Penn women’s basketball tops Maine, 56-52

Beautiful though Maine may be, any visitor from warmer places can be forgiven for feeling a chill there. (Palestra Pete himself froze his butt off one Memorial Day weekend long ago.) And the Penn women’s basketball team stepped onto the University of Maine’s court Sunday with cold shooting hands. But after that frigid start, the Quakers overtook the Maine Black Bears for a 56-52 win.
Maine had a 7-0 lead before Swedish-born Penn senior Stina Almqvist (no doubt advantaged in cold climates) put in a left-handed scoop. Another Maine basket reclaimed the seven-point advantage, but soon it was the home team that had the cold hands as Penn started a 10-point run.

Read more

Penn women’s basketball bests Maine, 72-69

Bring on the Ivies!
The Penn women’s basketball team came out of a 20-day break for finals and Christmas by beating a strong Maine squad, 72-69, Saturday afternoon at the Palestra.
Freshman point guard Mataya Gayle had the hot hand and dropped 28 points, the highest total in her short college career. But this was a team effort for the Quakers against the Black Bears, and a great game if you just love basketball: The lead changed hands 20 times in 40 minutes, with eight ties. Maine hit five of its last seven shots but had to foul repeatedly to get the ball back, and Penn staved off the charge with clutch free throws.

Read more

Rookie production, Mitchell dominance key in successful weekend for Princeton squads

In his latest report, Ivy Hoops Online writer George “Toothless Tiger” Clark highlights key rookie contributions in the Princeton men’s 83-63 win at Drexel Saturday and Ellie Mitchell’s stat sheet-stuffing dominance in the Princeton women’s 65-51 victory at Maine:

Princeton women maul Maine, 82-43

The Tiger women opened the lone doubleheader on the schedule Sunday with a mashing of the Maine Black Bears, 82-43.

Princeton games usually feature a fast start defensively. Today’s effort fits nicely into that pattern, as the Tigers once again held an opponent to single digits over the span of an entire quarter of play.

At the end of the first quarter, the Tigers had sprinted to a 17-4 lead. For all intents, this one was over. For the season, the Tigers have outscored the opposition by 42 points in the opening period.

Read more

Devin Cannady continues his hot streak in another Princeton win

Princeton’s second straight game against an 0-6 opponent, this time the Maine Black Bears, offered the Tigers a chance to work on some of the bothersome trends that emerged in the first four games.

Shooting has been a real, although unexpected, issue throughout the roster except for Devin Cannady. Maine, coached by former Tiger women’s coach Richard Barron, has found it difficult to find its footing in Barron’s first season after several years at the helm of the Maine women.

The Tigers, getting a tremendous lift from Devin Cannady’s season-high 28, controlled this one throughout, leading by as many as 19 before closing the door at Maine, 73-59. Cannady was 7-for-10 from the field, 5-for-8 from beyond the arc and a perfect 9-for-9 from the charity stripe. Several of his long-range bombs drew “oohs” and “aahs” from the Bangor fans.

Read more