The Guru Report: Columbia Ends Princeton Long Series Domination in Overtime; Penn and Drexel Win With Big Nights From Padilla and Washington

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

PRINCETON, N.J. — It took an extra period and seemed like it would once again get away, but in an Ivy League thriller here aired nationally Friday night between the perceived top two contenders Columbia ended a 27-game losing streak to reigning champion Princeton winning 58-55 in the Tigers’ Jadwin Gym in overtime.

In the old Ivy era, following Princeton’s upset loss at Harvard last weekend and now saddled with an 0-2 start, the first two-game league losing streak since February 2017, the Tigers (8-5, 0-2 Ivy) would be in dire straights needing help and having lost a margin of error to maintain its long mastery of the league.

But there’s still the second game to be played at Columbia and in March the Ivy tourney here to find a path back to the NCAA tourney, though the Tigers at worst could for the second time be the only league member to earn an automatic bid.

For the moment, however, Columbia (13-2, 2-0) with a current 10-game win streak extended by winning at Penn Saturday night is the new sheriff in town and with losses already suffered by the bottom three Associated Press Top 25 women’s squads the Lions might join Princeton as the second ever Ivy to earn a ranking when the new poll is released on Monday.

“This is a big time March Madness game,” said Columbia coach Megan Griffith of the monkey removed from her alma mater’s program’s back in the series. “This is a game you’re going to see in the NCAA tournament.”

Griffith, a native of King of Prussia, Pa., in the Philadelphia suburbs, was on the staff here when Courtney Banghart, now at North Carolina, built the Tigers into the new Ivy force earning national respect beyond just the acclaim of becoming the top Ivy power.

Prior to 2016-17 when the Lions were a lower tier team in the league she was hired by the Lions to create a new era. Steadily, progress was made but a year ago in each of the three meetings with Princeton, including the championship, they failed to walk the walk.

In the first half Friday night, it seemed it might be more of the same, falling 11 points down and trailing at the half 30-23.

However, out of the break, the Lions sprung to life with a 10-0 run to get back into contention and take a slight lead and though play on both sides was ragged at times, it seemed the end of the ongoing series misery was ready to occur.

“Our third quarter straight was great, and that’s Columbia basketball,” Griffith said. “This is a team that’s going to throw punches at you and you just have to be ready to throw back.

“This is a daunting win. This is a win we had to go get. They weren’t going to give it to us. It’ wasn’t going to be easy. It’s 27 games (since last series win). That’s when I was playing. I beat them here.”

Princeton, though, causing a memory of the comeback last second win here a week ago over Atlantic 10 contender Rhode Island on Grace Stone’s shot wasn’t ready to go away.

Stone hit a three-ball with 18 seconds left in regulation to knot things up in front of a well attended crowd of 1,113 that included a sizable contingent of Columbia fans.

But Kaitlyn Davis, who had a double-double 13 points and 13 rebounds, became a not-so-fast answer in the extra five minutes, scoring five of the Lions’ six points, grabbing two steals, and taking two rebounds, one coming off Princeton’s last shot to arrive at the promised land.

Kitty Henderson and Abbey Hsu each scored 15 points, Henderson also grabbing eight rebounds for the visitors, while Paige Lauder offered a productive nine points and seven boards.

Princeton’s Kaitlyn Chen continued to be the go-to player, scoring 20 points, while Ellie Mitchell grabbed 22 rebounds.

Tigers coach Carla Berube, a former UConn star, was pleased the squad played much better than in the debacle at Harvard, now going into a Saturday slate as part of a three-way 2-0 standings header with Columbia and Penn.

She cited the play of reserve Maggie Connnolly, who had nine points and seven rebounds.

“It was fun, it was fun to be part of,” Berube said. “I told my team afterwards, they’re upset, they wanted to win the game, but not hang our heads. We battled. For us, it was really important to put together a better effort from our Harvard game. We worked very hard this week and our defense was just so much better.”

Princeton hosts Cornell 5 p.m. on Saturday on ESPN+.

Padilla Leads Penn Over Cornell: With Columbia due at The Palestra Saturday at 5 p.m. on ESPN+ in the first of a bunch of tests that will tell how far back the Quakers have returned to the recent era when they were the part of the Ivy 1-2 punch with Princeton, the danger of a trap game existed Friday night at The Palestra with Cornell providing the opposition.

Though Penn got off to a slow start, senior Kayla Padilla took care of those worries, scoring 28 points in a 62-54 victory as coach Mike McLaughlin’s squad continued to take advantage of a long ten-game home stand with an eighth straight victory. The run by the Quakers (9-5, 2-0 IVY) is the third longest in program history and longest since the 2015-16 season. 

Padilla was 8-for-14 from the field, a perfect 8-for-8 from the line and grabbed six rebounds while dealing four assists.

The ultimate goal of course is to once again be part of the four-team field in the Ivy tournament.

Win or lose, the results over the first week of play is showing a three-team race at the top off the Princeton losses and the play of Harvard and Columbia.

Penn gets its first chance to become a frontrunner in Saturday’s Columbia game, perhaps the Lions on a short turnaround off the overtime Princeton win a little exhausted.

Lions coach Meghan Griffith here at Princeton discounted difficulty in that regard, saying, “This is what we train and prepare for.”

In the win over the Big Red (8-7, 1-1), senior Mandy McGurk tied her personal best with six assists while she also scored seven points, grabbed four rebounds, and a pair of steals.

Jordan Obi had a near double-double with nine points, a career-best 15 rebounds, along with a pair of assists, two steals, and two blocks. Freshman Simone Sawyer had 13 points, 10 in the third quarter, and was 5-for-6 from the field, including three from deep.

Drexel Downs Delaware: The high-powered national 1-2 scoring leadership between Drexel’s Keishana Washington and Villanova’s Maddy Siegrist in the area continued with Washington pouring 30 points leading the Dragons to a 73-57 victory over longtime rival Delaware in a Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) game at home in the Daskalakis Athletic Center.

This season, the Canadian had had 11 games of 20+ points and seven of them 30+. The latter brings her career total to 12, tying her for the program record with Phily Six all-time scoring leader Gabriela Marginean.

At the moment Siegrist, who plays again Sunday, is averaging 28.1 points a game while Washington is at 27.6 through Friday.

The win was a measure of revenge, the Dragons, preseason favorites for 2023, at home losing to the Blue Hens a year ago at home in the CAA title game. 

Maura Hendrixson dealt 13 assists, for Drexel (11-3, 3-0 CAA), which forced the Blue Hens (8-6, 1-2) into 21 turnovers.

Delaware is in a rebuild following a season in which coach Natasha Adair following the NCAA tournament was hired at Arizona State in the PAC-12.

Michelle Ojo scored 14 points for the visitors and Klarke Sconiers scored 11.

Delaware is off until next weekend traveling to Elon at the Schar Center in North Carolina on Friday night at 7 p.m. and then at new member North Carolina A&T next Sunday at 2 p.m. in the Corbett Sports Center in Greensboro.

Drexel will host another new member, Stony Brook, this Sunday at 2 p.m.

All those games will air on Flohoops.

Nationally Noted - Player shortage forces No. 5 UConn game postponement: The Big East announced Sunday’s game between the host Huskies and DePaul at Gampel Pavilion on campus in Storrs is postponed because of the school notified the conference off the latest injuries it could not field the conference-minimum of seven scholarship players.

Aaliyah Edwards, the lone player not missing time this season, suffered an injury in the first half of Thursday’s win at Xavier in Cincinnati.

Additionally, Hall of Fame coach Geno Auriemma has stepped away to recover from a month of flu-like issues and grieving the death of his 91-year-old mom in early December. Associate Head Coach Chris Dailey has been filing in the role bringing her record as a sub to 17-0 though he gets credit for the wins and losses as the active coach in the program.

UConn is next scheduled Wednesday to play at No. 24 St. John’s, which could be gone from the AP Poll by then in the wake of the loss this week at Seton Hall.

Colorado upset its PAC-12 traveling partner No. 8 Utah 77-67 at home at the CU Events Center in Boulder after the Utes (14-1, 3-1 PAC-12) earlier in the week reached their highest ranking in the AP Poll and first in the Top 10.

“So many people had such a huge impact at different times of the game,” said Buffaloes coach J.R. Payne.

Frida Formann scored 20 for Colorado (13-3, 3-1) while Jaylyn Sherrod scored 16 and dealt seven assists, Aaronette Vonleh scored 15, and Quay Miller collected 12 points.

Utah won the earlier game by 27-points, Alissa Pili held to 14 points in this one after scoring 25 points the first meeting.

In two other PAC-12 games, No. 15 Arizona rallied from a 12-point deficit in the fourth quarter, Lauren Fields scoring all nine of her points in the final two-and-a-half minutes for the Wildcats in a 72-69 triumph over Oregon State (9-6, 1-3 PAC-12) at home in Tucson.

Cate Reese scored 16 points with three steals for Arizona (13-2, 3-1), while Shaina Pellington and Helena Pueyo each scored 12. Reagan Beers had 19 points and 10 rebounds, AJ Marotte scored 17 and Talia von Oelhoffen scored 12 for the Beavers.

No. 18 Oregon won at Arizona State 82-62 at Desert Financial Arena in Tempe. Endiya Rogers had 19 points for the Ducks (12-3, 3-1 PAC-12), while Tyi Skinner had 230 points for the Sun Devils (7-8, 0-4).

In the Missouri Valley Conference, preseason favorite Belmont got routed on the road at Drake 94-63.

Looking Ahead: On games not already mentioned locally in this report for Saturday, Saint Joseph’s will be looking for its third straight Atlantic 10 victory hosting Saint Louis at 2 p.m. on ESPN+, the same time Temple tips at Cincinnati in an American Athletic Conference game on ESPN+.

Rider is at Mt. St. Mary’s in Emmitsburg, Md., visiting one of the new members in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference on ESPN3.

Rutgers will be honoring former coach Theresa Grentz, a recent Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame inductee in September, around its Big Ten game at 2 p.m. hosting Nebraska in Jersey Mike’s Arena on the B!G network in Piscataway, N.J.

Penn State at 2 p.m. in the Big Ten celebrates Pride Day hosting Purdue in the Bryce Jordan Center in State College.

A major Big Ten game on Saturday at 4:30 p.m. on FOX has Iowa at Michigan.

Locally on Sunday, Villanova in the Big East hosts Butler at 2 p.m. on Flohoops, the same time and network Drexel hosts Stony Brook, while La Salle at the same time will be at Rhode Island in the Atlantic Ten on the CBS Sports Network, and Lehigh in the Patriot League at the same tikme hosts Navy on ESPN+.

And that’s the report.