The Guru Report: Saint Joseph’s Rallies for Third in Hawk Classic on a Day The Other Locals Suffer Defeat

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

PHILADELPHIA — The Saint Joseph’s women used a dominating third quarter to avoid more dubious history in their own Hawk Classic and also salvage one bright spot in Sunday action among the teams in the Guru’s local D-1 group who faced competition.

Playing for third place following Saturday’s narrow loss to Rider in the tournament’s 25th anniversary, only the second-ever setback in their semifinals, the Hawks trailed Loyola of Maryland by 13 points at 23-10 late in the second quarter before shaving off some of the deficit going to the break behind 26-18.

At the outset of the third period, Saint Joseph’s continued the run with the first nine points and 14-0 across the halves to go up one at 27-26 on Kristalyn Baisden’s three-ball. 

The Greyhounds came back to tie, making one of two foul shots, but then the hosts kept playing like old times and making it 25-8 for the quarter and ultimately 49-46 for the game.

Had Saint Joseph’s (2-4) got hit with another upset, which would have been the initial win on the season for Loyola (0-6), it would have been the first time the Hawks would have been wiped out both days here in Hagan Arena.

The other semifinal loss was in late December, 2014, to Quinnipiac, 69-67.

As it was, the Greyhounds did not go away after yielding their big lead and trailing by 11 early in the final stanza. A 7-0 run got them back in play at 47-44 with just over 4 minutes left in regulation. 

Mary Sheehan provided Saint Joseph’s with a little more breathing room inside the paint with 3:37 left but that was to be the final Hawks score of the game. 

Isabella Therien’s score for the visitors made it a three-point game again but the offensive lights then went out on the visitors.

With one last chance to tie as the clock wound down through it’s final ticks, another turnover ensued for Loyola to finish things off.

“It’s going to be a long season of nights like this,” said veteran coach Cindy Griffin.

It definitely was a long afternoon for everyone else in the area Division I group.

Penn suffered a grueling demise down at Navy, similar to Villanova’s last-second loss in Orlando on Saturday, as Maine rallied for a 47-46 victory in the Navy Classic in Annapolis, Md., at the Naval Academy.

Temple fell to No. 24 Miami 73-61 at the host Hurricanes’ Watsco Center in Coral Gables, Fla., while elsewhere in that state Villanova finished off what became a lost weekend as the Wildcats fell to host UCF 71-56 in Orlando.

Penn State trailed by 24 at home and gained somewhat of a moral victory but still suffered an upset loss to Stony Brook 81-70.

And back here in the championship that was played first because the Hawks slotted themselves to be the 2 p.m. game no matter what their fate in the semifinals, Rider’s effort to build on the win over Saint Joseph’s was quickly demolished by unbeaten Boston College, who cruised to a 112-61 thrashing.

 Despite Saint Joseph’s season start, there are lots of reasons for Griffin to be patient and be upbeat about the future, whose bloom might not show till a year from now when a talented group of recruits listed in the top 50 as a class arrives.

“Yes, no question, we’ve got a great class coming,” Griffin said. “And right now a lot of our younger players are going to get a lot of experience and be ready to fit in when the others arrive.

“We’re in a stretch where we have a lot of home games to try to get better every day. You’ve seen us struggle during this phase in recent seasons and then do well when we got to (Atlantic 10) conference,” she added.

“You just want to be ready in March at the end. Look at what we did last year,” she noted of the Hawks’ dark-horse run to the title game.

“In this one, (freshman) Katie Mayock had a great second half.”

Mayock, a 6-foot-2 post player from suburban Berwyn (Pa.) and Conestoga High, who was the Central League MVP, had nine of her season-high 15 points, the only Hawk in double figures, in the final two periods while on the afternoon also grabbing seven rebounds, she shot 6-for-11 from the field, blocked two shots and had a steal.

Michala Clay had nine points and a career-high 11 rebounds while also dealing five assists. Senior Alyssa Monaghan had five points and five rebounds, dealt four assists and had three steals.

Lula Roig had eight points and six rebounds while Mary Sheehan also scored eight points.

Therien had 19 points and nine rebounds for the Greyhounds, who also got 11 points from Bri Betz-White.

In the opener, Boston College was able to send early word back to Chestnut Hill, Mass., to make a space in the trophy case after rolling to a 30-15 first-quarter lead and on to the final 112-61 score over Rider (2-4).

The Eagles’ total was one short of their all-time record that came at the expense of Penn State.

It was the first meeting between the two programs. 

Boston College tossed a near second-quarter shutout making things worse with a 31-4 differential.

The Eagles (6-0), who are still unbeaten under first-year coach Joanna Bernabei-McNamee, were led by Marnelle Gerrard, named the tournament MVP after scoring 28 point and collecting six rebounds, four assists, and three steals while also shooting 8-for-12 from the field, including 4-of-7 three-balls.

Makayla Dickens had 19 points, while Taylor Ortlepp scored 11 and dealt six assists, Georgia Pineau scored 10, and Clara Ford had nine points and 10 rebounds.

Rider’s Stella Johnson had 13 points, Amari Johnson scored 10, and Daiji Moses, Amanda Mobley, and Lea Favre scored nine each for the Broncs.

BC was deadly beyond the arc, connecting with 14 to just a pair from Rider.

“Unfortunately, there aren’t many positives to take away from today,” said Rider coach Lynn Milligan. “I think we started with the right pace and right energy, but we got into foul trouble early.

“We didn’t play Rider basketball in the first half at all. I think in the second half we responded. We played a great team and we just didn’t have enough in us to get the result we wanted today.”

Boston College’s Emma Guy and Ortlepp, the Hawks’ Monaghan, Rider’s Stella Johnson, and the Greyhounds’ Therien were named to the all-tournament team.

Saint Joseph’s next hosts Columbia at 7 on Thursday night. 

While the Lions visit town every season, playing Penn at The Palestra, this one provides an even closer homecoming for third-year coach Megan Griffith, who is from King of Prussia (Pa.) and was an all-Ivy player at Columbia.

She previously was a six-year assistant at Princeton.

Rider next hosts NJIT on Wednesday at 7 in Alumni Gymnasium in Lawrenceville, N.J.

Penn Nipped by Maine at the Finish

Poised to complete a successful weekend at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., the Quakers had the expectation go to naught when Maine, defending America East champions, hit a driving layup from Tanesha Sutton with 5.5 seconds left to rally to the 47-46 victory in Alumni Hall.

It was only the second meeting between the two teams in a series now standing at 1-1.

Billed by the host Midshipmen as the Navy Classic, the format predetermined the opponents both days and Penn came away Saturday with a satisfying triumph over Navy.

But a sweep was not to be, primarily, if one wants to find the cause in the statistics, the Quakers (4-2), couldn’t handle the ball, committing 20 turnovers to just eight by the Black Bears (4-2), who got 15 points out of the sloppiness.

It was unfortunate, because although it was contested in a differential of single digits all afternoon, Penn owned the boards with a 46-29 advantage. The game had 11 lead changes and three ties.

Ashley Russell grabbed a career-high 12 to help the cause, while Tori Crawford matched two career highs with nine points and six rebounds.

Eleah Parker had 17 points and nine rebounds and also shot 8-for-12 from the field while Katie Kinum scored 12.

Maine’s Sutton had 16 points and was named MVP of the Navy Classic while Parise Rossignol scored 12 and each collected seven rebounds.

According to the Penn record keepers, this was the Quakers’ first setback since 2013 when it comes to holding an opponent under 50 points, a defensive stand that made coach Mike McLaughlin’s group 60-0  in that span when that statistic has existed.

Things fell apart after Penn went up six midway through the final period, beginning with a trey from Maine to cut the deficit at three 43-40.

Then late in the game where shots were difficult to connect by both sides, Maine went long range to go ahead 45-44 with 17.7 seconds left in regulation.

Penn countered to Parker inside but on the next possession the Black Bears found the winning path to the basket.

The Quakers had a chance to produce a miracle moment but another turnover ended that attempt leaving them with a loss.

Penn now has 10 days off to put this one in the past and prepare for a visit from La Salle for a Dec. 5 Big Five game in which the Quakers will look to avenge their only City Series loss a year ago, which deprived them of an outright local title.

Penn State Rally Falls Short Against Stony Brook As Seawolves Get First Win Over a Power 5 School

Slow starts have been plaguing the Lady Lions all season but they’ve managed to overcome most of them, just recently forging a huge rally to bypass Princeton at home in overtime.

But on Sunday back in Bryce Jordan Center in State College, a 24-deficit to Stony Brook became a bit much and coach Coquese Washington’s squad fell short 81-70, wasting a 34-point scoring effort from Teniya Page.

It was the eighth time Page has scored 30 or more points for the Lady Lions (4-2), which is second best in the program’s history. She started the day tied with Germantown Academy’s Maggie Lucas, who is in the WNBA.

Kamaria McDaniel also scored in double figures for the home team with 13 points.

The Seawolves (4-1), who got their first-ever win over a so-named “Power Five” opponent, moved quickly at the outset, building a 15-5 lead that settled at 17-9 after the first quarter.

Then Stony Brook’s Shania Johnson, who exploded for 25 points, ignited the Seawolves with four 3-pointers on the way to a 43-21 halftime lead that basically held and led to a 58-37 blowout with two minutes left in the third.

Finally, PSU responded with a 9-0 run to close the period and make it interesting at 58-46.

The Lady Lions got it down to within six at 72-66 with 2.22 left in regulation, looking like the rally over Princeton was about to be repeated.

But the Seawolves held with nine of the last 13 points to protect the upset.

“Over the short season so far we have stretches where we look really good defensively and we have stretches where we look really bad defensively,” Washington said afterwards. “The task right now is to find a way to put four quarters of good defense together, and when we can do that, I think we’ll be fine.”

Three other Stony Brook players also scored in double figures with Jerelle Matthews collecting 18, India Pagan scoring 14, and Anastasia Warren scoring 13.

“We’re just really proud of all our players coming in with the right mindset and staying focused,” said Seawolves coach Caroline McCombs. “We were prepared and then an opportunity presented itself and we were able to play tough on the road.”

McCombs, who last week passed former Tennessee star Trish Roberts to become the program’s winningest coach, lauded the play of sophomore Hailey Zeise, a native of Pittsburgh who had a career high three steals and took five charges.

Former La Salle coach Jeff Williams, who was let go after last season, is now associate head coach at Stony Brook.

Next up for Penn State is a trip to Florida State Thursday at 7 p.m. as part of the Big Ten/ACC Challenge.

Villanova Swept Out of Florida

Following a tough loss Saturday at the conclusion of the game against Virginia Tech in a similar ending suffered Sunday by Penn to Maine at Navy, the Wildcats couldn’t contain host UCF and fell 71-56 in the Knights’ Thanksgiving Classic in Orlando.

The format is similar to the Navy Classic the Quakers participated in which opponents are predetermined for both rounds.

Villanova (3-2) led midway through the second quarter by a point before the game began swinging toward UCF (5-1), which has become a growing program in the American Athletic Conference that contains Connecticut, South Florida, and Temple.

A 9-3 run near the end of the second period put the Knights up 32-27 at the half.

The surge continued at the outset of the third period as the advantage increased to a 38-27.

A 13-3 run put the outcome in the Knights’ hands, though Nova made one last rally to trim a 17-point deficit to nine.

The Wildcats’ Kelly Jekot continued her fine start, scoring 17 points, fueled by five three-pointers, while Mary Gedaka had 11 points and eight rebounds.

Kornelia Wright scored a game-high 20 points for UCF, which is now tied 1-1 with the Wildcats in their two meetings. Kayla Thigpen had 17.

Villanova next hosts Princeton at 7 Wednesday night in the Finneran Pavilion with the defending Ivy champs, barring some upgraded notice, arriving still missing starters, including Ivy player of the year Bella Alarie.

The Wildcats have been able to top the Tigers, currently on a six-game losing streak, the last two seasons, but there are a bunch of unknowns going into this one.

Temple’s Road Woes Continue

Whether this long stretch of games away from North Broad Street will be beneficial won’t be determined until the AAC slate arrives, but for the moment the pattern remained the same Sunday as Temple stayed with a quality opponent in No. 24 Miami but couldn’t overcome the Hurricanes in a 73-61 defeat.

It’s the fourth straight loss for the Owls (2-4) in the string of games away from McGonigle Hall that began with a win at Saint Joseph’s in the Big Five and losses featuring rallies at Mississippi, Marist, and this past weekend in Florida to Radford and the hosts.

Temple’s Mia Davis had a double double with 19 points and 11 rebounds, while Aliya Butts scored 18 and dealt five assists,  and she also grabbed three steals to make the al-tournament team.

Beatrice Mompremier had 18 points and 12 rebounds for Miami (6-1), while Kelsey Marshall scored 17, and Emese Hof scored 13.

Billed as the Miami Classic on the weekend, the event, like the ones participated by Villanova and Penn, featured predetermined opponents both days.

The Hurricanes lived up to their nickname in the second half, shooting 50 percent to get the win.

The Owls’ next game is at No. 16 DePaul in Chicago next Monday morning at 11. They will be a heavy underdog in that one, then return home to host Iona, Dec. 6.

After two days of wildness, nothing of great consequence occurred nationally, and since games involving D-1 locals don’t play till Wednesday and all of those games are referenced above, no looking ahead in this one either, which means, that’s the report.