The Guru Report: Dominant First Half and McGurk Best Lead Penn to Winning Ivy Opener While La Salle Cruises Over Hartford

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

PHILADELPHIA — Penn veteran coach Mike McLaughlin indicates he needs as much time as he can get before taking the Quakers ship of state to the deep waters of Ivy warfare where the first battle test will occur this weekend.

But the league opening shakedown cruise here Monday afternoon at home in The Palestra went just fine as the overall win streak reached seven straight at the expense of Brown getting the brunt of a personal best performance from senior guard Mandy McGurk in a 74-53 win over the Bears (7-6, 0-1 Ivy).

The Quakers (8-5, 1-0) paced by the native of West Chester, who scored 28 points and grabbed six rebounds, blasted their way after weighing anchor on the opening tip to a 25-4 dominance in the first quarter and increased the lead by five in the next for a 45-19 lead at the half.

“I thought it was as good a start that we could possibly ask for,” McLaughlin said. “We made shots, we defended, we turned them over, we executed, got the ball down the floor. I can’t think of a better start. We played terrific basketball.”

The win had a special accent for McLaughlin, personally, noting that his late mom, who passed away during the Ivy shutdown due to the pandemic, would have turned 81 on the second day of the new year.

The news from the north over the weekend had its own fuel when Harvard ended the 42-straight league win streak by Princeton, indicating a free-for-all among the cream of the Ivy crop could allow slightly more room, but not much more, for error in the bid for one of the four spots in the tourney at Princeton this March.

The name of the game is win what you are expected to win and try to steal some off the marquee engagements.

“We got to see every team in their non-conference,” McGurk said. “We were explaining to the underclassmen what the Ivy League is like, what the atmosphere of the games are like.

“We know that each game is going to be competitive. We know we have to win each game if we are going to be competitive in the league and making it to the tournament. Coming off such a strong win here is really encouraging in a competitive league.” We had a goal in the first five minutes to take control and set the tempo,” she added.

McGurk, besides collecting the second highest point total on the squad this season, had a season high five steals.

Of her performance in a game in which the Quakers twice reached a 30-point differential from Brown, she noted, “I think I’m better in transition, and we were all finding each other pretty well in transition. I was looking for a gap to penetrate or a gap to get inside and get easy buckets. Playing fast and playing in transition definitely helped me definitely today.”

After a mixed start in non-conference play, Penn has been perfect winning all six to date on a 10-game home stand helped by the Ivy schedule makers front loading the Quakers’ slate.

Additionally to McGurk’s effort, Jordan Obi had 12 points and seven assists, while “Kayla Padilla scored 13, and Floor Toonders had 11 rebounds.

The Bears got 11 points from Grace Arnolie and 10 from Kyla Jones.

But there was some caution to be attached to the total afternoon in that Brown settled in the second half scoring slightly more points over the final two quarters.

“I thought Brown took back control of the game after halftime,” McLaughlin said. “We got a little tentative and didn’t play as great.

“Give them credit, they made some adjustments, and I don’t think we adapted as well as we are going to need to.”

And that need is coming quickly because after Friday’s rematch of last season’s title between the top two seeds host Princeton and Columbia, while the Quakers are here playing Cornell in a game that will tip at 6 p.m. on ESPN+, Columbia will be heading here Saturday at 5 p.m.

As McLaughlin said of the league, it’s different when squads are on the visiting side, but there is now a sense that maybe Columbia has the stuff to be just as dominant as the Tigers have been over the last decade.

Granted the year Penn won its first Ivy crown under McLaughlin, prior to the arrival of the league tourney, that squad was perhaps more advanced then this one. 

But after Princeton pounded the Quakers here in the opener, when the Tigers came out of a long layoff under their former academic schedule, they fell at home to a very talented Harvard squad. But the next night, Penn leveled the playing field blasting the Crimson in a short of trap game situation.

It became a three-way race and Penn developed enough along the rest of the way that in a battle for all the glory in the final game at Princeton, the Quakers stunned the home folks.

But with Columbia coming here first, Penn has its best chance to get a split in the series with the Lions, though that not may be saying much.

La Salle Handles Hartford: The Explorers did what should be done in their final non-conference game of the season Monday afternoon dealing with the winless Hawks by grabbing a 77-30 victory at home in Tom Gola Arena.

Coach Mountain MacGillivray’s squad (9-7) was coming off a tough loss in the A-10 opener and Big Five closer to Saint Joseph’s just 48 hours earlier at home.

Hartford (0-15), incidentally, which is in the process of migrating out of Division I, will be back in town next Tuesday as Penn’s final non-conference foe at 7 p.m. in The Palestra.

Claire Jacobs scored 13 for La Salle, while Jaye Haynes scored nine, making both shots from beyond the arc in a game the entire 13-person active roster played, all but one scoring points.

Julie Jekot grabbed 10 rebounds, a career high.

The Explorers owned the backboards with 60 rebounds, one less than the single-game record for the program set against Howard by MacGillivray’s squad on Nov. 6, 2018.

It’s now back to Atlantic 10 action the rest of the way, beginning Thursday at Davidson in North Carolina at 11 a.m. on ESPN+. La Salle will stay on the road Sunday visiting contending Rhode Island at 2 p.m. on the CBS Sports Network in Kingston. Then comes a home game a week from Wednesday hosting George Mason at 6:30 p.m.

Maryland Tops Rutgers: The Scarlet Knights may be New Jersey’s team in terms of the Garden State, but the visiting Terrapins, who had moved up in the AP women’s rankings to 13 earlier in the day took full advantage of their Jersey Girl ties in a 78-67 Big Ten win Monday afternoon at Jersey Mike’s Arena in Piscataway.

Transfer Abby Meyers, the former Princeton standout and Ivy player of the year, sank 22 points, including 4-of-7 from deep, while Diamond Miller from nearby Somerset scored 15 and grabbed seven rebounds, and Belmar native Faith Masonius scored eight, grabbed three rebounds, and dealt five assists for the Terrapins (12-3, 3-1 Big Ten), who are a perfect 6-0 on the road.

Rutgers (6-10, 0-4) having a career day of 29 points from Kaylene Smikle, stayed in contention for a half and then Maryland dominated the third quarter 27-11 increasing the differential to 23 at the end of the period.

“For us as a team, we’ve played in so many close games that we understand it’s a game of runs,” said Maryland coach Brenda Frese. “With the experience of a veteran-led roster that we have, they don’t ever flinch. I love that about our mentality.

“We just dial back in a little stronger and we understand how talented we are.”

Maryland, having played Rutgers all the way back when the duo along with Cheyney and Penn State, were the four AIAW Region 1B powers, leads the series 31-12, including 12-1 since the Scarlet Knights bolted the old Big East and Terrapins left the ACC in 2014-15.

Maryland hosts Michigan State on Saturday at 1 p.m., while Rutgers the same day at 2 p.m. will host Nebraska when the Knights also honor former coach Theresa Grentz, who was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in September.

Lehigh and Lafayette Suffer Patriot League Setbacks: In their second conference outings, Lehigh and Lafayette both suffered road losses, the former falling at Colgate, 69-59, in Hamilton, N.Y., while the latter was defeated at Army, 75-56, at West Point, N.Y.

In the Lehigh game, the fourth quarter became the demise of the Mountain Hawks (5-8, 1-1 Patriot).

“I thought Colgate came out with a lot of energy,” Lehigh first-year coach Addie Micir said. “They were making shots and playing with a lot of passion, so you have to give credit where credit is due. 

“I thought we showed some effort and some heart in spurts, but it wasn’t enough today.”

Frannie Hottinger had 24 points and 13 rebounds for the visitors. Mackenzie Kramer scored 19 points.

Colgate (7-6, 1-1) outscored the Mountain Hawks 19-8 to win the game.

Alex Brodie had 13 points for the home team, while Morgan McMahon scored 10.

On Thursday at 6 p.m. in Stabler Arena in Bethlehem, Pa., Lehigh will host Bucknell, which lost 68-47 at league favorite Boston U. Monday night.

In the game at Army (3-9, 1-1 Patriot), the Knights outscored the Leopards (3-9, 0-2)  in each of the first three period, including 21-8 in the second, while playing to a 21-21 tie in the fourth.

Army’s Sabrina Hunter had 20 points and 17 rebounds, while Reese Ericson scored 16.

Jessica Booth had 18 points, while Makayla Andrews scored 14 for Lafayette, which will host Boston U. Thursday night at 7 at the Kirby Sports Center in Easton, Pa.

Nationally noted: On a day South Carolina and Stanford maintained their 1-2 act in the AP Poll, each picked up conference wins later.

South Carolina in the Southeastern Conference won 68-51 over host Georgia to stay unbeaten while in the PAC-12 Stanford, whose only loss was in overtime at home to South Carolina, beat No. 15 Arizona 73-57 as Stanford Hall of Fame coach Tara VanDerveer raised her Division I all time record wins to 1,172. 

Haley Jones had 18 points for the Cardinal (15-1, 3-0 PAC-12), also 16 rebounds, and five assists. Francesca Belibi had 14 points and 10 rebounds.

“I recruit every player for their offense, njot their defense, but our defense was what was really great,” VanDerveer said. “Our team was locked in on the scouting report.”

Stanford has won 10 straight since its overtime loss at home to South Carolina.

Jade Loville scored 12 for visiting Arizona (12-2, 2-1).

“Just our lack of executing was disappointing,” said Arizona coach Adia Barnes.

  Stanford next finishes with the two-game conference series Sunday when the Cardinal visits California in Berkeley at 7 p.m. at Haas Pavilion.

In a game between the top two ASUN conference picks, favored Florida Gulf Coast at home beat Liberty 70-53.

South Carolina’s win saw Zia Cooke score a career-high 31 points as the Gamecocks (14-0, 2-0 SEC) shook off a first half Georgia (11-5, 0-2 SEC) attack.

Looking Ahead: Things get a little lite in terms of games the next several nights — Tuesday Temple is at South Florida, the American Athletic Conference favorite, playing in Tampa at 5 p.m. on ESPNU, and Penn State has a Big Ten visit to Michigan at 1 p.m. in Ann Arbor. 

On Wednesday, Saint Joseph’s has a road visit in the Atlantic 10, visiting George Washington at 6 p.m. on ESPN+ while Villanova hosts Georgetown in the Big East at 7 p.m. in Finneran Pavilion on Flohoops.

On Thursday besides the two Patriot League games, Rider hosts Iona at 7 p.m. in the MAAC at Alumni Gym on ESPN+ and as mentioned La Salle is at Davidson at 11 a.m.

And that’s the report.