So was the Penn women’s victory over Columbia a mirage? Was that 11-game winning streak a fluke?
No, but the loss at Princeton reflects the Quakers’ inconsistency.
Mike McLaughlin
Penn at Princeton women’s game preview
Our George “Toothless Tiger” Clark previews a key Monday Ivy clash between the Penn and Princeton women at Jadwin Gym:
Padilla leads Penn women past Cornell, 62-54, for Quakers’ eighth straight win
How many times have we written this headline: Padilla leads Penn women past (fill in the blank)?
From deep, slashing through the lane and standing calmly at the free-throw line, the All-Ivy senior guard has so often been the difference. She was again Friday night at the Palestra with 28 points as the Quakers stopped Cornell, 62-54, for their eighth straight win.
It was a match between two teams on the rise this season, both looking down a long road of Ivy games with a chance of making the conference tournament. (The Penn women have qualified for it four times but missed last year’s. Cornell reached the tournament in 2019.) And a lively game showed that both are capable, if uneven.
Penn women romp over Gwynedd Mercy in pre-Ivy warmup
Coaches have plenty of good reasons for scheduling events like the Penn women’s Friday afternoon game — let’s not call it a contest — against Gwynedd Mercy at the Palestra. Drama just isn’t one of them.
Let’s get the basics out of the way: Penn 95, G. Mercy 38. The Quakers put 17 players on the court (no, not all at once), and 16 of them scored. The Penn reserves outscored the Penn starters, who in turn outscored Gwynedd Mercy, which to be fair played well for a Division III team facing a bigger, faster, more talented Division I team.
Penn women rout St. Francis Brooklyn for fourth straight win
There being no mercy rule in basketball, coaches on the comfortable end of a lead will pull their starters and give untried freshmen real-life college playing time.
When Penn’s Mike McLaughlin did that Thursday night against St. Francis Brooklyn, the game was only three-quarters over — and the Penn reserves made the lead even bigger, closing out a 78-44 romp.
It wasn’t just that St. Francis (1-9) was victim material, though it’s a young team. The Quakers played well enough to beat any team on their schedule, ending the drama early with a 33-point first quarter, knocking down three after three. Penn sank 12 of its 17 first-quarter shots, a stunning 70.6%. The pace of long balls eased up after that, but Penn’s threes — 15 on 37 attempts for the night, or 40.5% — were enough by themselves to outscore everything St. Francis put into the basket.
Sawyer solidifies standout start as Penn women sail past La Salle, 72-59
The Penn women put together their most effective game of the year so far Tuesday night at La Salle, building a comfortable lead early and cruising to a 72-59 win.
Freshman guard Simone Sawyer dispelled any doubts that she’s for real. After just getting her feet wet in the Quakers’ first four games, Sawyer got significant time in two games last week in California and scored 18 points in each. Against La Salle, Sawyer led all scorers with 24 points on 9-for-18 shooting and added seven rebounds and four assists.
Sawyer’s emergence provides silver lining for Penn women in Golden State losses
The Penn women will head home from California dreaming of better days, having dropped two games during their Thanksgiving break but having demonstrated the standout talent of a star freshman.
The trip was a coming-out party for 5-foot-11 guard Simone Sawyer, who is fulfilling her promise as an electric offensive threat. At San Francisco on Monday, Sawyer came off the bench early and started hitting threes, going 6-for-9, to account for her team-leading 18 points in 33 minutes. So coach Mike McLaughlin started her at Southern California, gave her 30 minutes on the floor and got another team-leading 18 points: 6 of 10 from the floor this time, including 4-for-7 from deep, with three assists and four steals.
It’s also good news that the Quakers (1-5) were competitive against two good teams, USF (3-2) and especially USC (5-0). But they’ll have to be better still to reclaim a spot in the top half of the Ivies.
Penn women comeback falls short at Northwestern
The Penn women knew they weren’t traveling to Chicago in mid-November for the weather.
They were at Northwestern, not a national power but a legitimate Big Ten competitor, to test themselves. A win would be a bonus.
The Quakers didn’t get the win. In fact, they never came closer than the zero-zero tie at tipoff on the way to a 63-55 loss. But they made the game close in the fourth quarter — an 11-point run brought them to within three — and they learned some lessons as they try to improve on last year’s fifth-place finish in the Ivies and overall losing record, a rarity for any team that Mike McLaughlin has coached.’
Padilla shines as Penn women outmatch Marist, 65-61, in season opener
The Penn women started their season very, very badly Thursday night at Marist, missing 10 of their first 11 shots.
Then Kayla Padilla reminded everyone why she’s the top scorer in the Ivies and a threat whenever the ball is in play. The senior guard sliced through the Marist defenders or shot over them for 31 points, and the Quakers held on to beat the Red Foxes, 65-61.
2022-23 IHO Women’s Preseason Poll
It’s still Princeton’s conference until another Ivy proves that it isn’t. Our contributors are united in believing that the Tigers will stay on top in 2022-23, with Megan Griffith’s ascendant Columbia program again placing second.
But there wasn’t consensus on how the rest of the top half of the league will fill out.
Penn could break back into the Ivy League Tournament after missing it for the first time last season, but we expect the Red & Blue to draw stiff competition from Harvard and Yale in their first years under new coaches.
Will #2bidivy happen in the league for only the second time in conference history? It very well could, and the bottom half of the conference is likely to be substantially stronger this season as Brown and Dartmouth return more experienced rosters under coaches that now have a year of Ivy play under their belts.