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.