Mike Elsner
There was "zero regret, that was a very easy decision [to start all five seniors]," McLaughlin said. "We have five seniors, especially four of them who have been with this program for four years, and they've given so much [and] they've earned the right." Credit: Kamelija Patoska Senior guard Mandy McGurk fights to get around a Princeton defender at the Palestra on March 3.
For the Tigers, outside of Kaitlyn Chen, it seemed that they could muster little on offense. But after the break, nothing seemed to be going Penn’s way. "We just had too many open-court turnovers in the third quarter," McLaughlin said.
Despite their offense showing a few more signs of life — scoring 14 points in the period — and Princeton cooling off with only 6-18 shooting, the Quakers were unable to make much of a dent in Princeton’s lead. With 46 seconds left, McLaughlin subbed out his seniors, allowing them to get one last standing ovation from the Palestra crowd. But while Penn’s loss Friday is unfortunate, and the whole team would have liked for its last regular season game to end in a win, the Quakers’ season isn’t over yet.
The team is headed for Ivy Madness next weekend in a fitting location: Princeton. Princeton now wins at least a share of the Ivy League regular season championship. And as they say, it’s hard to beat a team three times in one season.
