The Guru Report: Penn Gets Revenge on Yale While Princeton First to Clinch Ivy Madness Slot; No. 15 UConn Tops Georgetown As Bueckers Adds Return Next Season

B Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

 

Playing teams on the road in reverse order from earlier this month in The Palestra at Penn and in Jadwin Gym at Princeton the earlier hosts repeated their first night triumphs Friday in the Ivy League, Penn took revenge from a loss to Yale winning 66-52 in New Haven, Conn., while Princeton won at Brown 74-62 in Providence, RI.

 

But while the Quakers (12-10, 4-5) moved into a tie with Brown (13-9, 4-5) for the fourth and final spot ahead of Yale (6-16, 3-6) for next month’s Ivy Madness at Columbia in New York City, the weekend will not be a complete success unless Penn wins at Brown Saturday at 5 p.m. (ESPN+).

 

That would mean a sweep of the series and an important tie-break if needed.

 

No. 25 Princeton (19-3, 9-0) has its own motivation to beat Yale Saturday at 5 p.m. (ESPN+) after staying one game ahead of Columbia (17-5, 8-1), which beat host Dartmouth 80-56 in Hanover, N.H.

 

The Lions go to Harvard (14-8, 7-2) Sunday at 2 p.m. in Lavietes Pavilion in Cambridge, Mass., looking to open a two-game lead on the Crimson in second place, though the two would meet again either way in a 2-3 semifinals match.

 

That happened last year in the tourney at Princeton, and it became costly for Columbia by getting upset by Harvard and knocked out of an NCAA at-large bid that was likely to be theirs by getting to the title round.

 

Harvard continued to cause trouble until Princeton rallied for the NCAA automatic bid, though the Tigers had a better profile than Columbia had they failed.

 

The Lions, though, after getting over the disappointment, made a historic run for themselves and the league advancing to the championship of the WNIT losing at Kansas.

 

In Penn’s game Friday Jordan Obi had 19 points, helped by 9–13 from the line, while Stina Almqvist scored 18 off 9-18 from the field and freshman Mataya Gayle scored 14.

 

Brenna McDonald had 25 points and 12 rebounds for the Bulldogs and Grace Thybulle had 13 but Jenna Clark who was a force in the earlier meeting was 0-9 from the field and scoreless while dishing nine assists.

 

Yale was also 0-for-9 from deep.

 

Up at Brown the Bears were helping themselves most of the night by holding Princeton at bay until the Tigers broke free late in the game.

 

The win enabled Princeton to be the first to clinch a spot in Ivy Madness with reigning league player of the year Kaitlyn Chen scoring 17 points and grabbing a career-high ten rebounds in the game played in the Pizzitola Sports Center.

 

 Off the bench, Ashley Chea scored 12 while starter Chet Nweke had 11 points and nine boards as Princeton’s win streak reached 14 games.

 

Columbia in its game saw Abbey Hsu pass Camille Zimmerman and become the all-time men’s and women’s scorer at the university with 1,974 career points finishing with 17 points as did freshman teammate Riley Weiss. 

 

Kitty Henderson and Perri Page each scored 10 points.

 

Besides Penn and Princeton, the only other locally involved school playing Friday night was Drexel, which did not fare as well, losing 51-48 in overtime to preseason favorite Towson in a Colonial Athletic Association game in suburban Baltimore.

 

Chloe Hodges had a career-high 23 points, while grabbing 10 rebounds for the Australian’s first double double, while Jasmine Valentine scored 11 off the bench and Grace o’Neil also had 10 rebounds for the Dragons (10-12, 5-6), who fell into a seventh-place tie with Delaware (9-14, 6-6).

 

Drexel meets the Blue Hens (9-14, 5-6) Sunday at 2 p.m. in the Bob Carpenter Center in Newark looking for a season series 2-0 sweep.

 

Towson (14-9, 6-6) is a half-game ahead in sixth, while Stony Brook (20-3, 10-2) and North Carolina A&T (16-7, 10-2) are tied for first.

 

The Tigers’ Kylie Kornegay-Lucas had 17 points and 14 rebounds.

 

The National Scene: Paige Bueckers turned senior celebrated goodbye night into hello again at No.15 UConn (22-5, 14-0) following the Huskies’ 85-44 home victory over Georgetown (16-10, 6-9) in a Big East game in Storrs, telling the crowd in the Gampel Pavilion that she’ll return for a fifth season, foregoing the WNBA draft, where she’s projected as a lottery pick.

 

“I know everybody wants me to address the elephant in the room,” Bueckers said. “Unfortunately, this will not be my last senior night here at UConn.”

 

Graduate student Aubrey Griffin, who suffered an ACL in January, also said she will return.

 

The win brought Hall of Fame coach Geno Auriemma’s career total to 1202, tying him for second overall with retired Duke men’s coach Mike Krzyzewski.

 

Record holder Tara VanDerveer reached 1209 Friday night with No. 3 Stanford’s 84-49 victory in the Pac-12 at home against Bay rival Cal-Berkeley.

 

Aaliyah Edwards and Nika Muhl at UConn are also eligible to use the Covid-driven fifth year but have yet to announce a decision.

 

In the win over the Hoyas, Edwards had 26 points and 16 rebounds, while Bueckers scored 21 and deat eight assists while freshman reserve Ice Brady scored 10 off 5-5 from the field.

 

No. 20 Creighton visits Monday coming after beating St. John’s 71-51 in Queens Friday night, an outcome helpful to Villanova.

 

The Red Storm loss gave the Wildcats a full game lead in third place in the Big East and Villanova can increase it to 1.5 with a Saturday win (4 p.m., FloHoops) at home when Butler visits.

 

Pac-12 Mania: Friday night frenzy was back in force out west beginning with a wild finish with three lead changes in the final three seconds as No. 11 Oregon State at Corvallis beat No. 9 UCLA 79-77 for the Beavers’ sixth straight win to move into second place.

 

Talia von Oelhoffen nailed a 3-pointer before time expired finishing the second half with 18 of her 22 points for Oregon State (21-3, 10-3.

 

Timea Gardiner added a career-high 21 points.

 

Stanford transfer Lauren Betts had a career-high 24 points for UCLA (19-5, 8-5) and scored with 1.1 seconds left putting the Bruins in front 77-76.

 

A near-sellout crowd at Gill Coliseum watched the game.

 

“Who would ever count this team out now,” Oregon State coach Scott Rueck said. “Tonight was just pure fun. That's as good as it gets tonight.”

 

UCLA goes to Oregon Sunday, while No. 10 Southern Cal comes the same day from beating the Ducks 88-51 in Eugene as freshman sensation JuJu Watkins scored 33 points for the Trojans (19-4, 9-4).

 

Watkins with her 10^th 30-point game has tied the program record for a season set by the legendary Cheryl Miller

“I can't say enough about our young superstar,” coach Lindsay Gottlieb said. “She keeps getting better, she's coachable and she learns from the film.”

 

Harvard transfer McKenzie Forbes added twelve points for you SC. Columbia transfer Caitlin Davis had 10 points and 11 rebounds.

 

Oregon (11-15, 2-11) got 12 points from Chance Gray.

 

In Stanford’s win, KiKi Iriafen had 23 points and 11 boards, while Cameron Brink scored 11 with four blocked shots.

 

One day after being named a No. 1 seed in the first 16-team reveal from the NCAA committee in a game between Rocky Mountain rivals in the Pac-12, No. 8 Colorado was upset in a 77-76 road loss at No. 22 Utah in Salt Lake City as Dasia Young scored 13 points including a winning layup as time expired.

 

She had just returned after missing four games with a concussion.

 

“What a game for Daisha to come back. Safe to say, we need her,” Utah coach Lynne Roberts said. “She just brings an edge and toughness.”

 

Alissa Pili had 18 points for the Utes (19-7, 9-5). 

 

Jaylyn Sherrod scored 15 as did Frida Formann, including 10 in the fourth quarter for Colorado (20-5, 10-4).

 

Colorado is at Southern Cal Friday and Utah is at UCLA Thursday.

 

And that’s the report.