Kayla Padilla capped a milestone day with a left-handed drive through three defenders and led the Penn women to a raucous 62-61 win over Temple Sunday at the Palestra.
The basket with 6.8 seconds left gave Padilla 28 points on the day and 1,013 in her COVID-shortened career. The Quakers (6-5) head into a break for finals and Christmas with a five-game winning streak — sure to hit six, let’s face it, December 30 against Gwynedd Mercy before the start of Ivy play.
Temple (4-5) presented challenges beyond Gwynedd Mercy’s capabilities, and nearly beyond Penn’s. The Quakers built a lead in the first quarter but lost it once the Owls got their fastbreak moving, often — embarrassingly often — off steals on careless Penn passes. Temple perpetrated 10 steals on the afternoon and racked up 17 points on fastbreaks, and 22 overall on turnovers. Penn, meanwhile, fell into the shooting doldrums and was behind by as much as 15 in the third quarter after a 13-0 Temple run. Penn clawed back with a streak of its own: a Padilla three, two Padilla free throws, and threes by Padilla and freshman guard Simone Sawyer.
In a game this close, the difference can be anything and everything, but Penn wouldn’t have been close to winning if Padilla hadn’t been hitting, particularly from deep — 6-for-13 on threes, 10-for-21 overall and both of her free throws. Also in double figures for Penn: Sawyer (13 points, 5-for-10 shooting), who knocked down a three off a Padilla pass with 20 seconds left to pull Penn within a point; and wing Jordan Obi, who battled inside most of the day for 16 points and eight rebounds.
The final minutes were improbable. After a Sawyer three tied the game at 57 with three minutes left, both sides managed to miss the basket on jump shots and free throws for nearly two minutes, till a final Penn turnover led to a drive and a basket for Temple’s Tiarra East. Temple stretched the lead to four on two foul shots in the final minute, but that wasn’t enough in the face of Sawyer’s and Padilla’s final heroics.
East led Temple’s scoring with 23 points on 9-for-19 shooting, along with six rebounds and three steals. The speedy Jasha Clinton had three steals herself and 15 points.
Temple missed six of its last seven shots and six of its last eight free throws. In the final 30 seconds, it lost possession once when it failed to inbound the ball within five seconds, and once when the player who took an inbounds pass immediately traveled. Credit good Penn defense, Temple butterflies, luck — in any case, the ball bounced Penn’s way.
And the celebration at the end was worthy of a game to clinch the Ivy title, not just a break-even 2-2 in the Big 5. The Quakers seem primed for the Ivy run — or at least a merry Christmas.