The Guru Report: Penn Gets Even With Harvard in Overtime While Temple’s Cardoza Gets 250th Win On a Basically Sunny Saturday for the Locals

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

Less than a day after Villanova caught Marquette at regulation finish to force overtime and win, Penn early Saturday night in Cambridge, Mass., nearly went down in reverse style in an Ivy contest at Harvard in the Lavietes Pavilion that will house this season’s two-day conference tournament across the Charles River from Boston.

But like the Wildcats, though it was the Quakers who were caught at the end of regulation, the visitors took over once the extra five-minute period got under way and went on to an 87-78 triumph.

The victory kept Penn (9-12, 4-5 Ivy) just 1.5 games behind the Crimson (12-10, 6-4) for the fourth a final Ivy playoff slot and holding the easier schedule of the two teams.

Kayla Padilla had 23 for Penn and dealt seven assists, while Jordan Obi scored 20 and grabbed 12 rebounds gaining a double double. 

Kennedy Suttle also had a double double with 19 point and 16 rebounds, while Mia Lakstigala nearly got one, scoring eight points and grabbed nine rebounds.

Stina Almqvist came off the bench and got all 15 of her points in the second half, 11 in the fourth quarter.

A crowd of 1,151 came to cheer for Harvard on a day declared to honor longtime crimson coach Kathy Delaney-Smith, who announced she would retire at the end of the season.

But Penn threatened to ruin the party in regulation as a payback for one that got away in their first meeting two weeks ago at The Palestra, building a 17-point lead in regulation.

Harvard kept fighting back and in a wild fourth quarter outscored the visitors 35-24 at the end of which McKenzie Forbes hit two three-pointers, the second to tie, and ultimately finished with 30 points. Forbes connected three other times from beyond the arc.

Harmoni Turner scored 23, and Lola Mullaney scored 12.

Penn outrebounded Harvard 57-40.

The Quakers reached their highest spread of 17 with 1 minute, 43 seconds left in the half.

That advantage steadily dissipated forcing the extra period, though Penn took a shot as time expired and the ball dropped off the rim.

However, the next period was all Penn 12-3, defending the Crimson into a 1-for-11 shooting effort from the field.

The Quakers’ 12 points came from 8-for-10 from the line and a pairs of field goals under the basket from Padilla and Obi.

Penn is off until returning home this weekend to The Palestra in a pair of back-to-back 6 p.m. tips, looking for a season split with Yale on Friday night and a season sweep of Brown on Saturday night.

Princeton, meanwhile, stayed unbeaten in the league Saturday taking down Dartmouth 70-48 on the road at Leede Arena in Hanover, N.H.

Abby Meyers had 19 points and Julie Cunningham scored 16 for the Tigers (17-4, 9-0), who continued to stay in first and are on a 10-game winning streak and an NCAA-best 35-game winning streak in Ivy competition while Dartmouth fell to 2-20 overall and 1-9 in the conference.

Princeton hosts Brown at 7 p.m. Friday in Jadwin Gym in central New Jersey and then on Saturday hosts Yale at 6 p.m.

Elsewhere in the Ivy, Columbia returned to the winning track following last weekend’s loss at Princeton, beating Yale 65-57 on the road at the Bulldogs’ Lee Amphitheater in New Haven, Conn. for a season’s series sweep.

Jaida Patrick had 19 points for the Lions (17-4, 8-1) while Abbey Hsu scored 18, reserve Sienna Durr scored 12, and Kitty Henderson scored 10 against Yale (13-9, 6-4).

The Bulldogs’ Alex Cade scored a game-high 20 points.

“I thought or team put together a solid 40-minute game,” said Columbia coach Megan Griffith. “I thought our team weathered storms really well tonight in a way that we necessarily haven’t done as consistently. Coming into this gym, on their home floor … I just love the confidence that we played with tonight.”

Columbia returns home this weekend to host Harvard Friday at 7 p.m. at Schiller Court at Levien Gymnasium off Broadway in New York City’s Upper West Side.

Another Milestone for Temple’s Cardoza: The Owls recovered from their home loss to South Florida Wednesday as Aniya Gourdine after recently notching the program’s first triple double did it again in a 73-58 win at Tulsa in an American Athletic Conference game, scoring 11 points, grabbing 15 rebounds, and dealing 10 assists.

Alexa Williamson scored 14 points and grabbed six rebounds for Temple (12-10, 7-4 American), while all-time career scorer Mia Davis scored 21 to bring her five-year total to 2,265, just 78 short of passing UConn’s Katie Lou Samuelson for second on the all-time conference list.

The triumph at Tulsa (14-6, 4-5) in the Donald W. Reynolds Center in Oklahoma gave veteran Temple coach Tonya Cardoza her 250th victory as the Owls moved into third place in the conference.

Temple next plays at home on Saturday hosting conference leader UCF at 2 p.m. in McGonigle Hall on ESPN+.

Lehigh Blasts Lafayette: The Mountain Hawks easily took their rivalry game 76-52 at Lafayette in the Leopards’ Kirby Sports Center in Easton, Pa., in what was the 102nd game in the series to keep Lehigh (17-6, 9-3) to stay a half-game behind front-running Holy Cross and Boston U. In the Patriot League.

Mackenzie Kramer had 29 points, propelled by six from deep, while Emma Grothaus had 15 points and 13 rebounds against the Leopards (8-15, 4-9). Megan Walker scored 12 and grabbed six rebounds.

The winners shot 50 percent going 30-for-60 from the field, nine from deep.

“Lafayette is always a big game for us and to have a decisive win on the road is a big one for us,” said veteran Lehigh coach Sue Troyan. “Last year, we dropped one of our games to them. This year, I was proud of our kids and how they stepped up in a Rivalry game and I thought we put an exclamation point on the game in the fourth quarter, which is really challenging to do.

“We had really good play all around today and got great contributions from our starters.”

Lafayette’s Naomi Ganpo had a 16-point, 10-rebound double-double while Abby Antognoli scored 13 points and grabbed six rebounds and dealt four assists.

Next up is a Wednesday trip to Bucknell in Lewisburg, Pa., at 6 p.m. in Sojka Pavilion on ESPN+.

Rider Falls to St. Peter’s: The Broncs were the one Guru local among the five Division I teams to suffer a setback, falling on the road to St. Peter’s 69-56 in a MAAC game played in Jersey City.

Lenaejha Evans had 16 points for Rider (6-16, 4-9 MAAC), while Jessika Schiffer scored 14 against the Peacocks  (10-12, 7-6), who had 22 free throws made to five by the visiting team, who were outrebounded 43-22, 12-6 on the offensive glass.

“We know we’re capable of doing what we need to do to win,” said veteran Rider coach Lynn Milligan. “I thought we did some really good things today, and some things that weren’t in the game plan. The only thing we can do is continue to do what we do and get better every day.

“There’s a piece of the puzzle that we’re missing, and we need to put that piece in place and get to where we need to be.”

Rider returns home Thursday at Alumni Gym in Lawrenceville, N.J., to host Monmouth at 7 p.m. on ESPN+, the first of three straight at home.

D2 Chestnut Hill Sets Win Mark: In defeating Caldwell University 72-60 on the road Chestnut Hill College set a program record with its 20th triumph of the season. It’s also the first time in eight tries the Griffins (20-4, 13-1 Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference) have won at the Cougars’ gym. 

Chestnut Hill is also the first CACC program to win 20 this season.

Cassie  Sebold scored 18 against Caldwell (12-11, 7-6), while Emily Chmiel scored 17 with 11 boards, and Bri Hewlett had 15 points and 10 rebounds. Lauren Crim scored 14.

On Tuesday, in a major meeting, Chestnut Hill will be at nearby Jefferson at 6 p.m. looking for a sweep of the Griffins’ CACC South rival.

Nationally Noted: Maine upset lame-duck America East leader Stony Brook on the road, building a 23-point lead in the first half and hanging tough for a 61-55 win at the Island Federal Credit Union Arena on Long Island in New York.

Stony Brook (20-3, 11-2 AEC) had won 11 straight and also 11 straight at home. The Seawolves last lost to New Jersey Institute of Technology on Dec. 30.

It’s the last game each other unless they schedule non-conference because the AEC has banned Stony Brook from this season’s tournament being punished for its announced move to the CAA next season.

Maine (13-10, 10-3) has won seven straight and is unbeaten on the road in the conference at 7-0.

Alba Oris had 16 points and six assists for the Black Bears.

Stony Brook got 13 points from Anastasia Warren, while Earlette Scott scored 12.

Elsewhere No. 7 Indiana beat visiting Michigan State 76-58 in the Big Ten, Toledo won 80-51 over visiting Bowling Green 80-51, while front-running No. 9 Iowa State won 93-70 at TCU in the Big 12, which also saw No. 16 Texas at home in Austin upset No. 12 Oklahoma 78-63.

Also in the Big 12, No. 10 Baylor topped visiting West Virginia 75-57.

Looking Ahead: On Sunday, Villanova will look to solidify its second place spot in the Big East, extend its win streak to 10 straight and follow up this week’s two pulsating victories at UConn and in overtime at home when the Wildcats visit Seton Hall at 1 p.m. on Flohoops/

In the CAA, Drexel is at Northeastern at 2 p.m. in Boston U. and Delaware is at Hofstra at 2 p.m., both on Flohoops, looking to finishing a winning weekend to face each other next Sunday in Delaware both tied for first.

Drexel won the first encounter when both were unbeaten in the league.

Saint Joseph’s will be at George Mason in Fairfax, Va., while La Salle will be at Richmond at 2 p.m., both in the Atlantic 10 and televised on ESPN+.

The two long-time rivals originally in the Atlantic 10 and now in the Big 10 will see Penn State visit Rutgers at 2 p.m. on B1G+ with the host Scarlet Knights at 0-12 yet to win in conference play and having lost at Happy Valley in their first meeting earlier this season.

Nationally, South Carolina still at No. 1 is at Georgia in a key SEC game at noon on ESPN2. No. 4 Michigan, which recently lost to Michigan State, is at Northwestern in the Big 10, UCF is at South Florida in an AAC first-place showdown at 2 p.m. on ESPN2; UConn is at Marquette in the Big East at 2:30 p.m. on FOX, No. 2 Stanford hosts Colorado at 3 p.m. in the PAC-12 while Arizona State in the conference visits No. 6 Arizona at 2 p.m. having upset the host Wildcats on Friday. In the ACC, No. 3 Louisville hosts nationally-ranked Notre Dame at 2 p.m. on ESPN, Duke hosts No. 5 NC State, and back in the PAC-12 Oregon will look to sweep Oregon State, having won the first on the road this weekend, and hosting the second at 4 p.m.

And that’s the report for Super Bowl Sunday AM.