Guru Remembrance of Former Inquirer Sports Editor Jay Searcy Who Died Saturday in Tennessee

By Mel Greenberg @womhoops guru

Sadly, in a year in which several media notables in the sports world passed away, apparently 2018 wasn’t going to get out of dodge without claiming one more before handing over the business of responsibility for everything on the planet to 2019 at the stroke of midnight.

Word came Sunday morning from a colleague in Knoxville, Tenn., where former Inquirer Sports Editor Jay Searcy had been retired quite a while that he passed away Saturday at age 84 and an obituary had been posted online in the local paper.

Those of you following the history of how the Guru came to be the Guru know it was Jay’s idea upon arrival here in Philadelphia that perhaps it would be great to start a weekly women’s basketball poll.

Anyhow, the news of Jay’s passing was learned at a time in the late morning when the Inquirer on a Sunday is still operating on the dark side of the moon, so to speak, in having staff and mechanisms in place to immediate handle breaking news. 

And this week was extra tough because many of Jay’s contemporaries were scattered covering bowl games or deeply entrenched in the most important weekend of the season in terms of the fate of the defending Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles.

However, the wheels of coverage to give Jay his due eventually got rolling and those of us who knew Jay best were asked to send whatever to someone in the office who would assemble the contributions into a narrative which has since been posted. 

Pieces of the Guru’s contribution appear but since our world was made possible by Jay’s insistance to have your Guru take a path to make him the Guru this is what originated from here which I now share with you.

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Mel Greenberg remembrance

After the staff was made aware of Jay Searcy’s hire as sports editor of The Inquirer, other than the reporting core of the department being told they were getting “a writer’s editor” coming from the copy desk of The New York Times, no one had any idea of how different of the change in style from management would be.

The previous editor Tim Kelly, extremely talented, well organized, and eventually to become publisher of the Lexington Herald Leader in Kentucky, had been aloof from the troops in the department because of the young age of 25 at the time of his promotion. But he also had the respect of the entire staff.

Jay arrived with a bundle of energy, vision and ideas and quickly sought to be one of the boys, many nights hanging with our crew at the Pen and Pencil Club in center city and I recall one night at a local hotel where he joined in a round of cards.

He often attended parties of the entire and youthful newsroom staff under the legendary Gene Roberts, even once coming with his wife Jackie in optional disguise at a halloween party hosted by a reporter’s wife involved in the fashion industry.

Don McKee, then the principal high school writer, and myself were the first to be exposed to Jay after he landed, since he wanted to come along to our coverage of the city high school football championship, which was occurring the next day at old Veterans Stadium..

Through the entire afternoon besides helping to work on our copy, Jay kept running by us a zillion concepts, many of which though receptive we weren’t exactly the level needed to be a sounding board of approval.

Given his Tennessee roots I considered him a genteel Southerner in Yankee clothing.

But of course it didn’t take long for Jay to make a move when he came aboard in the mid-1970s to impact my future life because having written a Woman in Sports column in New York he wanted to launch similar coverage here.

This was the hey day of the big rivalry of Immaculata in this area in women’s basketball and Queens College up North.

He wanted to set me up, give me all his files and contacts and  since yours truly having a liberal mind and knowledge that editors were trying to attract more female readers, I was receptive.

But then came the fateful day when he called me back to his office and said, “What do you think of the idea of a Women’s Basketball Poll.”

“I think you’re nuts,” I responded shocking the heck out of him with my remark. “First, there are only four legitimate teams out there capable of winning anything. Second, where are you going to get scores. Where are you going to get information to make it legitimate?”

He quickly came back, playing to an assumed ego I did not possess. “But it would become your poll no matter what it would be called. You will have to teach them how to report scores quickly after games and everything else. You will be the principal guy.”

Whether Jay actually believed what he was selling is a matter of conjecture but for reasons in a story for another day I decided to give it a shot and Jay seemed pleasantly surprised when calls for me started coming to the office from radio, television, and other newspaper organizations around the country.

Running the department was a challenge for him and if you said you were going somewhere and got his approval there were many times he was surprised when you called in from where you had gone to work the story — not just me in this exercise.

Of course Jay was known nationally in part as a president of the Associated Press Sports Editor Association and I could see that when he asked to help host the APSE Convention when it came to Philadelphia during his presidency.

At some point, Jay sought to give up the mantle of boss and so a notice was posted that Jay was going to return to his first love – writing.

He took over the boxing and horse racing beats but did so at a time when typewriters were becoming a thing of the past and Jay was technologically challenged.

Many nights he would call in from Las Vegas with a looming deadline and had to be guided to get his story to arrive in the office.

We became great friends and when he retired to Knoxville, Tenn., he was part of the insiders around the legendary Pat Summitt at the University of Tennessee and often he called me with inside scoops, many of which were not at this end given my own friendship with the women’s legend.

During a trip to Knoxville I had a chance to visit him out in the suburbs where he played golf — the deck in back of his house even overlooked one of the greens of an adjoining course — and owned a small boat he navigated through one of the Tennessee Valley Authority waterways that had been created with the construction of a dam.

He even laughed that day, saying he had to stop at the computer store because of problems with his laptop “some things never change, Mel.”

Of course, the year I got inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in 2007 in Knoxville it was great to have Jay around to be part of the celebration and given him credit for his vision and for planting the seeds.

No question, Jay was an original for those of us who worked for him and alongside him and he will be deeply missed. 

The Guru Report: Temple Controls La Salle While McGraw Gets 900th As Notre Dame Tops Lehigh

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

PHILADELPHIA — The high of being back home produced a series of peaks Sunday afternoon as the Temple women rode an overwhelming 42-19 second half to a 75-47 victory over La Salle in a Big Five game at McGonigle Hall.

The outcome in the only game scheduled among the Guru’s Division I locals enabled Temple (4-7, 2-1 Big Five) to stay alive for a piece of the City Series trophy glory.

Coach Tonya Cardoza’s group would need to beat Penn on Jan. 23 at The Palestra and then get help from the Quakers previously on Jan. 16 by beating Villanova also in The Palestra for a three-way split among those teams.

But for the moment we’re still inside the 2018 portion of the 2018-19 schedule so the discussion stays on how well the Owls did with four players scoring in double figures once Temple shook itself out of a slow start in the first quarter.

Emani Mayo had 15 points along with a career-best six steals and six rebounds. Three double doubles were turned in from Shantay Taylor (14 points and 13 rebounds), Mia Davis (14 points and 10 rebounds), and in in her first start from freshman Alexa Williamson (11 points and 12 rebounds), while point guard Alliya Butts, though scoreless off 0-for-8 from the floor, dealt a career-high 10 assists.

The rebound totals from Taylor and Williamson were personal bests while freshman Marissa Mackins scored 14 points.

As one could surmise in the team stats, the Owls owned the boards 55-34 which created a huge 32-10 advantage inside the paint.

Deja King had 10 points for La Salle (3-11, 0-3), which had won three of four coming into the game under new coach Mountain McGillivray, Having fallen to the Owls, Villanova and Penn, the Explorers will have a chance to win their remaining Big 5 contest in the 1-of-2 games they will play Saint Joseph’s in the Atlantic 10.

Speaking of the Owls’ former contest, they’ll have a chance to beat that league favorite when they travel to Duquesne in Pittsburgh Wednesday.

Unknown however is the state of Davis, who had an ankle injury late in the game and left. Her condition was not known but there was hope she could return at some point pending required procedures to treat the mishap.

Otherwise, Cardoza was pleased, especially with the 40.3 percent shooting from the field compared to limiting La Salle to 25.8 percent.

“This was a good game for us for a lot of reasons,” Cardoza said. “The first game after the break you always start off a little sloppy and I don’t think we started sloppy, we just weren’t making shots.

“We got out of it and that was important enough. It was positive because it gave a lot of guys confidence and this is something they can feed off of going forward.”

La Salle is off the rest of the week, opening at Dayton Saturday at 2 on the Explorers’ A-10 action.

Nationally speaking: McGraw Gets 900th in Notre Dame Win Over Lehigh

It didn’t take long for No. 2 Notre Dame to get ready for another party for Hall of Fame coach Muffet McGraw, the former Saint Joseph’s star, who earned her 900th victory as the defending national champion handled Lehigh 95-68 in a non-conference game at home in South Bend, Ind.

The opposing Mountain Hawks (8-3) gave the native of Pottsville her first collegiate head coaching job 37 years ago.

“Seems like a very long time ago being there,” McGraw said of where she earned her first 82 victories before being brought to the Midwest to turn the program quickly into a national power over the next 32 seasons. “It made it all the more special to have Lehigh here.”

At Lehigh up in Bethlehem, Pa., McGraw was 88-41 in five seasons and with the Irish she is now 812-231 in 32 for an overall combined mark of 900-272 in 37 seasons.

She has won two national titles, earned previous Naismith and Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame honors and last month was inducted into the Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame.

In Sunday’s game, Arike Ogunbowale scored 23 points for the Irish (12-1), who won a previous national crown in 2001. Marina Marbrey added 19 points.

McGraw is the ninth coach to reach 900 wins in Division I.

Her milestone came the same day Emmanuel College’s Andy Yosinoff went ahead of former Scranton coach Mike Strong to become the all-time Division III women’s winner with 816 triumphs following Emmanuel’s 68-58 win over Ramapo College at home in Boston.

He has been coaching 42 seasons.

Back in South Bend, Lehigh got 14 points from Mary Clougherty, 11 each from Camryn Burr and Emma Grothaus, and 10 from Gena Grundhoffer.

“It’s a game I’m okay with losing,” said Lehigh coach Sue Troyan, a 24-year veteran of the program. “It’s an honor to be out there and see what she meant to Notre Dame and to women’s basketball.”

Lehigh stayed with the Irish for the first 12 minutes before Notre Dame pulled away.

The Mountain Hawks open Patriot League action Thursday visiting nearby Lafayette while the Irish host Pittsburgh the same day to begin the action in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Elsewhere: Completing the wildness of the Big East opening slate, Seton Hall topped St. John’s at home 77-67 in Wash Gym in South Orange, N.J., as Inja Butina had 19 points for the host Pirates (9-3) while Kayla Charles had eight points and 15 rebounds for the Red Storm (7-5).

In a Big Ten game, No. 21 Michigan State won comfortably 84-70 over No. 16 Iowa at home in the Jack Breslin Student Events Center in East Lansing as Jenna Allen had 20 points and 17 rebounds for the host Spartans (11-1). Megan Gustafson had 30 points and 14 rebounds for the Hawkeyes (9-3).

UCF edged host Quinnipiac 47-45 in a non-conference game while Fordham in its own tourney in Rose Hill Gym beat Middle Tennessee 61-49 in the championship. The winning Rams are 9-5 while MTSU is 9-4.

Central Michigan upset No. 24 Miami 90-80 as Presley Hudson scored 23 points and made 7 OF 8 foul shots in the final 32.8 seconds.Reyna Frost had 25 points and 10 rebounds for the winning Chippewas (9-3) in the game in Coral Gables, Fla. The host Hurricanes (12-3) got 22 points and 11 rebounds from Beatrice Mompremier.

And in another upset, this one involving Pac-!2 traveling partners, host Arizona in Tucson beat No. 17 Arizona State 51-39 as Aari McDonald scored 24 for the Wildcats (11-1), winners of 10 straight, and Kianna Ibis had 11 for the visiting Sun Devils (9-3).

Finally, Ivy power Harvard must enjoy the California Bay Area sun in the north where the Crimson made history years ago as a No. 16 seed upsetting No. 1 seeded Stanford in the NCAA tournament long before UMBC performed a previous seeding upset feat last March against Virginia in the men’s tournament.

On Sunday, Harvard (7-6) won at No. 14 California 85-79 at the Haas Pavilion in Berkeley as Katie Benzan scored 19 points and had 10 assists while Sydney Skinner made four foul shots in the closing 19.5 seconds. The Crimson finished on an 8-1 run in the final 45 seconds.

Harvard kept its poise throughout the game with 12 ties and 12 lead changes. 

McKenzie Forbes had 22 points for the Golden Bears (9-2), who fell a week ago at home to top-ranked UConn.

Looking Ahead: Putting a Bow On 2018

Five locals finish up their front portion of the league schedule on New Year’s Eve and by later this week more teams than not will be involved in conference wars for the most part as 2019 arrives.

At 1 p.m. involving the only of the local D-1 group at home on New Year’s Eve Villanova will try to shake off Saturday’s upset loss to Butler and go after its first Big East win as Xavier comes calling to Finneran Pavilion.

The Musketeers also were upset Saturday, losing at Georgetown.

Saint Joseph’s plays its last non-conference affair trying to get some offense going after the loss at Delaware when the Hawks visit Navy at the Academy at 6 in Annapolis, Md.

Nearby earlier, Rutgers will be looking to make a statement when the Scarlet Knights visit No. 5 Maryland at noon in College Park in their second Big Ten game while elsewhere in the conference Penn State will be at Indiana at 7.

Lastly, Penn will be in Deland, Fla., at 11 Monday morning playing host Stetson in the Quakers’ final prep for Saturday’s big Ivy opener at Princeton.

Other national noteworthy attractions involving New Year’s court fireworks has Nebraska at Ohio State and No. 12 Minnesota at Michigan in the Big Ten in the daytime while in the Big East, Butler visits Georgetown; Providence visits No. 19 DePaul, and Creighton visits No. 22 Marquette.

And that’s the report. 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

 

 

  

  

The Guru Report: Villanova Falls in Wave of Big East Upsets While Drexel and Princeton Win Big on the Road

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

VILLANOVA — If launch night in the Big East for women’s basketball was any indication, a wide-open chase over the next two months might be looming until the seed placements settle for the conference championship in March at DePaul’s Wintrust Arena in Chicago.

Three underdogs of different dimensions prevailed in the four games played Saturday and the fifth game coming Sunday in South Orange, N.J., between host Seton Hall and St. John’s, the league’s travel partner duo out of the New York Metro area, could be a tossup.

Right here in a mid-evening tilt at Villanova in Finneran Pavilion for the second straight year Butler topped the Wildcats on one of their home courts, this time, 63-55, in a matchup that was between a pair of teams that had enjoyed the previous two months against opponents outside the conference with the visiting Bulldogs building a 10-1 resume that included Ohio State on their victims list while the hosts claimed Georgia here just before the Xmas layoff to establish an 8-2 mark.

It was a game of runs with Butler coming out of the gate with a 21-11 first period, Villanova countering in the second, 19-7, to take a 30-28 lead at the half, then build on it 17-15 in the third before the Bulldogs had the final say in the fourth with an overpowering 20-8 finish.

The Wildcats’ vulnerability to athletic teams showed again with Butler (11-1, 1-0 Big East) owning the boards 46-24 to produce a 36-12 domination inside the paint, including 12-1 on second chance points.

True, Villanova (8-3, 0-1) made the differentials a wash, getting 33 points off 11 treys while Butler connected on just three for nine points.

But in the end, field goal accuracy was telling as an x-factor with Butler shooting 45.1 percent, including 50 percent in the final period, while the Wildcats shot 32.7 percent on the night and were defensed into 12.5 percent off 2-for-16 from the field in the final period.

Thus Tori Schickel, a 6-1 senior post player from Evansville, Ind., collected 22 point, shooting 10-for-15 from the field, and grabbed nine rebounds for Butler, and Katherine Strong scored 15, shooting 6-for-10, while Shae Brey grabbed 12 rebounds.

All that along with eight rebounds from Whitney Jennings was enough to overpower balanced scoring from the Wildcats that saw Adrianna Hahn lead the team with 16 points, including nine of them from three treys, while dealing six assists. Mary Gedaka had a near double double with 19 points and nine rebounds, Jannah Tucker scored 15, fueled by four three-balls, and Kelly Jekot scored 11.

Of course where things had seemed improving in the desires of bench contributions for veteran coach Harry Perretta, only the starters scored, the substitutes going 0-for-3 while the Bulldogs got nine points from their reserves.

Hahn’s three-ball shot before the end of the third gave Villanova a four-point lead but then Butler used a 7-3 run to begin the fourth and take the Bulldogs’ first lead 51-50. 

 The ‘Cats came back one last time to be ahead 54-53 with 3 minutes, 47 seconds left in the game on a Tucker three-ball, but Butler finished with a 10-1 rout to get the upset.

“It was the difference down the stretch,” Perretta said. “They came down and throw the ball inside. We double, they kick it and they hit a dagger three on us down the stretch. If they don’t score, she (Schickel) scores. That’s the difference.

“We executed well in spurts,” he added. “We ran the offense pretty decently, but we didn’t make them shots down the stretch when we needed to.”

For the Bulldogs, the outcome made good on their prior performances following last season’s 15-17 record.

The Butler win on campus here a year ago was next door in the smaller Jake Nevin Field House the Wildcats women used during the renovation of Finneran Pavilion.

Villanova is still tops in the series 9-3 and avenged the loss a year ago here by winning later at Butler 69-67.

 Butler’s visit created a homecoming for Bulldogs deputy athletic director Tom Crowley, a native of South Jersey who was a star at Penn, being captain of the 1978 contingent that made the Sweet 16 his senior season. A year later he served as a coaching assistant when his alma mater made the Final Four in 1979.

Crowley also served in the front office of Temple’s Athletic administration.

What happened elsewhere in the Big East Saturday tempered the Villanova loss somewhat as the ‘Cats get a brief 48 hours to recover to complete the weekend conference openers hosting Xavier at 1 p.m. at home Monday.

Creighton won at No. 19 DePaul 85-82 in Chicago as Brooke Kissinger hit a career mark with six 3-pointers on the way to an equal best 20 points for the Blue Jays (7-5), who had lost nine straight to the Blue Demons (9-4).

Audrey Faber added 19 points and nailed a long three-ball with 39 seconds left to secure the upset.

DePaul, which was on a five-game win streak, got 17 points from Chante Stonewell, 15 from Ashton Millender, and 10 with five assists from Lexi Held.

Georgetown at home in Washington opened with a 68-61 upset of Xavier (9-3) as Dionna White scored 24 points and grabbed 12 rebounds to improve to 7-5. A’rianna Gray had 12 points and 11 rebounds for the Musketeers.

Only No. 22 Marquette ( 10-3) met expectations, beat visiting Providence 85–46 as Natisha Hiedman scored 25 points and Erika Davenport grabbed 20 rebounds, which was part of her double double, all important considering the home team’s star Allazia Blockton was held to six points in the game in Milwaukee.

However, those were enough to make her the all-time men’s or women’s scorer at the school with 1,989, topping the 1,985 scored by Jerel McNeal with the men’s team.

The visiting Friars (8-5) got 12 points as the top performance, coming from Jovanna Nogic.

The local schedule in the Guru’s group was light but Drexel at Richmond and Princeton at New Hampshire got easy wins.

Drexel Rebounds With Road Win at Richmond

The Dragons recovered from their recent 55-39 neighborhood rout by Penn by returning to their top defensive ways, beating host Richmond 58-35 in the Spiders’ Robins Center in Virginia to finish their non-conference slate at 8-3 while the Spiders are now 2-10 heading into Atlantic 10 competition.

Leading the nation in defensive scoring, it was the fourth time coach Denise Dillon’s group held the opposition to less than 40 points, limiting the Spiders to 33.3 field goal shooting percentage. The Dragons ruled the boards 51-36 tying a school mark with a 4-0 season start on the road.

Though struggling early, Drexel eventually pulled away and outscored Richmond 39-20 in the second half.

Bailey Greenberg had a double double with 11 points and 10 rebounds for the visitors, who never trailed. She was the only player to posts stats with doubles in either scoring or rebounding.

Now it’s time to head to conference play this weekend in the Colonial Athletic Association where Drexel was a preseason No. 2 pick from the coaches behind James Madison, which the Dragons shared season honors last spring and had the No. 1 seed in the playoffs where they finished runner-up in the title game to Elon.

Towson will come calling first on Friday night at 7 in the Daskalakis Athletic Center followed by none other than JMU on Sunday at 2 after the Dukes start their road trip Friday night at 7 at Delaware.

Princeton Handles New Hampshire

The Tigers have made it back to a winning record courtesy of a 90-42 road rout of New Hampshire for the first time since being 1-0 off the season-opening win at Rider in nearby Lawrenceville, N.J. last month, before enduring a seven-game slide caused by an injury-decimated roster.

The missing had included Ivy player of the year Bella Alarie, who had a broken shoulder prior to the first game of the season, which was last month.

The trip to Lundholm Gymnasium in Durham, N.H., enabled Princeton coach to make an extra homecoming to the state of her birth besides the ongoing annual visits to Dartmouth, her alma mater, in Ivy competition.

Alarie had 18 points while Gabrielle Rush and Taylor Baur each scored 12 points for the Tigers (8-7) and McKenna Haire scored 11.

With four block shots Alarie is within four of the Princeton record set by Ellen DeVoe at 157 in 1986.

Ashley Storey with 14 points was the only player to score in double figures for New Hampshire (3-10) while Caroline Soucy had a near double double with eight points and nine rebounds.

Fifty of the points on the winning side came off the Princeton bench and Baur’s 12 points were a career high.

Alarie’s return and impact is obvious and though she was not yet on the court when the Tigers finally stopped the skid, she has been involved the next six on the current seven-game run.

Banghart’s teams have won at least seven straight in her last 10 seasons at the helm and with non-conference play done on the Tigers side, all of these facts feed into Saturday’s Ivy opening showdown when Penn, picked second behind the defending champs, visits Jadwin Gym at 2 p.m.

The two have won in combination the last nine league titles, 6-3 in favor of Princeton.

Now of course for the third year an Ivy tournament is in the mix, moving from The Palestra this time to Yale in New Haven, Conn.

Penn, which is a slim third nationally in defense behind Drexel and West Virginia, finishes most of its non-conference slate Monday morning at Stetson.

The big games remaining in that category involve hosting Temple and Villanova in The Palestra with a chance to win their first Big Five crown outright or share their third.

Looking Ahead: Big Five Action at Temple and Notre Dame’s McGraw Seeks 900th While Hosting Lehigh

There’s just one game on the Guru local slate with Temple making one of its soon not to be as rare home appearances at McGonigle Hall.

There’s definitely something to play for on Temple’s side in the 2 p.m. tilt despite the 3-7 record that has been impacted by a long road stint since the season opener.

“Temple is much better and not what their record says they are,” said DePaul coach Doug Bruno in a recent conversation in him mentioning the Owls’ visit to the Blue Demons at the start of this month.

Today the Owls host La Salle (3-10) holding a 1-1 record in the Big Five having beaten Saint Joseph’s and lost to Villanova.

A win means if they were to next month top Penn at The Palestra, they could land a tie for the title in a three-way 3-1 if the Quakers were to beat Villanova at The Palestra the following week.

Villanova can win outright at 4-0 with a win at Penn, while if the Quakers sweep Temple and beat the Wildcats a second straight year they could land their first outright 4-0 crown to go with the recent 3-1 finishes.

La Salle has started to make some progress under first-year coach Mountain MacGillivray after losing the Explorers first eight games. After snapping the skid, and then after following a home loss to Saint John’s they grabbed two more wins in Providence’s tournament before falling to the host Friars.

Bagging Temple after losses to Penn and Villanova would be a great way to end 2018 on their side of the arena.

Meanwhile, fate has confronted Lehigh on what was originally set as a fun what-the-heck trip to No. 1 Notre Dame at 1 p.m.

The Mountain Hawks (8-2) were the first collegiate group that McGraw, a former Saint Joseph’s star, guided as a head coach before being hired by the Irish (11-1) where she has won numerous Hall of Fame honors besides last season’s NCAA title, the second under her at Notre Dame.

Last month McGraw came home to be inducted into the Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame.

Well by chance the ongoing adding machine that keeps track of victories under McGraw reveals that against Lehigh Sunday she will have her first chance to join the 900 victory club.

Elsewhere, Fordham will host Middle Tennessee in the title game of the Rams’ tournament in the Bronx near Manhattan, while in the Big Ten, No. 16 Iowa visits No. 21 Michigan State.

UCF (10-2) of the American Athletic Conference is at Quinnipiac (5-5) in an interesting cross match of mid-majors.

In Pac-12 openers, UCLA is at USC, Washington State is at Washington, and Arizona State is at Arizona, though the Oregons, and Stanford are not on Sunday’s slate and No. 14 California is hosting Harvard.

A result of Saturday had Old Dominion beat Coppin State for its ninth win, one more than all of last year when Nikki McCray-Person made her head coaching debut with the Lady Monarchs.

They begin Conference-USA competition next weekend.

Somewhere up above, the late Anne Donovan is smiling down on her alma mater.

And that is the report. We’ll wrap up Monday action previews to close 2018 with the report of Sunday’s action.

  

    

 

  

The Guru Report: Delaware Defenses Saint Joseph’s and Rutgers’ Stringer Reaches Another Milestone

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

NEWARK, Del. — Following a long five-day break – a tad longer than in earlier years across the Xmas calendar – NCAA women’s hoops slipped back in action with some noteworthiness Friday entering a brief mixed period in which some teams will be completing non-conference play while others have begun and will be launching their league races for NCAA tourney bids.

By the end of the next four weeks the race for participation and national honors in NCAA play will begin to form while the size of the field for individual citations will be revealed in terms of the reality portion of watch lists whose overall count will be in excess.

A year ago at this time that size overwhelmingly wrapped around South Carolina’s A’ja Wilson. But in the same moment there was also a write-off waiting for a highly talented but injury-riddled group at Notre Dame to crash and burn from the weight of its adversity.

Signs are already pointing to suspense topping a large share of givens when March Madness comes calling.

On the local front first, Saint Joseph’s came down here on the short one-hour trip from Philly after an uplifting pre-break 61-44 win over Sacred Heart in Fairfield, Conn., to finish off the two-year deal with Delaware.

The duo were part of the four in the Guru’s local D-1 group who resumed action, the others being Rutgers and Penn State hosting Big Ten openers.

However, a brief second-quarter 8-0 rally not withstanding, it was the Hawks who got finished off 48-39 as Delaware in its Bob Carpenter Center won its first game in the overall series in 13 seasons and only second in 14 games.

That earlier triumph was a dramatic 49-48 outcome at Saint Joseph’s on Dec. 29, 2005.

Delaware was in the Hawk Classic a year ago up in Hagan Arena but the teams never met due to the Blue Hens’ failing to advance. That moves the marker for Saint Joseph’s for its last win, which is also the last time the two met, to a 50-45 win here on Dec. 22, 2010.

That was the sophomore season of budding Delaware superstar Elena Delle Donne, you all remember her? (The Guru quipped), who easily on a slew of nights approached the numbers individually that both teams struggled to reach here Friday.

Speaking of the WNBA and Olympic gold medalist sensation who helped lead the Washington Mystics to their first WNBA finals last summer, the native of nearby Wilmington did not play in that game struggling with fatigue and yet to learn its cause was chronic Lyme Disease, which she has since managed in varying degrees.

However, there was a non-counting meeting involving the Hens and Hawks which came on Delle Donne’s way back to resuming basketball after a year’s absence in her favorite sport involving one of those secret preseason scrimmages which was her first test and word was quickly whispered by eyewitnesses allowed in the arena that she had put up 50 against a pretty good defensive unit.

“She was unbelievable,” veteran coach Cindy Griffin later recalled. “We could not stop her and we tried everything.”

So now you will say, well, those two teams are pretty good defensive squads, explainable for Friday’s low output.

Well not entirely in a game in which production of individual double digits lagged behind those flashing on the cash registers of the popular barbecue concession on the upper concourse here at The Bob.

Freshman Katie Mayock took care of most of Saint Joseph’s totals with 11 points and 13 rebounds while Delaware freshman Jasmine Dickey out of Baltimore scored 10 points, shooting 5-of-9 from the field, and grabbed nine rebounds, and Makeda Nicholas grabbed 10 rebounds.

It was the first career double double for Mayock, out of Conestoga High and suburban Berwyn, whose mother Alix Burns played for the Hawks in the late 1980s helping to reach four NCAA appearances.

Reserve Lula Roig of Barcelona, Spain, came off the bench to match the Mayock total of 11, shooting 5-of-9 from the field for the visitors.

In the paint, the Blue Hens outscored the Hawks 34-24 and on the offensive end won second chance points 12-7.

Delaware felt good coming out of its play before the break here against No. 5 Maryland, a 77-53 setback that didn’t get decided until later in the third and entire fourth quarters.

You will read about this kind of closeout which occurred again Friday involving the Terrapins in a bit under the visit to Penn State.

 “I love the way our team responds to different strategies,” said Delaware coach Natasha Adair in her second season after holding a similar position at Georgetown. “You could see this was a team defensive effort.”

But as Villanova veteran coach Harry Perretta recently said after the Wildcats beat a then-decimated Princeton group that had yet to get Ivy player of the year Bella Alarie activated from a should injury, “How do you really know.”

The rainbow leading to a pot of recruiting gold for Saint Joseph’s is worthless for this season in which the Hawks lost 70.5 percent of their scoring from a year ago and entered the game averaging 53.5 points, ranking 334th right behind La Salle at 53.6 and out of 349 Division I schools.

Or for those who can read upside down — 16th worst.

Their effort from the field on the night was 28.6 percent well below their 36 percent on the season so some of that was the Delaware defense, though the Blue Hens’ 32.3 percent on offense was below the 38.7 percent yielded by the Hawks, which is 146th nationally.

Delaware has had its own adversity, losing CAA player of the year Nicole Enabosi to an injury prior to the season tipoff.

The Hawks have now lost to the three CAA representatives they played including Towson and in the Drexel loss suffered a first-ever first-period shutout, though quarters have only existed a few seasons after the rules change.

In this one Delaware jumped to a 13-5 lead after the opening ten minutes, but the Hawks rallied, propelled by an 8-0 run taking them from what had been an eight-point deficit to a 15-15 tie.

Later following a 13-point deficit in the third, another rally brought the visitors within six.

However, that was the last hurrah with one non-conference left prior to the Atlantic 10 slate and that one is a New Year’s Eve visit to Navy at the Academy at 6 p.m.

That night could be interesting considering right now when it comes down to shutting down the Midships, parts of the Academy are likely already experiencing closure off the current government close out trip-levered by the guy who spoke at last spring’s graduation in Annapolis.

As of learning their own truth of the moment, the Blue Hens will quickly get an idea of their own situation in their next game a week away on Friday the fourth of the New Year when CAA favorite James Madison comes to town for the conference opener at 7 p.m.

Incidentally, there wasn’t total joy in Newark Friday night when news came from the north that the men dropped their CAA opener at Hofstra 91-46 in Hempstead, N.Y. at the Mack Sports Complex to fall to 8-6 overall. The host Pride are now 11-3.

It’s the worst loss in 31 years dating to a 95-47 disaster against then-No. 5 Iowa on Dec. 5, 1987 in Iowa City. The 46 points are the fewest in nine seasons dating to being held to 44 by former CAA member Old Dominion on Dec. 5, 2009.

Saint Joseph’s A-10 opener is the next day at VCU before Saint Louis comes to Hawk Hill on  Wednesday January 9 at 11:30 a.m. for the annual school day field trip event.

Rutgers Coach C. Vivian Stringer Gains New Milestone As ‘Knights Top Northwestern in Big Ten Opener

The matinee opener in the Big Ten Friday afternoon at the Rutgers Athletic Center in Piscataway, N.J., featured many of the signature trappings in Hall of Fame coach C. Vivian Stringer’s legendary career — another coach with long ties to Philadelphia on the sidelines and an ugly low-scoring affair in part caused by her trademark emphasis on defense.

All appropriate because when the final sounded, Rutgers had itself a 45-41 win and Stringer had another milestone accomplishment in her resume — this one being the first to win 200 Big Ten women’s games.

She’s been coach at Rutgers 13 seasons and prior in the conference at Iowa after her career began at Cheyney in the Philadelphia suburbs.

It came on a day elsewhere where another Big Ten rival produced her stamp on the conference.

Purdue, showing signs of revival, routed a rebuilding Ohio State squad 60-42 at home in Mackey Arena in West Lafayette, Ind., giving coach Sharon Versyp her 121st win with the Boilermakers, continuing at her alma mater to earn a program record for conference performance.

“It’s pretty exciting to continue the winning tradition at Purdue, first as a player, and now  as our coach,” she said. “I appreciate every player and coach that has been part of this over the last 13 seasons and look forward to furthering this success.”

The win broke a tie with Women’s Basketball Hall of Famer Lin Dunn, who later joined the pro ranks first in the former American Basketball League and then in the WNBA with several teams as an assistant and head coach, most notably leading the Indiana Fever to their only WNBA title, though the squad was a longtime playoffs participant.

The Boilermakers are now 10-4.

Meanwhile back at Rutgers where Stringer was adding to her history that includes her 1000th career triumph a month ago the Scarlet Knights had to fend off a rally by the Wildcats (7-5) coached by Father Judge graduate Joe McKeown.

A steal by Victoria Harris late in the game helped preserve to win for the home crowd, moving Rutgers to 8-3.

The Scarlet Knights’ Ciani Cryor had 13 points while Stasha Carey grabbed nine rebounds.

Lindsey Pullman, keying the rally, had a game-high 16 points for Northwestern while Pallas Kunaiyi-Akpanah grabbed 17 rebounds.

A 13-0 surge from the visitors in the third period reduced the Rutgers lead to a slim 34-31 advantage with 10 minutes remaining.

But in the next frame Northwestern took its first lead at 41-40 on a jumper from Jordan Hamilton in the paint with 1 minute, 20 seconds left in regulation, giving the crowd pause to remember several meltdowns on the road last month costing some important win perks in the Vancouver tournament in Canada.

However, Rutgers got the lead back at  42-41 with 57 seconds returning on Harris’ steal and two ensuing free throws.

A nearly perfect team 5-for-6 from the line — Cryor went 1-2 — preserved the win with Charise Wilson making the final two foul shots in the closing seconds as Northwestern missed shots from the field in that span.

“There were a lot of things we wanted to do which we usually do with the defenses, which were great today,” Stringer said of the way things went. 

She had noted in coming back from the break the team had less time to prepare for the resumption of the schedule.

“We feel great and relaxed,” she said of the team’s outlook in terms of longer prep time.

“It felt good,” Stringer said conceding she was unaware of the achievement. “I already got the ball for 1,000, right?

“Honestly, I didn’t think about it, I didn’t know about it, and it’s better for me not to know about it,” she smiled at the postgame presser. “I was so focused on getting the win. That’s what was important for this team.”

Of the frantic finish she agreed her team was calm and poised and “I was calm and poised and I’m not sure why because normally I would feel anxious. Within my own mind I was just calm and I don’t know why but I’m going to try to do it again.”

She said the steal came off her trademark 55 press defense and “it was major.”

Stringer is now  200-83 in the conference of which the Iowa 1983-95 era produced 169 wins while at Rutgers, which competed in the old Big East when Stringer arrived, has enabled her to tack on 31 with the Scarlet Knights.

Six men’s coaches with Big 10 victories top her on the combined listing headed by Bob Knight’s 353 at Indiana (1972-2000).

The Scarlet Knights are still unbeaten at home this season, now at 6-0, after using a season-high six steals to help collect the win.

A year ago Rutgers surged through the initial part of the conference slate only to go on a long slide at the end to lose its grip on an NCAA bid and then reject a follow-up WNIT bid it had initially indicated it might accept.

The heavy dose of Maryland and then still-powerful Ohio State didn’t even kick in play until late.

But this time, the challenge is coming quickly where Maryland, which dodged an upset at Penn State, is ranked fifth and will host Rutgers on Monday, New Year’s Eve at 12 p.m., at the Xfinity Center in College Park.

Then comes one more non-conference deal on Friday when Brown of the Ivy League visits at 7 followed by a return to the Big 10 hosting longtime rival Penn State, Sunday, Jan. 6 at 4 p.m.

Maryland Closing Dominance Foils Penn State Upset Bid

Last week Maryland got to move into fifth in the AP Women’s poll after shaking off a pesky Delaware squad on the play of freshman Shakira Austin to close out the non-conference slate, stay unbeaten, while she earned another weekly honor from the conference.

On Friday, the Terrapins went the same route to subdue host Penn State in College Park at the Bryce Jordan Center after being challenged all day in their Big Ten opener except the veterans helped land the finishing punch this time around for a 77-61 final score that belies how it all went.

Kaila Charles had 16 of her 23 points in the second half while Stephanie Jones scored 17 to keep Maryland beaten overall at 12-0.

“I trust these two with everything,” Maryland coach Brenda Frese said afterwards. “Just that aggressiveness in their trap-set, it was a slower-paced game to begin with so I thought that really raised the level of play.”

Penn State (7-5) had people across the country checking the scoreboard all afternoon poised to perhaps have the one of the big upsets of the season, let alone on Friday’s small return-to-work national schedule.

Austin may not have been the offensive leader in the stats but helped the defensive side with a game-high 11 rebounds, 10 in the second half, as the hosts were limited to just 12 shots in the final period.

Maryland dominated the boards 52-29 while Taylor Mikesell had 12 points to add to the day’s effort.

Penn State’s Teniya Page had another big outing with 24 points while Kamaria McDaniel scored 16.

“We did a pretty good job, defensively, for three quarters,” Lady Lions coach Coquese Washington stated the obvious. “I thought we were aggressive on both ends of the floor.”

The Terps jumped to a 15-8 opening advantage before PSU worked its way back into contention and went ahead at the end of the first half 41-39.

“I thought it was a wakeup call for us,” Frese said. “You see what conference play looks like.”

As mentioned, Maryland, a former Atlantic Coast Conference member who competed prior to that in the pre-NCAA days in the same AIAW Region IB with Penn State and Rutgers finishes its opening weekend against its longtime rivals hosting Rutgers at noon on Monday.

The Lady Lions head to Indiana, which had to go into overtime in its conference opener  to win at Illinois 85-83 to improve to 12-1 overall. The Illini dropped to 8-4.

A conference opening upset occurred when host Nebraska beat Michigan 70-56 to get to .500 overall at 6-6 and the Wolverines dropped to 9-4.

But rookie coach Lindsay Whelan in her new career after a stellar era as an all-pro in the WNBA continues to meet the initial challenges, this time grabbing her first conference appearance, guiding her alma mater and No. 12 Minnesota to a 74-56 win over Wisconsin as the Gophers stayed unbeaten at 12-0 overall, the game played in Williams Arena in Minneapolis.

The opening burst with the record is the same produced when Whalen was a senior in 2003 and advanced to the NCAA Final Four. The total is just three short of the 15-0 set a year earlier as a junior.

The home team led all the way with Kenisha Bell getting 17 points and 10 rebounds, her initial double double on the season, while Annalese Lamke scored 20 points.

Wisconsin at 9-4 hasn’t started this well since 2009-10, nine seasons ago for the best opening since Jonathan Tsipis, a former Notre Dame associated head coach, left George Washington of the Atlantic 10 where he revived the Colonials.

However, none of the Badgers were able to produce in double digits.

Division III News: Amherst Out-Foxes Westfield State

Abington’s Hannah Fox out of the Philadelphia suburbs who plays in the widely popular summer league in Hatboro snapped a 20-year-old single game school record at two-time defending Division III NCAA champion Amherst with 43 points as the Mammoths lived up to their mascot nickname with a 104-79 victory in the D3 Hoops.com Invitational at South Point in Las Vegas Friday afternoon.

Amherst won the title unbeaten at 33-0 but the three-year win streak was halted at 68 on Nov. 20 by Eastern Connecticut State, which grabbed a narrow 70-67 win in the title game of Amherst’s own tournament in Massachusetts in LeFrak Gymnasium as the Warriors rallied from a 15-point deficit late in the game and outscored the Mammoths 26-8 in the final 10 minutes.

In that game down the stretch Mya Villard, who had a game-high 23 points, nailed shots with 23 and 57 seconds left in the game to keep the visitors ahead.

Fox, who had 21 that night, answered the first go-ahead but was unable to reverse the second one. At the finish, Julie Keckler’s two free throws made it a three-point game and Amherst missed a three-ball as time expired trying to send the game into overtime.

On Friday, Fox shot 19-for-25 from the field for 76 percent which also set a new school mark for field goals made and had a game-high 12 rebounds.

The squad is 8-1 this season to date and the 100 plus points are the first in eight seasons.

Fox broke the previous record of 37 by the time the game reached into the third quarter.

She is averaging 21.9 points per game, shooting 54.8 percent from the field and 42.1 percent at three-point range.

“Hannah plays with tremendous passion,” said Guru colleague Scott Granowitz out of Boston. “She’s one of the best D3 players I’ve seen.”

The opposition Owls (4-6) got a moral victory scoring the most against Amherst all season as Lucy Barrett scored 24 points.

The last team to handle Amherst defenses so well was St. Thomas in the Division III third-place game in 2012, scoring 87.

The Mammoths only shot five treys but overall strafed the opposition with a 62.3 percent from the field.

Kathryn Hersey scored 37 for the previous Amherst mark on January 30, 1999.

Nearly seven years ago Amherst beat WPI 109-39 according to the team website report.

The best one-day team attack produced 117 points by the Mammoths in 2008 and 1996.

Wisconsin Stevens Point will face Amherst next on Saturday afternoon at 3 p.m. Eastern Time in the second round.

Looking Ahead: Nova Opens Big East Slate Hosting Butler on National TV

Three of the locals on the Guru slate are playing Saturday as the 2018 portion of the season comes to a close over the next three days.

The highlight is out on the Main Line Saturday night where Villanova (8-2) will host Butler in an overall key match up at 8 p.m. in Finneran Pavilion.

Butler (10-1) has had a strong start going while at the moment the Wildcats and Penn are the top two Division I teams in the area, an issue to be settled late next month, though Drexel having been routed by the Quakers last week, are still right there with the other two.

That will be ‘Nova’s last non-conference action until March Madness comes around.

Two others are in non-conference play on Saturday as Ivy favorite Princeton tries to keep its streak alive with a visit to New Hampshire at 1 p.m. in the home state of Courtney Banghart, who played at Dartmouth.

Speaking of Drexel, the the Dragons visit Richmond of the Atlantic 10 in a 2 p.m. meeting in the Robins Center trying to rebound from its neighborhood handling by the Quakers last Friday.

On Sunday just one game at 2 p.m. as Temple hosts La Salle in a Big Five game at the Owls’ McGonigle Hall, one of the rare home games since November.

The Explorers showed signs of coming around winning the first two of their three-game trip to Providence while Temple also has been struggling off their long road trek.

The Owls with a win go to 2-1 in the City and will remain in the hunt for a piece of the title which they can get by winning at Penn next month providing the Quakers don’t lose to Villanova a week later.

It’s possible both Penn, which upset the Wildcats on the Main Line last season to earn a piece of the title with them, and Villanova will be 3-0 when they meet, giving the Palestra hosts a shot at their third crown share or first-ever outright championship in the local round robin.

Speaking of Penn, on Monday New Year’s Eve, the Quakers finish non-conference play ahead of the looming Ivy tilt at Princeton by visiting Stetson in Florida at 11 a.m. shopping more than hats to wear at the stroke of 12.

As mentioned, Rutgers is at Maryland at noon and nearby at 6 Saint Joseph’s visits Navy, pending any problems from the government shutdown. The late start in Annapolis is due to the Military Bowl football clash at Navy earlier in the day. Penn State is at Indiana at 7.

But there is a game early enough here as Villanova finishes its opening Big East weekend hosting Xavier at 1 p.m.

Nationally, also at 8 on the Big East card No. 19 DePaul hosts Creighton and also in the conference, No. 22 Marquette hosts Providence at 3, and Xavier is at Georgetown at 5 p.m.

On Sunday the other Big East opener involves travel partners with St. John’s visiting Seton Hall at 1 p.m.

In a game of feature interest, No. 2 Notre Dame hosts Lehigh giving Muffet McGraw a chance to coach against the school that gave her first collegiate head coaching job. It has a 1 p.m. tip.

Harvard is at No. 14 California at 5 p.m. while No. 12 Minnesota is at Michigan at 2 and in another big East tilt of note Creighton is at No. 22 Marquette at 3 p.m.

And that is the report. 

 

 

  

         

Mike Siroky’s SEC Report: Unbeatens Become History

By Mike Siroky

 

Happy holidays everyone.

There were only three games this week among ranked teams as anticipation grows for the start of conference play in the Southeastern Conference of women’s basketball.

As we have said, the goal is to win 20 games in the season because no SEC team ever has won 20 and not been in the eliminations. The eighth team selected by the NCAA can get in with 19 sometimes. The RPI of the league causes this. The conference tournament also gives another chance at one or two ranked teams.

So now you want to win at least 10 which makes 20 guaranteed.

The two top teams each lost and ended undefeated possibilities both to Pac 12 teams.

No.8 Mississippi State (11-1)

At No. 8 Oregon, the Determined Ducks were keen to regain footing after their first season loss.

 Mississippi State did not uphold the honor  of the league, 82-74, being outscored by three in the third and by six in the final quarter. This was the last real test before the conference collisions and State failed. It cost them four spot sin the national poll.

Anriel Howard scored 30, 12-of-17 from the field, 5-of-7 from the line but had five turnovers and fouled out in the closing minutes, as did another starter Teaira McCowan, who had her worst offensive game in two seasons, two baskets and one free throw.

 The support players hit double figures but did not make up for the 18.6 McCowan usually provides.

  With the foul trouble, the bench was non-existent. 

Another fail. They allowed ten total rebounds.

 Two foes went for more than 20 points each, one of them in the final three quarters.

 A rough-and-tumble game, each side received a technical foul. One was on McCowan for an unsportsmanlike excessive elbow. The situation was a quick turnaround when the opposing player back-jumped into her space and caught an elbow, did an embarrassing flop and therefore won the foul.

In the men’s game this is the “cylinder” rule which define the offensive player room to land and turn.

 The women’s rule protect the defender to a silly extreme.

Coach Vic Schaefer first got red-faced angry then accepted the rule because it is, well, a rule. His assistants had to initially restrain him.

At halftime he did say McCowan needed to move more as they were double-teaming all the time forfeiting a defender on someone else and why wasn’t the someone else producing.

In a makeup call, the opposing coach got a quick T for protesting, to the free throws offset. At halftime, Schaefer was all smiles and simply encouraged his team to work harder.

State actually rallied for seven-point lead in the third before the collapse, allowing 32 above their defensive average and scoring 18 less than average. They gathered 21 less rebounds than usual.

They drew an 8,951.

"A great environment for women's basketball. Hats off to Oregon for getting in there and creating that type of environment, but that is part of the toughness piece. I pride myself on having tough, aggressive, physical basketball teams,"  Schaefer said. "That is something we have hung our hat on at Mississippi State. Tonight we didn't have it."

They had another Pac 12 road game, at Washington, to recover some semblance of pride.

It started well. They spread the offense around and led 18-3 with four minutes left in the opening quarter, allowing one shot to go in. It was 28-7 at the end of one, Howard had eight rebounds and six points and McCowan had seven and seven.

It accelerated to a sweep of every quarter in a 103-56 runaway and the 10h win. Even with  playing time constraints, McCowan still doubled, 13  points and 12 rebounds, seven defensive and 6-of-8 from the field. Jordan Danberry scored 20 with four assists and four steals. Howard scored 16. Chloe Bibby scored 15. 

Off the bench, sophomore guard Espinoza-Hunter led the bench with a career-best 11. They had 13 steals and 19 assists. They won rebounds by 20. They drew 1,669.

"I thought our transition was good early," Schaefer said. "I thought Jordan was really good tonight. I thought we were really, really good coming out of the gate. 

“The film doesn't lie. We watched a lot of film the last day and a half. Hopefully we learned from it. I was anxious to see tonight how we would respond. I am very pleased obviously."

The preconference season closes on Sunday at home.

No. 10 Tennessee (9-1)

The week off left Tennessee rusty. They couldn’t score at first and could not defend Stanford with zest.

 The Cardinal shot 57 percent well into the second quarter while the Vols hit 20 percent less.

Stanford was 9-of-12 on 3s They fashioned a nine-point lead. They were winning the boards and won the game 93-82. It cost Tennessee a one-spot drop, but kept the ten in Tennessee.

UT senior Meme Jackson scored nine and Evina Westbrook 13. But the tallest Vol, 6-3 senior center Cheridene Green, got a third foul. That’s when center Kasiyaha Kushiuahwas made her return after missing several games with a strained knee, but her eight minutes were the only contribution to the stat line. 

Warlick had said she was good to  go before the game, but she didn’t start and wore a heavy brace so the definition of good to go has changed for her.

Stanford continued a 10-0 run and led by 15. The shooting percentage difference remained the same.

 A Stanford player already had a double/double, 19 points and 10 defensive rebounds. Stanford led by 10.

Tennessee came in 4-0 at home, but this was the first ranked opponent in Knoxville.

The Vols reduced the lead by seven to start the second half, but Stanford never panicked and seemed to be in cruise control. They remained ahead by double figures with four minutes left. 

The undefeated run was embarrassingly over, as was a Top 10 position.

 Faced by a better coach with a better game plan, UT folded. Westbrook scored a career-best  29 and doubled with 10 assists but that was about it. Four other starters scored at least 14. But they gave up 95 points against a defensive average of 58.

Holly Warlick stood as mute as the Pat Head statue just outside. The crowd of 8,051filtered out.

 Stanford had won hosting Baylor and at Tennessee against previously unbeaten teams. The top Cardinal scored 33 and three  other starters had at least 14, 14-of-24 3s.

“They were tougher and more poised,” Warlick said. “ We lacked attention to detail. We knew they were going to shoot the three, and we gave up 14. We did not rebound the basketball. We had 45 opportunities to rebound, and I think we had 12. 

“We rebounded 20 percent of our misses. That is not very good. We just lacked a sense of urgency. We got beat at every position, gave five kids double figure points. We did not play very well today. We are not going to the boards and I don’t know why.”

UT closes the year with three oh so winnable games.

First up in TBall was East Tennessee State, a traditionally woeful and inept team. They had already lost by 46 at home to South Carolina.

UT won, 80-61, ETSU is 0-7 on the road.

It started slowly but with determination, 22-14, having already withstood the best ETSU had to offer.

 Rennia Davis had nine.

Sophomore center Kushkituah, at 6-4 the tallest Lady Vol, is still not ready to go with a strained left knee. Apparently, the coaches are frozen at calling for surgery and may wait too long for a redshirt. She no longer starts and is not among the first three off the bench. She did get one rebound and one point in the second quarter.

The lead was 10 at the break. Green surfaced with eight points, 3-of-4  from the field and 2-of-2 from the line.  The Vols won every quarter. They drew 8,029. Jackson scored 23, seven 3s.5.  UT on rebounds by 17 but no one took charge.

"The effort was definitely better this game," said Davis.

“She wanted the tempo and the energy faster so that’s what we dd,” Jackson said. "My time is kind of limited here, and I just want to get out there and play hard every time I step on the court."

"Meme's been in the gym all summer and been in the gym outside of practice," Warlick said. "When you do that, you get confidence."

Tennessee has Murray State and Belmont to close the year. A 12-1 record is acceptable.

No. 18 Kentucky  (12-1)

The Kats continued the five home games to conclude the preconference season.

When you are in the Top 20 you must dominate lesser teams. Kentucky had a spree  killing, 99-39, when Western Carolina visited.

Freshman Rhyne Howard led the Cats with her average 18 points, her 11th double-figure scoring effort in 12 games this season. She earned Freshman of the Week for the league. 

Sophomore Tatyana Wyatt had a season-high 16 points. Senior Maci Morris scored13. Sophomore guard Jaida Roper had 12 points for the Cats, senior Taylor Murray and junior Amanda Paschal each had 11.

 Kentucky placed six players in double figures for the first time since November 17, 2016 when Makenzie Cann scored 20 points to lead six UK players in double figures in a win over New Hampshire.

The Kats forced 24 turnovers and scored 33 points off those. The home team won rebounding, 41-22, outscored the visitors on second-chance points 15-3, had a 40-20 advantage in points in the paint and held a 35-9 edge in bench scoring. 

The 99 were the most points this season on the best shooting percentage, 58.6, and total assists, 234

.

“I was proud of our team for just playing hard and trying to come into the game focused, disciplined, consistent effort,” said coach Matthew Mitchell . “We have certain areas where we can get better, but just proud of them coming out and hustling tonight. I thought everybody on the team that played had some good moments, and of course, everybody has room for improvement, so we’ll keep working at it.“

They drew 3,903.

They welcomed Murray State for a nooner on National Ugly Sweater Day and Santa Hat Giveaway Day.

 You got in free of your wore an ugly Christmas sweater or you got a free child admission for every paid adult $10 admission. There were free Santa hats as well. 

Murray State delivered the gift of an eight-point second-quarter effort while UK scored 24 for a 14-point halftime edge, assuring a 12th win before Christmas. Nine Kats had already scored, led by Morris’  13, with three 3s. They had 12 steals and had created 18 turnovers.

Then came the first seven points after intermission and a 26-9 third. Howard already had hit four  3s in her 22 points after scoring five in the first half .

It ended 88-49, right about the scoring average. Junior forward Ogechi Anyagaligbo had a career best 10 rebounds, which is by how many team rebounds UK won the boards.

Freshman guard Jaida Roper scored a career high 15 -- 10 in the second half-- on 5-of-8 shooting with six assists. They drew 4,312.

It’s been a very, very long semester, and they’ve worked hard, earned a 3.2 GPA as a team and have #$worked hard in the classroom,” said Mitchell. “12-1 going into the Christmas break is a really great accomplishment,”Roper said,.

“Credit to my teammates because they help my confidence every game. They tell me to either take the shot, or if I’m open, make the play that I know I can make. A lot of credit goes to them because they boost my confidence and I’m just trying to put in the extra work that builds my confidence. 

“We’re so versatile that anybody can have that big night. It definitely helps when Rhyne  is having a very good night especially. When teams start double-teaming her, it leaves our shooters wide open.

“ Just playing off of your teammates helps get you buckets. (Defense)  gives us more layups and that builds our confidence if we aren’t shooting well. Just getting stops on the defensive-end builds confidence and gets our team going. It gives our team energy to score on the offensive end.”

UK got an early Christmas present when the fast-dissolving Texas team lost its point guard, Chasity Patterson, transferring in to Lexington.

She was the top ranked point guard in the class of 2017 and the Big 12 Preseason Freshman of the Year last season. She will enroll at UK immediately and be eligible for the next SEC season. 

“We are extremely excited to welcome Chasity Patterson to our program and cannot wait to get her on campus,” Matthew Mitchell said. “Chasity is an athletic guard with incredible play-making abilities on both ends of the court. She’s a high-energy player who possess a winning pedigree having won 125 games in high school. 

“Chasity fits our system perfectly and when you couple that with the opportunity to compete at the highest level here at Kentucky, it was a perfect match. We are confident that her experience will be a valuable asset to our team.”

 Patterson spent her freshman season at Texas, helping the Longhorns to the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 .

 Her high school career was legendary at North Shore High School in Houston, scoring with 3,177 points.

 She was a McDonald’s high school All-American who will gain program familiarity between now and then as a practice player. She is the prototype 5- 5 guard. She will be under the radar as an addition  to the other incoming players, but a powerful addition.

 Only Sacred Heart on Saturday morning remains before the SEC starts.

No. 23 Texas A&M (11-2)

Sophomore Chennedy Carter is the SEC Player of the Week. If not for Teaira McCowan, she’d be SEC player of the year and could well be the other conference All-American.

She showed some signs of the tweaked ankle which slowed her for the last half of the previous effort.

Against visiting and undefeated Southern Cal, they trailed by three at the half. But sophomore guard Kayla Wells was willing to pick up Carter. She was 8-of-12 from the field, hit all three 3s and was 2-of-3 from the line well into the third. 

That’s 21 against a  12-point average and a 9-0 team. Aggieland was exuberant with a 10-point lead. The crowd of 3,269 loved it.

A giveaway draw were 500 T-shirts commemorating Ugly Christmas Sweaters.

It ended a blowout, the fifth straight win, 71-51. Carter hit 12-of-13 from the line among her 23 points and yet another double. A&M had 17 assists and caused 13 turnovers.

N’dea Jones had an impressive 17 rebounds as A&M won the boards by 11, her sixth this season with at least 10.

 They were one win away from 10 preconference victories and two straight over Pac 12 contenders.” 

Coach Gary Blair had praised Wells the previous game.

This time, he said,  “when I could see (Carter) wasn't going, we started calling Kayla Wells plays. I think tonight's game started with what she did against Oregon State. 

“That's what we have to do, have the next person step up. She started being referred to as the third option on the outside, and she is not a third option anymore. I am proud of this basketball team because we can accept when somebody is cold or we are not getting it inside enough.

"I think what you saw in the first half was a little bit of post-Maui. We were lucky in the first quarter, whatever the score was, because we were 2-four-12  to start, they were good shots. But, I just feel we didn't have the legs until the second half. 

“We held a Power 5 team to 19 points in the second half.

“I am proud of this team that handles adversity as good as any team I have ever had. Carter is playing one-legged, it's her foot. Her shot wasn't going in, but she gotta to the line 13 times and got 11 rebounds, and that is a career high.

“ In the first half when Chennedy was there, they got six turnovers, and only one in the second half. They handled the ball really well, and we ran our stuff better when they were in front of me.

“ Chennedy was hurting on both ends sometimes, not making good decisions, but at the same time, she rebounded and played through it, and that is what All-Americans are supposed to do. She got all her free throws at the end, she did the little things at the end, and in the second half.

“N’dea was great, but her shot wasn't dropping. What can you do to stay in the ball game? You can play defense and give me 17 rebounds. What we've done in the last five ball games since the Lamar game has been remarkable. Our legs were tired, I was dead tired, and we had to play a 5 p.m. game.

“ That is what we do, we play through it. I don't think they have played anybody as tough or physical as we have, and we haven't played anybody as quick as they are. They will do well in the Pac-12."

“In the second half…We gave up the baseline on the zone. We have to do a better job of not giving the baseline up against a zone. We will do better."

 Carter said, "I just really was trying to do anything I could for my team, and after the bad tweak against Oregon State, I was just trying to be there for the team. N'dea was like 'Dang, Chennedy, you're stealing my rebounds,' and I said, 'I'm just trying to rebound this ball and do anything I can to help us win.’

"I mean, we all can play, this team is different than last year's team, so I don't have to do it, I don't have to take that many shots, I've got Kayla on the wing, N’dea who can score, Cierra Johnson,  so I have a bunch of options. 

“We all put everything together tonight and that's not just about me. I feel like teams mislead us, you know, we play good together, not just one person. So the points, in my opinion, didn't really matter, I didn't come out here thinking 'I want to get another 46,' I came out here thinking that I wanted to get two big wins against ranked teams and that's what we did."

Wells said, "It opens a lot because a lot of teams play me as I can't shoot the 3 just because last year I didn't shoot the 3 a lot. So whenever I start hitting shots I look for my drive because I know they're going to be coming out hard so it opens up a lot for me in the drive."

"I really wasn't aware (her 26 led scoring). I was just playing, playing hard. I was just taking shots when i was open and just being aggressive.”

They won their sixth straight and eighth of nine.

The Christmas admission gift was $5 adults, $3 youth and the first 500 attendees got an A&M ornament.

 That led to 3,209 in attendance.

They joined the 10-game winners with a 22-4 fourth quarter in an 70-57 win over Prairie View A&M.

 Jones had 15 points and 18 rebounds. Carter was allowed the night off to rest the ankle.

"I think we just came out slow, we basically got slapped in the face,” Jones said. “I do not want to say that we underestimated them, but I think our minds were on trying to get the game over, so we can go home to our families instead of just focusing on the game. 

“We were slow and our shots were not falling, we were fumbling the ball, kind of lazy passes and had 13 turnovers in the first half. We were just struggling. During halftime we all came together as a team, talked it out and decided we need to get busy because we cannot go home like this."

"Our defense and our  (won it). A lot of it was just effort, hustle plays and speeding up the game a little bit knowing that when we put pressure on them they would get a little out of control.

“ We just had to focus on our game and adapt a stop-score, stop-score mentality. We made sure we were taking care of the ball, making sure we rebounded, and try to hit our shots."

But without Carter.

 

"We are so used to her being our point guard,” Jones said “The point guard is supposed to be the coach's voice on our court and  Shambria Washington does a great job when Chennedy is not there. “

 Shambria has stepped up. We are so used to Chennedy having the ball in her hand so sometimes it's hard not seeing that familiar face and just running the plays we know and trying to get open.

“ She basically spreads the court open for us because people know she can shoot, she can drive, she can come off screens—it is just really tough to guard her, so when she is not on the court, it is a lot more pressure on the other guards."

Blair said, "Let's give Prairie View a lot of credit. They played very smart in the first wuarter. I don't like to coach that way, and I'm sure the kids don't like to hear it, but sometimes that's what you got to do, and I think our kids responded very well. We started running a couple set plays for Kayla.

‘She still had a good night even though she missed some moneys. Give our two post players in there some props for battling as hard as they did. It wasn't their night, it wasn't my night, it wasn't our night, it wasn't any of our nights, but it was Prairie View's night until the third quarter and the press started and we were able to turn them over.

“That was the difference in the whole game. They shot seven percent in the fourth quarter and they had three turnovers in the first half but 11 in the second half. We had 13 but only five in the second and that was the difference as well.

“Jackson and Walton, it's not what they scored, it's what they defended and gave us the hustle plays. If you look on that sheet, (Ahliyah) Jackson had zero turnovers and (Jada) Walton had one in 41 minutes.

 That's good basketball knowing they hadn't got that many minutes all year. They came in and did their job, and that's all that counted. 

“It's a W, Stanford struggled with Buffalo yesterday. All the teams that are at the top are always having a couple struggle games and you just got to find a way to get through it. That's all we did we got through it when we went up with the three from Sham.

“(WithoutCarter) We look like our feet were standing still. I thought the forward dominated the first half for them over shot-blocking, over contesting shots, and my post players couldn't score under that pressure.

“They better realize what's coming in the SEC if they're having trouble with 6-2 right now.

“ It's just something we got to do, but we'll keep feeding the ball inside, because I felt like our best shot was to get to the free throw line and nothing else was working, and we did that 42 times.

“ That's the most we've had in several years. Washington had five turnovers, but 40 minutes of playing that pressure, playing against (senior guards Shala)  Dobbins and (Erin) Willis in there, who are so quick, it was hard to stop them. 

“But Sham's coming along, she needed a game like this. Of course that's her career-high. I like how she took charge of the team, and that's what you have to do when you're a point guard when things are not going well for you. 

“ But I tell you what, I'm tired of having to  go in to halftime and coach as hard I'm having to do at halftime instead of teaching. Halftime is supposed to be about being positive, correcting mistakes, 

"I think it'll happen all year. Remember she (Carter) leads our team in fouls too.

“What we got to do is learn how to play without her, she's got to learn how to play smarter and realize how valuable she is. Wednesday in the second half when she wasn't doing anything, I was calling every play for Kayla and responded.

“It's funny how Carter started playing harder after Kayla started knocking down shots. Carter realized her jumper wouldn't going and drive to get to the free throw line, which she did. So, when your game isn't going, find something to do to stay on the floor. Other than that, Carter played pretty well, a couple times she didn't, but that happens."

They didn’t lead until seven minutes were left. The Aggies shot hit 17- of-49 (35 percent) from the field, but 34-of-42 from the line.

The mighty Texas at Rio Grande Valley Vaqueros are all that are left before the SEC. Vaqueros, by the way, are a male persona, meaning cowboys.

 No. 25 South Carolina (7-4)

The only South Carolina challenge of the week was a victory lap for coach Dawn Staley against Temple She has coached 600 games, 129 wins at Temple  and now  11 seasons in Columbia. She has coached SC 348 games, 256 of them wins. She and Temple coach Tonya Cardoza were teammates on Virginia’s 1991 Final Four tournament.  Staley was that Finals MVP.

SC led 25-15 after one. The scoring was well-shared, No one was dominating.

Mikiah Herbert Harrigan is trying to be a real option on the frontline, an assist for steady if gimpy Alexis Jennings. Herbert Harrigan had five halftime rebounds.  

Freshman Destanni Henderson earned her second straight career start. Floor leader Te’a Cooper scored eight, 3-of-5 from the field, 2-of-3 from the line with four assists. It was 44-25 at half, Staley had gone 11 deep searching for the magic combination.

A 27-6 third led to the 88-60 final. Cooper scored 16 with four assists and four of the team’s season-best 15 3s, a personal SC best.

 Her move from Tennessee is paying off individually.  SC won rebounds my 18, but no individual stood out.

"[The 3s are] best coming out of transition when we're pushing the ball, spreading the floor and beating the defense down the floor,” Staley said. “When we have great ball movement, we can also get our feet set and knock them down. With our players, we just try to get them to take balanced 3s and not take rushed 3s."

Attendance set the conference pace, 11,297

SC only has two home games left before the SEC starts.

 

 

The Guru Report: La Salle, Saint Joseph’s Win, Delaware Falls to Maryland; Penn/Drexel Battle Returns

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

NEWARK, Del. — Of the three local teams in the Guru’s D-1 group who were in action Thursday, moving progress was harnessed with victories by Saint Joseph’s up in Fairfield, Connecticut at Sacred Heart while a little further north in Providence, R.I., and by La Salle with a second-straight triumph.

But down here the depleted Delaware bunch had to settle for one of the moral variety against No. 5 Maryland in the Blue Hens’ Bob Carpenter Center.

Taking care of the game we were at first, Maryland’s seemingly lopsided 77-53 victory to stay unbeaten at 11-0 had stretches of competitiveness from Delaware (4-7) but also stretches of domination from the Terrapins.

The world was a little different the last time these two non-conference regional rivals met, which was here exactly six-years to the date in 2012 before a packed crowd to see the home team test itself at the national level featuring the legendary Elena Delle Donne from nearby Wilmington.

The result was a 69-53 victory by Maryland adding one more triumph to its perfect pile in the series that now stands at 13-0 after Thursday’s matinee but a good time was had by all that evening.

Delaware went on to wipe out its friends in the Colonial Athletic Association, though Drexel remained pesky as ever, and wrapped a ribbon on its season by winning the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament here to advance to the Sweet 16 in. Bridgeport, Conn.

Then Kentucky stepped in and sent the Blue Hens to the history books and stopped an anticipated Elite Eight match with UConn, who had been Delle Donne’s first choice before she then decided maybe not after two days of enrollment in summer school.

Delle Donne, whose return home featured an initial year as a top volleyball freshman in the conference before returning to the sport of her true passion, went on to become one of the top stars and player spokeswomen in the WNBA taking first the Chicago Sky and last summer the Washington Mystics to the finals.

She also earned Olympic gold playing for USA Basketball, ironically, under Huskies Hall of Fame coach Geno Auriemma, whom she had spurned in what is now a decade ago.

And she has returned frequently in uniform to add living nostalgia to the fan base here with WNBA preseason appearances with the Sky and Mystics as well as friendlies with the USA group.

But, of course, the brief shinning nightly moments of women’s basketball Camelot in these parts remain in the tales of yesteryear while the program is now back down a few levels. 

Even longtime coach Tina Martin has moved on, still in the CAA, but as a member of Karen Barefoot’s UNCW staff in another Wilmington in North Carolina.

But the Blue Hens had moved on, even hired a worthy successor to Martin a year ago in Natasha Adair out of a similar position at Georgetown, and when the Maryland reunion was applied to the schedule, if not Delle Donne stature, Delaware had someone worthy to take to battle in Nicole Enabosi, who led Delaware to a surprising CAA run and became the conference player of the year.

However, to use a terminological description from chess, that piece came off the board when she suffered a knee injury sending her to the sidelines before the Blue Hens arrived at opening night last month.

Delaware did get someone back from an injury-deprived season of a year ago in Makeda Nicholas, who was the Blue Hens top scorer with 12 points while Rebecca Lawrence scored ten in Thursday’s action. However, Nicholas had to leave the game with an injury, not determined serious, with 7:28 left in regulation.

Jasmine Dickey grabbed 11 rebounds returning from missing the Tuesday win here over Gardner-Webb because of a broken nose.

Meanwhile,  for those who bet the over in the Blue Hens implosion pool, they were rewarded when the score stood at 8-8 after Bailey Kargo connected  with 3 minutes, 8 seconds left in the first quarter.

 Finally, on the visitors side, the Big Ten favorites decided, enough, and went on a 10-0 run to provide some separation. 

It grew to a 14-point differential as the run reached 16-2 but Delaware’s defense or Maryland’s rustiness from finals layoff, take your pick, kept the split there until late in the third quarter when the seams burst open.

“Obviously, this is not the outcome we wanted, but our team fought today,” Adair said. “This is a group that is learning how to fight and we don’t make excuses. We know we need to step up and do what we have to do.”

In terms of measurement as the only discussion mid-majors resort to after spending 40 minutes, sometimes more, with Power 5 types, Adair could assess, “We belong on that same stage. Being on our home floor, we didn’t look like we didn’t belong.

“If you’re intimidated, you’re already 15 points down before the ball even goes up, and this group is not,” Adair said. “Our team is preparing for March. Our schedule was designed to do that, to be battled-tested.

“I respect Brenda Frese very much and I’ve known her a long time,” she said of the Maryland coach in her 17th season. “It wasn’t how good Maryland was today. It was how much our team pushed back. I was proud of our team and how we responded to that fight and pushback.”

There was a pushback Thursday from another mid-major as Central Michigan dropped a narrow 72-68 defeat to No. 3 Louisville at home in Mount Pleasant.

All-American Asia Durr, in the crowded hunt for national player of the year, had 26 of 31 points in the second half for the winning Cardinals of the Atlanrtic Coast Conference.

It’s the second straight season coach Jeff Walz, a former Maryland assistant, has guided Louisville to a 12-0 start. 

“We treated this game like it was any other game,” said Chippewas coach Sue Guevara. “We just happened to be playing against a good, athletic basketball team who had an all-American.”

Central Michigan (8-2) is the defending Mid-American Conference champion, which was one of a few mid-majors, like Buffalo, which got to the Sweet 16 last season.

Speaking of Buffalo, the squad will host No. 8 Stanford at noon Friday with the visiting Cardinal coming from a rare win for them at No. 9 Tennessee earlier this week.

In the Central Michigan game, Reyna Frost scored 22 points and grabbed 13 rebounds for the home team, while Micaela Kelly scored 19.

Back here, Delaware, which fielded its eighth different starting lineup, will finish non-conference hosting Saint Joseph’s Dec. 28, and then launch CAA play hosting conference favorite James Madison on January 4 at 7 p.m.

Meanwhile on the other side, Maryland brought personnel who are of the WNBA variety, given the history of the program. 

In fact, even as Delle Donne was once observed here as a future dominant pro the moment she stepped on the floor her freshman season, a Terrapins newcomer made her case in 6-5 Shakira Austin, who made her first start and showed what stage she will one day be a regular, scoring 17 points, grabbing 13 rebounds, and matching a program record with eight blocked shots.

Austin has already picked up half of the Big Ten six-week season to date freshman honors.

Junior 6-1 guard-forward Kaila Charles, an all-Big Ten honoree with a multitude of in-season honors, had 16 points and 11 rebounds, while forward Stephanie Jones had freshman guard Taylor Mikesell each had 15 points.

“I thought our postgame was sensational and I thought they had no answer for us inside,” said  Maryland’s Frese.

Rising into the Top 5 this week from a preseason listing of nine thanks to the drops of Oregon and Baylor, the Terrapins have been one of the more quieter operations at the moment with this being their first game ten days and it will be another eight until opening the Big Ten with the Guru locals visiting Penn State Dec. 28 and then hosting Rutgers New Year’s Eve at noon in College Park.

Highlighted in the non-conference was a visit to then-No. 10 South Carolina and shocking Gamecock nation with an 85-61 pounding.

But its always a good time to walk into the Lions’ cage when the recent public attraction (A’ja Wilson) has been removed by collegiate eligibility and then next headliners (No. 1 recruiting class) are still a season away.

South Carolina, by the way, which has since slipped to No. 25, hosts Temple Friday night in the return game matching on the sidelines former Virginia teammates Dawn Staley, a legendary all-time player, now USA Olympic coach with the Gamecocks, and Tonya Cardoza, who succeeded Staley at Temple.

It’s the return game from a year ago when Staley was back in her native Philadelphia with the then-defending NCAA Champions and featured the Temple retirement number of WNBA All-Star Candice Dupree, who on the floor helped lead Staley’s Owls into their first national rankings.

This will be Staley’s 600th game as a college coach.

As for the rest of the Maryland schedule, aside from then-No. 24 Georgia, which has since been ousted from the Associated Press poll, one might think the Terrapins spent the last several months playing in the mythical Tidewater conference, playing area types such as Coppin State, George Washington, Morgan State, UMBC, James Madison, and Loyola of Maryland.

Given Delaware’s Adair’s last stop, to add the one obvious missing program from that list, you can give an honorary loss to Georgetown, though the real Hoyas can be found Friday night paying a visit to Rider in the Broncs’ Alumni Gymnasium at 7 p.m. in Lawrenceville, N.J.

Nevertheless, just as Delle Donne has shown it isn’t where you play, it’s what you can do, it would not be a shock to see Maryland resume from  previous appearances in April when the Women’s Final Four occurs in Tampa Bay, Florida.

Suddenly It’s Streaking La Salle

After being kept off the victory column in its first eight games, suddenly La Salle has a chance to make it sweeps week when the Explorers finish up a three-day Friar Holiday Classic appearance Friday afternoon taking on host Providence at 2:30 p.m.

La Salle, under new coach Mountain McGillivray, made it two straight for the first time this season, and three of the last four, Thursday night, beating Pepperdine 62-55.

Though the Green Wave (5-4) of the West Coast Conference out of the Los Angeles Area, jumped to a 12-6 start, having conceded the opening, La Salle (3-9) closed the deal with a 16-9 finish in the tightly-fought contest.

Freshman Shayla Sweeney had 14 points for her best night in her fledgling collegiate career, while Shalina Miller scored 11 points, Jeryn Reese scored 10, and Deja  King also had 10 points.

Pepperdine got 13 points from Deezha Battle while Malia Bambrick and Yasm Robinson-Bacote each scored 10 with  Robinson-Bacote also grabbing nine rebounds.

La Salle made it two straight nights with season-bests of 39 points and Reese grabbed eight rebounds while King collected seven, a career-best, to account for near double-doubles.

It may same forever for the Explorers to discuss this kind of success stretch but a similar one occurred around the start of last season when they claimed Lehigh’s Christmas Classic up in Bethlehem, Pa.

Following Friday’s action, the Explorers are off until Dec. 30 playing a Big Five game at Temple at 2 p.m. in McGonigle Hall.

Having mentioned earlier that Temple is at South Carolina Friday night, the Owls’ flight to Columbia got cancelled so they were still traveling late Thursday having flown to Atlanta and then taking a bus the rest of the way.

Saint Joseph’s Claims a Road Triumph

After not being able to make much of a seven-game home stand, following a break for finals, Saint Joseph’s used a dominant 31-14 second half to gain a non-conference 61-44 win at Sacred Heart in the Pitt Center in Fairfield, Conn.

Alyssa Monaghan had 13 points for the Hawks (4-7) while Whisper Fisher scored 10 and grabbed nine rebounds besides blocking three shots in the contest that was a late morning affair to host school children.

The balanced attack took a while to get going with the Pioneers (4-6) jumping to a 7-0 start on Saint Joseph’s.

Meanwhile, while the visitors were controlling the game offensively, the defensive effort was also successful in holding Sacred Heart to 5-for-19 from the field.

Katherine Haines had 18 points and 10 rebounds for the Pioneers of the Northeast Conference, who have yet to beat the Hawks in three meetings.

Next up is a visit to Delaware Dec. 28 at 7 p.m. as mentioned above. Saint Joseph’s will then head to the Naval Academy on New Year’s Eve to play the Midships at 6 p.m.

Then its on to the Atlantic 10 after the New Year.

Looking Ahead: The Battle of 33rd Street As Penn Visits Drexel

With the rain continuing Friday morning, umbrellas will keep the smiles but by early afternoon a smile will definitely be somebody’s umbrella after Drexel (7-2) hosts Penn (6-2) in a non-conference Philly Six (when Drexel’s involved) reunion for the first time in three seasons.

Nationally, this is No. 1 defensively (Drexel 46.2) vs. No. 2 (Penn 49.8) when the Quakers leave the Palestra to make the shortest Division I road trip three blocks away to the Daskalakis Athletic Center for a morning 11:30 tipoff on Drexel’s annual Education Day promotion.

Since the last NCAA stat report, West Virginia is now tied with Penn for second in defensive scoring.

Penn is coming off a long break, last having played and beaten Iona 66-43 in New Rochelle, N.Y., near Manhattan on Dec. 8. The Quakers have won five of six, the sixth being a narrow 47-46 loss to Maine at Navy with the only other loss being at defending NCAA champion Notre Dame, then ranked No. 1.

Drexel played on Sunday, having beaten Gardner-Webb 65-48. The Dragons are similar in season history to Penn,  just two losses, a winnable 71-63 setback in overtime to Wright State at Manhattan College. The other was the home and season opener narrowly dropped to Quinnipiac, the defending Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference champs.

The Dragons were picked preseason in the CAA second behind James Madison while the Quakers were picked second in the Ivy League behind Princeton.

So area wise in Division I, there are three teams clearly at the top right now — the other being Villanova.

A few weeks from now in the Guru group once Ivy favorite Princeton is well past the injury-affected seven-game losing streak, and perhaps Rutgers might upset someone in the Big Ten or likewise Penn State, or Temple makes some headway in the AAC or Saint Joseph’s like in the past does in the Atlantic Ten, then it will be time for a revision. But this is the best of the crop right now.

In fact, Penn is ranked 19th while Drexel is No. 8 in the latest CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Top 25.

The Dragons lead the series 13-7 or 14-12 depending on who’s pregame notes you are looking at and whether that includes pre-Division I days, but in the string of seven straight from 2009-15 before it went to bed for a while the home team won each time and Penn has never won at the DAC.

But the Quakers did win the last meeting 72-67 on Dec. 19, 2015, an upset that sent Drexel coach and former Villanova star Denise Dillon out of the Palestra so fast and past Franklin Field that sidewalk observers thought she was considering to compete in the famed Penn Relays.

That was also Penn coach Mike McLaughlin’s 500th career win counting his days guiding Division II powerhouse Holy Family in Northeast Philadelphia.

When you’re talking key players, then on Penn it’s Eleah Parker, Ashley Russell, Princess Aghayere, and Phoebe Sterba, with a bunch of other contributors, while on Drexel, it’s Bailey Greenberg, Aubree Brown, Niki Metzel, Hannah Nihill, as well as several others likewise as Penn.  

The game can be watched for free on Drexel’s Stretch Internet portal.

And that’s the report.