The Guru’s Local/National NCAAW Roundup: Penn Finishes a Perfect 5-0 December Winning the FDU Tournament While Rhode Island Upsets A-10 Favorite Richmond

 By Mel Greenberg

HACKENSACK, N.J. – Considering the close proximity here to New York City where the northern end of the New Jersey turnpike forks its way to the left becoming the start of I-80 heading West across the nation to the Pacific Ocean and meanders to the right to the George Washington Bridge continuing as I-95 up the Atlantic Coastline into New England, call Penn’s 59-54 victory Tuesday afternoon over Binghamton (N.Y.) here to win the FDU Christmas Classic, a successful conclusion to the Quakers’ Off-Broadway December performance tour which is now ready for the bright lights of the Ivy League when the big show opens Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m. (ESPN+) at The Palestra when nearby No. 25 and preseason favorite Princeton arrives for Act 1 of a two-month run to March Madness.

By nature of how home teams schedule these things, way back in early November the two-day stand expected to be a wrap-up test at 4 p.m. for Penn (10-3) against the reigning champions of the Northeast Conference.

But while the Quakers on Monday afternoon rolled over Md.-Eastern Shore (7-10), the first of the four-game event saw the Bearcats (8-5) rally from a lopsided first-quarter deficit to upset the Knights (9-4) and make Tuesday’s opener of the doubleheader the championship round.

“Not the matchups we were expecting either,” said FDU coach Stephanie Gaitley, the former Villanova star out of Ocean City, N.J., with a handful of credits at such places as Richmond, Saint Joseph’s, Long Island, Monmouth and Fordham. “But (Binghamton) are tough.”

Penn, however, completing a 5-0 December, was tougher, led by the star of the show reigning Ivy rookie of the year Katie Collins, the tournament MVP, who followed Monday’s 18-point, 11-rebound performance with 21 points, shooting 9-for-12 from the field with seven rebounds and four blocked shots.

Early in the game lasting into the front end of the third quarter the contest was a tug-of-war effort with several lead exchanges on the Bogota Savings Bank Center stage from both sides until the Quakers erupted with their main number, a 19-5 run through the period before the final 10 minutes became loaded with drama, Penn rebuffing several attempted rallies with answers until ultimately relying on a solid defense to the delight of the band of familiar faces managing to appear at many places whenever the Quakers hit the road.

“It was a good non-conference schedule, a balance of power schools, several schools at our level, we found a lot of ways to win. We just got better and better,” said Penn’s Mike McLaughlin who in the wake of recent retirements and other changes has become the veteran director of the Ancient Eight.

“Playing here back-to-back gives us a taste of the Ivy League. Any coach knows winning is a process. It doesn’t come because you want to do it. You have to have repeat, repeat, repeat. This group is learning that.”

The moment the outlook brightened was on the last day of last month when Penn visited now No. 2 Texas and unlike many decided underdogs who have been yielding triple digits to top ten teams, the Quakers took a long time for the Longhorns to separate them.

“That was the big break there. We were in that game for a long time. We battled and I think that gave us the confidence, they’re obviously a Final Four team and we competed at that level.”

Of Collins, his star performer here, McLaughlin praised, “Katie, today was as good as I’ve seen her here back-to-back. Her footwork in the lane was really special today. A workaholic. She’s put in a lot of hard work. She’s exactly what we’ve needed for the program to have success.”

“Yea, it’s been great, we started to connect and play together,” Collins said of December’s showing. “We’re really excited. We’re excited to start league play. We’re really prepared and we’re really playing well together so we’re looking forward to it.”

There were several supporting stars providing key spots, notably 2024 Ivy rookie of the year Mataya Gayle, who made the all-tournament team with five assists, and Tina Njike with seven points and a Penn high eight rebounds.

Penn was also helped with starters Simone Sawyer and Saniah Caldwell with bench support from Gabriella Kelly, Brooke Suttle, and Ashna Tambe.

Binghamton’s Kendall Bennett had 15 points and nine boards while Bella Pucci made three from deep, scoring 16 points with three assists.

Penn was the only local on Tuesday’s card but before 2025 retires to the history books, locally two Atlantic 10 games Wednesday afternoon have La Salle heading near here to Fordham in the Bronx across the Hudson River at 1 p.m. while Saint Joseph’s hosts VCU at 2 p.m. at Hagan Arena, both on ESPN+.

Patriot League action begins with defending champion Lehigh at 1 p.m. heading to Army while at 6 p.m., Lafayette travels to Colgate, both on ESPN+.

In the Big Ten at 2 p.m. on Peacock from Rec Hall, Penn State hosts No. 4 UCLA.

The first local action in 2026 comes right up on New Year’s Day Thursday when at noon Villanova hosts Creighton, the Wildcats trying to stay perfect in the Big East (ESPN+), while on ESPN+ at 2 p.m., Rider hosts Merrimack at Alumni Gym in Lawrenceville, N.J., and also at 2 p.m., Rutgers in the Big Ten hosts Wisconsin on B1G+ from Jersey Mike’s Arena in Piscataway, N.J.

The National Scene

Just one game of note Tuesday occurred, and it was a huge one also from the Atlantic 10 in which Rhode Island (11-2, 2-0), which in an opener earlier this month won at Saint Joseph’s, the Rams upset preseason favorite Richmond 73-61 at home in the Ryan Center in Kingston as  Palmire Mbu from France was 7-for-11 from the field for 19 points, including three makes from deep, Brooklyn Gray and Sophia Vital each scored 14 points, Vital also with seven rebounds, and reserve Vanessa Harris scored 12 with six boards.

Richmond (11-4, 1-1) got 26 points from Cardinal O’Hara grad Maggie Doogan, the only Spider in double figures with 26 points connecting on 8-for-15 from the field, including 4-of-8 makes from distance.

On Wednesday, No. 1 UConn in the Big East visits Providence at 3 p.m. on Peacock; in the Big Ten, No. 19 is at Purdue at 12:30 p.m. on the conference network, and in the Big 12, at 2 p.m. No. 10 Iowa State is at Houston, No. 22 Baylor is at Oklahoma State, No. 21 Texas Tech  hosts UCF at 7 p.m., and at 9 p.m., No. 8 TCU is at BYU, all on ESPN+.

Elsewhere in the Big East at 1 p.m. Georgetown is at Seton Hall,, elsewhere in the A-10, Dayton at noon is at George Mason, while UMass gone from the A-10 opens in the Mid-American Conference at 3 p.m. on ESPN+ hosting Western Michigan.

The Southeastern Conference opens on New Year’s Day, highlighted at 8 p.m. by No. 5 LSU hosting No. 11 Kentucky at 8 p.m. on SECN+.