The Guru Report: Drexel and Delaware Score in CAA While ‘Nova’s Gedaka Leads ‘Cats to Big East Win at Seton Hall

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

PHILADELPHIA/NEWARK, Del. – Due to a matinee Education Day hosting Friday afternoon, the Guru was on the scene for both local wins in the Colonial Athletic Association leading with in reverse order Drexel cruising at home over Charleston 76-53 at night in the Daskalakis Athletic Center which followed the Delaware 65-53 bit of an upset of UNCW at home in the Bob Carpenter Center.

And the day became a total sweep by all three in action when Mary Gedaka keyed a single-handed 10-0 run to rally Villanova to a 70-66 win at Seton Hall at night in a Big East game in Walsh Gym to snap four-game losing streak in the conference.

Starting here back in the City of Brotherly Love, after getting help from elsewhere Drexel continued to help itself by making quick work of the Cougars with a 17-6 first quarter and on to a lopsided 25-point lead and ultimate victory.

Things looked bleak at the beginning of the month in terms of the conference race when the Dragons (12-5, 4-2 CAA) blew a halftime lead to Towson and then two days later fell to preseason favorite James Madison, both games played here. 

But last weekend UNCW (11-6, 4-2) stirred at home in Wilmington, N.C., upsetting JMU at the buzzer on a three-pointer from Rutgers transfer Shrita Parker and then she struck again with the winning points against Towson.

Up north at the same time Drexel took down Northeastern in Boston and Hofstra on Long Island.

Then Friday afternoon, Delaware (7-11, 2-4) ruined the desires of another weekend sweep by UNCW and several hours later Drexel with another stellar defensive effort combined with the Dragons’ highest point production of the season basically put Denise Dillon’s group back in the chase, trailing the two front-runners by just a game.

And while they are now tied with the Seahawks, Drexel will play UNCW 2 p.m. Sunday afternoon here with a chance to minimally take undisputed possession of third place.

“It’s our first win at home in 2019, so I’m real excited,” Dillon said of Friday nigfht’s performance. “It’s a good overall team win. We stuck together both ends of the floor and obviously we’re happy with the offensive production. It’s coming along nicely.”

Everyone got to play a bunch of minutes, spreading the wealth to provide more experience to the bench and also to dispense extra rest to the starters with a sterner test coming less than 48 hours away.

“We’re as good as our guards on both ends of the floor and when they’re playing defense like that, setting the tone, we can control the possessions and from start to finish control the game,” Dillon said.

Though Charleston (5-12, 1-5) became one of the few teams to score more than 50 points against Drexel in a Dragons victory, nevertheless the winners for the next 48 hours will continue to be the top defensive team in the nation after entering the night with a 47.5 defensive scoring average.

Drexel has been the only school holding opponents under a 50-point average.

As for the individuals for the home team, Bailey Greenberg was tops as she has been most games with 18 points while freshman Maura Hendrixson had more productivity with 15 points, Aubree Brown scored 14, and Hannah Nihill had a near double double with 10 points and eight assists.

Hendrixson was also deadly outside shooting 5-for-6 three-balls while the rest of the squad added four more.

Drexel forced 20 turnovers and got eight steals to help a doubling of the Cougars 24-12 in points off turnovers.

Charleston’s Ericka Broughton and Darien Huff each scored 12 points, Deja Ford scored 11, and Arynn Eady Scored 10 points.

Earlier in the day, UNCW came through to start its weekend Mid-Atlantic swing at Delaware before heading up to Drexel.

The Seahawks, as mentioned, caught notice with the wins over JMU and Towson last weekend in what is the second season under Karen Barefoot, who previously coached in the CAA when Old Dominion was a member.

The host Blue Hens have been on a roller coaster season under second-year coach Natasha Adair, for a large part caused by the preseason sidelining of Nicole Enabosi, the CAA player of the year, with an knee injury.

The game also had a déjà vu aspect with the second homecoming of former longtime Delaware coach Tina Martin, who is now on Barefoot’s staff.

This past Tuesday the Seahawks’ Parker for her game-winners was named the national women’s player of the week by the United States Basketball Writers Association (USBWA).

But Delaware rose to the occasion of 1,633 predominantly youngsters in the house and the two teams battled to a 28-28 tie at the break.

Then the Blue Hens took over by building an eight-point lead at the end of the third and holding the Seahawks firm the rest of the way.

It was Education Day for the home crowd but specifically it became a career day for Delaware junior Samone DeFreese, who evoked memories of the Elena Delle Donne era scoring a personal best 26 points and grabbing 11 rebounds.

She shot 10-of-19 from the floor for 52.6 percent while making all six free throw attempts while Makeda Nicholas scored 11 points.

It was the seventh straight win by Delaware over UNCW, which got 20 points from GiGi Smith and 10 from Parker.

Delaware held the Seahawks to 33.9 percent from the field and forced 21 turnovers leading to an 18-7 advantage on points off turnovers.

 The Blue Hens also dominated the inside 34-22 on points in the paint and 14-0 on second chance points, while depth showed with a 25-9 advantage from the reserves.

Defense also showed in steals, 11-2.

“Anytime you have a game with your fans, on your floor, and the way we competed today, we just clicked on all cyclinders,” said second-year coach Natasha Adair, who once coached at Charleston before moving to Georgetown in the Big East, and then taking the Delaware a job a year ago.

“We held a really good UNC Wilmington team to 53 points and that’s hard to do. Our kids just locked in, they locked into the defensive game plan, Samone DeFreese today sparked us offensively and she hadn’t had that kind of breakout game yet, and this is still a group that’s still learning how to play without Nicole Enabosi, and we want to be our best team in March.

“But I think today was an example of what we can do if we play together and we trust the game plan and I was very proud of our group today.”

Delaware, by the way, will follow Drexel from 12 months ago in hosting this season’s CAA tourney, the weekend right before Selection Monday night.

The next trick there needs to be a followup from Friday’s output for Delaware to establish a rhythm.

“I think the next one, they know in conference play they can’t take any opponent lightly. You can enjoy this for a couple more hours today and then we have to get ready for the Charleston game (1 p.m.) on Sunday,” Adair said.

“But they know, they know what they needed to do. Today, they did it, so we will take this momentum and keep going.”

Gedaka’s Outburst Carries Villanova to Rally Over Seton Hall

A fourth-quarter rally in which Mary Gedaka got 14 of her 20 points, including a 10-0 run, ended Villanova’s recent Big East miseries by snapping a four-game conference losing streak to beat Seton Hall 70-66 in the Pirates’ Walsh Gym in South Orange, N.J.

The Wildcats (12-7, 3-5 Big East) seemed doomed to the host Pirates (12-7, 4-4) when they began to stir and after Seton Hall answered a few ‘Nova challenges to lead 58-53 with 5 minutes, 27 seconds left in the game, Gedaka reeled off 10 of her team’s next 11 points to go ahead and hold on for the win.

In addition to Gedaka’s 20 points, she also grabbed nine rebounds and shot 8-of-10 from the field and 4-of-6 from the line. Adrianna Hahn went into 10th place all-time on the Wildcats career points chart, passing Denise Dillon, who now coaches Drexel.

 Hahn, whose career total is now 1,362 points, scored 16, shooting 6-for-10 from the field while Jannah Tucker had 14 points, primarily off four three-balls, while Emily Esposito scored 13.

Shadeen Samuels for Seton Hall had 27 points and 16 rebounds, while Inja Butina scored 22 points and grabbed eight rebounds, and Desiree Elmore scored 10 points.

The Wildcats had one of their better shooting nights connecting on 47.2 percent from the field in Walsh Gym, which has been a recent home away from home in winning 13 of the last 16 games played in the series there with the Pirates.

Villanova stays in the Metro area heading over to Jamaica, N.Y., on Long Island near Manhattan to visit St. John’s at 2 p.m. on Sunday.

The Red Storm, who almost upset Connecticut in November, and had struggled, beat Georgetown 59-51 at home in Carnesecca Arena. Dionna White was held to nine points while Curteeona Brelove scored 17 and grabbed 10 rebounds for St. Johns.

Marquette, which reached 10th for the first time in the Associated Press women’s poll, had little difficulty handling Xavier 90-44. DePaul, which had been ranked, won at Butler in Indianapolis.

The standings heading into Sunday’s second weekend round shows Marquette (17-3, 8-0) unbeaten in the Big East at the top, Butler (16-3, 6-2) two games back, then DePaul (14-6, 5-3), then a three-way involving Seton Hall (12-7, 4-4), Providence (12-8, 4-4), and Creighton (10-9, 4-4).,

Georgetown (9-10, 3-5) and  Villanova (12-7, 3-5) are tied, though the Hoyas would be listed first.

Nationally Noted: Utah Passes Test

After earning its first ranking in nearly 11 years, No. 21 Utah at home in Salt Lake City topped California 87-74 in a Pac-12 contest. Megan Huff had 18 of her 24 points in the second half for the Utes (17-1, 6-1), who had been ripping through the unranked squads.

The Bears (12-6, 3-4) had been ranked until recently. Kristine Anigwe had 24 points and 15 rebounds for  California. 

Meanwhile, UCLA, in a rebuilding mode after a strong year last season, upset No. 16 Arizona State 61-59 on the road in Tempe on Japreece Dean’s three-pointer with nine seconds left in regulation in another Pac-12 game.

Looking Ahead: Rider Looks to Keep Pace With Quinnipiac at the Top

Rider will be looking to stay unbeaten and tied with perennial champion Quinnipiac at the top of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference when the Broncs host Canisius at 2 p.m. in Alumni Gym in Lawrenceville, N.J.

Just two other Guru locals on Saturday take the floor and both are struggling.

Temple will host East Carolina at 2 p.m. in McGonigle Hall in an American Athletic Conference game while La Salle, which just missed upsetting preseason favorite Duquesne in the Atlantic 10 at home, will meet Richmond at home in the Tom Gola Arena at 2 p.m.

The Explorers are still looking for their first conference win and will host a Spiders team that edged Saint Joseph’s by a point at home to get their first. 

On Sunday, the Drexel, Delaware, and Villanova games have been addressed; No. 14 Rutgers will try to get back on a winning track in the Big Ten visiting Penn State at 2 p.m. in the Bryce Jordan Center, while Penn at 1 p.m. will host Division III Haverford at 1 in the Palestra and Saint Joseph’s will visit Dayton at noon in the Atlantic 10 in a nationally televised game on CBS Sports network at noon.

Nationally, Marquette can put more distance from the rest of the Big East visiting Butler, No. 8 North Carolina State as the last unbeaten team in Division I visits Georgia Tech in an Atlantic Coast game, and Utah’s next dual test in the Pac-12 is a visit to No. 6 Stanford.

And that’s the report.  

 

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