The Guru Report: Penn Returns to Form Routing Yale

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

PHILADELPHIA — Led by the inside-outside attack of Jordan Obi and Kayla Padilla, Penn shook off Monday’s beating by Princeton returning to The Palestra Saturday afternoon and widening its lead over Yale in the third period to win 79-57 and reduce the three-team lead in the Ivy League to the Quakers and Columbia.

The triumph set a record of 11 straight wins at home — one more than the run of 10 in 2000-2001 — and by seed the Quakers (13-6, 5-1 Ivy) would be first off their recent win here over the Lions.

But it’s still early and the league is deep this season with this Saturday’s trip to Harvard the next challenge.

However, if one wanted to find the main culprit last season in Penn not making the the Ivy tourney for the first time in its then-four year history, excluding the Covid-19 cancellations, that would be an improved Bulldogs squad.

“There was an emphasis that this is a must win for us,” said Padilla, who shot 9-for-12 for 21 points. “They got us both games last season and we recognize each game is important, especially with teams that are fighting for those four spots in the tournament.”

This year’s fight for the NCAA automatic bid will be at Princeton, which has dominated the league until starting 0-2 this season losing to Harvard and Columbia.

The Tigers, however, have since righted the ship.

“We wanted to send a statement that one loss isn’t going to get us,” Padilla said.

Jordan Obio had 20 points and seven rebounds for Penn and Floor Toondors grabbed ten rebounds.

Yale (10-9, 4-2) got a career-best 21 points from its star guard Jenna Clark but everyone else was basically shut down.

“I think our offensive execution was really on point,” Padilla noted. “Everyone was looking to score. And a shout out to Sydney (Caldwell) who was a really spark for us on both sides of the floor, especially for her aggression to attack the basket in this game.”

Caldwell off the bench added 16 points to the Quakers attack.

Toonders drew praise among overall pleasure from Quakers coach Mike McLaughlin.

“She is perfect for this group,” he said. “She defends well. She takes up areas of the floor that needs to be covered especially around the rim. She rebounds the ball.  She can score when the opportunities are there. She is a perfect fit for us.”

Penn owned the board 39-22.

“You get knocked down, you got to get up in this sport,” McLaughlin said of the week’s turnaround.

“I thought we really responded this week and got better. I thought it was a great effort.” 

Yale is under first-year coach Dalila Eshe, a former La Salle and Princeton assistant, while her top assistant is former Quinnipiac star Sam Guastella, who was with former Temple coach Tonya Cardoza the previous two seasons, and with Mountain MacGillivray at La Salle before that.

While the Quakers were doing well here, up at  the furtherest geographical north of the conference, Princeton was being challenged by Dartmouth in a close game at Ledee Arena in Hanover, N.H., until the Tigers broke it open in the third period and went on to a 79-59 victory.

Princeton ( 13-5, 4-2 Ivy), which hosts Yale Saturday, shot 60 percent in the second half to subdue the Big Green (2-18, 0-6) in winning its fourth straight.

Madison St. Rose, who’s had big games recently, including last week’s win over Penn, had 15 points for the Tigers, while Paige Morton had 11 points and Parker Hill scored 10 in a combo 10-of-10 from the field. Kaitlyn Chen had 13 points, eight rebounds, three assists and a pair of steals, while Julia Cunningham had 11 points and Ellie Mitchell had eight boards and three steals.

Up in New York on Broadway on the Upper West Side, Columbia had little difficulty staying hooked with Penn by routing Brown 94-74 at Schiller Court at Levien Gymnasium,

Abbey Hsu had 26 points, shooting 7-of-11 for the Lions (16-3, 5-1 Ivy), with six rebounds, three assists, and two steals. Kaitlyn Davis scored 17, Hannah Pratt had 11, Kitty Henderson scored 10, and Siena Durr scored 10.

Columbia dominated Brown (8-10, 1-5) on the boards 49-26, of which 21 on the offensive end led to a 26-7 advantage on second chance points.

The closest game among the Ivy leaders saw Harvard win at Cornell 66-53 in Newman Arena in Ithaca, N.Y.

Lola Mullaney had 19 points for the visiting Crimson (11-7, 4-2 Ivy), while Elena Rodriguez had 17 points and 10 rebounds, and Harmoni Turner had 15 points, eight rebounds, and seven assists.

Lafayette Rallies Past Lehigh: Not the way Patriot League observers thought it would go, based on the seasons of the two to date, in their first of two meetings and 104th of The Rivalry at the host Leopards’ Kirby Sports Arena in Easton, Pa.

It did start that way, however, Lehigh jumping to a 24-13 lead at the end of the first quarter before the Leopards exploded with a 22-8 attack the next for a 35-32 lead at the half.

Then back to the Mountain Hawks to regain the high ground 47-43 heading into the final period.

A 14-8 run from the Leopards at the outset made it 59-54 with 1:40 left in regulations.

Lehigh wouldn’t quit, Ella Stemmer fired a three and the visitors were within a point with 59-58 and 37 seconds remaining.

The home team ran the shot clock down and a pass from Abby Antognoli to Halee Smith made it a three-point advantage with ten seconds but Frannie Hottinger scored and back to a one-point differential with seven seconds left.

The benefit of Lehigh having to send someone to the line, Makayla Andrews sank both shots and then the Leopards forced a turnover and walked away with a 63-60 victory.

Andrews finished with 21 points and eight rebounds for Lafayette  (6-12, 3-5 Patriot) while Hottinger had a double-double of 21 points and 14 rebounds for Lehigh (9-10, 5-3) with Jamie Behar scoring 13 points.

On Wednesday the Mountain Hawks will host Holy Cross at Stabler Arena at 6 p.m. in Bethlehem, Pa., on ESPN+ while Lafayette heads to Loyola, Md., in suburban Baltimore at 7 p.m., also on ESPN+.

Rider Edged by Fairfield in Double Overtime: The visiting Stags had suffered some tough, narrow losses, recently in Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) play but the after the host Broncs had erased a 13-point deficit, they ended up at the wrong end of a double overtime thriller, losing 64-61 at Alumni Gym in Lawrenceville, N.J.

Mikayla Firebaugh connected with a three-ball with 46 seconds left in regulation for Rider, creating a tie, but a potential game-winner at the finish didn’t drop sending the game into its first extra session.

Taking a 6-0 lead in what became an 11-0 run back into regulation in the first five-minute addition, the Stags (10-8, 6-3 MAAC) countered with a pair of deep shots, the second of which caused another tie with 15 seconds remaining.

It went back-and-forth in the second extra sessions until another deadlock occurred at 61-61 with just over a minute to play.

Fairfield’s Janelle Brown put the Stags up two on the Broncs (5-14, 2-8), who were unable to have the last word. That went to the Stags, Brown going 1-for-2 at the line, and then forcing a Rider turnover on what became its final possession.

“A gut-wrenching loss from a really good game on both sides,” said Rider coach Lynn Milligan. “Fairfield got the last look, but I’m really proud of our team and the way we bounced back. We were looking for a response after the Iona game, and I think we got that.

“We just haven’t gotten a lot of breaks this year for one reason or the other, but that’s not going to deter our mission. It’s not going to deter what we do on a daily basis. Everyone in that locker room is upset that we lost, but nobody in that locker room is wavering or questioning anything that we do.,” she continued.

“I didn’t feel a dip in our aggression. I didn’t feel a dip in our belief and doing what we were doing in that game. I looked at everyone’s eyes and I felt like they felt we were going to win the game.”

Firebaugh scored 20 for Rider, while Raphaela Toussaint had a double-double 10 points and 10 rebounds.

Brown had a double-double 19 points and 11 rebounds for Fairfield, while Callie Cavanaugh had 17 points and eight rebounds, and Izabela Nicoletti-Leite had a double-double 14 points and 10 rebounds, while making four from deep.

The Broncs next play at Siena in suburban Albany, N.Y., Thursday at 7 p.m. on ESPN+.

Temple Falls at Memphis: Having beaten the Tigers back on Dec. 30 in an American Athletic Conference opener, the tables were turned on the Owls in Tennessee, losing 64-53.

Caranda Perea had a career-high eight rebounds for Temple (7-11, 2-4 AAC), which still has time to turn it around despite three straight losses. 

Aleah Nelson had 16 points, while Tarriyonna Gary had 11 against the Tigers (11-8, 3-3).

The squad stays on the road going to Tulane at 7 p.m. in New Orleans on ESPN+.

Nationally noted: No. 5 UConn continues to be shorthanded everywhere but the final score. Down to seven healthy players again, with Azzi Fudd sidelined with a re-injured knee, the Huskies fell behind Butler early by nine points in a Big East game in Gampel Pavilion on the Storrs campus but when it was over they had another romp, this one 79-39.

Aaliyah Edwards scored 20, Aubrey Griffin and Fairfield transfer Lou Lopez Senechal each scored 17 points. Dorka Juhasz, the Ohio State transfer, scored 14 points.

UConn (17-2, 10-0 Big East) has won 10 straight, though ahead is Monday’s re-scheduled visit in the Big East from DePaul, postponed when the Huskies were under the conference minimum seven healthy eligible scholarship players; a Thursday trip to Tennessee, still unranked but on a winning streak in the Southeastern Conference, and then back home in Hartford, Sunday, hosting No. 22 Villanova at the XL Center, 2 p.m.

Another record looms from Villanova senior Maddy Siegrist, now the all-time men’s and women’s scorer in the program, being two points short in breaking the Big Five career record over two decades old from Penn’s Diana Caramanico.

Butler (7-13, 2-9) got seven each from Jessica Carrothers and Sydney Janes.

Middle Tennessee continued to make its case to get back into the Associated Press women’s poll after a long absence, finishing Louisiana Tech with a 31-12  on the way to 68-50 victory at the Murphy Center in Murfresboro to stay unbeaten in Conference-USA.

The visiting Lady Techsters (11-8, 4-5 C-USA) had a 38-37 lead after three quarters before MTSU (16-2, 9-0) took over the rest of the way.

Savannah Wheeler had a season-high 29 points for the home team, shooting 9-of-13 from the field and 4-of-5  from deep. Anastasia Boldyreva had 18 points and eight rebounds with four blocks.

MTSU have the fourth longest win streak in the country with 14 games and are 17 in the NET.

Looking Ahead: Saint Joseph’s keeps going deeper in Atlantic 10 waters, having lost two straight narrow outcomes at reigning conference champion UMass and locally to La Salle with Fordham visiting Hagan Arena Sunday at 2 p.m. on ESPN+.

Incidentally, veteran Hawks coach Cindy Griffin for reaching her 400th win this season at her alma mater will be honored Monday night at the annual Philadelphia Sportswriters Association awards banquet 5 p.m. at the Doubletree at Hilton on Route 70 in Cherry Hill, N.J. Tickets are still available and can be purchased at the website.

La Salle is on a three-game win streak in the A-10 and visits Loyola Chicago at 3 p.m. on ESPN+.

Meanwhile, Drexel, having been off a week since suffering its first loss in the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) at William & Mary, will visit Towson, the site of this year’s tournament, at 2 p.m. on Flohoops.

The two locals in the Big Ten are on the docket, Rutgers hosting Michigan State at 3 p.m. in Jersey Mikes Arena in Piscataway, N.J., on the subscription B1G+, while at 5 p.m., Penn State hosts Wisconsin on the B!G network in the Bryce Jordan Center in State College.

Nationally, Texas, clinging to the No. 25 it is ranked returning to the poll last week, visits Baylor, kicked out ending the second longest appearance streak in a Big 12 game at 5 p.m. on ESPN2.

NC State, which has slid way down from its Top five status, is at Louisville, unranked but a Top 10 team in the preseason, 1 p.m. on the ACCN.

Stanford at 4 p.m. on the conference network is hosting Colorado in a battle for first among ranked in the PAC-12.

On Monday in two Big Ten battles featuring ranked teams, Iowa is at Ohio State, one of three remaining unbeaten teams along with the SEC duo of reigning NCAA champion South Carolina, which hosts Arkansas at 3 p.m. on Sunday, on ESPN2, and LSU, which at 7 p.m. Monday is at Alabama on SECN.

The other Big Ten game on the B!G network, at 8 p.m. Indiana visits Michigan.

And that’s the report.