Penn rallied to defeat Columbia on Saturday evening at the Palestra a day after a narrow loss to Cornell, closing out a two-day stretch of Ivy League games on a high note.
The 64-55 win over the Lions (14-6, 5-2) marked the first win over Columbia in three years for the Quakers (13-7, 3-4) and kept alive Penn’s hopes of competing for the Ivy title. It also dropped the Lions out of a tie for first place with Princeton.
And it erased the pain of a nail-biting 62-58 home loss to the Big Red on Friday that snapped a two-game Quakers winning streak.
“We were hungry,” said Penn guard Mataya Gayle, who finished with a team-high 16 points and seven assists against Columbia. “We wanted it. I think that showed in how we played. We were all over the court. We know they’re a good team, but we put in our heads that today we’re going to be the better team.”
The Lions entered boasting a 5-1 Ivy record after defeating No. 19 Princeton on Friday night. On the flip side, Penn’s loss to Cornell put it at sixth in the Ivy League — three games back from competing for a spot in the league tournament.
Following the loss, Penn coach Mike McLaughlin pressured the team to step up its effort, knowing the kind of battle the players had ahead of them.
“I challenged them that you can’t be outplayed,” McLaughlin said. “You can get out-skilled, but you can’t have someone play harder than you.”
Penn head coach Mike McLaughlin urged his team to play with intensity following a Friday night loss to Cornell. The result? A big win against league-leading Columbia.
Against Columbia, it was evident that the players took that advice to heart. Using a 3-2 zone defense for a majority of the matchup, the Quakers held Columbia to 32.3% shooting from the floor.
“Losing to Cornell was not ideal,” Gayle said. “Our backs were against the wall, but I think that also gave us another boost today. We went out there like we had the most to lose, but also nothing to lose. We competed. You saw everyone on the court doing what they needed to do, the little things. We took yesterday’s loss and learned from it, and that translated today.”
‘Not an easy task’
McLaughlin has been looking for players to step up and support the team’s stars, Katie Collins (nine points) and Gayle, and for the first time in Ivy League play, he got his wish.
Every player to log more than three minutes for Penn scored at least eight points, which helped overcome a 24-point night from Columbia guard Riley Weiss. The supporting cast was headlined by a double-double from center Tina Njike, who bounced back from a difficult 13-minute performance against Cornell to finish with 10 points and 10 rebounds.
Penn center Tina Njike (10) seen in a game earlier this season, finished with 10 points and 10 rebounds in a win over Columbia on Saturday.
“I’m really proud of Tina,” McLaughlin said. “Thirty-five minutes. It’s not an easy task for anyone.”
Brooke Suttle, whom McLaughlin has relied upon as the team’s de facto sixth man, also shined, scoring 11 points.
Honoring the 2001 team
In attendance was Penn’s 2001 championship team, which was honored at halftime in celebration of the 25th anniversary of the program’s first Ivy League title.
Penn, coached by Kelly Greenberg, went 14-0 in league play en route to securing the program’s first NCAA Tournament bid with a record of 22-6.
“It was a great building tonight,” McLaughlin said in reference to the former players’ support. “That was about as fun as I think these kids can play in this environment. And I want them to experience that, too. All this came together tonight.”
A deep bench has been crucial as Villanova maintains its hold on second place in the Big East.
Just look at Saturday’s 69-56 win over DePaul at Finneran Pavilion.
Senior guard Ryanne Allen accounted for 17 points for the Wildcats (16-5, 9-3 Big East) and was their second-leading scorer behind sophomore guard Jasmine Bascoe (27 points).
The 6-foot-1 Perkasie native aims to bring a spark and is averaging 9.0 points and 2.3 rebounds, mostly off the bench.
“Our bench has been tremendous,” said Villanova coach Denise Dillon said. “I think any of them are capable of being in that starting lineup, with Ryanne, Dani [Ceseretti], and Brooke Bender. They generate a lot of offense for us. It’s so nice to have that spark coming off the bench.”
Bringing a ‘spark’
Allen’s specialty has been her consistent shooting from beyond the arc, where she’s averaging 48.7% this season. Against DePaul, she shot 5-for-6 from the field, including 3-for-4 in three-pointers.
Allen led the Wildcats to a strong finish against the Blue Demons (5-18, 2-10), contributing a three-pointer and a layup on consecutive possessions in Villanova’s 7-0 run in the final two minutes of action. She also led Villanova with seven rebounds, as it edged DePaul, 38-34, on the boards.
Dani Ceseretti shoots over DePaul’s Michelle Ojo during the first quarter at the Finneran Pavilion on Saturday.
“The big challenge today [against DePaul] was rebounding,” Dillon said. “It’s been a challenge for us as a team. So we crowned a rebounding leader today, and Ryanne was awarded the crown today. I think we’ve got to compete against each other. If we’re doing that, then we’re getting better.”
Although she has only started one game this season, Allen’s experience and sharp shooting have made her a crucial part of the rotation.
“When I come in, I just want to make an immediate impact and bring energy to those who have already been out there,” said Allen, who’s in her second season at Villanova after spending the first half of her college career at Vanderbilt. “Being on the bench, you’re able to see things, see what’s happening out there. So I want to bring that energy and see what I can do to help the team in any way.”
Allen is embracing the opportunity to finish her college basketball career not far from where it started, at Archbishop Wood.
“That’s one of the reasons I came back here, to be able to have my family here, especially to be able to see my siblings, my parents, grandparents, and aunts show out for me every game,” Allen said.
Every game will be crucial in the final stretch of conference play before the Big East tournament. Allen hopes that the energy she brings to the court will reverberate around the rest of the team.
The Wildcats next travel to Indianapolis for a matchup with Butler on Wednesday (7 p.m., ESPN+).
“In February, you’ve already played every [Big East opponent], so everyone knows what you can do, and they see your strengths and your weaknesses,” Allen said. “So it’s important to be able to find different ways to win, continue to put our foot in the gas and push forward when everyone’s trying to get as many wins as possible.”
St. Joseph’s picked up its sixth win in its last seven games following a 67-58 final on the road against La Salle on Saturday.
The Hawks (14-8, 6-3 Atlantic 10) shot 14 of 32 in three-pointers, while La Salle (7-14, 3-6) made 3 of 19 three-point attempts.
The Hawks were led by sophomore guard Dasear Haskins, who finished with 20 points and 11 rebounds. Alongside Haskins, Hawks sophomore guard Jaiden Glover-Toscano added 16 points.
After a disappointing nonconference slate, the Hawks have surged in A-10 play. After Saturday’s matchup, St. Joe’s sits third in the conference. Head coach Steve Donahue praised his team’s ability to ignore the noise early in the season.
“We’ve been through a lot,” Donahue said. “I just see [the team’s] ability to forget about personal expectations and figure out what needs to be done on that game, and that tonight was a perfect example.”
Haskins said it simpler.
“Winning is so fun,” he said. ”I love winning so much.”
The Explorers were competitive early in the game, thanks to Rob Dockery’s 26 points, eight rebounds, and five assists. The redshirt sophomore guard was the only Explorer to finish in double-digit scoring, with freshman guard Ashton Walker adding nine points and six assists.
Hawks’ Haskins hot from deep
St. Joe’s came out hunting the deep-ball early. Thirty of the team’s 36 first-half points came in three-pointers. Six threes were courtesy of Haskins, who made all of his attempts in the first half.
With under four minutes to go before halftime, Haskins showed off his shooting touch with a pocket three that rattled around the rim before dropping.
“I was just confident in my shots,” Haskins said. “My guys were cutting for me early, making it easy for me, and I was just making shots.”
Still, La Salle did not shake.
With the Hawks living beyond the arc, La Salle’s Dockery made St. Joe’s pay in the paint, where he had 16 first-half points.
Even with Haskins’ spotless shooting to start, the Explorers trailed 36-29 entering halftime.
Late push by La Salle
Both teams exchanged punches to start the second half, but St. Joe’s kept its lead.
With 12 minutes remaining, Walker made a flashy hop step pull-up jumper in the paint to bring the score to 48-41. After exchanging misses, Toscano hit a one-handed slam to extend the Hawks’ lead back to nine.
For every positive play the Explorers made, the Hawks had an answer.
“I thought defensively we had some breakdowns that we shouldn’t have had,” said La Salle coach Darris Nichols. “But, you know, they’re a good team. They’re playing well right now, they do the job of sharing the ball.”
As St. Joe’s converted free-throws down the stretch to put the game away, its student section loudly chanted “The Hawk will never die” as the La Salle faithful filed out of Glaser.
Donahue made his way over to the fans to show his appreciation.
“I feel [the fans’ impact] at St Joe’s, more than any place I’ve been,” Donahue said. “They really care about basketball. The students care. It’s fun to be a part of that.”
After a rough start to the season, St. Joseph’s head coach Steve Donahue has the Hawks sitting third in the Atlantic 10 conference.
Up next …
La Salle travels to take on Loyola (Ill.) on Tuesday (8 p.m., ESPN+). On Wednesday, St Joe’s will host George Washington (7 p.m., NBC Sports Philadelphia).
Villanova leaned on sixth man Devin Askew’s team-high 20 points to defeat Providence, 87-73, on Friday night at Finneran Pavilion.
Villanova (16-5, 7-3 Big East) shot 47% from three-point range in the first half to build a 17-point cushion. Askew went 4-for-5 from three and scored 17 first-half points. He now has four games with 20 or more points off the bench this season.
“[We are] trying to get [Devin] to play off his strengths ever since he’s now kind of back to strength,” said Villanova coach Kevin Willard. “He had a great week of practice. I think that was the big thing. I think everybody did. We had three really good days of practice, and that’s the way he played for the last three days.”
Askew, who suffered a major knee sprain over the summer, is averaging 15.8 points in his last six games. He missed about two months of practice as the team prepared to open the season.
Villanova coach Kevin Willard reacts in the second half against Providence on Friday.
“I feel really good out there,” Askew said when asked about his health. “But just like always, I still have some work to do. Still got to get better every day.”
Junior guard Tyler Perkins scored 19 points, marking his fifth consecutive game in double digits. He shot 6-for-11 from the field, including 3-for-6 from three-point range.
“I just [have] been in the gym,” Perkins said. “We have a great strength coach in [Justin McClelland], and he gets us better every day, especially in the summer. We do ‘Strong Man,’ and that’s a big part of just being in shape and getting your body right for the season. So it’s just a testament to the coaching staff that we have around us.”
Villanova shot 51% from the field and made a conference-high 13 three-pointers (45%).
Villanova scored 20 fast break points to Providence’s two. Askew and Perkins were a main reason why Villanova was successful on fast break opportunities.
“We’re a really good transition team,” Perkins said. “We got a bunch of good shooters like Devin, Bryce [Lindsay], so if we get out and run, we got a good opportunity to score.”
Villanova guard Tyler Perkins gathers teammates Bryce Lindsay, Duke Brennan, and Acaden Lewis against Providence on Jan. 30.
Villanova forced Providence (9-13, 2-9) into 10 first-half turnovers, including seven steals, three by freshman guard Acaden Lewis. Villanova scored 15 first-half points off those forced turnovers.
The Wildcats currently rank 36th in KenPom’s defensive ratings after the win over Providence.
Slow second half
Despite being a strong second-half team, Villanova came out flat. The Wildcats missed their first ten field goal attempts, allowing Providence to cut its deficit to eight points.
“I think the defensive end we kind of gave, [Stefan Vaaks], he’s good,” Willard said. “He’s a pro with his size and the way he shoots it. We left him [open] twice to start the second half, and kind of gave them nine points and let them right back into the game. So I thought we did a much better job of just sitting down, defending.”
Villanova forward Matt Hodge shoots a three-pointer against Providence guard Stefan Vaaks, who finished a game-high 25 points, on Friday.
Vaaks, a 6-foot-7 freshman guard, finished with a game-high 25 points
In the final 11 minutes of play, however, Villanova went 12-for-13 from the field, which included an 11-1 scoring run.
“They don’t fold,” said Providence coach Kim English. “They stick to that process. We guarded them [well] to start the second half. They didn’t score for a long time to start, think it was like 20% or something. But they stuck with their process. They’re a really good shot quality team, and that’s what it takes. Paint decisions was the game.”
Villanova will host Seton Hall (15-6, 5-5) on Wednesday (6:30 p.m., Peacock). In its last meeting, Villanova beat Seton Hall, 64-56, to pick up a Quad 1 win in the NCAA NET Rankings. This time, it would be a possible Quad 2 victory. This season, Villanova is 3-4 in Quad 1 wins and 2-1 in Quad 2.
The project, directed by Melanie Page, was featured at Temple on Thursday night. Page shared a teaser of her documentary about women’s basketball greats who have come through the Philadelphia area over the years.
The event included a panel discussion with Temple coach Diane Richardson, Temple Hall of Famer Marilyn Stephens, Philly basketball legend Yolanda Laney, and former Army coach Lynn Arturi-Chiavaro. Page’s first documentary, about women’s basketball in the Washington, D.C., area, also was screened.
“I’m a student of basketball, but that was how I was raised in my upbringing from 5 years old,” Page said. “Seeing the Washington Mystics, it’s never left me. And here I am today, being able to tell more stories and bring the youth up to speed.”
The Philly documentary will feature prominent local women’s basketball figures like Laney and Stephens. The DMV documentary starred Richardson from when she was the head coach at Riverdale Baptist School and Towson and an assistant at Maryland, along with Temple associate head coach Wanisha Smith, who played for Richardson at Riverdale Baptist. (Richardson also was an assistant at two other Washington-based universities, American and George Washington.)
Page started the project during the pandemic in 2020. A DMV native, she began her storytelling there, and it gained some traction in 2021, when she released clips of her interviews from the documentary.
The next step was to bring it to Philly. Arturi-Chiavaro played for the city’s first professional women’s basketball team, the Philadelphia Fox of the Women’s Professional Basketball League, which only lasted from 1978 to 1981.
Stephens was a ball girl for the Fox and starred at Temple from 1980 to 1984. She scored 2,194 points and grabbed 1,516 rebounds, ranking second in school history in points and first in rebounds. She was inducted into the school’s Hall of Fame in 1995.
“You can’t erase our history,” Stephens said. “We got to just stand strong and educate the generations that’s come behind us and give them the information about women’s basketball.”
Richardson and Laney also emphasized the importance of not letting the history of women’s basketball be forgotten.
Laney helped lead Cheyney State (now known as Cheyney University) to the first-ever NCAA women’s national championship game in 1982. Her daughter, Betnijah Laney-Hamilton, plays for the New York Liberty. Richardson is not from the area, but has become one of the biggest advocates for women’s basketball in the city since being hired at Temple in 2022.
“We heard a question for what would you name the Philadelphia WNBA team … I would call it the Philadelphia Cradle,” Laney said. “Because we are cradling basketball history in this area and we have a different style of play in Philadelphia basketball.”
With a WNBA franchise coming to Philly in 2030, Richardson and Laney believe the documentary will help keep the city excited.
“Doing things right now like what Melanie is doing and just opening people’s eyes to the explosion of women’s basketball is really important,” Richardson said. “We’ve got to catch that lightning in a bottle and do it now because five years from now, we’re going to be too late.”
Stephens, Arturi-Chiavaro, Richardson, and Laney have a hand in the history and future of women’s basketball. Page wants to keep educating folks about their impact.
“This is the standard,” Page said. “This is how it should be. This should be the norm of what we are doing. People should know Yolanda Laney’s name off the top of their heads. They should know Marilyn Stephens. … It should definitely be the standard. That’s the message.”
Nicholas Singleton, who just wrapped his senior season at Penn State, suffered a broken foot during a Senior Bowl practice on Thursday in Mobile, Ala., according to Rich Scarcella of The Reading Eagle.
Scarcella first reported the news, citing Singleton’s father, Tim, who told The Reading Eagle that Nick injured the fifth metatarsal bone in his right foot and will undergo surgery early next week.
Singleton is considered one of the top running backs in the 2026 NFL Draft. During his four-year career at Penn State, he rushed for 3,461 yards — with his season best of 1,099 coming in 2024-25.
#PennState RB Nick Singleton just left Senior Bowl practice with an injury sustained during 1-on-1s. Walked off the field, got looked at by trainers then limped to the locker room. We’ll see if he returns.
He finished with 54 touchdowns (45 rushing and nine receiving) to break the university’s career rushing and total touchdowns record. He’s also the program’s career leader in all-purpose yards (5,586).
The Governor Mifflin High School graduate had a down year this past season, but managed 13 rushing touchdowns for 549 yards, as Penn State finished 7-6 overall, 3-6 in the Big 10.
While Singleton, among 15 others, did not participate in the Pinstripe Bowl, the Nittany Lions beat Clemson, 22-10, in the final game of the 2025 season.
The youth coach used to hold 6 a.m. workouts inside a Baptist church on City Avenue, where Cloud first learned how to be disciplined in basketball and in life.
“I hope he sees this,” Cloud said Thursday afternoon, while facing a slew of television and phone cameras inside the Alan Horwitz “Sixth Man” Center. “… He set a standard. He set an expectation. And he set a work ethic for my skill set, my career.”
Cloud brings all of that back to Philly on Friday night for the Unrivaled offseason league’s two games at Xfinity Mobile Arena. The 33-year-old Broomall native called it a “dream come true” to help lead the return of professional women’s basketball to her city ahead of the WNBA’s arrival in 2030. Yet Cloud is most elated for “Young Tash,” who has blossomed into a WNBA champion, an 11-year professional, a dynamic personality, and an activist on and off the court.
“I carry this city everywhere I go,” Cloud said following practice for the Phantom, her Unrivaled team. “… I just never thought I would be here, so I think the most gratifying thing is just trusting God’s journey for my life. Doing it my way, too. Because I don’t think a lot of people get to do their careers their way.”
Before Mr. Ross, Cloud credits her Aunt Dawn as one of her first sports role models. A Delaware County basketball and softball star, she helped Cloud embrace being a tomboy — and a “powerful, badass woman.”
So Cloud honed that athleticism on the basketball hoop on the side of her home, which became a neighborhood gathering spot on school half-days. She played King — nah, Queen — of the Court against the boys. They lowered the rim so they could dunk. They idolized Allen Iverson and Dawn Staley.
When Linus McGinty, the legendary Cardinal O’Hara girls’ basketball coach, first watched Cloud play as an eighth grader, he believed she had WNBA potential because “she could do everything.” And Cloud wanted to play for that program because, in her words, “in Linus we trust.”
Cloud also appreciated O’Hara’s structure, from the nuns on campus to McGinty’s “strict” practices. She became an immediate starter on a talented team immersed in the competitive Philadelphia Catholic League.
New York Liberty player Natasha Cloud dances while standing with other officials during an announcement about the Unrivaled Women’s Basketball League 2026 Philly tour stop.
McGinty’s one gripe about Cloud? She was almost too unselfish as the point guard.
“She never tried to score first,” the coach told The Inquirer by phone last week.
But Cloud made up for that in defensive prowess. The 5-foot-10 Cloud guarded the much more imposing Morgan Tuck and Elena Delle Donne, then elite recruits who became college and WNBA stars. Cloud preserved O’Hara’s 2008 PCL title victory by blocking a three-point attempt at the buzzer.
Then when Cloud was the only starter who returned her senior year, she finally carried more of O’Hara’s offensive load. She was an All-State selection after averaging 12.3 points, 7.9 rebounds, 5.2 assists, and four steals, before beginning her college career at Maryland in 2010-11.
After her freshman season, she transferred to St. Joseph’s to be closer to home. Her sister had been diagnosed with stomach cancer, and she was looking for a similar family atmosphere within her next college program.
“Tash is a very compassionate person,” St. Joe’s coach Cindy Griffin recently told The Inquirer by phone. “So if there’s anything going on at home, she feels that. She would have to learn how to manage that, and she did an unbelievable job doing that.”
While sitting out the 2011-12 season because of NCAA transfer rules at the time, Cloud worked on refining her jumper. Her energy filtered to teammates and staff, Griffin said, even when she was playing on the scout team. That perhaps was most evident on defense, where she consistently covered ground (and others’ mistakes) while understanding how to rotate sharply and when to take risks on the ball. She was the Atlantic 10 Defensive Player of the Year in 2014.
“That just fueled fire for all of her teammates,” Griffin said, “and it just elevated everybody around her. … They really appreciated that, and they wanted to play hard for her and with her.”
Then when the Hawks needed more scoring punch from Cloud as her career progressed, she delivered.
Before her WNBA career, Natasha Cloud starred at St. Joe’s.
She totaled 15 points, six assists, and six rebounds in a comeback win over Fordham in the 2013 A-10 tournament championship game, and “looked like a pro out there, finishing in transition, taking and making tough shots,” the coach said. That carried over to the next season, when Cloud hit timely buckets to propel the ninth-seeded Hawks’ to upset eighth-seeded Georgia in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
“Came down to a 1-5 ball screen,” Griffin said, “and [Cloud] being able to put us on her shoulders and win the game for us. … The answer is yes she can, and yes she will.”
Cloud’s impact has now stretched far beyond Philly.
She won the 2019 WNBA championship with the Washington Mystics and led the league in assists in 2022. She has made a WNBA All-Defensive team three times. She has played overseas in Turkey and Australia. She opted out of the 2020 WNBA “bubble” season to focus on social justice issues and remains outspoken on such topics.
But she has stayed connected to her roots.
She still has a house in town, meaning one might catch her during the offseason at the local Wawa or driving her truck. She regularly visits St. Joe’s to work out and chat with the team, reminding them how special college bonds can be. Unprompted, she told The Inquirer last week that she hopes to have her jersey number retired by St. Joe’s and O’Hara — preferably while her parents are still around to celebrate with her.
And now, she finally gets to play professional basketball in Philly. When she learned Unrivaled would be making a tour stop here, she knew fans would “show up and show out” for the showcase event. She stepped onstage wearing a Phillies cap for the October announcement at LOVE Park and pumped up the crowd. She hopes local kids getting to watch her play in person is a jolt of inspiration.
Among those in attendance Friday will be the Hawks, “shouting as loud as we can for Natasha Cloud and the Phantom,” Griffin said. An intrigued McGinty said he also might need to get down to South Philly. Mr. Ross surely is welcome, too. And it will be the first time Cloud plays in front of her family here since 2015.
They all helped develop “Young Tash.” And that is why she carries the city with her everywhere she goes — including back home.
“I’ve stayed true to myself,” Cloud said. “True to my character, my morals, my values through all of it. And that’s just a testament to, I feel like, being from Philly. We stand on our [stuff]. We’re going to talk our [stuff]. You can’t tell us otherwise. We know who we are.
“We’re confident in who we are, and a lot of people take it as arrogance. But it’s just, like, ‘Man, God has blessed me so abundantly. Who am I to not walk out in this light every single day?’”
Each Friday, Inquirer photo editors pick the best Philly sports images from the last seven days. This week, we’re avoiding the weather and staying inside with plenty of hoops action — from the Big 5 to the Sixers. We’re also in the thick of Flyers season, so we won’t leave the ice totally behind. But first, Gritty.
Gritty pumps up the home crowd during the Flyers’ loss to the New York Islanders earlier this week. On Sunday, the team will host its annual Flyers Charities Carnival.Flyers defenseman Emil Andrae gets checked by Islanders right wing Maxim Tsyplakov during Philly’s 4-0 loss on Monday. The Flyers had won just two of their last 11 games heading into Thursday’s matchup with the Boston Bruins.Flyers goaltender Samuel Ersson stops the puck during the first period against the Islanders. The team has two more games before the Olympic break.Ersson (right) stands in his crease after Islanders center Jean-Gabriel Pageau (left) scored a third period goal during Monday’s loss. The Flyers were in a three-way tie for fourth in the Metropolitan Division heading into Thursday’s game against the Bruins.Sixers center Joel Embiid scored 38 points Saturday against the New York Knicks, but the team lost, 112-109.New York Knicks forward OG Anunoby (center) passes the ball from the floor as Sixers forward Dominick Barlow (right) and guard VJ Edgecombe defend.Sixers guard Kelly Oubre Jr., runs into New York Knicks and former Villanova guard Josh Hart in the fourth quarter of Saturday’s tight loss in South Philly.Jared McCain, who had his best game of the season Tuesday, celebrates a three-point basket in the fourth quarter of their win over the Milwaukee Bucks.Sixers center Adem Bona blocks New York Knicks guard Miles McBride’s dunk attempt in the second quarter on Saturday.Drexel Dragons guard Eli Beard (right)) drives to the basket against Northeastern Huskies guard JB Frankel (second from right) during during the Dragons’ 83-78 win at Daskalakis Athletic Center on Saturday. Drexel has won five of its last six games.St. Joe’s guard Jaiden Glover-Toscano dunks during the second half of the Hawks’ 81-74 win over Dayton University at Hagan Arena on Saturday. Glover-Toscano scored 20 points in the win.Temple’s guard Aiden Tobiason, who scored 16 points, reacts during overtime of the Owls’ 80-76 loss to Charlotte at the Liacouras Center on Wednesday.
It was easy to imagine the 2025-26 St. Joseph’s season as being a lost one on Jan. 3, after the Hawks went six minutes without a basket in crunch time and blew an 11-point second-half lead to Davidson to fall to 8-7 overall and 0-2 in the Atlantic 10.
In fairness, that’s what it had been to date. This wasn’t glass-half-empty thinking. Consider what had transpired in the four previous months. Former coach Billy Lange abruptly left in September, and St. Joe’s turned to Steve Donahue, whom Lange had hired as associate head coach after Donahue was fired by Penn.
Who would stay? Who would leave? It was a little late for the players to reasonably find somewhere else to go. Lange had built a roster capable of competing in the upper half of the A-10, but then came a 2-3 start. By mid-December, leading scorer Deuce Jones, a La Salle transfer, was off the team.
The Hawks went 3-for-22 from three-point range in that Davidson loss. By that point, only one of their eight victories had come against a team ranked inside the KenPom top 200, and even in that one they needed a frantic comeback and a wild shot from Jones before the buzzer to beat Temple. Two of the eight wins were against Division III teams.
St. Joe’s has won five of six since then. What changed? The shots are falling more consistently, which always helps, and there’s more of a sense of togetherness when you watch the Hawks than in games earlier in the season.
But never question the power of a meeting. The Hawks had one in the aftermath of that Davidson loss in Donahue’s office, where six players entered with change in mind.
“When we looked at ourselves in the mirror, we saw something that we didn’t like,” said senior guard Derek Simpson, who scored a season-low six points in that Davidson loss but has scored 19.2 points per game in the six since.
“We got our feelings out,” Simpson said. “We were able to tell each other how we felt.”
St. Joe’s coach Steve Donahue celebrates with fans after a victory over Dayton on Saturday.
St. Joe’s (13-8, 5-3) has been nearly perfect since. The only blemish came against a Virginia Commonwealth team rated 46th at KenPom (St. Joe’s is 157th), and the Hawks could have won that game. They got 20 points from Jaiden Glover-Toscano to help knock off Dayton one game later, and the St. John’s transfer is starting to show more flashes of why he was a high-major prospect in the first place. He had the highlight of the night Tuesday when he threw down a one-handed slam, one of the Hawks’ 12 dunks in a blowout win over lowly Loyola-Chicago.
Next on the schedule for St. Joe’s is a game Saturday against its crosstown rival, La Salle, that looks a lot more interesting than it did a few weeks ago.
That’s because the best win of the young Darris Nichols era in Olney happened last week when the Explorers started Dayton off on its Philadelphia trip from hell by jumping out to a 33-8 lead and held on for dear life in a 67-64 victory.
That came on the heels of a win over St. Bonaventure.
The Explorers (7-14, 3-5), who are much healthier now than they were earlier in the season, lost Wednesday night at Fordham, but they’ve hung in against some of the A-10’s elite and play a style that won’t be fun to go against in the conference tournament.
Or if you’re a St. Joe’s team looking to keep the train on the tracks Saturday.
Temple announced more than 2,600 attendees at its Wednesday night home game vs. Charlotte, but it didn’t take a census veteran to realize that number was way overinflated. Half of that number might have been generous. Some students showed up, but many of them were gone after the iPad giveaway was doled out.
The Owls probably deserve a little more support. That aforementioned heartbreaker vs. St. Joe’s at the Big 5 Classic was followed by a seven-game winning streak. Then, during the week when assistant coach Bill Courtney died suddenly, Temple nearly beat two of the best teams in the American Athletic Conference.
Temple coach Adam Fisher (right) reacts to an official’s call during the loss to Charlotte.
The Owls should have closed out a win over Charlotte on Wednesday, despite being without key starter Gavin Griffiths. They led by nine with six minutes left before losing in overtime. But they’re 5-3 in conference play (13-8 overall) and just one game back of first place.
They host a South Florida team on Saturday night that is 6-2 and in a four-way tie for first (8 p.m., ESPN2). It’s White Out night at the Liacouras Center.
An ode to Dan McQuade, a man who loved basketball
Philadelphia is a lot worse off without Dan McQuade, who died of cancer at 43 years old this week. McQuade, the son of longtime Daily News assistant sports editor Drew McQuade, was a singular writer who wrote for various publications — Defector, Deadspin, and Philadelphia Magazine among them — with flair and fun and with more curiosity than most.
Dan wrote about a lot of things, but he sure loved Philly basketball, and wrote about it often, like when he went to the Catholic League final in 2023 and implored people in a Defector article to go out and see more basketball games in person. Or when he wrote about attending a La Salle home game and witnessing an economic professor light the silly smoke machine at Gola Arena. Or when he went to a Big 5 doubleheader at the Palestra, where he attended many games as a former Penn student and sports writer, and wrote a compelling case for little kids playing basketball being the best version of the halftime show.
Chris Cervino wasn’t trying to become a TikTok influencer. He just wanted to make a “funny, trolling” video to get in his opponents’ heads before a game last year. That was until he went viral.
“I made this video, it was called, ‘Road to D2,’” said the Thomas Jefferson freshman guard. “There’s this kid, his name [online] is ‘Road to D1,’ and we were going to play against his team. … I made the video, it blew up. And then in that game, I actually ended up having a really good game. There were a bunch of videos posted about me [afterward]. One actually got like 2 million views and like 700,000 likes.
“It was a lot happening all at once, but it was a really cool experience. That’s kind of how it took off just from that moment right there.”
“Road to D1” is Troy Hornbeck, a 2026 recruit who has documented his journey to play Division I basketball and gained a large following doing so. He has more than 466,900 followers on his TikTok and is attending IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla.
The two played against each other in the Overtime Elite league last year when Cervino’s YNG Dreamerz beat Hornbeck’s Diamond Doves en route to an OTE championship. The Atlanta-based league acts similar to a professional league, offering high-level training for athletes ages 16 to 20 years old. It also claims to boost athletes’ brand and social media presence.
So Cervino took advantage of the traction he gained on social media and continued to post videos — from dancing to highlighting moments in his basketball career — while playing at Jefferson. He’s the only player on the men’s basketball team with an NIL deal and has gained 9,090 followers on TikTok.
“On social media, I like to just display myself,” he said. “I don’t really care about what other people think of me, even in basketball games. I wear gray socks. I don’t care what people think of me. People have looked down on me my whole life. … I’m happy with myself and who I am as a person.”
But the most interesting aspect of Cervino’s journey is how he got there.
The Franklin Lakes, N.J., native grew up playing basketball with San Antonio Spurs rookie Dylan Harper, who was drafted second overall in June. The two became close friends while playing AAU ball for Brick City, a team coached by Harper’s mother, before high school.
“In my backyard, we would go at it one-on-one almost every day, because we lived so close to each other,” Cervino said. “We would just play one-on-one in the backyard, talk smack to each other. I would run away with a bloody nose; it was a lot of fun. We would always challenge each other when we were young, and seeing him grow up to play where he is now, it’s crazy.”
While Harper played for Don Bosco Prep, Cervino won back-to-back state championships at Ramapo.
As a junior, he was part of the team’s first state title in program history. During his senior year, Cervino eclipsed 1,000 career points after he scored 34 in the state final. Playing in college was always the dream, he said. It didn’t matter the level.
Before arriving at Jefferson, Chris Cervino had a stop at Moravian Prep in North Carolina, which is an affiliate of Overtime Elite.
Coming out of high school, he had interest from one school, Felician University, which competes with Jefferson in the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference.
However, he didn’t know if he was ready yet. Instead, he decided to opt for a prep year.
“If I got an extra year, I would be much more developed,” Cervino said. “So I took the extra year. I went to a really good school, played in the Overtime Elite League, played against five stars every single day, got my body better, developed myself as a player, and then that eventually led me to come here.”
He attended Moravian Prep in North Carolina, which is considered one of the top high school basketball programs in the nation. The school is also an affiliate with Overtime Elite, meaningit plays two schedules during the year: a national high school schedule and an OTE schedule, where the team is called YNG Dreamerz.
“Moving to North Carolina, it was a crazy jump,” he said. “But I learned a lot about life there, and how basketball could open up opportunities for me. For example, with social media, basketball opened that up for me, so I learned a lot from there.”
Through Overtime, Cervino was exposed to a social media agency called Press Upload, which gave him pointers on how to monetize his name. He eventually signed with an agency that finds brand deals on his behalf — like VKTRY insoles, which he partnered with and noted “it was really cool” since he grew up wearing those in his shoes.
Cervino, a 6-foot shooting guard, is still learning the ropes in his first year at Jefferson. He has played in three games this season and tries to be a sponge in practice under coach Jimmy Riley, who spent 15 seasons on Hall of Famer Herb Magee’s staff.
When it comes to his social media platform, Cervino is not chasing a number of followers or views; it’s about having fun with it while “living in the moment and seeing what happens next.” He also hopes other athletes at the Division II level see that they can have a platform, too.
“There’s always going to be people overlooking you,” Cervino said. “You only can control what you can control, which is how much work you put in, the effort you put into it, and all that stuff. Focus on yourself, focus on what you need to do.”
