It was a game of limited importance. The Penn women, in third place and assured of a spot in the Ivy tournament, made the long road trip to Hanover, N.H., for what was supposed to be a tune-up at Dartmouth, which had yet to win an Ivy game.
But Penn wasn’t playing like a team contending for a title Saturday — shooting poorly and turning the ball over repeatedly coming off a disappointing loss at upstart Brown a week earlier.
Penn held just a one-point lead when Dartmouth junior guard Mia Curtis grabbed the rebound after a Penn miss with three seconds on the clock and hustled the ball downcourt to senior forward Emma Koch for the layup at the buzzer — putting the Big Green ahead, 12-11, after one quarter.
The trouble for Dartmouth was it wouldn’t score another basket till the second quarter was more than half over.
The home team’s next basket after that came in the second half. Meanwhile, Penn — led by senior guard Kayla Padilla’s 23 points — played more like the team it needs to be against Princeton, Columbia and Harvard, taking the second quarter 18-2 and winning easily, 54-37.
The Dartmouth faithful and players’ families turned out for Senior Day festivities, but it’s hard to dress up the Big Green’s 2022-23 season in party clothes. In her second year in Hanover, coach Adrienne Shibles is rebuilding, and after a three-win season last year, next weekend’s trip to Harvard will determine whether her team goes 2-26 — with no Ivy wins — this time around.
Penn coach Mike McLaughlin can offer her some encouragement. After all, his first team at Penn, 13 years ago, went 2-26 (including a heartening late-season win at Dartmouth). A winning record, overall or in the Ivies, was three long seasons away.
Since then, McLaughlin’s teams have been disciplined and playing for titles, but the Quakers were off their game Saturday afternoon. And it’s not like he was giving anyone the day off: He rode his starters and regular sixth player Sydnei Caldwell for almost all the available court time, though senior forward Silke Milliman — who grew up in Hanover — got some good minutes and earned her hometown cheers with six points and six rebounds.
Padilla hit eight of 19 shots, including five of 10 threes, for her 23 points; junior forward Jordan Obi, as usual, carried much of the load with 11 points on 4-for-8 shooting. Floor Toonders had an off day shooting but grabbed 11 rebounds. Overall, Penn shot 36.5% from the field — nothing to write home about, but far better than Dartmouth’s 25.5%. The Big Green hit just one three-pointer in 15 attempts.
For Dartmouth, only junior guard Mekkena Boyd reached double figures, 12 points on 4-for-13 shooting plus a team-high eight rebounds.
While Dartmouth travels to Harvard, Penn will host Princeton on Friday night and then travel to Princeton the following week for Ivy Madness.