Mike McLaughlin

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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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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Alyssa Moreland powers Brown women’s basketball past Penn

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Just days after hitting career highs to beat Dartmouth, Brown junior forward Alyssa Moreland exceeded those marks in overpowering Penn, 65-57, Friday night in Providence.
Moreland was pretty much unstoppable inside, racking up 25 points and 18 rebounds while shooting 10-for-19. And classmate Grace Arnolie matched her output from outside, with 25 points on 8-for-12 shooting, including a devastating 4-for-5 on threes. The rest of the Brown Bears hit just one of their 17 shots from beyond the arc, but Moreland and Arnolie were enough to beat the Red and Blue.

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Columbia women’s basketball claws past Penn, 74-59

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The Columbia women’s basketball team opened the defense of its Ivy League title by putting Penn deep in a hole early on, watching as Penn charged back to take the lead at halftime, and then reclaiming the game comfortably, 74-59, Saturday at the Palestra.
“It’s a great first game for us to learn a lot,” Columbia head coach Megan Griffith told reporters afterward.
“We talked about making a statement,” Griffith said. “Regardless of who [the opponent] is, especially when you’re playing against, one, a good team, and, two, a really good coach.”

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Penn women’s basketball squashes Delaware State, 72-45

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The Penn women’s basketball team got an early holiday present Friday: a young Delaware State team it could beat soundly while giving some first-year Quakers time in the spotlight.

With a game-high 14 points off the bench for center Tina Njike (a sophomore sidelined by injuries last season), Penn beat Delaware State, 72-45, at the Palestra for its fifth win in a row, and Del State’s fifth straight loss. At a muscular 6-foot-2, Njike showed strong moves to the rim for Penn (8-3) as well as a good touch from midrange with 6-for-8 shooting and four rebounds, plus 2-for-2 from the free-throw line, in 16 minutes on the court.

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Freshmen shoot Penn women’s basketball past La Salle, 74-63

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Penn and La Salle were playing a perfectly good women’s basketball Friday afternoon when the Quakers’ Sarah Miller turned it into a sharpshooting match, leading to a Penn win, 74-63. 

The 5-foot-10 guard from Phoenix scored a bucket in the first quarter, but she really took off in the second with four straight threes, then added a fifth in the third quarter before her first miss of the day. All in all, she went 6-for-7 plus 4-for-4 on foul shots for a game-high 21 points. Fellow freshman Katie Collins also had a 6-for-7 day, though closer to the basket and in less spectacular fashion, finishing with 12 points and 11 rebounds. 

The win was coach Mike McLaughlin’s 250th at Penn.  

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Penn women’s basketball picks itself up after falling to Saint Joseph’s

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No matter what sport you’ve been around, you’ve probably heard it said: A W is a W. An ugly win counts just as much in the record books.
But the opposite isn’t necessarily true, and the Penn women’s basketball team recorded a pretty good loss Friday night to an excellent Saint Joseph’s squad, 68-57, at the Palestra.
For context, look back a year and a day to the last time the two teams met: a 77-49 blowout for the Hawks on their way to a 28-win season (and a Big 5 championship). If anything, the Hawks are stronger this year, while the Quakers are trying to compensate for the loss of All-Ivy forward Jordan Obi to graduation and spark plug guard Ese Ogbevire to injury.

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Penn women’s basketball coasts versus Siena to third win

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A dominant 27-point performance from Stina Almqvist led the Penn women’s basketball team to a 78-47 trouncing of Siena at the Palestra Wednesday night.
Almqvist, an All-Ivy Second Team selection last season, is second to none so far in her senior year, tied for the league lead in scoring for Penn (3-0) with Princeton’s Madison St. Rose at 19.7 points per game. Against Siena (0-3), Almqvist scored six of Penn’s first eight points. She was as efficient as ever for the night, hitting nine of 14 shots from the field and eight of 10 from the free-throw line, and added nine rebounds, five assists and a pair of steals.

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Penn women’s basketball shows off its youth brigade

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The last time we saw the Penn women’s basketball team, it was within seconds of a stunning upset of Princeton in Ivy Madness. Penn may well have succeeded but for an egregious foul call.
The last time we saw the Quakers, forward Jordan Obi was one of the Ivies’ premier players, a 6-foot-1 senior forward with guard skills and linebacker strength.
Now Obi has brought her number zero to the roster of the No. 22 Kentucky Wildcats, and Penn coach Mike McLaughlin is looking through an intriguing collection of new pieces to put together the puzzle of another Ivy contender. He showed them off Saturday at the Palestra in the annual Red and Blue Scrimmage.

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