The Guru Report: Drexel Defense Does Job For Dragons; South Carolina Escapes Purdue in 2 OTs

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

PHILADELPHIA — Long layoffs between games can at times bring some rust to a team’s normally explosive offense but when it comes to defending against the opposition you either have it or you don’t.

In the case of the Drexel women, the Dragons have had it most of the season and so picking up after an overtime setback, just the second loss of the season, eight days ago to Wright State at Manhattan College, it was business as usual Sunday afternoon against Gardner-Webb in a non-conference game here in the Daskalakis Athletic Center.

Drexel nearly duplicated the opening quarter shutout treatment it gave to Saint Joseph’s here last month going 17-4 in the first 10 minutes on the way to a 65-48 victory.

There was still some suspense to be had all the way, even after coach Denise Dillon’s bunch built a 25-point lead in the third quarter.

Being the top team in the nation in scoring defense off the most recent NCAA statistical report at 46.2 points, could the Dragons (7-2) prevent the Runnin’ Bulldogs (4-5) of the Big South Conference from getting to that total?

Almost. 

The visitors got over the mark with eight seconds left in the game on an inside layup from reserve Corinna Wiegand for her only score and it came off a team possession as the clock would down that featured two missed shots and two offensive rebounds before Wiegand got underneath.

“I’m definitely pleased with the win,” Dillon said after the Dragons held Gardner-Webb 19 points under its scoring average. “We said we were a little disappointed up there with the finish at Manhattan and it gave us a chance to get back this week and practice hard and look forward today.

“So, good effort. We were pleased with Hannah’s (Nihill) and Niki’s (Metzel) performances.”

Nihill had a team-high 17 points, which was a career high and a rare moment when Bailey Greenberg, who scored 14, didn’t have that honor this season. Metzel had her first career double double with 12 points and 13 rebounds while Aubree Brown scored 10 points.

Carley Plentovich was the one person who was difficult for Drexel to contain, scoring 19 points for the Bulldogs, while Gabrielle Caponegro grabbed 10 rebounds. 

Gardner-Webb will stay in the area to visit Delaware at 7 p.m. at the Bob Carpenter Center in Newark while Princeton on Wednesday has a 2 p.m. game at St. Francis-Brooklyn in New York. 

“Our defense has to dictate the game and from the beginning we did that,” Dillon said of the hot start. “We disrupted them from the beginning and I even felt offensively we’ve looked cleaner than we have in the past at home.”

It was Drexel’s first home game in a month after playing the first three here, including the narrow opening night loss to Quinnipiac.

And so the stage is set for a statistical national 1 vs 2 here when Penn comes four blocks up 33rd Street Friday morning at 11:30 for the first game between the West Philadelphia neighborhood rivals in three seasons.

The Quakers, who also lost just two games with one being a setback that might have been prevented, are idle in finals at the moment but are just behind Drexel in scoring defense at 49.8 points per game allowed. They are the only teams in the nation holding opponents under a 50-point scoring average.

The school-day matinee features two of the top three D-1 women’s teams in the area, the other being Villanova, and both are ranked in one of the mid-major polls.

“I said (to her team) enjoy this one for a few more hours and then we’ll see what needs to be done against Penn,” Dillon said. “It’s going to be a battle. We have our work cut out for us. Their bigs are powerful and efficient. It’s a lot of work there. Rebounding is going to be crucial so we’re facing that.”

Penn State Powers Over American On Strong Second Half

Only one other game on the Guru’s D-1 local slate was played Sunday with Penn State having some early difficulty at home in Bryce Jordan Center before beating American U. 80-59 with a strong second half in State College to wrap up it’s non-conference schedule.

Tied at the half 33-33 in what was becoming another struggle against a visiting team from outside the so-called Power Five group, the Lady Lions (7-4) flexed their strength to go 47-26 over the next two periods.

In the process, Penn State committed an arena record-low five turnovers. Amari Carter and Teniya Page scored 18 and 17 points, respectively, and each dealt seven assists.

Alisia Smith was also in double figures with 14 points as was Kamaria McDaniel, scoring 13.

Newcomer Lauren Ebo grabbed 12 rebounds and had nine points.

American (4-5) had four players score in double figures topped by Kaitlyn Marenyi, who had who had 15 points.

“We had a lot of contributions from a number of individuals,” said Penn State coach Coquese Washington. “In the second half we came out and we were able to really step up our defensive effort and I thought that was really the key to the game.

“We were able to play with the lead and I’m happy with the way we played the second half.”

“We’ve done some things really well in non-conference play, we’ve had some challenges, we’ve had some injuries and some adversity we’ve had to overcome,” she said. “I like where we are right now and we’re starting to round into form. Our chemistry and confidence in each other is developing and I’m excited about heading into Big Ten play.

“Going into Big Ten play, teams are familiar with each other and the conference is really competitive from top to bottom. Every game is tough,” Washington observed.

 “I think our non-conference schedule has prepared us for that because we’ve been in a lot of tough games. We know that Big Ten play is going to be challenge. We have a little bit of time to fine tune some things on both the offensive and defensive ends.”

The conference has not done the Lady Lions any favors, other than setting the first game site. After a holiday break they will open play Dec. 28 hosting No. 6 Maryland at 7 p.m. The Terrapins are likely to be ranked a bit higher considering No. 3 Baylor’s loss at No. 11 Stanford Saturday.

Nationally Speaking: No. 25 South Carolina Gains Double Overtime Win at Purdue

The last time South Carolina was posting a double-overtime victory, Gamecocks coach Dawn Staley was still a junior in her storied all-American collegiate career in 1991 playing at Virginia.

The 82-73 triumph at Purdue improving the record to 6-4 may have saved the squad from expulsion from the Associated Press women’s poll and maybe not depending on voter perception and  the fact that USC is holding the last spot and that unranked teams with some impressive upsets and decent records are knocking on the door.

If the Gamecocks get bounced, its ejection would come one season and seven weeks after winning the 2017 NCAA title.

That would be up the there but not the fastest slide from trophy acceptance based on contingency research your Guru did last week. A blog is coming later dealing with the possibility.

The Gamecocks’ current poll streak is fifth at 114 weeks across 7 seasons that began Dec. 10, 2012.

 

South Carolina has stumbled into a tweener deal following the graduation of A’ja Wilson, who went on to become WNBA rookie of the year last summer.

Should the streak end the Gamecocks don’t need a lot of sympathy considering their monster No. 1 recruiting class is heading to Columbia next season.

Considering Mike Siroky will be coming along Monday with the weekly SEC report we won’t go into great detail on the victory over the Boilermakers (7-4), who suffered their first home loss of the season.

  South Carolina had to come back from a seven point deficit in regulation to force overtime, which occurred on a pair of free throws. The foul line served Staley well in the overtimes where her players were a combined and perfect 15-for-15.

Mikiah Herbert Harrigan and Alexis Jennings each scored 19 points, while Herbert Harrigan also collected a career high 15 rebounds.

Tyasha Harris and Bianca Jackson each scored 14 points for the visitors.

Purdue’s Karissa McLaughlin scored 25 points and Dominque Oden had 19 points and 10 rebounds while Kayana Traylor scored 11 and Ae’Rianna Harris scored 10.

Elsewhere No. 23 Michigan State, which just got ranked last week for the first time this season, was battled by Hartford before defeating the Hawks 74-66 in overtime in West Hartford as Sydney Cooks had a career-high 19 points.

The Spartans (9-1) used a 9-0 run in the extra period to hold Hartford (5-6) off. The home team got 18 points from Jade Young while Lindsey Abed had 16.

No. 21 Gonzaga on the road struggled to beat Missouri State 70-67 in Springfield as Chandler Smith had 15 points and 10 rebounds to continue the Zags’ best start, now at 10-1. The Bears fell to 1-7.

Alabama at home beat Northwestern State 87-73 to give Crimson Tide coach Kristy Curry her 400th win after previous stops at Purdue and Texas Tech.

Two big games Tuesday has Stanford at Tennessee, while Mississippi State visits Oregon. On Wednesday Connecticut is at Oklahoma.

And that’s the report.