City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
––

The look on Kayla Padilla’s face, in her words, was “pure joy.”

The Penn senior was dribbling at hyperspeed around one half of the Palestra floor, the final seconds counting off the clock, a massive smile on her face, the crowd of several hundred sounding like thousands. 

On a night where she joined the 1,000-point club, Padilla made sure she — or her teammates, or any of the Quaker faithful in attendance — didn’t go home disappointed. The Penn senior scored 28 points, including the go-ahead bucket with under 10 seconds to play, to lift Penn to a 62-61 win over Temple in the Big 5 finale for both teams.

“I thought Kayla was special — not even good, I thought she was as good as she’s been here at Penn, she single-handedly carried us to the finish line,” McLaughlin said. “She was as good as you’re going to see at this level, and the culmination of her getting 1,000 points, too, it’s pretty remarkable for anyone at any level, let alone the college level. 

“One of the better wins that we’ve had at Penn here in a while,” he added, while also saying “I’ve been here 14 years, and that was one of the most exciting arenas that we’ve had for our program.”

Padilla, Penn’s leading scorer and a two-time All-Ivy First Team selection, was fantastic even though she was the primary focus of the Temple defense, playing all 40 minutes, having just as much energy at the end as she did at the beginning. The 5-foot-9 was 10-for-21 from the floor and 6-of-13 from the 3-point range, with four assists and three rebounds, as Penn extended its winning streak to five straight.

By far her biggest points were those that came with 6.8 seconds remaining, on a left-hand drive and right-hand finish, three Temple defenders nearby but unable to stop her.

“I’m always trying to do my part, and I knew that in moments like these, this is a time where the team needs me to step up and make plays, and I’m just happy that translated,” she said. “I knew I had been shooting the ball pretty well so I had a feeling the lane might be open, and Coach had been harping to take on contact, and I think there was one thing on my mind, and I knew I could put the ball in the basket. Thankful that it did.”

“We tried to face-guard her,” Temple coach Diane Richardson said of their general plan to stop Padilla. “But she, of course, is very determined [...] then Mike threw some screens on her, some double-screens for her, we lost her, and she got some shots off.”

Padilla got her milestone bucket in the third quarter on 3-pointer from the left corner which hit the rim, bounced, settled on the far side of the rim, and then dropped backwards through the hoop, giving the California native her 1,000th career point (and her 1,001st, and her 1,002nd). 

She becomes the 24th overall Penn women’s player to get to the mark, doing it in fewer games (60) than all but two others in the program history; she’s the fastest ever to do it under McLaughlin.

“I knew I was close — my mom was telling me she wanted me not to score so she could be there for my 1,000 point game, but I felt like I kinda needed to put the ball in the basket,” she said with a laugh. “I’m not super-big on individual accolades, and while yes I’m very proud to have reached 1,000 points, I don’t think it would have meant as much if we didn’t translate and win in this game, so to have done that and win such a great game like this just means the world.”

Sunday’s matchup was one of two programs that got off to rough starts but have been turning it around of late. Penn (6-5, 2-2 Big 5) entered play having won four straight, including the first three of 10 straight home games, to get back to .500 after a 1-4 start.

Temple (4-6, 1-3) also started the season 1-4 but had won three of four over the last couple weeks.

Both teams showed their progress with stretches of dominance. For Temple, it was the first half of the third quarter, when the Owls built a two-point halftime lead into a 15-point edge in the span of a little more than four minutes, looking like they might run away with it at the Palestra. 

Penn had its moments early, and then the latter half of the third quarter, Padilla’s 1,000-point bucket part of an 11-0 spurt that closed it back up. The fourth quarter was Temple playing keep-away with the lead the way Lucy teased Charlie Brown — offering up several opportunities for the Quakers to take control, then whisking it away at the last moment with a well-timed turnover or bucket. 

Though Jordan Obi (16 points) was second to Padilla in the scoring column, it was freshman guard Simone Sawyer who hit two of the night’s biggest shots, a pair of 3-pointers. The first, with three minutes left, tied it at 57-57, the first tie since the second quarter. Her second, with 20 seconds left, cut it to a one-point game.

Sawyer finished with 13 points, her sixth double-digit outing in the last seven games, a big reason why McLaughlin moved her into the starting lineup five games back.

“Her confidence is going through the roof,” Padilla said. “I think once she saw the ball consistently going in, I think she knew she could really make an impact on this level, and I think it’s just really changed the dynamic of our team, especially on the offensive side, where the pressure isn’t just on Jordan and I to score.”

There’s no doubt that Temple’s late-game stumbles helped Penn come away victorious. The Owls, 13-of-24 (54.2%) from the foul line in the game, hit only 7-of-14 (50%) in the fourth quarter, including just three of their final eight attempts. With the Quakers also committing a few mistakes down the stretch, those extra points would have meant seven-or-eight point leads instead of two-or-three.

“My gosh, believe me, I gave them some choice words about free throws,” Richardson said. “The free throws killed us, I mean, shooting 50% from the line is not going to win a game, especially in the fourth quarter.”

After Sawyer’s shot to make it a one-point game, Temple was then whistled for a five-second call on the inbounds, which set up Padilla’s game-winner; on the ensuing inbounds after Padilla’s layup, the Owls traveled, which set up Padilla’s final sprint around the court.

“I don’t know what we were thinking,” Richardson said. “I thought on that last call, I called timeout, and the ref said she didn’t hear me, and we lost possession of the ball.”

Temple has five days until its next game, at home against Duquesne; the Owls also host Ole Miss on Dec. 21 before American Athletic Conference play starts on Dec. 30 as Memphis comes to town.

Penn has a much longer break, taking off for finals and the holidays before returning for a tune-up against D-III Gwynedd Mercy. Their next truly competitive game will be the Ivy League opener, Jan. 2 at home against Brown, the first of four straight home games to open Ancient Eight play.

“I thought this team has grown immensely from the start to the finish,” McLaughlin said. “We’re going into finals and we don’t play for a while and they get to go home and see their families for a while; I think it’s important to carry this on, and the excitement in the gym was awesome. We talk about it all the time, but when you actually see it, I think that will have a lot of carryover, too.”

~~~

Clinton carried off, prognosis unknown

With just under five minutes remaining, Temple sophomore Jasha Clinton had to be carried off the floor after getting fouled hard while going to the hoop. Clinton hit the ground and was immediately in a lot of pain, having to be comforted by Owls coach Diane Richardson before a couple coaches and trainers lifted her up and took her off to the training room.

Prior to her injury, Clinton — who entered play Temple’s third-leading scorer (10.1 ppg) — had 15 points, four rebounds and three steals while playing 32 minutes. Afterwards, she was seen getting her left ankle taped up, a pair of crutches at the ready; Richardson didn’t have any specifics, but she didn’t seem optimistic.

“It looks pretty bad,” Richardson said. “(Clinton) doesn’t cry, and she’s crying today. We’ve got to get X-rays and see what’s going on.”

~~~

East impresses for Temple

Though she was responsible for a few of those missed foul shots and the final travel, there’s no doub that Temple sophomore Tiarra East was a big part of why Temple got itself up early. The 5-10 guard put up 20 points for the second game in a row, finishing with 23 points on 9-of-19 shooting, with three steals and six rebounds.

“Tiarra East had a great game today, again,” Richardson said. “Just using her size and her strength, getting to the rim.”

East’s season started off well, the sophomore scoring in double figures in each of her first three contests (13.3 ppg) while making exactly half of her shots and grabbing 25 rebounds during that stretch. But the next four were not so kind: shooting 7-of-39 (18%), she averaged 6.5 ppg and 4.0 rpg, and so Richardson took her out of the lineup.

“She had some games where she wasn’t doing very well and so we made the switch,” Richardson said.

The low point came in a win against UMBC on Dec. 3, when she played less than 10 minutes off the bench, though 11 points and 7 rebounds in that run showed she was figuring out how to be productive again. East followed that up with a career-best 25-point outing against La Salle and then had another strong outing against Penn; with Clinton out, she’d be the first candidate to move back into the lineup, but Richardson does have other options if she wants to keep East in a role where she seems to be thriving.

“I’ve not even thought about it yet,” Richardson said, “but she’s had some good games these last few games, so we’ll see what happens.”