Quakeaways from Penn men’s basketball’s 78-65 win over Howard

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Mike Tyson is attributed with the maxim that everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.

But for Penn men’s basketball, the opposite was true in its home opener against Howard Monday

The Quakers started out putridly, spotting the defending MEAC champion Bison a 15-1 lead in the game’s first seven minutes. 

But after absorbing that early shot, Penn flipped a switch and played more disciplined offense. Shots started to fall for the Red and Blue’s best players and before you knew it, the Quakers had opened up a comfortable advantage in what wound up as a 78-65 win.

Penn (1-1) used an extended 15-4 run in the opening minutes of the second half to claim the lead for good over Howard (1-2). Star forward TJ Power drained three three-pointers during the flurry and finished the evening with a much more Power-like scoreline of 23 points on 19 shots.

What did Penn fans learn from a happy evening in the friendly confines of the Palestra?

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Columbia women’s basketball makes an Opening Statement with wins over Rhode Island and Belmont

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With road wins of 14 and 20 points over Rhode Island and Belmont, respectively, the Columbia women’s basketball team made a huge statement to mid- and high-majors during the inaugural Opening Statement tournament in Nashville.

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Fadima Tall leads another dramatic comeback as Princeton women’s basketball rallies past Richmond, 65-57

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What do you do for an encore after you open the season with a career-high 29 points and 22 rebounds?

If you’re Fadima Tall, you go out and essentially do it again.

After opening the season on Monday night with a historic 20-20 performance in Princeton women’s basketball’s 63-52 win over Belmont, Tall registered another double-double on Friday night with 27 points and ten rebounds to lead her Tigers to a 65-57 comeback victory over host Richmond in the first round of the Opening Statement Tournament at the Robins Center.

“That’s what Fadima is capable of on any night, to put up numbers like that,” Gosselin told ESPN+ postgame. “But she’s just selfless in her want to win and her want to do whatever is needed to get to the W.”

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How Harvard women’s basketball crushed Boston College

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Harvard women’s basketball took care of business on Thursday night, soundly defeating Boston College, 81-51, at Lavietes Pavilion.

The victory was the first of the year for the Crimson (1-1) and their fifth straight win over the Eagles (0-2).

After a competitive opening quarter and Boston College holding a 16-15 lead just over a minute into the second stanza, Harvard took control of the contest. Using runs of 8-0 and 9-0 while limiting their Chestnut Hill neighbors to one field goal over the next eight-plus minutes, the Crimson were able to take a 35-20 advantage into the locker room.

There was no letup entering the third quarter, as Harvard connected on four of five field goals and five of six free throws in the first three minutes to make it a 49-24 contest.

The Crimson stretched their lead to 31, 64-32, at the 8:17 mark of the final quarter, giving several starters a chance to rest ahead of a packed pre-Thanksgiving schedule that includes Michigan State and Syracuse.

Some thoughts on the victorious home opener for Carrie Moore’s squad.

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Quakeaways from Penn men’s basketball’s season-opening loss at No. 3 Illinois

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Penn men’s basketball’s rematch with national title contender No. 3 Illinois went about as well as round one.

The Quakers (0-1) started off their Ivy defense with a 112-70 defenestration at the hands of the Fighting Illini (2-0).

For the game’s first 10 minutes, Penn looked like a team ready and willing to compete in a difficult true road environment. The Quakers briefly led in the opening minutes and were down just one point, 23-22, after freshman guard Ethan Lin drilled a three-pointer from the left corner.

Illinois — which might be the best offensive team in all of college basketball — responded with an immediate 22-3 killshot run over the course of five minutes which effectively ended the competitive portion of the contest. The visitors missed 10 straight shots from the field during the backbreaking run.

The Fighting Illini added runs of 10-0 and 18-2 in the second half to balloon the final score even further. The Quakers were extremely fortunate to see their KenPom ranking drop only five slots to 134th in Division I after the beatdown.

It was obvious the second this game was scheduled that winning was going to be an almost-impossible task for Penn. What lessons did fans learn from a rough opening night?

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Penn women’s basketball coasts against mighty … Swarthmore?

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On an election night of high drama, Penn women’s basketball started its season with a foregone conclusion, thumping Division III Swarthmore, 110-27.
Swarthmore’s visit was part of the celebration of the Palestra’s centennial. It was also part of Penn coach Mike McLaughlin’s tradition of scheduling small Philadelphia-area schools for early-season warmup games. McLaughlin, who came up as a player and a coach in Philly’s close-knit community of small colleges, maintains those close relationships and gives his players’ skills and confidence a boost with fall matchups against D-III schools. The stats count for Penn and its players but not for the visitors, so Penn is 1-0 and Swarthmore is 0-0, with its first official game set for Saturday.
So what did the Tuesday exhibition … exhibit?

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It’s been a decade-plus since Yale men’s basketball’s NCAA Tournament upset of Baylor

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Makai Mason against Baylor before he was for Baylor. (Fansided)

It is tough to believe that it has been 10 years since March 17, 2016 since that day in Providence which effectively changed the trajectory of Yale basketball. The No. 12-seeded Bulldogs were big underdogs but defeated No. 5 Baylor, 79-75, marking Yale’s first-ever victory in the Big Dance.

Yale was led by 31 points from sophomore guard Makai Mason. Ironically, Mason later spent a graduate year at Baylor and became an All-Big 12 second teamer.

“Going into that game, I liked our chances,” Yale coach James Jones recently recalled to Ivy Hoops Online. “We played SMU tough and Duke tough for a half in hostile environments. Baylor had dynamic wings, not dynamic guards.”

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Burning questions for Penn men’s basketball, season opener edition

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One of the most anticipated Penn men’s basketball seasons in recent memory will begin where it all ended back in March, with a matchup against an Illinois team with Final Four aspirations.

Once again, Penn will probably be a 20-plus-point Vegas underdog against a team KenPom has ranked as the fourth-best in the country. And this time around, the Quakers will have to face the Fighting Illini on their home floor in Champaign.

But even if the Red and Blue do get waxed at the State Farm Center on Thursday, it won’t come with the same sense of crushing finality which accompanied last season’s 105-70 loss in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

Instead, it’ll be the first data point fans can evaluate as Penn starts down a path which could — if things break right — lead to a spot inside the KenPom top 100, an Ivy League title defense on its home floor and a realistic shot at the program’s first NCAA Tournament victory since 1994.

Below are a few of the biggest questions fans will receive answers to as the 2026-27 season progresses:

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Fadima Tall’s 20-20 delivers a win for Princeton women’s basketball in new coach’s debut

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Olivia Hutcherson of Princeton women’s basketball tips off against KK Brodie of Belmont in Princeton’s home opener on Nov. 2, 2026, at Jadwin Gymnasium.

The Lauren Gosselin era as the head coach of Princeton women’s basketball began with a dramatic triumph over Belmont in the season opener for both teams on Monday night at Jadwin Gym, 63-52, thanks to Fadima Tall.

The senior forward played the game of her life, scoring a career-high 29 points and grabbing a career high 22 rebounds to register the first 20-20 performance in 40 years for Princeton.

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Yale men’s basketball’s next-man-up identity carries day in win over Howard

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Next man up is the James Jones mantra, and it was the reality at John J. Lee Amphitheater Monday nnight as Yale men’s basketball opened its season with a dominating 72-62 win over a veteran Howard team.

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