In the end, Penn women’s basketball coach Mike McLaughlin didn’t talk about Friday’s win at Cornell in terms of the Ivy League standings, though it was crucial.
And he didn’t mention revenge for the loss Cornell dealt Penn in West Philly last month.
He spoke like a fan.
“First of all, it was a great college basketball game,” he told ESPN+.
In a back-and-forth contest that never gave either team more than a seven-point lead – with nine lead changes and five ties – Penn and Cornell fought their way into overtime, but the Big Red’s luck ran thin and the Quakers came away with the win, 72-66. Add one more to the list of startling games in this most unpredictable of Ivy League seasons.
This one was memorable for, among other things, Penn guard Mataya Gayle passing the 1,000-point mark as a junior. She finished with a team-high 23 points on 10-for-19 shooting to go with eight rebounds, four assists and a pair of steals.
The Big Red made it a game despite some glaring disadvantages inside. The Quakers dominated the boards, 45-31, and second-chance points, 26-9, as well as points in the paint, 38-24. So Cornell scored on 35% of its attempted threes to just 21% for Penn, and essentially kept pace with Penn’s overall shooting percentage.
Chiefly responsible for getting Cornell so close to victory was junior Rachel Kaus, whose career-high 25 points on 11-for-20 shooting led all scorers, and whose clutch baskets got Cornell into overtime.
Kaus is a regular starter for Cornell this year after two years coming off the bench, and she leads the team with a whopping 42.3% shooting from beyond the three-point line. Senior Emily Pape added 13 for Cornell.
Penn led at the half, but barely, thanks to a Tina Njike layup just before the buzzer. A couple of minutes into the third quarter, though, Cornell went on a 12-2 comeback to build its biggest lead of the game, at 46-39, halfway through the period.
Then Penn responded with a Simone Sawyer jumper and two Saniah Caldwell threes – and Penn was ahead again. Cornell suffered through a drought of five and a half minutes lasting into the fourth quarter, and with eight minutes left faced a seven-point deficit before responding with a six-point run.
Penn managed just 10 points in the fourth quarter, and Kaus tied the game with a pair of free throws followed by a pair of layups. Neither team could convert its chances in the final 90 seconds of regulation.
Cornell took the lead again in overtime via Kaus for another layup, but Penn responded with baskets by Njike, Brooke Suttle and Gayle.
Clarke Jackson pulled Cornell within two points with a pullup jumper, but Simone Sawyer got a layup with a sharp assist by Katie Collins to finish the scoring for Penn.
“I thought late in the game we really started to connect on both sides of the ball, and I loved the way we played in overtime,” McLaughlin said.
Penn (14-8, 4-5 Ivy) travels to Columbia (16-6, 7-2), while Cornell (8-14, 3-6) hosts Princeton (19-3, 7-2) Saturday.