The Guru NCAAW Report: Penn Rallies Over Yale While Princeton, Columbia, and Harvard Romp in the Ivies; Foul Shots With 0.5 Left in Overtime Give Drexel 2nd in CAA

PHILADELPHIA – With the Eagles blasting Kansas City in the Super Bowl setting off Friday’s Valentine’s victory love fest celebration parade in center city the women of Penn here in The Palestra and Drexel up the street in the Daskalakis Athletic Center decide to restore old fashion nail-biting drama to their respective competitions later at night before emerging winners.

Earlier upset losses to Dartmouth and Brown added to four wipeouts from the frontrunners of Columbia, Princeton, and Harvard put the Quakers in a two-game hole to claim the fourth and final spot in the annual Ivy Madness tournament next month at Brown in Providence, R.I.

But life still existed coming into weekend because Yale and Brown coming through here and at Princeton offered the opportunity to close the gap for the moment with a start against the easier of the two in Yale and the help expected from the Ancient Eight.

Except it wasn’t that easy at this end for most of the way while scoreboard watching indicated everyone else was doing their job from the Penn viewpoint.

Ultimately, keyed by freshman Katie Collins and sophomore Mataya Gayle the Quakers exploded in the fourth quarter 27-13 to claim a 71-59 triumph.

“We didn’t have a good second quarter,” said Penn coach Mike McLaughlin of the 18-11 yield to the Bulldogs (2-20, 1-8). “Our pace, the way we played it’s not how we’re going to succeed.

“I thought our pace in the fourth quarter from right out of the gate was really good.”

Collins, who has been a strong multi-winner this season in the weekly Ivy awards, had a career-high 21 points and completed a double-double with 10 rebounds.

Gayle, with a performance harkening back to last season when she was the Ivy’s top newcomer scored a game-high 26 for Penn (12-10, 3-6) with 3-4 makes from deep and 7-8 from the line while dealing six assists with three steals.

Senior Stina Almqvist scored 16 points.

Yale’s Mackenzie Egger scored 22 with 11 boards while Grace Thybulle scored 11 points.

Meanwhile, multi-defending champion Princeton (17-5, 8-1) trailing first place Columbia by a game joined the Lions with official clinching spots while helping out the Tigers’ travel partner here beat Brown 78-67, propelled by a 33-10 first quarter in Jadwin Gym to provide a cushion from the 41-29 second half from the Bears (10-12, 4-5).

Ashley Chea had a game-high 19 points for Princeton, while Fadima Tall had 10 points and nine boards, and Skye Belker scored 14.

Brown’s Olivia Young scored 13, all but one point coming from 4-8 from beyond the arc, while Mady Calhoun and Isabella Mauricio each scored 10 points.

Columbia (18-4, 9-0) stayed perfect and made an official tourney claim holding the number one seed at the moment with an 89-37 thumping of Dartmouth (8-14, 2-7) at home in Levien Gym off Broadway on New York City’s Upper West Side.

Matching a program-record 11-game win streak, the Lions put the D in rebound domination with 60, including 34 on the offensive glass, leading to a 36-6 advantage on second-chance points.

Susie Rafiu grabbed 16 to go with her 12 points while Cecelia Collins collected a game-high 20 points,.

Columbia tied a program record for fewest points yielded to a Division I opponent, the other also against Dartmouth.

Harvard (18-3, 7-2), two games off the pace with a buzzer-beater loss at Princeton and home loss to Columbia, won easily at Cornell 66-29 at Newman Arena in Ithaca, N.Y. as Harmoni Turner scored 21 points and Elena Rodriguez scored 18 against the Big Red (6-16, 2-7).

Six of the eight Ivy teams complete a back-to-back Saturday with Penn going for a fourth-place tie hosting Brown at 4 p.m.

McLaughlin is not trying to put too much pressure on his team but acknowledged, “they all have the calculators, they know this is pretty big,” he said.

If Penn and Brown tie, the first breaker would be out the window off a split. Unless either beats one of the top three – Penn upset Harvard to get in the field last year – or separation comes against a common opponent below, the .Net would determine the fourth spot and Penn has a 170 to 183 advantage right now.

Princeton will host Yale at 5 p.m. Saturday and Dartmouth will be at Cornell, all games on ESPN+.

Harvard is at Columbia at noon Sunday on ESPNU for a major showdown.

Drexel Wins at Line at the End and Delaware Takes 4th Straight in CAA

In a tight game that went back and forth the Dragons (13-9, 9-3) claimed sole possession of second place in the Coastal Athletic Association when Chloe Hodges made three foul shots with 0.5 seconds left in overtime for a 59-58 win over William & Mary (10-12, 7-4).

The triumph moved Drexel a game behind North Carolina A&T, neither playing Sunday.

On Friday, the Dragons will be at Campbell while North Carolina A&T is at William & Mary.

With time running out, Hodges launched a desperation shot beyond the arc and got fouled.

Cara McCormick scored 20 points for the home team shooting 6-12 from the field and 5-5 from the line. Amaris Baker, who leads the conference, scored 15 points.

Hodges had nine points, nine boards, and eight assists, while Deja Evans scored nine with five blocks.

The winning play developed after the Tribe missed two foul shots, Drexel took time to advance the ball and set up Hodges who was fouled in the act of shooting.

Laine McGurk then forced a turnover to seal the win.

Delaware, meanwhile, continued to show late season life in the CAA with its fourth straight win, beating Monmouth 70-61 home in the Bob Carpenter Center in Newark and making it a 4-0 sweep for the local teams on parade day.

Ande’a Cherisier had 21 points for the Blue Hens (8-14, 5-7) against the Hawks (12-12, 7-5) while Tara Cousins scored 13, Rebecca Demeke and Chloe Wilson each scored 12 points.

The Blue Hens host William & Mary Sunday at 2 p.m.

Looking Ahead

On Saturday besides the games mentioned, locally, Temple is in the city of the Eagles’ Super Bowl victory in New Orleans for an American Athletic Conference game at Tulane at 4 p.m. (ESPN+), while in the Patriot League, first place Lehigh is at Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass., and Lafayette is at Bucknell in Lewisburg, Pa., both at 2 p.m. on ESPN+.

Saint Peter’s is at Rider in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) at 1 p.m. on ESPN+.

Nationally, No. 24 Creighton hosts Georgetown at 4 p.m. on FS1 in the Big East while in the Big 12 No. 18 West Virginia hosts Cincinnati at 2 p.m.; No. 25 Baylor is at Texas Tech at 3 p.m.; No. 20 Oklahoma State is at BYU at 5 p.m.; and UCF is at No. 14 Kansas State at 5 p.m.  all on ESPN+.

In the Patriot League at 11 a.m. on CBS Sports Navy hosts Army  in Alumni Hall in Annapolis, Md.

In the Sun Belt Conference, Old Dominion is at James Madison in Harrisonburg, Va., at 2 p.m. on ESPN+.

In the MAAC, first place Fairfield is at Manhattan at 2 p.m., whilw second place Quinnipiac is at Iona at 1 p.m., both on ESPN+.

And that’s the report.