The Guru Report: Penn Tops Temple for Second in Big 5; Narrow Losses Hit Rutgers, Saint Joseph and La Salle

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

PHILADELPHIA — The Penn women  did what was necessary to beat Temple 71-62 and finish second in the Big Five at 3-1 overall Wednesday night while at the same time relegating the Owls to third at 2-2 here at the Palestra where the winning Quakers played all four of their City Series games at home.

But for the other three teams in the Guru local D-1 fold who took the floor elsewhere it was a series of just-missed opportunities with La Salle at home falling to Duquesne 66-62 at Tom Gola Arena while Saint Joseph’s on the road got nipped by Richmond, 46-45, both local setbacks in the Atlantic 10, and No. 14 Rutgers narrowly suffered its first hit in the Big Ten, falling at No. 17 Iowa, 72-66.

By ranking, the last one of the aforementioned trio of games is an upset but more likely a push considering the host Hawkeyes at home in Iowa City with weekly Big Ten honoree Megan Gustafson were the higher ranked team until recently.

But first let’s deal with the event we covered here where Penn once again showed that the days of doormat status in the Big Five are over, though Temple did cause the Quakers faithful a big of a squirm down the stretch.

“Out of the gate, I thought we came out strong, Temple really gave us a good push in that second quarter,” said Penn coach Mike McLaughlin. “They’re very good on the glass. We really opened it up in the third and fourth quarter, we limped a little to the finish line, we didn’t finish as well as we wanted but good points as we go into the Ivy stretch.

“The two other times we won the Big Five, we were 3-1 and that’s what we were today. So this is a lot to celebrate for them. I try to explain to them always what Philadelphia is about. What the basketball life, what (men’s coach) Steve’s (Donahue) telling his guys. What they’re seeing on a daily basis and what they achieved.”

Ashley Russell scored 18 to lead Penn while the inside force of Princess Agahayere and Eleah Parker each scored 14 points with Parker getting another double double with 10 rebounds and she also blocked four shots.

Idle since last Wednesday’s collapse here that gave Villanova the undisputed 4-0 City Series crown, playing Temple with identical local 2-1 records was certainly something of value for Penn (10-3) during the loll in the Ivy schedule that goes into play beginning next weekend with a series of Friday-Saturday games into mid-March and the third annual Ivy tourney for an NCAA bid.

The Owls (4-14), who had looked respectable in a loss at home to then-No. 2 Connecticut on Saturday, arrived here on the short trip from North Broad Street minus one talented player with the undetermined injury to promising freshman Alexa Williamson.

The Quakers made it to the half at 35-27 leading all the way, though with single-digit differentiasls in which Temple was able to reel the Quakers in a few times when they threatened to jump way out in front.

The explosive burst then occurred in the third beginning with Aghayere’s three-ball and powering all the way to a 19-point differential that settled one point less at 64-48 at the end of the period.

The game seemed virtually over with the large lead holding at 17 on Russell’s shot for the Quakers at 71-54 with 4 minutes, 49 seconds left in the game but Temple’s Marissa Mackins, a 5-8 freshman guard from Durham, N.C., became a two-way threat with steals and points to cut the margin in less than two minutes to 11 with 3:24 left in regulation.

Mackins had a career-high 19 points for Temple, shooting 7-for-12 from the field, including 5-of-10 three-balls while Mia Davis scored 15.

“It was much better in transition than before, we were spread out a little more than the other night,” McLaughlin said of the execution of the offense. “The ball moved better. We reversed the ball better.”

Enough time remained to bypass a Penn team whose last points were at that 4:49 mark but Temple was also shut down, scoring just one basket the rest of the night leading to the final score.

It’s the second year that Penn has won three-games in the Big Five after sharing last year’s chase success with Villanova and the program that spent long gaps without ever winning one of these local tilts also shared a title at 3-1 in 2015.

Though Temple is 51-20 against the Quakers, current Owls coach Tonya Cardoza in her 11 seasons is now 7-7 in the series while McLaughlin in his 10th season in 5-6.

Furthermore, Penn had won just 14 Big Five games in the 30 seasons before McLaughlin’s arrival from Division II powerhouse  Holy Family in Northeast Philadelphia. Wednesday’s win surpassed that total with 15.

After Sunday when Penn hosts Division III Haverford here at 1 p.m., the league slate continues with a Friday visit to Cornell at 7:30 p.m. and then from upstate New York back down into Manhattan to play Columbia at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday.

“People don’t realize what it takes to play in our league,” McLaughlin said. “After Friday’s game, it’s four hours on a bus, getting into Columbia at 2 a.m. and then having to turn around and play the next day. That’s the challenge to be really focused to win that game,” McLaughlin said.

Penn opened the Ivy season earlier this month winning at preseason favorite Princeton. Following the league schedule in mid-March, the third annual Ivy tournament this season moves from the Palestra into New Haven, Conn., to play at Yale with the top four teams of the ancient eight playing in the field.

“We were just talking in the locker room how much pride Penn has in the Big 5 and just the fact we were 3-1 the last two years,” Russell said. “Years ago people considered one win in the Big 5 huge. We kind of asserted ourselves this season, though we kind of slipped up last week.

“But finishing up beating Temple, they’re a good team and winning at the end is huge for us.”

The game here was the last in the completed round robin. On Sunday with Saint Joseph’s beating visiting La Salle at Hagan Arena in the first of two Atlantic 10 contests, that also was the the designated city game, thus the host Hawks finished fourth at 1-3 and the Explorers were 0-4.

Temple now returns to the American Athletic Conference the rest of the way, beginning Saturday when East Carolina visits at 2 p.m. in McGonigle Hall, where all remaining home games will be played except on Feb. 5, a Tuesday at noon when Houston plays in the larger Liacouras Center for the annual education day event.

Rutgers Felled by Iowa

Rutgers coach C. Vivian Stringer was back in her old haunts where she led Iowa to national prominence in Carver-Hawkeye Arena, but the joy of the ongoing win streak in the Big Ten was cut short with the No. 17 Hawkeyes edging the No. 14 Scarlet Knights 72-66 that ended the best unbeaten conference start for the visitors now reduced to 7-1 and 15-4 overall.

The loss also snapped a 10-game win streak dating back to November and while Rutgers remains in first, the cushy two-game lead is reduced to one.

Iowa improved to 14-4 overall and 6-2 in the conference.

The Scarlet Knights had a chance to go ahead after pulling within a point with 1:41 left but that was the high water mark of the Scarlet Knights rally.

Stasha Carey had 17 points for Rutgers, while Arella Guirantes scored 12 points, and Ciani Cryor scored 11.

Iowa’s Megan Gustafson, who has won a slew of the Big 10 weekly player citations, lived up to her reputation in this one, scoring 31 points, shooting 13-of-16 and also completing a double double with 12 rebounds.

Kathleen Doyle grabbed 17 points.

There were 10 ties and 10 lead changes in the first quarter resulting at 21-21 at the end of the period. 

A five-point Rutgers lead at the beginning of the second period was negated into minus five the other way off a 10-0 Iowa run, while the half ended with a slim 35-33 lead held by Iowa.

Late in the third Rutgers stayed in close pursuit but Gustafson and Stewart made it 53-48 with 10 minutes left the rest of the way.

 

      Makenzie Meyer made it a six-point lead in the fourth period and that was enough to outlast the visitors from the East who gave up their most points this season as well as the worst shooting percentage with the Hawkeyes nailing half their efforts from the field against the Knights.

Staying on the road, Rutgers goes for a season sweep Sunday visiting Penn State, the Knights’ longtime regional rival at 2 p.m. at the Bryce Jordan Center in State College.

Saint Joseph’s and La Salle Suffer Narrow A10 Setbacks As Opponents Rally

La Salle just missed a breakthrough upset and Saint Joseph’s had a looming victory get away on the road in the slimmest of margins in two Atlantic 10 games played by the locals.

For the Explorers at home against preseason conference favorite Duquesne, they were poised for their first conference win of the season and fourth overall at home at Tom Gola Arena until the Dukes rallied in the final 10 minutes to escape back to Pittsburgh with a  66-62 triumph.

In a game of runs and counter-runs at the outset, La Salle (3-17, 0-6 Atlantic 10) bolted to a 39-32 lead at the half.

All but one of those points were whittled over the next 10 minutes to leave the Explorers barely ahead going into the final stanza.

Up two with 4:27 left,La Salle then succumbed to a 14-6 run by Duquesne (11-8, 5-1), which moved into a first-place tie at the conference after George Washington upset VCU.

Davidson is a half-game behind in the win column while Dayton dropped a full game behind tied with George Washington in fourth after a triple overtime loss at Saint Louis.

The Explorers’ Rayshel Brown had a game-high 14 points, her fourth straight game of 10 or more points while Shalina Miller made it two straight games with double doubles, this time collecting 13 points and grabbing 11 rebounds. Jeryn Reese also hit the boards and got a career best with 11 rebounds.

Duquesne’s Julijana Vojinac had 13 points and nine rebounds, while Libby Bazelak scored 11, and Kadri-Ann Lass scored 10.

Saturday might have seen a matchup of teams looking for their conference wins except Richmond, which visits La Salle at 2 p.m., finally got the first one for the Spiders at home edging Saint Joseph’s 46-45 in the Robins Center in a low-scoring affair in Virginia.

The Hawks ( 6-13, 2-4) held an eight-point lead at the outset of the fourth quarter only to be unable to maintain it over the next 10 minutes against the Spiders (4-15, 1-5), who by winning dropped La Salle into 14th and last place.

Inability to score with one-point more in the bank, Saint Joseph’s lost a rebound battle on the missed shot as Richmond went the other way giving the Hawks a brief life with a missed layup until the visitors were charged with a foul away from the ball.

Amy Duggan sank what became the game-winner for Richmond with a pair of free throws with 16 seconds left in regulation.

Alyssa Monaghan, who had a game-high 14 points and Hawks best seven rebounds, went for redemption but the shot was off the rim as time expired.

Katie Jekot also scored in double figures with 11 points.

Jaide Hinds Clark had 10 points and 10 rebounds for a double double for Richmond while Daiji Ruffin added 10 points as a reserve. 

The Hawks stay on the road Sunday going to Dayton for a national broadcast at noon on ESPNU.

Looking Ahead: Tennessee Welcomes Notre Dame

First, looking at the local slate over the next few days, Penn State is the only D-1 local playing Thursday, heading for a season sweep at 8 p.m. at Wisconsin in the Big Ten before welcoming Rutgers on Sunday.

On Friday, the two locals in the Colonial Athletic Association are Delaware hosting UNCW at noon at the Bob Carpenter Center in Newark while Drexel on dollar dog night hosts Charleston in the Daskalakis Athletic Center at 7 in West Philadelphia.

On Sunday the two CAA visitors switch with Delaware hosting Charleston at 1 p.m. and Drexel hosting UNCW at 2 p.m.

UNCW comes through having upset CAA frontrunners James Madison and Towson last weekend so Drexel has a chance to stay on the leaders as does UNCW with a sweep.

The only other Friday  D-1 local action has Villanova visiting Seton Hall needing a Big East win before heading Sunday to St John’s also looking for a win in Jamaica, N.Y.

Two Saturday games were already mentioned involving Temple and La Salle but up in Central New Jersey near Trenton, Rider will be hosting Canisius at 2 p.m. in Alumni Gym in Lawrenceville looking to stay unbeaten in the Metro Atlantic Conference.

All the local Sunday action was noted off Penn State to host Rutgers; Saint Joseph’s to visit Dayton; Haverford at Penn; the two CAA games at Delaware and Drexel; and Villanova at St. John’s.

Nationally, on Thursday, Tennessee in a rare five-game plunge steps outside the SEC and back into non-conference to host Notre Dame. The Irish hold the No. 1 ranking.

As for the rest of the national stuff we’ll get to it on the next report.