The Guru Report: La Salle Goes Down As Does No. 3 Baylor and No. 8 Oregon State While Wins for Princeton and Rutgers

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

PHILADELPHIA — It was a 50-50 split Saturday afternoon among the four schools that are part of the Guru’s local D-1 group who took the floor during the daily small  schedule stretch that works it way alongside the winter finals exam period heading into the pre-and-post Christmas break.

For Rutgers and Princeton it was a day of promise and progress for now while here at La Salle, the glow of the season’s first win last Sunday was extinguished by St. John’s at the Tom Gola Arena and elsewhere Rider ran into a buzzsaw at Bucknell, the Patriot League favorite in Lewisburg, Pa.

A big national result between two ranked teams saw an upset in terms of the listings as No. 11 Stanford took down No. 3 Baylor at home near Palo Alto, Calif., to even their series at 8-8, while Texas A&M upended No. 8 Oregon State in the title game in Hawaii the Beavers have owned playing mid-majors.

Let’s first begin at the site we were at here where La Salle is having to deal with a rebuilding process under new coach Mountain MacGillivray, the former longtime associate to Trish Fabbri at Quinnipiac.

In what was just the third meeting between the two programs, the non-conference visit from the Red Storm allowed the first of two homecomings on the season for junior guard Alisha Kebbe, a Neumann-Goretti grad who will be back in the area Feb. 22 when St. John’s drops in on Villanova as part of the Big East schedule.

And when Neumann-Goretti grads come to the area, many times the appearance means the fans in the stands will include Mayor Jim Kenney and former N-G coach Letitia “Letty” Santarelli and such was the situation Saturday.

Santarelli is a former All-American at Immaculata who was inducted into the same Hall of Fame class at her alma mater as your Guru, a special honor considering he was Temple made.

After a brief scoreless tie at the outset, Saint John’s got the game’s first points, acquired on foul shots, and went on to lead by as many as 26, which became the differential on the 83-57 outcome against the Explorers (1-9).

But while there was some favorable things to say about La Salle, much of that was buried under the fourth-quarter 23-8 demolition by the Red Storm (7-3), who are now 2-1 in the series with the member of the Atlantic 10.

St. John’s (7-3), by the way, had Connecticut on the ropes late in the game last month before the Huskies pulled away for a 65-55 victory in the Paradise Jam at St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands.

Akina Wellere had 21 points for the Red Storm, Kebbe scored 19, Qadashah Hoppie had 16, and Kayla Charles scored 12 in a day when their squad would connect on 56.1 percent of its shots from the field.

Though no one rebounded in double figures, Kebbe came closest with nine, the visitors owned the boards with a 38-23 advantage.

For La Salle, the big news was the play of Rayshel Brown, who got to her career-high with 13 points in the first half and then went on to finish with 20, the first Explorer to total that in a game this season.

High were also established for field goal percentage at 40.4 percent and for three-point shooting at 47.1 percent.

Two others reached double figures with Deja King scoring 12 and Michelle Nicholls, who played in the Philly Summer League, scoring 10 points.

It was a bad game for quarter wrappers for the home team, getting outscored 22-10 in the first and 23-8 in the fourth though the combined second and third quarters yielded a one-point advantage to La Salle.

“I was pleased with the middle,” MacGillivray smiled afterwards. “There are some parts of the game we’re doing some things really well and others not as well. The team knows we’re trying to be consistent.

“For some stretches we were.” 

Of her performance, Brown said, “I didn’t really know. I looked up at the board and said, ‘wow.’”

“She hasn’t been shooting a ton but it’s been a little bit more and she’s the one who really makes the big shots at the end of practice. So to shoot 8-for-14 and make all her threes (3), I’m really proud of her,” MacGillivray said.

La Salle plays three straight games at the Providence Friar Holiday Classic later this week in Rhode Island, meeting Northern Kentucky, Wednesday nite at 7, Pepperdine, Thursday at 4:30 p.m., and then Providence at 2:30 Friday.

Following that, the Explorers go on Christmas break, next visiting Temple at 2 p.m., Dec. 30 to close out the non-conference schedule looking for their first Big Five win in three attempts.

Alarie Leads Princeton Over Marist

Too bad the Ivy schools couldn’t petition the league office to reschedule Princeton recently when the Tigers were missing four starters, including reigning player of the year Bella Alarie.

During most of her absence with a broken shoulder, Princeton endured a seven-game losing streak.

Coach Courtney Banghart’s squad managed to end the slide right before Alarie’s return a week ago, when a 16-point, 19-rebound effort led to a win over Quinnipiac, the reigning Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference champion, at home in Jadwin Gym.

Back in Jadwin Saturday night, the Alaerie show helped the Tigers earn their fourth straight slipping past another MAAC heavyweight in Marist.

The native of Bethesda, Md., outside Washington, scored 24 points, shooting 10-for-18.

However, the game-winner belonged to Gabrielle Rush, whose three-ball with 28 seconds left in regulation resulted in a 60-57 win over the Red Foxes (7-3).

The victory by the Tigers (5-7) came the rally route after trailing by 11 in the half.

An explosive third-quarter 24-11 got Banghart’s bunch back in the hunt and Rush’s shot closed the deal at the finish.

Rebekah Hand had 20 points for Marist, while Alana Gilmer scored 13.

Rush finished with 14 points after her fourth three-ball and Sydney Jordan was 6-for-8 from the field to score 12 points. Rush also dealt a career-high six assists. Alarie is also now second on the all-time Tigers list a notch higher with 140 blocked shots.

Ellen Devoe ’86 is the career leader with 157.

Princeton next takes a short trip North to the Big Apple to visit St.-Francis Brooklyn at 2 p.m. Wednesday. Then it’s on to Hartford at 7 Friday night before breaking until Dec. 29 when New Hampshire visits.

A week later on Jan. 5 the annual Ivy opener occurs hosting Penn at 2 p.m.

Rutgers Top LSU

Following the losses in Vancouver last month to respectable opponents who took the Scarlet Knights out of a more challenging track in the tourney, it was noted here, given that the Big Ten duo of Maryland and Iowa would be really difficult and perhaps now Minnesota might be mentioned also, while there are other familiar names to play, all are in rebuild mode offering the opportunity to win enough and land an NCAA berth.

Time will tell but the Scarlet Knights are at least moving in the right direction as demonstrated Saturday night with a 57-43 win over LSU to stay unbeaten at 5-0 at home in the Rutgers Athletic Center.

Arella Guirantes, a redshirt sophomore, was tops in the offense with 16 points and a career-high five steals for Rutgers (7-3).

Ciani Cryor was also in double figures, scoring 10 points while Caitlin Jenkins grabbed nine rebounds.

Khayla Pointer had 21 points for the Tigers (5-3), while Ayna Mitchell had eight points and nine rebounds, and Faustine Aifuwa also grabbed nine rebounds.

Rutgers now takes a long break for exams and the holiday, returning for nothing but Big Ten rivals the rest of the way except for a visit Jan. 4 from Brown of the Ivy League.

First up will be a visit from Northwestern at 4 p.m. on Dec. 28 followed by a noon visit on New Year’s Eve to Maryland.

Rider Falls at Bucknell

Holding a 29-26 lead at the half, Rider got blitzed 54-30 over the next two quarters and fell to Bucknell 80-59 in Lewisburg, Pa. at Sojka Pavilion.

Rider (3-6), foregoing a chance to get back to .500, was held to 2-for-16 from the field in the final period.

The Bison (8-2) also thrived on the foul line across the third and fourth quarters connecting on a near perfect 18-for-19.

Lea Favre had 17 points for the visiting Broncs, while Amari Johnson had 12 points and eight rebounds.

“We played well in the first half at both ends for the most part,” said Rider coach Lynn Milligan. “We were not able to maintain our defensive intensity in the second half as well and Bucknell was able to get to the line.

“Offensively, we were a bit out of rhythm most of the day.”

Rider did counter most of Bucknell on the line shooting 12-for-16.

The Broncs return home Friday night, hosting Georgetown of the Big East in Alumni 

Gymnasium at 7 p.m. as Rider tries to get its first-ever win over the Hoyas.

Then its off for the holiday and on to the MAAC portion of the schedule.

Nationally Speaking: Stanford Spanks Baylor

With the ability of Stanford’s Shannon Coffee holding down Baylor’s Kalani Brown early in the game, the No. 11 Cardinal built a sizable lead on the No. 3 Bears and then cut the rally short to take a 68-63 win at home.

Alanni Smith had 21 points and eight rebounds while Coffee also helped with a key three-ball down the stretch for Stanford (8-3).

Kiani Williams had 13 points for Baylor (8-1), which had been unbeaten and won 36-straight in the regular season.

Noting that Coffee has been a role player spending more time on the bench as a reserve, Stanford Hall of Fame coach Tara VanDerveer quipped, “Today people were cheering for her. She made some big shots. Her defense was really good. It was really exciting for her to have such a big game in a big game.”

NaLyssa Smith and Chloe Jackson each had 15 points for Baylor.

The Bears committed 15 turnovers.

“We were not very good today,” said Baylor coach Kim Mulkey. “I’m disappointed in several players that didn’t show up. Unfortunately, it was too deep a hole to overcome.”

Early in the Fourth Stanford led by as much as 16 points at 60-44 until Baylor began to rally.

Stanford will get a chance to take down another longtime rival when the Cardinal visit No. 9 Tennessee, Tuesday, in Knoxville, though they have only won twice outside California in the series.

Texas A&M Stops Oregon State

Out in Hawaii, Texas A&M, which fell out of the rankings several weeks ago, made a bid to return, taking down No. 8 Oregon State 76-70.

Chennedy Carter, the national rookie of the year last season, had 27 points for the Aggies (8-2) in the Maui Jim Maui Classic in Lahaina.

Kayla Wells scored 20 and Ciera Johnson had 11 for Texas A&M.

Katie McWilliams had 19 points for Oregon State (8-2) shooting 9-for-13.

The Beaver had rallied from a 16-point deficit in the first half and tied the game with 8:15 left in regulation.

But Texas A&M answered with a 9-3 run to stay just ahead.

Looking Ahead: Welcome Home Drexel

With the schedule as mentioned still light on the local front, two Sunday games at 2 pm will see Drexel host Gardner-Webb at 2 p.m. in the Daskalakis Athletic Center while Penn State will host American U.

Nationally, No. 25 South Carolina will visit Purdue hoping to avoid an upset from the Boilermakers that could force the Gamecocks to be ousted from the rankings one season and seven weeks after winning the national title.