The Guru Report: Penn Routs Dartmouth; faces Harvard; Princeton Wins; Saint Joseph’s Targets host Duquesne and A-10 Two-Seed; Last-Ever Regular Season Day For Pac-12

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

PHILADELPHIA — The crowd that came to The Palestra Friday night for a Penn women’s/men’s doubleheader was treated to a glory years throwback performance in the opener from the Quakers women – a crushing 79-41 victory over Dartmouth that enabled them to take sole possession of fourth place in the Ivy Standings thanks in part to Columbia turning aside Brown 77-62 in Providence, R.I.

Columbia (20-5, 11-1), one of three teams along with Princeton (21-4, 11-1), and Harvard (15-10, 8-4) already assured berths in the four-team Ivy Madness field the Lions will host in two weeks to contend for an NCAA automatic bid, had its own motivation for a road win over the Bears (14-11, 5-7).

Following the narrow two-point upset of then-No. 25 Princeton at home last weekend enable Columbia for the second straight season to tie the Tigers at the top of the standings.

Princeton kept pace beating Harvard 60-49 at home in Jadwin Gym and, in what was a close game most of the night, perhaps left the Crimson’s shield vulnerable to lead to a Quakers upset (4 p.m., ESPN+) Saturday night in part two of the back-to-back weekend schedule here in the Cathedral of Basketball.

In a 24-hour swing Penn will go from making good on its superiority of the Big Green (7-17, 1-11) to an underdog role needing an upset to stay ahead of Brown and grab a win of immense value should the Quakers and Brown, who split their series, finish in a deadlock for the final spot.

The field for the Ivy tourney would already be set and Penn in fine shape to be in one of three postseason tourneys had the Quakers not melted away a finish here that resulted in an overtime loss to Yale or suffer a similar collapse that became a buzzer-beating loss at Brown. 

However, still alive, coach McLaughlin’s squad tune up well Friday on Dartmouth to ready for Harvard.

Stina Almqvist scored 21 points, and freshman Mataya Gayle, a frontrunner for individual Ivy and Big Five rookie honors, scored 18.

“This group is determined, they know what we have to do this weekend, we have to win both games,” McLaughlin said. “We took it as a coaching point, one at a time type, but they were really dialed in this week at practice.

 

“We haven't had that direct conversation about who we've got to beat... We just have to win basketball games, and tonight was absolutely necessary to have another conversation about another game. We haven't had a dialogue about what that looks like, other than we need to have success on this court this weekend.”

The first tie-break is by the boards since Penn, who still has a game at Princeton, and Brown, who still has to play Yale, split on the season.

A win of Harvard would advantage Penn on a better win but an absolute deadlock likely goes to the Bears with a better .Net, though games with Harvard and Princeton could propel the Quakers over the Bears.

“We know, we know what each game means, in terms of making the tournament or not,” said Jordan Obi, one of several Quakers who will be celebrated Saturday on senior night. “We're just trying to take one game at a time and just lock in on each moment, each possession. What happens, happens, I guess.

The rout enabled Penn to store a lot of rest for Harvard, which was in a close battle all night at Princeton.

“That's super important,” Obi said. “Just for rest’s sake, making sure that we're all mentally, physically, emotionally kicked in to what we need to do tomorrow.

“I'm thinking about it, like forget Brown, forget everybody else,” she explained. “Just lock in on Harvard, if we win against Harvard, we know what that means.”

In the Princeton game, bouncing back from a loss that bounced the Tigers from a month’s residency in the Associated Press weekly women’s national rankings, reigning Ivy player of the year Kaitlyn Chen and Chet Nweke each scored 13 points, Madison St. Rose scored 12, and Ellie Mitchell grabbed nine rebounds.

Harvard’s Harmoni Turner scored 20 with eight boards, and Lola Mullaney scored 12.

In the Columbia game, Abbey Hsu had 28 points and 10 boards for the Lions, now with three straight 20-win seasons and none previously in the first 35 as a Division I program. 

“Tonight wasn't the prettiest offensive game but I'm proud of our team to string together the stops that we needed,” said King of Prussia's Megan Griffith, who turned around her alma mater after spending a long stint as a Princeton assistant. “I thought rebounding was huge and that's just a toughness thing. That's a mindset.”

Cececilia Collins had 17 points and ten boards for Columbia.

 

The Lions move down the road to Yale in New Haven, Conn., Saturday, while Princeton hosts Dartmouth.

Drexel Succumbs to Stony Brook: A few blocks away from here it was a tough night in the neighborhood for Drexel, which lost a lead on Coastal Athletic Association leader Stony Brook 60-58, while down at Delaware, the only other local in action, the Blue Hens of the CAA fell 66-65 to visiting Campbell in the Bob Carpenter Center in Newark.

At Drexel (12-14, 7-8), now alone in eighth a game ahead of Delaware (10-17, 6-9), the Dragons led 29-19 at the half inside the Daskalakis Athletic Center before being outscored 41-29 by Stony Brook (22-3, 13-2) the rest of the way.

Drexel’s Amaris Baker scored 21 points with five boards while Jasmine Valentine had 11 points and four boards. 

Sherese Pittman had 22 points and eight boards for the Seawolves, while reserves Victoria Keenan scored 11 and Sharmala King scored 10, respectfully.

Both teams struggled to score in the fourth quarter.

Stony Brook took the lead for good on two foul shots by Khari Clark with 25 seconds left in regulation. 

Then Baker turned it over for the Dragons, King made 1-2 at the line with seven seconds left and Baker couldn’t connect with an attempted 3-point game winner as time expired.

On Sunday, Drexel hosts Campbell at 2 p.m. on FloHoops while Delaware at 1 p.m. on FloHoops hosts Elon.

The Camels (15-11, 8-7), come to Drexel off their win at Delaware on Gemma Nunez’s three-pointer with a 4:41 left and then they went scoreless the rest of the way.

A turnover with 16 seconds left on a Nakiyah Mays-Prince steal got the home team in position but Rebecca Demeke’s attempted game-winner as time expired failed to connect.

Chloe Wilson scored 22 for Delaware, while Ande’A Cherisier scored 11 and Grace Sundback scored 10.

If the CAA tourney, in Washington in a few weeks, started today, Drexel and Delaware would meet each other in the second round after a bye, the winner than facing the No. 1 seed at noon on that Friday to open quarterfinals action.

Saint Joseph’s Aims for No. 2 Seed: After Wednesday’s upset loss at home to Fordham, the Hawks on Saturday finish their Atlantic Ten slate in Pittsburgh at Duquesne| (2 p.m., ESPN+) looking to sweep the series.

Currently in a three-way second place tie with George Mason and VCU, who play each other at 1 p.m. at VCU, a Hawks and Mason win gives Saint Joseph’s the two seed for next  week’s tourney in suburban Richmond.

As the games play through on Saturday, your Guru will provide scenarios as they near completion.

Davidson on Friday announced the end of its season due to a shortened roster.

That means at the moment a forfeit of Saturday’s game with Saint Louis and then forfeiting from whatever position the Wildcats are in the final standings a forfeit of their tourney opener.

La Salle’s Atlantic 10 schedule concludes at Fordham at 2 p.m. on ESPN+.

The National Scene – Pac-12 Pandemonia: Saturday will contain the last regular season games of the Pac-12, whose members are realigning in the summer at different places.

Though No.4 Stanford has clinched the top seed for next week’s tournament much needs to be determined.

Stanford, which is heading for the ACC with California, is at Big Ten-bound Oregon at 5 p.m; No. 7 Southern Cal, headed for the Big Ten, is at Big 12-bound Arizona State at 2 p.m.

 likewise, No.  8 UCLA, bound for the Big Ten, is at Big 12-bound Arizona at 8 p.m.; the same destination pairing for Washington at No. 18 Utah at 2 p.m.

 Washington State, whose women will play in the WCC, is at No. 13 Colorado, another Big 12 destinee member, at 3 p.m. and ACC-bound California is at No. 11 Oregon State, whse women are the other future WCC participants, play at 3 p.m.

Locally, Saturday in the Patriot League, Lehigh hosts Colgate at 4:30 p.m. at Stabler Arena in Bethlehem, Pa.; and Lafayette hosts Bucknell at 2 p.m. in the Kirby Sports Arena in Easton, Pa., both on ESPN+., while in a MAAC game, Rider is at Canisius at 1 p.m. on ESPN+.

In the Big East, No. 10 Connecticut will try to complete another perfect conference run, visiting Providence at 7 p.m.

The Sunday events will be in the next report, but locally, Villanova finishes in the Big East hosting DePaul at 5 p.m., while in the Big Ten, Rutgers hosts Northwestern at 2 p.m., while Penn State hosts Minnesota at 1 p.m.

And that’s the report.