The Guru Report: La Salle Gets Second Win While Princeton Cruises and UConn Rallies

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

Early last summer as Mountain MacGillivray was getting settled into his move from his position as Quinnipiac’s associated head women’s coach to coming home and take charge as head coach of La Salle he inquired might there still be a spot for Michelle Nicholls to play in the Philly League composed of D-1 players and virtually in-tact squads from area D-2 and D-3 teams.

Competition had already begun but by chance there were some openings needed to make a team or two well-rounded.

As it turned out the sophomore 5-foot-9 guard-forward from Life Center Academy and Auckland, New Zealand, became one of stars of the two-night-a-week action in suburban Hatboro.

Now winter is here and Wednesday night Nicholls helped the Explorers take another step in the rebuild with a career-high 21 points while Deja King, a sophomore 5-7 guard out of Trenton, N.J., and also Life Center Academy, similarly reached a personal high with 16 points and La Salle topped Northern Kentucky 74-56, in Providence, R.I.

Only two games were on the Guru’s local D-1 slate with Princeton earning a fifth straight win on the season playing at St. Francis-Brooklyn in the afternoon.

La Salle’s scoring total by the entire team was the best to date as were the 39 points collected in the second half.

After losing their first eight, the Explorers (2-9) have won two of their last three around a home loss on Saturday to Saint John’s and there’s a chance to collect some more triumphs quickly in the consecutive three-day Friar Holiday Classic against pre-determined opponents and hosted by Providence of the Big East in Alumni Hall.

Thursday’s opponent at 7 p.m. will be Pepperdine, a West Coast Conference squad out of the Los Angeles area in Southern California, while Friday will see a match with the host Friars at 2:30 p.m.

Shalina Miller scored 10 points and grabbed seven rebounds while Jeryn Reese had eight points and 10 rebounds, a career-high for a near double double.

Taylor Clos had 14 points for Northern Kentucky (1-7) and Ally Niece scored 10.

In Wednesday’s  game, the Explorers opened with a 13-4 run and outscored the opposition over the first three quarters, falling short by just two points in the fourth.

“The team has been playing much better, we shot over 40 percent the last three games (a season best 43.1 off 25-of-58 on Wed.), today we were really clicking offensively, starting to learn to play together, play with each other,” MacGillivray said afterwards. “But a lot of it, we did a good job from the defensive end, held them to 32.3 percent from the floor, 15.4 percent on three-pointers.

“That team was one of the best in keeping us off the boards, so we needed to make shots. They did a good job of boxing us out. But we forced 27 turnovers so our defense has been a catalyst for our offense,” he noted.

“So we would really like to keep that going, good job by us, great effort, so we’re excited to get number two (in the event).”

It was noted to the new La Salle coach he is now ahead of the pace of Penn coach Mike McLaughlin, who won just two his first season, the second in the final game at Dartmouth after losing in overtime the previous night at Harvard before getting the Quakers rebuilt as an Ivy power.

“Any time I can keep company with Mike I’m a happy coach,” MacGillivray quipped back in a text to your Guru.

Following the trip, La Salle is off until Dec. 30, visiting Temple in McGonigle Hall in another Big Five game at 2 p.m.

Princeton Still Rolling

The Tigers got off to a successive start on a two-game road trip using a balanced offensive attack to beat St. Francis-Brooklyn 83-64 in the Terriers’ Pope Physical Education Center in Brooklyn Heights, across the East River from lower Manhattan and New York City.

Incidentally, if you follow the Guru on twitter @wopmhoopsguru, New York correspondent Andy Lipton conducted  a postgame video with Princeton coach Courtney Banghart, which has been tweeted.

The Tigers’ Julia Cunningham had 19 points for the reigning Ivy champions off shooting 7-of-12 from the field, connecting with five three-pointers off seven attempts.

Belle Alarie, the 2018 Ivy player of the year, whose return from a shoulder injury helped fuel the past four of the streak, and Gabrielle Rush, each shot 50 percent from the field, 8-for-16 and 7-for-14 respectfully, each scoring 18 points for the Tigers (6-7).

Alarie also grabbed nine rebounds, blocked three shots and dealt six assists as Princeton inched closer to .500 following a seven-game losing streak, due to injured starters. The Tigers prior had an easy opening night win at nearby Rider in Lawrenceville, N.J.

Grace Stone scored 10 points, shooting 4-for-9 from the field and making 2-of-3 three-balls, while Sydney Jordan had eight points and eight rebounds.

Jade Johnson had 31 points for the Terriers (6-5), connecting on 6-of-13 three-balls.

Princeton heads to West Hartford, Conn., to play Hartford of the America East Friday night at 7 on ESPN+.

Nationally Speaking: Connecticut Rallies at Oklahoma While Notre Dame Shoots Down W. Kentucky

As happened earlier in the season against St. John’s in the Virgin Islands, top-ranked UConn took later rather than sooner in beating Oklahoma 72-63 rallying from a 12-point deficit in the second half to stay unbeaten (10-0).

Just as against the Red Storm last month, a fourth quarter closeout, this one at 24-11 finished off Oklahoma of the Big 12.

The Huskies had been on a break for finals before launching the brief road trip that leads next to No. 14 California Saturday in Bay Area.

In recent seasons, UConn hasn’t been seriously challenged much, even from the best of the best, which in part may have been part of the cause of the last two NCAA national semifinals buzzer-beating losses in overtime in games the Huskies were strong favorites.

Thus, Hall of Fame coach Geno Auriemma was glad to see a little adversity happen Wednesday night in Norman at the Lloyd Noble Center.

“I told them in the locker room they live in a fantasy world,” he said afterwards. “This is the way most of the world lives. Tough games, you have to suck it up. You have to make big plays toward the end. 

“You guys just aren’t in that situation enough because you live in a make-believe-world.

“Today, they lived in the real world, and I was proud of them because they got tested and came out with flying colors.”

Senior Napheesa Collier, playing all 40 minutes, had 23 points, and a career-high 17 rebounds, while in the fourth quarter, she collected nine points off a perfect 4-for-4 from the field and grabbed four rebounds.

“She was like a one-man wrecking crew inside,” Auriemma said. “She didn’t get much help.”

Katie Lou Samuelson had 20 points and 11 rebounds for the Huskies, who now have won 125 consecutive regular season games and 57 straight in non-conference regular season affairs.

Oklahoma (3-7) got 23 points from Taylor Robertson while Shaina Pellington scored 16 points, and Madi Williams scored 12 and grabbed 11 rebounds.

Using only sophomores and freshman coach Sherri Coale had the Sooners in the lead for 31 minutes.

“I had a blast,” she said of going against her longtime friend and colleague. “It was one of those where we were all able to stay in the moment.”

Connecticut didn’t take the lead to stay until Collier scored with 3:36 left in the game and again after a Huskies stop to regain control at 65-62.

 “That’s what happens when people play us,” Auriemma said. “This is what we get. I knew it was coming, and I knew it was a difficult matchup for us, and I knew we weren’t going to be ready for it, I can feel it.”

Notre Dame Targets Hilltoppers

There may not seem anything extra newsworthy out of No. 2 Notre Dame’s 94-53 rout at home of Western Kentucky in Purcell Pavilion in South Bend, Ind. 

Heck, the Associated Press, whose coverage has been drawn to write this section, reports even Irish coach Muffet McGraw couldn’t find much to talk improvement.

But we’re using the space to note that the No. 2 squad, the defending NCAA champs, who were No. 1 until upset at home 89-71 earlier this month by UConn, shot 69.8 percent for the night to improve to 10-1.

“We really worked the zone well and offensively, we were so efficient,” McGraw said.

Marina Mabrey was 7-for-9 from the field and scored 20 points, while NCAA Women’s Final Four heroine Arike Ogunbowale scored 16, and Jessica Shepard and Jordan Nixon each scored 12, and Brianna Turner scored 10.

Notre Dame connected on 37-of-53 just short of the team record 70.2 percent made twice — once against Xavier in 1985 and Mercer in 2011.

Raneem Elgedawy and Dee Givens each scored 10 for Western Kentucky (5-8).

Notre Dame finishes up Saturday at No. 19 Marquette in a regional rivalry from the old Big East days, as well as several other conferences before then.

Looking Ahead: Maryland Visits Delaware

The schedule remains light as teams come out of finals but head to the break across Christmas until later next week.

The last time Maryland visited Delaware was back in December 2012 on this very date when the Blue Hens were led by current WNBAS superstar Elena Delle Donne, then a senior, and the game won by Maryland 69-53 was a major test for then-coach Tina Martin’s squad on measuring up on the national scene.

The Terrapins (10-0), ranked fifth, are back now in the Big Ten and in a sense when they take the floor at 3 p.m. in the Bob Carpenter Center in Newark, there will still be measurement to be taken in terms of Delaware (3-6) being a young squad in coach Natasha Adair’s second season and the Colonial Athletic Association wars are on the horizon.

Maryland is 11-0 lifetime in the series with Delaware.

Elsewhere, Saint Joseph’s, coming out of a long break is up in Connecticut, trying to gain its footing playing Sacred Heart in a morning game at 11 a.m.

The only other local as mentioned is the La Salle game.

Nationally, unranked Duke is at No. 11 Oregon State.

On Friday comes a mega-local, and neighborhood, showdown as Penn with the number two defense in the nation, travels three blocks up 33rd Street  to Drexel, which has the top defense, for an 11:30 a.m. tip before an Education Day special.

It’s the first game between the West Philadelphia rivals in three seasons and features two of the top three city locals to date, the other being Villanova.

La Salle and Princeton have been mentioned while Temple is back on the road, down at No. 25, that’s right if you haven’t been paying attention, No. 25 South Carolina in Columbia.

It’s the return game from last year when the Gamecocks were in the Top Five, defending NCAA champs, and featuring senior A’ja Wilson, who became WNBA rookie of the year, playing for the Las Vegas Aces.

Rider, at 7, will be hosting Georgetown in Alumni Gymnasium in Lawrenceville.

And that’s the report