guru’s local collection who played, Rutgers at home in its re-named and re-conditioned Jersey Mike’s Arena was stunned by defending America East champion 53-44, just the fifth time the visitors beat a Power 5 program. 

Among games, which weren’t many, on the tracker for meeting similar or higher conference opponents, No. 4 Indiana, holding its highest ranking in history, wiped out visiting Norfolk State, 72-42, in Bloomington

No. 3 Maryland crushed  Northeast Conference pick Mount St. Mary’s 98-57 in College Park at the Infinity Center, No. 7 Stanford, the defending NCAA champion, bounced back from its upset loss to Texas on Sunday, beating Portland 77-55, at home in Maples Pavilion in Palo Alto, Calif., No. 22 West Virginia at home in Morgantown, beat Northeast Conference contender Saint Francis (Pa.), and while in the other tracker game, Patriot League pick Lehigh fell on the road 87-77 at Seton Hall in the Pirates’ newly renovated Walsh Gym in South Orangfe, N.J.

Two other teams in the Associated Press women’s poll played as No. 13 Michigan cruised over visiting UMass Lowell 73-54 at home in Ann Arbor, and No. 10 Louisville at home in the Yum Center in Kentucky beat Bellarmine 82-25.

Though junior sensation point guard Kayla Padilla took a certain sitting out in the rotation of seniors and juniors serving four games each across the Quakers first eighth games as a penalty for violating a school policy, after being challenged early by King’s College, the Quakers (2-0) went on to win big for the second straight outing, this time 91-55.

Sophomore Jordan Obi had a personal high 29 points and 12 rebounds while Mandy McGurk had personal bests of 17 points and three steals, and Sydnei Caldwell scored 10 points.

Another career mark went to Mia Lakstigala grabbing eight rebounds, plus she also got another career high with five rebounds.

Samantha Rajzsa had 20 points, fueled by six from behind the arc, for Saint Francis (2-1), which competes in the MAC Freedom Conference.

Two others also sat out in what has been reported as a hazing issue the cause of the suspensions.

“Let me say this, these are unbelievably high-character kids,” said Penn coach Mike McLaughlin, who has to manage his roster at the outset of his 12th season with this handicap. “These are amazing students here, they’re amazing athletes, they’re caring.

“They have an unbelievable basketball culture here. They’re great kids. “They had a misstep. It was all to be a good teammate and it went sideways for them. We’re dealing with it. They are not malicious kids,” he continued.

“They did not make a life-changing bad decision. They will learn from it. They will grow from it. We’ve had a lot of conversations. We’re going to end up on the right side of it.”

As for returning to near-normal atmospheric conditions with fans inside, though required to wear masks, the Penn women’s coach said, “Everything we’re doing is a step, step, step. They missed a step last year. But everything, the band playing, some type of atmosphere, you can’t beat it.”

Last season Penn and No. 1 pick Princeton, the Quakers are second, along with the other six Ivy schools were shut down by the league presidents.

The Quakers next head to Saint Francis of Brooklyn, near the Barclays Center home of the NBA Nets and WNBA Liberty on Thursday night.

Penn State Sets Scoring Mark: Part of the fan experience at Nittany Lions football games are games designated white outs, the wearing of white at home games. Tuesday night at home the  theme was wipe out with the Lady Lions winning the non-conference matchup at home in Bryce Jordan Center 120-51 over Delaware State highlighted by Makenna Marisa gaining a triple double with 30 points, 11 assists, and a program record-tying 10 steals.

It’s been 33 years since 1988 when the last triple double, which was one of seven executed by all-American Suzie McConnell-Serio, who played from 1985-88.

The previous team-scoring mark was 118, achieved three times, the last on Dec. 29, 1993 against Morgan State.

It’s the first time in its 3-0 start since similarly in 2017-18  that the home team scored at least 80 points in each of them.

In team categories, Penn State set program records with 37 assists and 25 steals, the latter a record for the building.

Niya Beverly and Toval Sabel each scored 17, while Anna Camden scored 14, and Shay Hagans scored 12.

The Hornets (0-3) got 16 points from Joy Watkins, while Alexis Moragne scored 12.

In terms of staying mentally focused with the blowout determined early, Penn State coach Carolyn Kieger said, “Doesn’t matter.  The score is always 0-0 and how close to a pwedwxr game you can get.

“Obviously, we’re never going to reach perfection, but we’ve been trying to put that foot on the gas idf we want to become an NCAA tournament team.That’s what you have to do and scoreboard’s always 0-0, and next quarters always 0-0.

On Sunday, Penn State heads to Clemson at 2 p.m., televised on the ACC network.

Stony Brook Shocks Rutgers: The visiting Seawolves stayed perfect at 4-0 and the host Scarlet Knights (3-1) no longer are following their 53-44 setback in a morning game played in Piscataway, N.J.

The home team, which fell the first time in the three-game non-conference series, got 15 points, all off of 5 long range connects from Lasha Petree. 

“We’ll give credit where credit is due,” said Timothy Eatman, filling in this season running the team for C. Vivian Stringer. “Stony Brook played like a veteran team and they played like a team that had just played in the NCAA tournament,” which was a first last season in the bubble in San Antonio, Texas. 

“They played hard and ran their plays well, while taking away our lanes. We’re still learning how to play together, and we’re committed to doing the things we need to do to be a better basketball team.”

Harvard of the Ivy League visits Friday night at 7.

It’s the third win over a Power Five program for Stony Brook.

Ashley Langford, who succeeded Carolyn McCombs, who left for George Washington, is the first coach at Stony Brook in the program to begin 4-0, having beaten St. John’s on Sunday.

“It’s tough to come to Rutgers - a historic program - and they’re tough, it was a grind,” Langford said. “I am really proud of our resiliency and our ability to mentally push through it and walk out of here today with the upper hand.”

Anastasia Warren had 15 points, while Gig Gonzalez had 13.

Lehigh Falls 88-77 at Seton Hall:  Depending on the ultimate season success for either team on the season, this is one of those games capable of becoming part of a resume builder for at-large selection with the visiting Mountain Hawks (2-1) defending conference champions and also Patriot League preseason picks, while the Pirates are targeting landed in the upper areas of the Big East.

Lehigh did launch a rally trailing by 19 in the third quarter.

“I thought we could use our depth t our advantage in the third quarter,” Lehigh coach Sue Troyan said. “I don’t think we executed down the stretch as well as I would have liked.

“But give them credit, too, they made their shots down the stretch. It was a well-played game on both sides,” she continued. “I thought we had a lot of really good looks in the first half and in the second quarter, we just didn’t make our shotsd and finish around the rim. We played a lot tougher in the second half and knocked down some shots.

“Like I said, it’s a very potent offense, we just need to find consistency in it.”

Nationally Noted: No. 7 Stanford bounced back from Sunday’s home loss to No. 12 Texas, beating visiting Portland 77-55 as the Cardinal (2-1) got a triple double from Haley Jones, the program’s first in nearly 20 years. 

The Most Outstanding Player of last season’s Final Four, Jones on the way to a triple double, had 17 points, 12 rebounds, and 10 assists.

“She’s incredible,” Portland coach Michael Meek saids ofs Jones. “I’d seen hear play for years, She does so many dIfferent things.She can find si many different ways.”

Stanford coach Tara Vanderveer extended her lifetime NCAA record win total to 1,127 ahead of Geno Auriemma of UConn by seven. 

Cameron Brink of Stanford scored 21.

Michigan State at home defeated Valparaiso 73-62 giving Spartans coach Suzy Merchant her 500th career win.

Looking Ahead: Three locals play Wednesday night: Temple hosts St. John’s at 7, the same time La Salle tips at Drexel in a Philly Six game, while Saint Joseph’s visits Monmouth of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Contest in a battle of teams with Hawks as their mascots.

Nationally, Cal Baptist, which had a long win streak last year, is at Oregon State.

And that’s the report.