The Guru Report: Columbia Blasts Penn; Princeton Downs Cornell to Set Up Ivy Showdown; Drexel Tops Northeastern

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

NEW YORK —One showdown leads to the next and so it was Friday night in the Ivy League that revenge-minded Columbia blasted Penn at the outset on the way to a 72-50 win here in the Lions’ Levien Gym on the Upper West Side while reigning champion Princeton eventually controlled Cornell 63-52 upstate in Newman Arena in Ithaca setting up Saturday’s first place battle here at 4 p.m. on ESPN+ when the Tigers are the ones when arriving focused on a payback.

Another payback was delivered in the other game of importance when Harvard won at Yale 67-54 in Lee Ampitheater in New Haven, Conn.

Columbia (18-3, 7-1 IVY), which has developed in the newer kid on the block among the league’s elite since Megan Griffith returned to her alma mater seven seasons from serving as an aide under Courtney Banghart at the Princeton powerhouse, can claim a strong hand at finishing first for top seed in the four-team Ivy tourney, which will be held next month at the Tigers’ Jadwyn Gym.

Early last month, Columbia gained a thrilling overtime win at Jadwyn to end a 27-game losing streak to Princeton (15-5, 6-2) except the next night the revived Penn (13-8, 5-3) group from last season’s struggles, made a statement beating the Lions 71-67 in the Palestra ending the visitors’ program-record ten-game win streak.

A large crowd of 2,111 (except it even more, potentially sellout) added to the heat-dealing Lions who never looked back in this one.

“Extremely motivated,” grinned Jaida Patrick, who had 22 points, along with five assists and a pair of steals. “We don’t like to lose. Nobody likes to lose, especially this group as we’re a very competitive group.

“We knew we had to go out there and handle business. We’ve been calling it a revenge game all week and that’s that’s exactly what we treated it as and I think it reflected in our play.”

Kaitlyn Davis had a near triple-double with 16 points, 10 rebounds, and six assists, while Abbey Hsu scored 17, the bulk coming from connecting on five from deep. Paige Lauder and Hannah Pratt each joined Davis with 10 rebounds, part of an overall 50-35 advantage on the boards.

Columbia went 30-0 against the Quakers on fast-break points.

“That’s just how we play,” Patrick said of the lopsided statistic in the Lions’ favor. “We like to get out and we like to run, we like to find open layups or threes in transition.”

“Just looking up before the tip and seeing so many people here excited about what this program is doing. It’s really special to be home and have that atmosphere,” Griffin said of the turnout, whose numbers also drew compliments from Penn coach Mike McLaughlin on what the Columbia coach has built.

The Quakers’ Jordan Obi had 14 points and 11 rebounds, while Kayla Padilla scored 18, and Stina Almqvist had 10 points.

“I was happy with how we responded a month ago,” Griffith said, noting not just comparing the performances with Penn. “I don’t think we played all that great against Princeton. And we’ll be ready for tomorrow night. That win at Princeton was extremely necessary for us to start understanding it’s not David vs. Goliath anymore.”

“It was some of us and a lot of them,” McLaughlin said of the way it came down a week after his squad got similar rough treatment at Harvard a week ago.

Columbia has not had a weekend sweep of Penn and Princeton since 2008.

Late Friday night, the southern most schools in the Ivies were the proverbial ships on the New York Thruway, passing each other as Penn made its way to Cornell for a 4 p.m. game that is a must win, also on ESPN+.

The Big Red (9-12, 2-6) threatened to be a spoiler for Princeton, hanging tough until the Tigers broke away near the end of the first half.

Madison St. Rose, the reigning United States Basketball Writers Association’s (USBWA) national freshman of the week, had 18 points for the Tigers, while Kaitlyn Chen scored 15, dealt six assists, and Julie Cunningham had 12 points and five assists.

Princeton coach, a former UConn star, reached her 450th win, a 384-96 (.800) record at Tufts in her 17 seasons, and 66-11 with the Tigers (.857).

In the five-for-four playoff hunt, Harvard (13-7, 6-2) put Yale (10-11, 4-4) in position of being the odd team out, though still very much alive right now, gaining revenge for the upset loss delivered by the Bulldogs in their last meeting.

Lola Mullaney for the winning Crimson passed the 1,000-point career milestone, the 22nd in program history, and of her now 1005 total, 573 were delivered from beyond the arc. She scored 15 against the Bulldogs, exceeded by Elena Rodriguez, who scored 19 and collected nine rebounds, while McKenzie Forbes scored 11.

Harvard on Saturday will be at Brown in Providence, R.I., tipping off at 5 p.m. on ESPN+.

Drexel Wins at Northeastern: The Dragons parted with a two-game road losing streak in beating the Huskies 67-56 in Boston as Keishana Washington kept rolling with 29 points, 55-straight game scoring 10 or more points, and 16 on the season scoring 20 or more.

Hetta Saatman and Grace O’Neill each scored 10 for Drexel (16-5, 8-2 CAA) in the Colonial Athletic Association game at the Cabot Center.

Northeastern (10-10, 5-4) collected 13 points from Derin Erdogan, Jaelyn Batts scored 12, and JaMiya Braxton scored 10.

The Dragons completed the weekend road swing Sunday on Long Island, playing new member Stony Brook at Island Federal Arena at 1 p.m. on Flohoops.

Delaware Edged by Towson: Nearly a year after the Tigers suffered a heartbreaking lost at the finish to Delaware in the CAA finals at Drexel, they have now completed a season-series sweep of the Blue Hens, this one to complete the job a 67-65 win at home in SECU Arena in suburban Baltimore, which will be the host site next month of the conference tourney.

The coach of Towson (13-8, 7-3 CAA) is no longer Diane Richardson, who took the Temple job in the offseason, succeeded by former Cheltenham and Maryland star Laura Harper.

Towson led the Blue Hens (11-9, 4-5) by double digits early in the game but Delaware fought back with Jewel Smalls canning a three-ball to tie it at 65-65 only to see Kylie Kornegay-Lucas get to the line at the end and score two fouls shots to hand the win to the home team.

Smalls had 15 points and seven rebounds for the Hens, while Klarke Sconiers scored 13,  Nakiyah Mays-Prince scored 12, and Makayla Pippin scored nine points.

Towson’s Kylie Kornegay-Lucas scored 17 with nine rebounds, Alexia Nelson scored 11, and Quinzia Fulmore scored 10 with 11 rebounds.

Delaware hosts Northeastern Sunday at 2 p.m. on Flohoops at the Bob Carpenter Center in Newark.

Nationally noted: An upset, a near-upset, and business as usually usual was the log on the three ranked teams playing Friday night in the Pac-12 out West.

The upset was a 71-66 rally completed in overtime for No. 11 Arizona at No. 14 UCLA at Pauley Pavilion in Los Angeles.

Shaina Pellington keyed an 11-0 run for the Wildcats (17-5, 7-4 PAC-12) to tie it in the fourth quarter and then added six of the 10 in the extra period to win the game.

UCLA (17-6, 6-5) went long-ball on a night the Bruins struggled overall to be in control for three quarters. The tie near the end of regulation occurred when Pellington made a pass to Lauren Fields, who had been scoreless, and she drilled a three to tie it at 61-61 and send the game into the extra period when neither team could end it in regulation.

Arizona stayed closely ahead and held a one-point lead before Madison Conner and Pellington each hit a pair of free throws to seal the win.

Pellington had 21 points, while Esmery Martinez had 17 points and 13 rebounds, Cate Reese scored nine, and Jade Loville scored 13.

Five from deep off the bench fueled the 20 points for UCLA’s Londynn Jones, while Emily Besoire and Kiki Rice each scored 14,

In the near-upset, also an overtime affair, saw No. 7 Utah win narrowly 75-73 at Oregon State in Corvallis as Southern Cal transfer Alissa Pili score 23 points for the Utes (19-2, 9-2 PAC-12).

The game ended dramatically as the host Beavers’ Timea Gardiner went to the line, the team trailing by three with 0.4 seconds left in the extra period. She missed the first, made, the second, on purpose missed the third but Oregon State failed to grab the offensive rebound.

Gianna Kneepkens had 15 of her 17 points for Utah in the second half, the team now matching their best 21-game start in history.

Oregon State (11-11, 2-8) got 17 points from Talia von Oelhoffen.

Kneepkens noted, “We kind of lost focus in the second half, but a big part of winning games is finding ways at the end of games to make plays. We kind of just need to focus on that.

Before getting to the near-tie the Beavers in the second quarter trailed by 18 points in the second quarter.

The home team used a 12-2 run at the finish in regulation to force the extra period.

As for business as mostly usual, No. 2 Stanford made it as always usual to date concerning Washington in a 71-38 on the road in Pullman that made the series record 72-0, tops against a sole opponent in collegiate basketball history.

Cameron Brink’s two blocks moved her within four of tying the program, while she has rejected at least one shot in 35 straight games.

Haley Jones scored 13 and grabbed nine rebounds, while Brink had 10 points and eight rebounds for the Cardinal (22-2, 10-1 PAC-12). 

“They have a great team, they’re very talented and we had to play really hard,” said Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer, who increased her Division I all-time women’s win record to 1,179. “The last time we played them was really close and so we had to bring it, and we did.”

In second place, is UConn coach Geno Auriemma, who was idle Friday night at 1,170. His Huskies host No. 1 and unbeaten South Carolina, the reigning NCAA Champions, on Sunday in Hartford.

Charlisse Leger-Walker had eight points and six rebounds for Washington State (15-7, 5-6). Bella Murekatete scored seven.

“You’re just not going to beat Stanford without scoring a lot,” said Cougars coach Kamie Ethridge. “We talked a lot about getting to 70. Obviously, we were a long way from 70 tonight.”

Looking Ahead: For games not already mentioned for Saturday’s lineup, in the city, A-10 reigning champion Massachusetts visits La Salle at 2 p.m. at Tom Gola Arena on ESPN+, 

Temple, with its eight-player roster, goes for four straight playing at Houston at 3 p.m. on ESPN+ while loking fore a sweep in its in the next chapter of its developed win streak Lafayette heads to Lehigh in Stabler Arena in Easton, Pa., for part two of The Rivalry in the Patriot League at 4 p.m. on ESPN+.

No. 19 Villanova heads to Butler in Indiananapolis at  Hinkle Fieldhouse in the Big East for a game at 2 p.m. on Flohoops.

Rider is at Fairfield in Connecticut at 2 p.m. on ESPN3 in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC).

On Sunday in games not mentioned the two Big Ten locals play, Rutgers hosts Wisconsin at 2 p.m. at Jersey Mike’s Arena in Piscataway, N.J., at on B1G+ while Penn State hosts No. 6 Iowa at noon in the Bryce Jordan Center in State College on B1G.

And that’s the report.