The Guru’s Local/National NCAAW Roundup: Unrivaled Sets Pro Women’s Basketball Attendance Record Here While in College Ball Drexel Wins and Princeton and Penn Suffer Losses

 By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsgurux

PHILADELPHIA — A gut feeling several months ago by Unrivaled president Alex Bazzell, the husband of WNBA Minnesota Lynx star Napheesa Collier, a former UConn great, was proven the right feeling here Friday night at the Xfinity Mobile Center about where to take the 3-x3 winter league out of Miami to a one-stop tour to play a regular season doubleheader.

An energized and packed sellout arena of 21,490 became the highest attended pro women’s basketball event, eclipsing the 20,711 set in the WNBA on Sept. 19, 2024, between the Caitlin Clark-led Indiana Fever and Washington Mystics.

The building, then known as the First Union Center, drew a then record 20,060 at the women’s collegiate level both nights when the city hosted the NCAA Women’s Final Four, won by Connecticut over Tennessee with area schools Rutgers and Penn State, as upset eighth winners, also in the semifinals.

The number shattered the building record for any event, including the pro men’s or women’s basketball record 21,305 when Michael Jordan came to town for the last time as a Chicago Bull for an NBA visit to the 76ers.

The arena’s best number was for a rock concert when 21,424 came for the Backstreet Boys ‘Into the Millennium’ Tour on September 29, 1999.

The Friday night twin bill pitted Breeze BC at Phantom BC, which featured on the latter hometown star and Saint Joseph’s alum Natasha Cloud, and in the nightcap, Rose BC, featuring locally-produced Kahleah Copper, who went on to star at Rutgers, in the WNBA and on the record eighth gold-medal winning U.S. Olympic Team, playing the Lunar Owls BC.

The crowd was not limited to people in the Delaware Valley with several attendees introduced during timeout portions coming from Michigan and Arkansas.

The games, that began at 7:30 p.m. and ended at 11 p.m. with the building still full, were aired on TNT, truTV, and HBO Max, though all the national broadcast networks had representatives to chronicle the scene.

The local news stations all had reporters here and the Philadelphia Inquirer assigned five staffers, the most for a women’s basketball event since going all-in when times were better when the Final Four came to town.

“I’d never thought I’d see this,” said Saint Joseph’s veteran coach Cindy Griffin, who had expectations of growth to a decent level, but never the mega energy that was in the building.

Temple coach Diane Richardson, who wanted her team here, got some shuffling done on the Owls’ slate, which had her players head right for the airport to New Orleans to play Tulane tomorrow, with the Green Wave and American Conference cooperating and moving the tip time from the afternoon to 7:30 p.m. ET on ESPN+.

Most of the national outlets covering women’s basketball had staffers here, who got some news of the stalemated WNBA labor negotiations resuming Monday in a face-to-face meeting.

It was also a taste of the future with an expansion WNBA team, that won a bidding war with a price of $250 million, coming here in 2030.

The crowd included Robin Roberts, anchor of Good Morning America; comedian Leslie Jones, retired NFL Eagles star Jason Kelce and his wife, Kylie, 76ers guard Kyle Lowry, comedian Wanda Sykes, who was a force leading the push to land a WNBA team, while  having an ongoing season with her No. 3 South Carolina squad in the Southeastern Conference didn’t stop North Philly’s and Gamecocks coach Dawn Staley from showing up and dancing in her seat with a big smile when the cameras homed in on her.

Cloud and Copper drew the loudest cheers until the cameras targeted Staley. It would not be surprising to see her down the road becoming the franchise’s top executive once it gets organized.

“I was shocked when someone said, ‘coach is here,” said Alaiyah Boston, a former Gamecocks great who plays with Clark on Indiana. I went over and gave her a hug.”

The evening was billed as Philly Is Unrivaled 2026 with Xfinity as the sponsor.

“It was unbelievable,” Collier, a league co-founder with WNBA and former UConn great Breanna Stewart, told ESPN’s Alexa Phillippou of the scene. “You could feel the love tonight. I’m so glad we came here. I just can’t explain it more than I was just so filled with joy. It was amazing.”

Next season one of the two NCAA Women’s regional semifinals and finals will be here in the arena.

Phantom beat Breeze 71-68 in a competitive first game while Lunar Owls handled Rose 85-75 in the nightcap.

“It was just what women’s basketball deserves,” said Rose coach Nola Henry.

The last women’s pro basketball event in the city was when the Rage under the now defunct ABL was a franchise moved from Richmond and played a season and two months lasting till 1998 when the league went bankrupt.

The Collegiate Local/National Scene

The success of the stop by the two-year-old Unrivaled pro women’s basketball league was the perfect antidote to overcome a dour night on an overall lite schedule, especially on the local side.

Penn, poised to continue to make up for an 0-3 start in the Ivy League, had a dreadful first half in The Palestra against Cornell, which is the host in Ithaca, N.Y., in March of this season’s four-team each, men and women, Ivy Madness sending the winners to the NCAA tournament.

The Quakers (12-7, 2-4) rallied but fell short to the Big Red (8-11, 3-3), who ended a 16-game losing streak in the series with a 62-58 victory, the first over Penn since February 6, 2015.

Cornell also has a win over Columbia giving the visitors two key potential tiebreaks if needed by the end of the regular season.

Additionally, there’s no easy road just ahead for Penn, which hosts Columbia Saturday at 5 p.m. and then next weekend goes to Princeton.

The Lions will be coming to The Palestra with Friday night’s upset on the road at Princeton to move with the Tigers in a tie for first.

Penn is now sixth with its back against the proverbial wall.

This is one, a team right with us on our court, that we needed to find a way to get it,” said Penn longtime coach Mike McLaughlin. “And now we have a difficult task, Columbia coming in, and Princeton again. It’s going to put us against the wall, and now we have to find a way.”

Penn almost rallied successfully finishing the third quarter from a 16-point deficit on a 12-0 run.

“It was 6:50, I wrote it on the board,” McLaughlin said. “I told them the time, 6:50 left in the third and we’re down sixteen. Let’s try to get this to a mangeable number in the next five minutes. And we finished the quarter on a 12-zero run.”

In the fourth quarter, Simone Sawyer’s shot got Penn within a point, 55-54, but the visitors struck back with a make from deep and a foul shot to lead 59-54.

“I thought when they got their lead, our pressure did affect them,” McLaughlin said. “It helped us. We just couldn’t get it out of the gate. We just didn’t defend well enough.”

Mataya Gayle tied a game-high with 20 points for the home team, while Katie Collins had 13 points and 12 rebounds, while Saniah Caldwell dealt six assists.

Cornell’s Emily Pape matched Gayle with 20 points, while Rachael Knaus scored 18 points.

Meanwhile, Princeton, which had been leading a charmed life with strong fourth quarters failed to continue the string and fell to a team that has bedeviled the Tigers in recent seasons, the most recent now Columbia’s 73-67 win in Jadwin Gym on the road in Central New Jersey.

Perri Page led the Lions (14-5, 5-1) with 23 points, 14 claimed in the second half. Columbia now has two wins against AP ranked teams, both over Princeton, the earlier when the Tigers were 25th in 2023-24.

The home team (17-2, 5-1) had the third longest win streak at 15 when the game got under way.

Riley Weiss, who set the Columbia record with 40 points last week, scored just 12 and fouled out with 8:46 left in regulation.

Princeton’s Madison St. Rose and Olivia Hutcherson each scored 17 points and Skye Belker scored 16.

St. Rose left in the third quarter with an injury and stayed sidelined.

On a switch in opponents Saturday, Penn hosting Columbia at 5 p.m. (ESPN+) and Princeton hosting Cornell at the same time on ESPN+.

Drexel (12-7, 5-3) had the lone local victory, a 56-53 Coastal Athletic Association triumph at Monmouth (13-6, 6-2) in West Long Branch, N.J.

It was a narrow differential at the finish, the Dragons connecting on four foul shots in the final minute.

Amaris Baker led the visitors with a game-high 18 points, shooting 6-for-12 from the field. Laine McGurk scored 15 on six made shots from the field, three being from beyond the arc.

Drexel last won at Monmouth in 2020 before the host Hawks became a CAA member.

The Dragons next move to Northeastern at 1 p.m. (FloCollege) in Boston on Sunday.

Delaware (9-11, 3-5), in a CUSA contest moved from Thursday due to snow conditions, fell 79-54 to Missouri State (13-7, 5-2), ending a three-game win streak.

Safi Kolliegbo had 20 points, 14 in the third period, while Ande’a Cherisier had 16 points and nine board while getting two of the six team blocks.

The visitors thrived in the final quarter outscoring the hens 26-12.

The Blue Hens next host Florida International on Sunday at 4 p.m. on ESPN+, moving from Saturday due to weather-related travel conditions.

There was one lone national game of note, two ranked teams in the SEC going at it, moved to a neutral site in Birmingham, Ala., because of the weather and No. 17 Ole Miss, which was the home team in icy Oxford in the original schedule, topped No. 5 Vanderbilt 83-75 as Cotie McMahon scored 27 points for the Rebels (18-4, 5-2) while Christeen Iwuala scored 18 points with 14 boards.

It was the second straight loss for Vanderbilt (20-2, 6-2), which had its best start until losing Sunday to No. 3 South Carolina.

The visiting Commodores got 29 points from Mikayla Blakes while Aubrey Galvan scored 18.

Vanderbilt hosts Florida Sunday and Ole Miss will play Auburn in Birmingham on Monday.

Looking Ahead Locally and Nationally

On Saturday, besides the Temple game at Tulane already mentioned and the two Ivy games, the local list has La Salle is at Duquesne at 2 p.m. (ESPN+) in the Atlantic 10, while DePaul in the Big East visits Villanova at 2 p.m. (ESPN+) in Finneran Pavilion.

In the Patriot League, Lehigh is at Colgate in Hamilion, N.Y.  2 p.m. (ESPN+) and Lafayette hosts American at 2 p.m. (ESPN+) in the Kirby Sports Center in Easton, Pa.

Nationally, among ranked teams for Saturday, besides Princeton hosting Cornell, Oregon in the Big Ten visits No. 16 Maryland at 5 p.m. (BTN) in College Park at the XFINITY Center.

In the Patriot League Army is at Holy Cross at 2 p.m. (ESPN+) in Worcester, Mass.

In the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, Quinnipiac, having won the first-place showdown with Fairfield, hosts Merrimack at 2 p.m. on ESPN+ in Hamden, Conn., while Fairfield is at Sacred Heart in a crosstown game at 2 p.m. (ESPN+).

Iowa State in the Big 12 is at home in Ames, hosting UCF at 3 p.m. (ESPN+).