The opening 10 minutes Sunday afternoon at Brown may have had Penn fans worried and Brown fans jubilant: Not only were the Quakers again missing top-scoring guard Kayla Padilla, but the game was moving at the Bears’ frenetic pace, and Penn’s shots just weren’t falling.
Mandy McGurk
Penn women cruise in substitute game versus Ursinus
You weren’t expecting a close game, were you? If so, you were expecting the Penn women to travel to Morgan State for their first game in 20 days. But with the coronavirus shuffling and scuttling schedules, the Quakers instead were playing host to Division III Ursinus, and the result was an emphatic 89-29 Penn win.
Penn women fall at Bucknell in last game of suspensions
Half a team, half a team, half a team onward! So rode the Penn women into Bucknell, and like the Light Brigade before them, they lost convincingly Friday night, 62-46.
This was the Quakers’ eighth game of the season, and it completed the rolling four-game suspensions that each of the juniors and seniors on the squad had to serve for violating an unspecified university rule. Sitting out this time were five women who have started multiple games this season: Sydnei Caldwell, Mia Lakstigala, Mandy McGurk, Kayla Padilla and Kennedy Suttle. They watched from the bench, and their absence on the floor was obvious.
The eight Quakers who took on a capable Bucknell team struggled in some key ways: shooting just 30% from the floor, including a hopeless 3-for-17 from three-point range; committing 18 turnovers that yielded Bucknell 23 points (while getting just two points from Bucknell turnovers); and failing to stop backdoor passes and drives that gave Bucknell 32 points in the paint.
Penn women crash and lose to La Salle, 63-49
For much of Tuesday night’s game at the Palestra, neither team deserved to win, as Penn and La Salle traded turnovers and sloppy play. But after a successful third quarter, the Quakers put on a clinic in futility and watched the Explorers run away with a 63-49 victory.
How bad was it? Let’s say you were watching online, less than a minute into the fourth quarter, when a Penn miss bounced to Mandy McGurk to the left of the lane and she scored on the putback. Then, let’s say, your power went out, or the toilet overflowed, or your narcolepsy kicked in — and when you saw the game on the screen again, Penn freshman Lizzy Groetsch was driving the lane for another basket.
That happened with 50 seconds left on the clock, and in the intervening eight-plus minutes of game time, Penn had not sunk a single bucket.
Penn women lose well to Villanova after winning ugly at St. Francis Brooklyn
A win’s a win, right? And if you win by 17, you must have done well, right?
Then you lose by three at home — a bad night, of course.
But those two games for the Penn women were paradoxically disappointing and worth celebrating. Mike McLaughlin’s team escaped Brooklyn with a 63-46 victory Thursday over St. Francis. Penn failed to play its game with any consistency, and the Terriers gave the Quakers a good shake and would have had a shot at winning if they hadn’t had a preposterously bad night of shooting — 14-for-62 (22.6%).
Then, on Monday, the Quakers — minus their upper-class leaders — faced their first serious challenge in their first Big 5 opponent of the year, played with verve and discipline, and almost won again.
Penn women’s hoops suspends all juniors and seniors for four games
Another day, another piece of Ancient Eight breaking news.
After Friday’s announcement of Harvard coach Kathy Delaney-Smith’s retirement at season’s end, Monday afternoon brought surprise news of Penn’s suspension of all of the team’s juniors and seniors for violation of university policy. The specific policy was not disclosed, but the infraction will cost each of the nine upper-class students four games. Since suspending the entire group would leave the Quakers with only eight true first-years and sophomores, none with any collegiate experience, the Red & Blue have elected to spread the penalties over the team’s first eight regular-season contests.
Ivy League player carousel
The biggest story of the off-season was Miye Oni being selected in June’s NBA Draft. The Yale junior and reigning Ivy Player of the Year decided to leave school early and leave his name in the draft. Despite falling to the late second round, a perilous spot to making an NBA roster, Oni impressed in the Summer League and earned a guaranteed contract with the Utah Jazz. He is playing just as well in the pre-season and looks to be a real steal for the Jazz.
2019 Ivy men’s and women’s recruiting update
Since Ivy recruits do not sign National Letters of Intent, the Athletic Departments of the Ancient Eight schools cannot comment on student-athletes’ commitments until after they are formally accepted and place their deposits. As a result, the following list is a summary of committed recruits for the Class of 2023 that have been obtained from searching the internet.
If any reader has any athlete to add to the list, please send a note to [email protected].