The Guru’s NCAAW Report: Njike’s Buzzer-Beater Gives Penn Big 5 Win at Drexel; AP Ranked Teams Still Perfect Against Unranked Opponents

 By Mel Greenberg - @womhoopsgurux

PHILADELPHIA – An instant finish at Drexel’s Daskalakis Athletic Center made Penn’s dynamic 71-70 triumph three blocks from home Friday afternoon a Big 5 instant women’s classic.

Years from now more Quakers fans than the capacity of the Dragons’ arena will say they were there at a game Penn rallied to go up five in the fourth and then with four seconds left in regulation, approached heartbreak on a Drexel 15-foot pull up jumper from Laine McGurk to fall a point behind but wait!

Spaniard Julia Garcia Roig used the Dragons’ foul to give as the seconds whittled down to one.

Plenty of time as Mataya Gayle under Penn’s basket threw a high arching pass 16 feet away to inside the top of the key to center Tina Njike who bobbled it and then made a hail-Mary flick through the net just ahead of the game clock.

For those who remember the yesteryear intro of ABC’s Wide World of Sports it was a joy of victory, agony of defeat moment, horror on the faces of the home team which actually were the visitors – we’ll get to that – as the entire Penn delegation poured onto the court in celebration, however missing the officials proclaiming a review of the clock and heading to the replay screen.

For several seconds fear and hope in the stands switched sides, Penn leary of misplaced giddiness, Drexel looking for a signal of survival.

The answer followed as the official stepped away and pointed to Penn, now 2-0 including Tuesday’s pummeling of Swarthmore in the season and home opener while Drexel falls to 1-1 having secured an impressive home and season opening win over Marist.

“… We had the monitor on the sideline, so I felt pretty confident that the shot got off,” said Penn coach Mike McLaughlin. “It's the shot we wanted, a play we run in certain situations. And like (Njike) said, she fumble it, which was great athleticism by her to be able to catch and shoot the ball.”

For the first time in the three-year history of the current tournament style format Penn will at least be guaranteed the third-place game and have a chance to go for the title matchup by winning Nov. 18 at Saint Joseph’s, the unanimous Atlantic 10 coaches’ choice to finish first.

In parlance of midterm election analysis this game got redistricted and Penn won in a place that in the last cycle 12 months ago the Quakers, picked fourth in the Ivy League this season, were run out of the building.

This season’s first of the two-pods, two-games format leading to December 6 and the Big 5 Classic triple header that will be held in Penn’s building was set for the Palestra on Friday but on Thursday the unusual humidity in the local weather caused the floor to get wet and create unsafe playing positions.

The game was moved nearby up 33rd street here causing such oddities as Penn’s public address announcer on the call as well as the stat crew of the red and blue working the game.

“Credit our people for moving quickly to make it possible, both teams wanted this game played today,” said Drexel coach Amy Mallon.

Meanwhile, Njike after making her first game-winner was in a mild state of shock responding when asked to take the media through the deciding finish.

“Honestly, I’m still in shock. I still can’t believe what happened,” the room reacting with laughter.

“We’ve been through that play a lot in practice, and we actually talked about that exact same position happening in practice, so I'm just glad that it went in. I fumbled it a little bit but I'm happy it all worked out in the end.”

Njike had 19 points and seven boards, a place Penn ruled with 15 on the offensive glass to help own the paint 54-34 in taking a 69-52 advantage on shots, offsetting an off game from the perimeter going 3-of-17 on 3-point action.

“Just across the board, a tremendous college basketball game,” McLaughlin said. “I was super proud to find a way to win that game, ebbs and flows at the end, but our level of experience and confidence showed up at the end.

 “I love what Tina did, I love the ball went in at the end, but regardless we executed and were fortunate the ball went in.”

Freshman Rachel Thatcher had another productive game in the backcourt scoring 14 points with seven rebounds and four assists, Brooke Suttle scored 13, Gayle had 10 while Katie Collins had eight points and nine rebounds.

Drexel’s McGurk led the team with 21 points and eight boards, Bria Watkins scored 14, and Roig had 10 points and nine assists.

“I guess you have to say that’s what’s Big 5 basketball’s all about,” Mallon said. “That game was just a great one for everyone to watch, two teams that really competed down to the last second.

“Unfortunately, today it didn’t go our way. It was exciting, but not for us. Again, Penn’s a well-coached team, they’re going to win at lot more games, on the other end from our team you saw a lot of good things we’re going to build on.”

Penn heads to Tidewater country Sunday playing at Mideast contender Norfolk State at 2 p.m. on the MEAC streaming network, Drexel is at Virginia of the ACC Wednesday.

Ivies Make Opening Statement

As teams at Mid-Major level seek ways to enhance profiles to take advantage of eight new slots in the expanded 76-team NCAA tournament by the best of those leagues last season meeting each other in challenges, the Ivies, American, Atlantic 10, and Missouri Valley are competing, two teams, two games, each this weekend in Richmond, Va., and Nashville, Tenn. in an event labelled the Opening Statement.

The two Ivy schools, Columbia and local based Princeton, are off to a 2-0 start at the expense of the Atlantic 10.

In Richmond, Princeton went to 2-0 on the season, winning 65-57 over the host Spiders while in Nashville, Columbia, also 2-0, handled Rhode Island 76-62.

South Florida nipped host Belmont 60-66 in Nashville, while Rice in Richmond won 69-64 over Murray State giving the American a 2-0 sweep of the MVC.

On Sunday, Rice (2-0) meets Richmond (1-1) while Columbia (2-0) plays Belmont (2-0), Princeton) plays Murray State (1-1), and South Florida (2-0) plays Rhode Island (0-2).

In the Princeton win, another big performance from Fadima Tall for the Tigers, who host Villanova Tuesday, occurred with 27 points and 10 rebounds while Ashley Chea scored 13 points.

The Spiders got 17 points from Ally Sweeney while Arisa Ihara scored 13 points.

In the Columbia- Rhode Island game, both teams had balanced attacks, the winning Lions getting 13 each from Mary Stevenson, Mia Broom, and Fliss Henderson, who also had 12 rebounds, while Riley Weiss scored 11 points.

The Rams’ Martina Borrellas scored 14 with nine boards.

In a single game in the Metro-America East competition defending Metro (MAAC) champion Fairfield won its season and home opener 90-63 over Binghamton (0-2) as preseason player of the year Kaety L’Amoreaux had 23 points and 10 assists.

The America East got off to a 7-1 start Thursday with nine more games to be played Sunday.

In regular games played Thursday and Friday by the local Patriot League duo, Lafayette (1-1) won its home opener 88-34 over Wagner (1-1) at the Kirby Sports Center in Easton, Pa., as Haylie Adamski scored 24 points and reserve Johari Hall had 18 for the Leopards while Ryann Jennings had 19 points for Lehigh in a 75-67 road loss at CAA favorite Monmouth (2-0), paced by Gigi Gamble’s 28 points.

National Scores of Note

Teams ranked in the preseason AP Poll continued to be perfect in non-head-to-head games, but on Thursday in the second of those other types this week, No. 5 Michigan got its biggest ranked win in program history pulling away in its season opener at home to upset No. 2 UConn 77-66 in Ann Arbor as Te’Yala Delfosse had a career-high 22 points and Olivia Olson scored 19.

It was the first Top 5 meeting ever for AP Top 25 teams at the Crisler Center.

Reigning national player of the year Sarah Strong, in foul trouble early, scored 13 points for UConn, snapping a 39-straight regular season win streak and dropping the second game on the schedule for the first time since 2004.

“We wouldn’t have scheduled the schedule that we have if we didn't anticipate that there’d be losses, so it's not about it's not about the loss,” said Hall of Fame coach Geno Auriemma.

“It's just disappointing to see how some of our players reacted when it was time to step up and make plays. If we did what we wanted to do and it didn't work, but we didn't even attempt to do the things that we had said must be done today and that's the most disappointing part.”

Freshman Jovana Popovic had 25 points for the visitors, who host No. 10 Iowa Sunday.

On Friday No. 13 Notre Dame in its home opener after beating Villanova in Rome Sunday easily won 123-40 over Stonehill (0-2) while No. 22 Oklahoma State (2-0) got 22 points from Florida transfer Liv McGill and Iowa State transfer Audi Crooks had 14 points and 11 boards at home in Stillwater in a 92-38 win over Morgan State (1-2).

Elsewhere, South Dakota, a Summit Conference contender, won 68-56 at home over Southland contender UT Rio Grande; MEAC favorite Howard (1-1) at home won 76-69 over CAA contender Elon (1-1); Memphis (2-0) at home upset Middle Tennessee (1-1), a C USA contender; Big Sky contender Idaho (2-0) won over visiting Pac-12 pick Gonzaga 86-75, the Zags dropping to 1-1); and Mountain West favorite UNLV (1-1) winning 69-51 over American contender UTSA (0-1).

Looking Ahead

Three locals in home openers today have La Salle (0-1) tipping at noon in the John E. Glaser Arena against Loyola, Md.; Saint Joseph’s on Hawk Hill opens the season at 1 p.m. at Hagan Arena against D2- Kutztown; and Temple (0-1) at 2 p.m. in the Liacouras Center opens against Patriot favorite Navy.

All three games are on ESPN+.

Penn State (0-1) at 2 p.m. is at Cincinnati, also on ESPN+.

On Sunday, the only other local game not mentioned has Rutgers (2-0) hosting Indiana State at 2 p.m. in Jersey Mike’s Arena on B1G+.

Nationally, in the Ally Tipoff in Charlotte, N.C., No. 14 Kentucky meets No. 25 NC State at 3 p.m. on ESPN2 before No. 1 South Carolina meets No. 12 North Carolina at 5:30 p.m. on ESPN.