The Guru Ivy Conference Report: Positive Covid Tests on Princeton Disrupt Ivy Finish With Fourth and Last Seed Still Still Unclaimed For Conference Tourney

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

Picking up where Courtney Banghart left off before she departed for North Carolina and the Powerful 5 Conference world of the ACC, Carla Berube has had Princeton continuing to roar through the Ivy League through recent challenger Penn, shake off in quick order a conference tourney and then a cancelled season and then back on track fending off a new approach from Columbia.

But what humans belonging to the other seven of the Ancient Eight have been unable to do, nature has jumped in with a monkey wrench to bring the Tigers to a dead stop and in process toss a bunch of questions needing answers soon relating to the upcoming four-team Ivy tournament at Harvard in Cambridge, Mass.

All this because coronavirus tests within the Princeton program began producing positive results with nothing to say no more are on the way.

So while Yale joined the Tigers and Columbia as the third team officially in the women’s field Saturday after whipping Cornell 56-40 at home in the Lee Amphitheater in New Haven, Conn., the key Harvard game at Princeton was postponed twice on the weekend, left with a mere notice at the Ivy website that the game was off with a makeup time to be determined.

The Princeton website noted the postponement and said both schools are coordinating with the Ivy League to schedule a replacement date, what is basically the standard speak part of the protocol drill anytime postponements due to positive results have been announced.

It lists the Penn game as the next scheduled game on Friday night at Jadwin Gym, but with at the moment it is unknown among the laymen whether the all-clear has kicked in, there is no guarantee that game is going to happen until it actually happens.

As an anonymous source familiar with the Princeton situation said, “but if the chance exists that more results will keep coming up the way they’ve been, how do you know when to start counting the required five days of clear testing?” 

Penn, meanwhile, in the Quakers’ final game of the season at home in The Palestra Saturday celebrated the local Ivy Senior Day in fine fashion, blasting Dartmouth 79-54. 

Among the missing parts still needed are the put-off Harvard-Princeton meeting, the Penn visit to Princeton this Friday at 7 p.m. in Jadwin Gym on ESPN News and Saturday’s Harvard at Dartmouth Gym at 2 p.m. in Hanover, N.H.

The assumption recently that was made on several predictions is that Penn and Harvard will tie 7-7 and Harvard will get the tiebreaker off a split with Yale while Harvard swept the Quakers.

But what made things not worth betting the entire household recently when it occurred was Harvard getting upset at Cornell.

And might Penn actually win the Princeton game, harking back to Mike McLaughlin’s first Ivy title when regular season results determined the champion and automatic NCAA bid. Princeton had whacked the Quakers in the first meeting of the season at The Palestra but with a first-ever tie going into the final day of the schedule, Penn pulled an upset at Jadwin Gym.

So considering this is the middle of the night when these posts are being written, stay tuned for new developments.

Meanwhile, off the games played, in Penn’s 79-54 victory, first off senior day, salutes pre-game went out to Kennedy Suttle, Meg Hair, Nikola Kovacikova, Mia Lakstigala, and manager Emily Eiler.

Hair had missed much of the season due to injury but got into the game and scored points.

With Penn’s record not good enough nor place in the Ivy standings for a WNIT bid baring the unforeseen, this was a true adios for the upper class.

Meanwhile Jordan Obi had a game-high 16 points and grabbed nine rebounds for Penn (12-13, 7-6 Ivy), which is for now listed in fourth place. Kayla Padillia scored 14, Lakstigala scored 12, while Silke Milliman scored eight, and Stina Almqvist scored seven.

On Dartmouth’s (3-22, 2-11) side, Emma Koch was the only player in double figures, scoring 10 points and grabbing 10 rebounds for a double double.

Meanwhile, in the Columbia game, the Lions at home in the Schiller Court at Levin Gymnasium off Broadway on New York City’s Upper West Side trounced Brown 85-56, bouncing back from the similar style loss to Princeton at home on Wednesday.

The triumph gave the home team (20-5, 11-2 Ivy), both losses to Princeton, it’s first 20th win season as a Division I member, and the overall first since the 1985-86 team went 21-6, advancing to the Division III regionals.

“It’s great when you can wrap up, at home, a 20-win season,” said Columbia coach Megan Griffith, a native of King of Prussia and alum, who previously spent a long stint on the staff of Banghart at Princeton. “It was great to see contributions from everyone today, as well. I think our team, one through 15, really bought into the game plan … We talked about winning all four quarters and we really did that today.

“It’s the second time this year that we’ve won all four quarters. … I was proud of them tonight — 33 field goals and 28 assisted is pretty good too.”

A statement of the future of the program is Mikayla Markham was the only departing senior.

The win total enabled Markham, as a senior captain, depart with more Ivy League wins than any other Columbia team in the program’s 36-year history.

“It’s awesome to see our work pay off and to get more people one our train here,” she said. “It feels really good just seeing all our hard work pay off over the years.

Abby Hsu had 18 points and shot 5-of-6 from deep for the Lions, while Kaitlyn Davis scored 14 and grabbed 12 rebounds, Jaida Patrick get 13 points with eight rebounds.

In getting the No. 2 seed, Columbia at worst is guaranteed a bid to the WNIT, whose return to a 64-team field will be announced following the NCAA field, which is at 8 p.m. on March 13.

Brown (6-19, 1-12) got 22 points from Isabella Mauricio, while Kyla Jones scored 12.

Columbia on Friday finishes at Cornell at 6 p.m. in Newman Arena in Ithaca, N.Y.

In the Yale game, the Bulldogs beat visiting Cornell 56-40 on their Senior Day in which Alex Cade, Robin Gallagher, and Roxanne Nesbitt were saluted.

Christen McCann scored 14 and Jenna Clark 10, for Yale (15-10, 8-5 IVY), while Kaya Ingram scored 12 for Cornell (9-15, 4-9) and Shannon Muroy scored 11 as a reserve.

Yale finishes Saturday at Brown in Providence, R.I.

And that’s the Ivy Conference report.