Our George “Toothless Tiger” Clark reports on how the Princeton men pulled away at the Palestra to defeat Penn, 72-60, for a seventh consecutive time:
Princeton men pull away at Palestra to beat Penn for seventh straight time, 72-60
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Notes on Penn women’s debacle at Princeton
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.
Princeton women stymie Penn, 55-40
Our George “Toothless Tiger” Clark delivers a courtside report following Princeton women’s basketball’s shutdown of Penn at Jadwin Gym Monday afternoon:
Penn women breeze past Dartmouth, 69-57
Four starters scored in double figures to push the Penn women to a convincing 69-57 win over Dartmouth Saturday afternoon. It’s the 11th win in a row for Penn (12-5, 4-0 Ivy), the last 10 of them in the friendly confines of the Palestra.
The young Dartmouth team (2-16, 0-4) showed potential that belies its record and its position as the Ancient Eighth. Still, Penn led all the way, and the game was never in serious doubt after the first quarter, when the Quakers built an 18-10 lead. A three by Dartmouth junior guard Mekkena Boyd cut the Penn lead to six early in the third quarter, but junior forward Jordan Obi answered with a three of her own, and the lead never dropped below nine again.
Three Quakeaways from Penn men’s defeat at Dartmouth
Penn men’s basketball is going to have a long, long bus ride home from Hanover, N.H.
The Quakers threw away a 13-point second half lead and made a series of critical errors in crunch time en route to a 75-71 loss to Dartmouth at Leede Arena.
The defeat at Dartmouth (6-12, 2-2 Ivy) was painfully reminiscent of Penn’s collapses against Saint Joseph’s and La Salle in Big 5 play. In all three contests, Penn (9-9, 2-2) threw away games against inferior opponents it should have easily defeated.
Saturday’s turning point came with about 99 seconds remaining and Penn holding the ball up one, 71-70. Steve Donahue had called timeout to get junior guard Clark Slajchert back in the game for an offense-defense substitution.
Almost immediately after the ball was inbounded, Slajchert used his shoulder to create a little separation from Dartmouth sophomore guard Ryan Cornish, then hoisted a contested three-pointer after just five seconds had come off the shot clock. The ball caught front iron with no Quakers having a prayer at corralling an offensive rebound.
The shot was one Slajchert could hit, but it was far from the best look Penn could have gotten on that possession given the time and score. The Quakers surrendered a game-winning floater from Big Green junior forward Dusan Neskovic 20 seconds after the miss.
But Slajchert wasn’t alone in suboptimal decision-making among the Red and Blue Saturday afternoon:
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:
Penn women outlast Columbia, 71-67, to stand alone atop Ivy standings
It might be time to say it out loud: The Penn women are back.
You can’t blame them if they were a bit jittery Saturday as they faced Columbia. The top-ranked team in the Ivies was visiting the Palestra with a roster full of scorers, a gaudy record and a fresh overtime win at Princeton.
Turns out Columbia should have been nervous as well.
Three Quakeaways from Penn men’s 84-55 blowout win at Columbia
NEW YORK — Penn bounced back from its loss to Cornell in pretty much the best way possible: by delivering an absolute beatdown of an overmatched opponent. The Quakers hammered Columbia, 84-55, on the back of a 65.2% shooting night from three-point range.
The bulk of that outside shooting came from junior guard Jordan Dingle. The overwhelming favorite for Ivy Player of the Year hit seven of his nine attempts from distance, raising his season three-point shooting percentage from 32% to 35.8% in the process.
Despite committing 17 turnovers, Penn’s offense was able to bury the Lions thanks to a series of opportunistic offensive outbursts. The Quakers generated runs of 15-0, 16-2 and 14-2 over the course of the evening.
Penn also delivered a season-best performance on the defensive end, holding Columbia to just .77 points per possession, according to KenPom.
It all added up to an easy, relatively stress-free win — and plenty of happy Quakeaways, to boot:
Three Quakeaways from Penn men’s 88-69 loss at Cornell
Penn learned the hard way just how far Cornell and coach Brian Earl have come on Friday night, dropping an 88-69 decision to the Big Red in Ithaca, N.Y.
The Quakers were disrupted by Cornell’s uptempo offense and ultra-aggressive defense from the opening tip, even though they matched the Big Red for roughly 30 minutes.
The game flipped when Cornell delivered an emphatic counterpunch to a shot which Penn fans likely thought could have carried the team to victory. Junior guard Clark Slajchert hit a tough three from the left wing through contact to give the Quakers a 56-55 lead with 11:51 to play — and arguably should have had an opportunity for a four-point play.
No matter. On the very next possession, the Big Red’s Greg Dolan drove through the lane, hit a layup and drew a foul on Penn forward Max Martz in the process. The foul, Martz’s fourth, forced Penn coach Steve Donahue to pull the man who had been his most efficient player thus far from the game.
By the time Martz returned to the floor, it was too late. Cornell used the and-one to ignite a game-deciding 17-4 run.
As Quakers fans reflect on Friday’s contest, they’ll find themselves haunted by some ghosts from the team’s past, which are detailed below:
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.