Guru's Philly Summer League Report: Three St. Joseph's Stars Keep Hunter Green Perfect
HATBORO, Pa. -- A trio of Saint Joseph's stars -- two veterans and a rookie -- helped Hunter Green (4-0) stay unbeaten with defending champion Lime Green (4-0) and Black (4-0) while a future Delaware star had the season's top individual performance, which occurred in a loss, to highlight Thursday night's action in the Philadelphia/Suburban NCAA Women's Basketball Summer League at Kelly Bolish Gymnasium, home of the AAU Renegades in Lower Bucks County.
Hawks junior Erin Shields had the league's third best individual effort on the season with 25 points while incoming freshman Ciara Andrews scored 21 points and senior Shelby Smith scored 11 to enable Hunter Green win its fourth straight, edging Cardinal Red 76-72 in the closest game of the night.
Deja Foster, a 2011 graduate of Georgia Tech, scored 19 points, Kent State 2007 graduate Lakia Stewart scored 13, and Lafayette sophomore Emily Homan had 13 points for Cardinal Red (2-2) which dropped into a four-way tie for fourth place, two games behind the tri-leaders.
Meanwhile Taylor Bryant, who will be joining Blue Hens all-American senior sensation Elena Delle Donne, the nation's leading scorer, as a freshman at nationally-ranked Delaware this fall, torched the nets for 29 points but Columbia Blue (1-3) fell to Lime Green 74-62 in what had been a closely fought game through the first half.
Alex Wheatley, another collegiate newcomer, who will be joining three-time defending Ivy League champion Princeton, scored 11 points for Columbia Blue while Division II Bloomsburg senior Danielle Derr scored 10 points.
Recently graduated Saint Joseeph's star Katie Kuester, who had produced the previous league-best 26-point effort Tuesday night, led Lime Green again, this time with 19 points while 2010 St. Bonaventure graduate Dana Mitchell scored scored 15 points and Lafayette senior Alicia Manning scored scored 14 points.
Unbeaten Black, likewise to Lime Green, was contested through halftime by Kelly Green (1-3), which is composed primarily of Division II University of the Sciences in Philadelphia (USP) players, before pulling away to a 60-44 victory as Villanova sophomore Emily Leer scored 16 points, incoming Lehigh freshman Kerry Kinek scored 11, and Jasmine Elum, a recent Bethune Cookman graduate, and Kutztown senior Ashley Wood each scored eight points.
Brianne Taub, targeted for 2017 graduation because of USP's academic-work program, scored 14 points, while Natalie Stella of the Devils class of 2018 scored 12 points for Kelly Green.
Except for the notations associated with USP and the reference to school alums, all class designations in the coverage of the league in this post refer to the players' class statuses this fall when they return to school.
"Forget what the final score says, all these players compete hard -- which we like to see," said Black coach Keith Wood, whose daughter Ashley is on the squad.
Villanova senior Rachel Roberts recently was able to catch up with Black, playing her second game of the season.
"She's still a little out of shape, but it won't take long for her to get in the flow," Wood said of one of the Wildcats' stars of last season in the winter.
Under NCAA summer league sanctioning rules, non-Division I schools can play as entire units. Besides USP, three other area Division II schools that stay together in the 12-team league that features three doubleheaders or six games on Tuesday and Thursday nights at 7 p.m. and 8:15 p.m. are Holy Family, competing as Royal Blue, Philadelphia University, competing as Orange, and West Chester, competing as Vegas Gold (1-3), which got its first win Thursday night, a 69-53 triumph over Orange (1-3).
Golden Rams sophomore Kendall Benovy scored 14 points for Vegas Gold while West Chester senior Megan Kerrigan scored 10 points.
Taylor Peltzer and Rams freshman Mary Newell each scored 10 points for Orange.
Peltzer, whose father Lou starred at Saint Joseph's in the early 1970s, and Kristen Blye will serve as senior co-captains this winter.
USP, Holy Family, and Philadelphia University belong to the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC) while West Chester competes in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Eastern Division.
Admission to the games are free and there is a snack bar offering such items at a reasonable price as hamburgers, hot dogs, water ice, sodas and juices.
The gym is located at the end of Turnpike Drive off Davisville Road in the Willow Grow Industrial Commons section of the business park, which runs alongside the Pennsylvania Turnpike.
The site is not far from the intersection of Davisville and Byberry Roads to the north and is also near the Route 611 exit of the turnpike to the West if you are googling on the internet.
If one wants to save some footsteps and parking is taken near the door, there is usually plenty of room around the back and at least one, if not both, of the rear doors are open for the doubleheaders.
As always, thanks to longtime commissioner David Kessler for providing timely results, especially on nights the Guru is elsewhere at a WNBA game, so the Guru can then use his old Inquirer rewrite skills to provide these reports on the league.
The commish can be emailed at deucebk@comcast.net.
And if you are not doing so already, by following the Guru's twitter handle @womhoopsguru, you can get the first alerts when a post covering the league is up and running here as well as if there is a delay, as well as news in both the collegiate and professional worlds.
Meanwhile, in the other two games of the night, Purple (2-2) evened its record and relegated Gold (0-4) as the only winless team with an 82-47 victory, while Royal Blue (2-2) also even its record with a 52-29 win over Ash Gray (2-2), holding Holy Family's opponent to the lowest scoring total of the season in league play.
Trish Watson, a junior at Penn State Abington, which is not far from the summer league's site, had 20 points for Purple, while Lehigh junior Marissa Repasch scored 18 points and Division III Haverford senior Calla Miller scored 15 points.
Gold's Alexandra Yatzi, a Lehigh junior, scored 18 points while Scranton freshman Nicole Alicea had 17 points.
Holy Family senior Ana Cruz had 13 points for Royal Blue, while junior Mary Ellen McCollum scored nine points.
Cruz was playing her first game since undergoing tonsil and adenoid surgery.
The Royal Blue 52 points became the new lowest total for a winning team, eclipsing the previous low of an Orange 52-46 win over Royal Blue, ironically, on June 21.
Ironically, again, this time out of the same Thursday night game, the 29 points by Ash Gray in the loss to Royal Blue was a new season low for a losing team, eclipsing the 65-32 loss suffered by Gold to Royal Blue on Tuesday night, June 26.
Lindsay Alexander, a Chestnut Hill senior, had six points for Ash Gray, Christine Verrell, a sophomore at Dowling College, scored five, as did Chestnut Hill sophomore Lila Jones, her senior classmate Da'Kiya Johnson, and Delaware Valley College sophomore Brenna Coll.
Johnson is a transfer from Santa Monica College, the only updated change from the roster postings as part of the Guru's season introductory blog posted earlier this month prior to the start of play.
Looking Ahead
The league will break for the July 4th holiday, keeping next Tuesday night dark. However, to ensure the regular season concludes at the end of next month heading into the playoffs, the schedule will resume next Thursday, July 5.
In the 7 p.m. contests, Vegas Gold (1-3) will meet Ash Gray (2-2) on Court 1; Purple (2-2) will meet Columbia Blue (1-3) on Court 2; and Kelly Green (1-3) will meet Gold (0-4).
In the 8:15 p.m. games, Black (4-0) will meet Royal Blue (2-2) on Court 1; Orange (1-3) will meet Cardinal Red (2-2) on Court 2; and Lime Green (4-0) will meet Hunter Green (4-0) in a battle between two of the three unbeatens on Court 3.
STANDINGS (THRU WEDNESDAY, JULY 4)
TEAM W-L PCT. GB PF PA
Lime Green 4-0 1.000 --- 309 219
Black 4-0 1.000 --- 265 183
Hunter Grn 4-0 1.000 --- 300 269
Cardinal Red 2-2 .500 2.0 291 256
Royal Blue 2-2 .500 2.0 200 187
Purple 2-2 .500 2.0 232 238
Ash Gray 2-2 .500 2.0 209 210
Vegas Gold 1-3 .250 3.0 242 302
Orange 1-3 .250 3.0 216 240
Kelly Green 1-3 .250 3.0 241 252
Col. Blue 1-3 .250 3.0 241 262
Gold 0-4 .000 4.0 165 273
Top Individual Performers (20 or more pts)
(14 to date)
Thurs., June 28, Taylor Bryant, Columbia Blue, 29 pts., vs. Lime Green.
Tues., June 26, Katie Kuester, Lime Green, 26 pts., vs. Orange.
Thurs., June 28, Erin Shields, Hunter Green, 25 pts., vs. Cardinal Red.
Tues., June 19 Lakia Stewart, Card. Red, 23 pts. vs. Vegas Gold.
Tues., June 26, Marissa Repasch, Purple, 23 pts., vs. Kelly Green
Thurs., June 21, Noelle Alicea, Gold, 21 pts. vs. Columbia Blue.
Tues., June 26, Emily Leer, Black, 21 pts., vs. Vegas Gold.
Thur., June 28, Ciara Andrews, Hunter Green, 21 pts., vs. Cardinal Red.
Tues., June 19, Kendall Benovy, Vegas Gold, 20 pts., vs. Cardinal Red.
Tues., June 19, Jessica Sylvester, Kelly Green, 20 pts., vs. Hunter Green.
Thurs., June 21, Tiffany Johnson, Vegas Gold, 20 pts., vs. Hunter Green.
Tues., June 26, Alex Wheatley, Columbia Blue, 20 pts., vs. Hunter Green.
Tues., June 26, Ashley Morris, Cardinal Red, 20 pts., vs. Ash Gray.
Thurs., June 28, Trish Watson, Purple, 20 points, vs. Gold.
Results To Date
Tues., July 3
No Games Schedule
Thurs., June 28
Purple 82, Gold 47
Black 60, Kelly Green 44
Hunter Green 76, Cardinal Red 72
Lime Green 75, Columbia Blue 62
Royal Blue 52, Ash Gray 29
Vegas Gold 69, Orange 53
Tues., June 26
Hunter Green 74, Columbia Blue 63
Black 84, Vegas Gold 47
Cardinal Red 73, Ash Gray 47
Royal Blue 65, Gold 32
Lime Green 87, Orange 58
Kelly Green 85, Purple 59
Thurs., June 21
Ash Gray 64, Kelly Green 46
Lime Green 75, Cardinal Red 62
Black 55, Purple 33
Columbia Blue 57, Gold 47
Hunter Green 81, Vegas Gold 68
Orange 54, Royal Blue 46
Tues., June 19
Hunter Green 69, Kelly Green 66
Purple 58, Orange 51
Lime Green 72, Royal Blue 37
Cardinal Red 84, Vegas Gold 58
Black 66, Columbia Blue 59
Ash Gray 69, Gold 39
Highest winning total: Lime Green 87, Orange 58 -- 6/26
Lowest winning total: Royal Blue 52, Ash Gray 29 -- 6/28
Highest losing total: Hunter Green 81, Vegas Gold 68 -- 6/21
Lowest losing total: Royal Blue 52, Ash Gray 29 -- 6/28
Highest differential (37 pts.): Black 84, Vegas Gold 47 -- 6/26
Lowest differential (3 pts.): Hunter Green 69, Kelly Green 66 -- 6/26
Grid Against League
Lme Grn (4-0) vs. Royal Blu (W), Card. Red (W), Orange (W), Col Blue (W).
Black (4-0) vs. Colum Blue (W), Purple (W), Vegas Gold (W), Kelly Grn (W).
Hunt Grn (4-0) vs. Kelly Grn (W), Vegas Gld (W), Colum Bl. (W), C. Red (W).
Card Red (2-2) vs. Vegas Gld (W), Lime Grn (L), Ash Gry (W), Hunt Grn (L).
Royal Blue (2-2) vs. Lime Green (L), Orange (L), Gold (W), Ash Gray (W).
Purple (2-2) vs. Orange (W), Black (L), Kelly Green (L), Gold (W).
Ash Gray (2-2) vs. Gold (W), Kelly Green (W), Card Red (L), Royl Blue (L).
Vegas Gld (1-3) vs. Cardinal Red (L), Hunter Green (L), Black (L), Orng (W).
Orange (1-3) vs. Prple (L), Royal Blue (W), Lime Green (L), Vegas Gold (L).
Kelly Green (1-3) vs. Hunter Green (L), Ash Gray (L), Purple (W), Black (L).
Colmbia Blue (1-3) vs. Black (L), Gold (W), Hunter Green (L), Lime Grn (L).
Gold (0-4) vs. Ash Gray (L), Columbia Blue (L), Royal Blue (L), Purple (L).
Whole Units
Kelly Green -- University of the Sciences in Philadelphia
Orange -- Philadelphia University
Royal Blue -- Holy Family
Vegas Gold -- West Chester
That's it.
-- Mel
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