Womhoops Guru

Mel Greenberg covered college and professional women’s basketball for the Philadelphia Inquirer, where he worked for 40 plus years. Greenberg pioneered national coverage of the game, including the original Top 25 women's college poll. His knowledge has earned him nicknames such as "The Guru" and "The Godfather," as well as induction into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2007.

Saturday, November 19, 2016

PhilahoopsW Roundup and Preview: Penn's Whtlatch Keys Road Rout of Rhode Island

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

Information for this post compiled from team website and email reports

The inside attack of senior Sydney Stipanovich and MichelleNowkedi just missed their third straight double double but this time Penn picked up its first win of the season because of help from the outside.

The assistance came from Lauren Whitlatch who finished with 24 points fueled by a career-tying six 3-pointers to help propel the Quakers to a lopsided 75-43 victory over Rhode Island (1-2) Friday night in Kingston, R.I.

Stipanovich in the rout collected 14 points and grabbed 13 rebounds for the Quakers (1-2) while Nowkedi had 16 points and grabbed eight rebounds.

Penn was coming off a respectful opening day loss at Duke on the road that was followed by a disappointing home loss to Binghamton Wednesday night.

Additionally on the perimeter Kasey Chambers and Anna Ross shared 11 points, whil grabbing seven rebounds, dealing 11 assists and each added three steals to their individual lines on the statistics sheets.

Next up is Penn’s first Big Five game of the season hosting winless Saint Joseph’s (0-3) Tuesday night at 7 pm. At The Palestra.

The Hawks opened the season with a dominated loss to Temple at home in Hagan Arena. Then it was squandering a big nonconference league loss over Bucknell, the Patriot League favorite, Sunday at home before starting with a 21-pint deficit at the start of the fourth quarter at Iona in New Rochelle, N.Y., Wednesday night, before rallying to erase all but one in the deficit.

The Penn game was the only one on the slate from the Guru’s local 14-team PhilahoopsW group.

On Saturday, Princeton (0-3) at noon will be looking for its first win, hosting Dayton in Jadwin Gym at noon while Delaware (2-0) will be looking to stay unbeaten with its third straight home game at the Bob Carpenter Center in Newark hosting St. Bonaventure at 8 p.m.

Temple (2-0) can add to its early resume of a pair of Big Five wins at Saint Joseph’s and at home against La Salle when the Owls on Saturday step up to the national level visiting No. 19 Florida at 1 p.m. in Ocala in a game that will now be televised on ESPN3.

The only other PhilahoopsW game occurs at Lehigh (2-1), hosting Sacred Heart at 7 p.m.

On Sunday, Villanova, off a split opening weekend losing to then No. 10 Mississippi State but beating Purdue for third place in Maine’s tournament, hosts George Washington (2-1) at 1 p.m. The Colonials have a new coach in former UConn star Jen Rizzotti, who previously coached Hartford and spent this past summer on the USA staff of her Huskies coach Geno Auriemma in the Olympics in Brazil.

La Salle (0-3), still looking for its first win after a home setback to Lafayette, a Big Five loss at Temple, and a loss at Rider, will host American U. at 1 p.m. On Sunday.

Meanwhile, Rutgers (0-3), another team struggling, continues its extended road trip that augmented a home opener setback to Chattanooga, and then losses at Elon and Wake Forest, visits Virginia on Sunday.

Penn State (2-1), which bounced off its road-opening loss at Drexel to beat Saint Peter’s and Akron, stays in Happy Valley Sunday to host nationally-ranked Tennessee.

Drexel (2-1) off its first season loss, a competitive venture at Vanderbilt in Nashville, Tenn., Wednesday, returns home to the Daskalakis Athletic Center Monday night to host nationally-ranked Syracuse, which finished runnerup to Connecticut in last season’a NCAA. Women’s Final Four title game.

Xxx

Is Rider the Garden State’s Jersey Team in Women’s Basketball?

Seton Hall (3-0), which visits Minnesota Sunday, is getting competition from an unlikely place to lay claim at the moment to being New Jersey’s team.

That would be Rider, which is off to a 3-0 start, having beaten Princeton on the road in the season opener before beating Lafayette at home Monday and then La Salle74-61 in Broncs land Thursday night in Lawrenceville for the first win over the Explorers in nine tries.

Rider started hot, outscoring La Salle 26-12 in the first period.

Coach Lynn Milligan, completing a decade in her tenth season at the helm of the Broncs, was pleased with the outcoming, calling the matchup, “a hard fought, physical battle.”

A combined 44 fouls were assessed between the two schools.
Robin senior Robin Perkins had 15 points, while Kamila Hoskova of the Czech Republic had 12 points.

The 3-0 start is the first at Rider in the program in 34 years.

Milligan praised her team’s defensive effort early in the contest, “When we needed to get stops, we did.

Amy Griffin, the leading scorer in the Atlantic 10 last season, had 25 points for La Salle, while Adreana Miller scored 13 points. Jasmine Alston grabbed 11 Explorers rebounds.

In 1982-83, Agnus McGlade-Berenato, who went on to coach at Georgia Tech, Pittsburgh, and now at Kennesaw State, was at the helm.

Now comes the challenging part for Rider, hitting the road for seven straight game, Saturday. at the UCF Classic.

While Rider is on the rise, Princeton and Rutgers are both struggling with young squads.

The Scarlet Knights in the loss at Wake Forest in Winston-Salem, N.C., got a career-high 12 points from sophomore Khadaizha Sanders, the first time she’s ever been the top Rugers scorer. Kandinsky Barber had 11 points in the loss while  Desiree Keeling had a career-high 11 rebounds.

Ariel Stephenson had 21 points and nine rebounds for the Demon Deacons while Milan Quinn and Elisa Penna each scored 10 points.

The Demon Deacons came out of the half on a 10-0 run and extended its advantage to 42-20 with 6:31 left in the third quarter.
From there RU, closed out the third stanza outgaining Wake Forest, 9-4, and outscored the opposition, 14-9, in the fourth quarter for the game’s final margin.





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