After all those nonconference games, it was time to find out what was real.
Princeton was real. Well, we knew that before the Princeton women’s game Saturday at Penn: The Tigers were 12-1, the only loss — a close one — coming against a mighty Maryland team. And now the Tigers are nationally ranked themselves, the ultimate imprimatur of the sport.
So after nearly toppling Princeton in a 74-68 loss at the Palestra Saturday afternoon, Penn junior guard Mataya Gayle had good reason to be proud.
“They’re obviously the team to beat, but we just proved that we can compete with anyone,” she said.
How real is Penn? It entered Ivy play at 10-3, but some of those wins came against teams that would lose against anyone in the Ivies. The games could be useful, even important, but not predictive. The most promising Penn game, in fact, was a loss in which the Quakers gave a serious scare to No. 4 Texas — for a while — taking a lead into the second quarter before losing by a respectable 18. In its last pre-Ivy game, Penn handled Binghamton comfortably, but what does that mean, really?
Consider, too, that last year’s Penn team squeaked into the Ivy tournament in fourth place and lost to Columbia. Then First-Team All-Ivy Stina Almqvist graduated — top five in the league in scoring, offensive and defensive rebounds, minutes played, offensive fouls drawn and easygoing bonhomie. And for the first time in memory, coach Mike McLaughlin hasn’t pulled a freshman rabbit out of his hat to contend for Rookie of the Year and bedevil the rest of the league. He has some promising first-year players, but none got to play against Princeton.
So the math would seem to be: Fairly good team minus top player, plus no one new making an impact, equals …
Actually, it seems to equal a better team. Last year’s Rookie of the Year, forward Katie Collins, has taken over as Penn’s top scorer, both inside and out, with an average of 13.2 points a game. Penn came up short against Princeton in part because, although Collins had 15 points and six rebounds, she hit just one of her five attempted threes; that brings her down to a merely stellar 42% for the season.
Center Tina Njike, who as a sophomore last year played not a second in the Ivy tournament, is a major factor in Penn’s success this year — more assured everywhere on the court. Against Princeton, in about 19 minutes, she scored 13 points on 5-for-7 shooting (including a three) and pulled in four rebounds. She tag-teamed with forward Gabriella Kelley, who saw little time last year as a freshman but played 19 minutes against Princeton and scored six (on a pair of threes) with three rebounds. That’s a game’s worth of tall, versatile player with 19 points and seven rebounds added to Penn this year.
Gayle, who preceded Collins as rookie of the year, led Penn with 17 points, six assists and seven rebounds. Her three midway through the fourth quarter gave the Quakers a four-point lead. (Penn was down by just two with 13 seconds left but had to send Princeton to the foul line in attempts to get the ball back.)
Afterward, Gayle reflected on what Penn needs to do to beat Princeton next time: Cut back on turnovers — Penn had 18, versus 12 for Princeton — and improve ball movement on offense. “I think we competed hard. We got a lot of rebounds — we won the rebounding battle, which was a goal of ours,” she said.
A subdued McLaughlin was rueful over the missed opportunity for the rare win over Princeton. “I just wish we had a couple plays back, maybe,” he said. But, he added, “We gave ourselves a chance to win.”
As for Princeton, he said: “They’re tough to defend. I thought we did a good job, holding them to 74. I think you’re going to see, for our league, they’re going to be over that number a lot.”
Yeah, Princeton is for real. But it turns out that Penn is, too.
I appreciate the optimism, PP!
On the glass half-full side: In the current 15-game losing streak to Princeton, there have only been 2 single digit losses. One was the ’24 Ivy Tournament semifinal and the other was Saturday.
On the glass half-empty side: From ’14 to ’20, Penn was either 1st or 2nd in the conference, but the Quakers have dropped to fourth or fifth in the conference since ’22. Add to that a 15-game losing streak to a program that continues to be at the top of the Ancient Eight.
With Princeton continuing to be a top national program, as well as strong programs at Columbia and Harvard, I feel the Quakers need more than moral victories at this point.
Gayle would probably be a starter for the Tigers. Can’t say that about any other Quaker and that is by no means a criticism. The Tigers are loaded. For some reason Chea was on the bench for much of the final period when the Tigers bent but also dominated at the end. This was my first time seeing Penn play leaving me with the impression that they will be a big factor in the Ivy race. Cornell hosting the tournament might be an advantage if the Red are as good as yesterday’s win at Columbia suggests.