Mataya Gayle

Ivy women’s semifinal: No. 1 Columbia gets by No. 4 Penn, 60-54

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Columbia junior forward Susie Rafiu paced the victorious Lions with a 16-point, 10-rebound performance on Friday evening. (Rob Browne | Ivy Hoops Online)

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Despite having multiple double-digit leads, the No. 1-seeded Columbia women couldn’t find a way to dominate No. 4 Penn and had to fight for a full 40 minutes to secure a 60-54 victory in Friday’s opening semifinal of the 2025 Ivy Tournament.

“Credit to them (Penn) for getting to this point and giving us their best,” coach Megan Griffith told the media in the postgame press conference. “Conversely, in our locker room, I don’t think we played our best, but that’s honestly what you’re going to get again in these games.”

With the win, the Lions (23-6) head to the program’s third-ever conference final. A victory in Saturday night’s contest against No. 3 Harvard. which won an instant classic against No. 2 Princeton in the nightcap, would give Columbia its first-ever Ivy Madness title, as well as the Ancient Eight’s automatic bid.

For Penn (15-13), the season is over and the drought for an Ivy League Tournament title now extends to eight years.

“I thought we really played well enough to put them (Columbia) in jeopardy,” Penn coach Mike McLaughlin said. “I’m just so proud that they hung in there … and gave ourselves an opportunity to beat a really good team tonight.”

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Ivy Madness: Women’s Basketball Media Day

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The Madness on display at "The Pizz" (Photo: Rob Browne for Ivy Hoops Online)
The Madness on display at “The Pizz” (Photo: Rob Browne | Ivy Hoops Online)

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Welcome to Ivy Madness VII (and Chag Sameach to those celebrating Purim)

This year, Ivy Hoops Online is coming to you from the heights of the Pizzitola Sports Center on the campus of Brown University.

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Thoughts on the Ivy League’s All-Ivy awards for women’s basketball

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Editor’s note: Here are Steve Silverman’s reactions to Ivy League All-Ivy awards for players and coaches for the 2024-25 women’s basketball season announced Tuesday. Ivy Hoops Online’s 2024-25 Men’s and Women’s All-Ivy Awards are soon to come.:

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Princeton women’s basketball cruises past Penn, 67-53

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Fadima Tall knocked down a career-high 20 points on 6-for-11 shooting along with 10 rebounds and four steals Saturday as Princeton women’s basketball warmed up for the Ivy League Tournament with a 67-53 win at Penn.
Penn’s loss, combined with Brown’s win, means that we won’t know which team will be the fourth entrant for Ivy Madness at Brown’s Pizzitola Sports Center till the NCAA releases its updated NET rankings to determine the tiebreaker. As the winner of the regular-season conference title, Columbia will play Penn or Brown in the tournament’s first round Friday, and Princeton will face Harvard; the championship game comes Saturday.Penn’s NET ranking was No. 162 as of Saturday night – 22 slots ahead of Brown at No. 184.

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Penn women’s basketball trounces Dartmouth, 66-37

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When the Dartmouth women went to West Philly to play some basketball in January, they were at their best and broke an 18-game losing streak against Penn.
On Friday, it was the Penn women at their best, playing in Hanover to keep their shot at the Ivy League Tournament alive, and they started a new winning streak over Dartmouth emphatically, 66-37.

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Penn women’s basketball stops Cornell in must-win game

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With both sides playing to preserve a chance at a spot in Ivy Madness, the Penn women’s basketball team overcame a resurgent Cornell on Saturday in West Philly, 68-63.
“We always like to make things interesting,” Penn senior Stina Almqvist told ESPN+ after her 25 points led the Quakers to the win. “We know we have our backs against the wall. We really want to make the tournament.”

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Stina Almqvist blows past 1,000-point mark in leading Penn women’s basketball past Brown

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Stina Almqvist had a triple big day Saturday: game highs of 26 points and 12 rebounds against Brown, a victory to keep Penn’s postseason hopes alive, and elevation to the elite club of Quakers with 1,000-point careers.
The 6-foot-1 senior became the 26th Penn woman to reach the milestone; her father and sister were at the Palestra for the event, visiting from Sweden. “My sister said, ‘You better get 1,000 while I’m here,’ and I did it for her,” Almqvist told ESPN+ afterward.

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Big fourth quarter lifts Penn women’s basketball past Yale

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In a game it had to win, the Penn’s women’s basketball team missed shot after shot, giving up a lead and then just keeping even with lowly Yale.
And then the third quarter ended and the fun started at the Palestra, as the Quakers blew past the Bulldogs with 27 fourth-quarter points to take the win, 71-59, Friday night. That sets up a Saturday afternoon showdown with Brown as a key game for Penn to stay relevant in the run for the Ivy League Tournament.

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Princeton women’s basketball races past Penn, 74-60, for Carla Berube’s 500th win

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By now it’s a familiar recipe: Start the game with tenacious defense, add a heavy dose of imposing play in the paint and mix in a strong measure of sharpshooting from the outside.

When Princeton women’s basketball succeeds in combining these ingredients, it’s nearly guaranteed to win, as it did on Saturday afternoon in a 74-60, wire-to-wire putdown of Penn at Jadwin Gymnasium.

The triumph was Princeton’s 13th straight win over its arch-rival and the 500th head coaching win of Carla Berube’s career. Berube is 116-22 at Princeton after posting a 384-96 at Tufts for a career .809 winning percentage.

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Penn women’s basketball breezes to 80-60 victory over Yale

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The Penn women’s basketball team has had its struggles and arrived in New Haven needing to reset. That’s just what it did Saturday with a dominant performance against Yale, 80-60.
Four Quakers shared the bulk of the scoring: Stina Almqvist with 18 points (plus a team-high seven rebounds and two blocks), and Mataya Gayle, Simone Sawyer and Katie Collins with 17 apiece.

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