Penn 62, Princeton 60 (Women)
Where to begin? With another storybook ending for the Quakers on Princeton’s home floor, and some delightful deja vu for coach Mike McLaughlin’s Red and Blue.
Two years after upsetting Princeton in stunning fashion with an outright Ivy League championship on the line at Jadwin Gym, 80-64, the Quakers toppled the Tigers again in the same scenario, clinching their second Ivy title in three seasons as Jadwin guests. Penn’s win followed another two-point victory over Princeton this season, a 50-48 overtime triumph at the Palestra.
Tuesday’s matchup was close from wire to wire, with Penn leading most of the way, though it had to overcome a 56-55 deficit with two minutes remaining. Penn’s Anna Ross responded on the subsequent possession with a three-point play, which contributed to her Penn-high 18 points. Penn iced the game at the free throw line late, finishing with a 16-for-18 clip from the charity stripe. Princeton’s Alex Wheatley led all scorers with 20 points on 8-for-12 shooting, and Penn’s Michelle Nwokedi added 17 points. Read this excellent column on Penn’s victory from The Daily Pennsylvanian’s Riley Steele.
Penn (24-4, 13-1 Ivy League) now looks forward to the NCAA Selection Show, which will air Monday night at 7 p.m. on ESPN. Princeton (23-5, 12-2) has a feasible NCAA at-large bid case to make as well.
Princeton 72, Penn 71 (Men)
For the second time this season, the Quakers just couldn’t quite pull off the upset of their archrival. This time, they fell tantalizingly short coming from behind rather than surrendering a lead.
An 18-point lead for Princeton with 14:52 remaining didn’t last, with Penn scoring 35 points in the final 10:15 in a flurry made possible by the Quakers’ many freshmen, who combined to notch 25 of those points. In his first career start, freshman guard Tyler Hamilton exploded for 11 points, seven rebounds, three assists, three steals and four charges taken in 37 minutes, while Max Rothschild, Jake Silpe and Jackson Donahue contributed strongly down the stretch. But Darien Nelson-Henry failed to cleanly receive a feed from Jackson Donahue underneath the basket with time running out following an Amir Bell front-end one-and-one miss, and that was it.
Princeton (22-6, 12-2), led in scoring by Henry Caruso, remains a good bet for a NIT berth with the win, while Penn (11-17, 5-9) can take solace in the fact that the program seems to have several talented freshmen to move forward with next season.