The Guru Report: Temple Sees Daylight While Rider Takes First MAAC Setback

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

PHILADELPHIA — Two streaks got snapped in opposite directions while one other continued on the down side Saturday afternoon among the three Guru local Division I teams that saw action.

Temple was powered by Alliya Butts and Mia Davis with a combination of 48 points to control East Carolina 84-62 in McGonigle Hall as the Owls picked up their first win of the season in the American Athletic Conference.

Further north Rider’s perfect run to keep pace with Quinnipiac in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference came to an end at the hands of Canisius, which rallied for a 62-49 triumph on the road in the Broncs’ Alumni Gymnasium in Lawrenceville, N.J.

And to the near north up Broad Street, La Salle looking for its first Atlantic 10 win and fourth overall got wiped out at home in the Tom Gola Arena as Richmond executed a 20-2 run in the third period and headed off in the winners column 74-60.

Temple coach Tonya Cardoza had started to see positive signs a week ago when the Owls did not get awed like times in the past when they hosted then-No. 2 Connecticut.

But then came a loss to Penn in the Palestra Wednesday, enabling the Quakers to finish second to Villanova in the Big Five and relegate Temple to third.

However, Cardoza became more hopeful since then off practices leading into Saturday’s game.

“It feels good to finally get a win and get the monkey off our back,” Cardoza said afterwards. “We had a couple good practices and they carried over to today and the way we played defense the last few days in practice, I thought we did a great job today.”

Overall Temple parted with a seven-game losing streak to improve to 5-14 on the season and 1-5 in the AAC. On the other bench, the Pirates fell to 10-9 overall and 1-5 in the league.

The game still threatened to possibly get away from the Owls until the third period when a 12-4 run accelerated their lead to 57-38 and it was like old times the rest of the way.

Long-range firing was the weapon of choice as Temple connected with 11 threes, their best since getting 13 in a road loss on Dec. 3 at nationally-ranked DePaul in Chicago.

The Owls also shared the ball well with a season-high 20 assists on 28 hoops of which Butts dealt six while scoring a season-high 28 points, helped by another high mark to date with five treys.

Davis collected her seventh double double with 20 points and a game-high 12 rebounds.

Marissa Mackins, having gained a career-best 19 points in the loss to Penn, was a force the other way with 10 rebounds for her best day in that category. Lena Niang scored 13 points and Emani Mayor had 11 to also reach double figures.

Alex Frazier had 19 points and 10 rebounds to gain a double double for ECU while Raven Johnson scored 18.

“In the UConn game we were really trying our best to stay in the game,” Cardoza said. “After the Penn game, it’s like what’s the difference. The last couple days I found they were really focused and trying to get things done the way that I want them.

“They way we defended today is the way we practiced the last two days and they carried over.”

Temple next goes to Tulsa for a Tuesday game at 8 p.m. EST before continuing to Wichita State next Saturday at 7:30. The Owls return home Tuesday, Feb. 5, to host Houston at noon, next door in the larger Liacouras Center for the annual School Day game, the last of two played in that venue this season.

That game will be televised on ESPN3.

Rider Falls in Canisius Rally

The Broncs ran into a road block in the fourth quarter at home, being held to eight points as Canisius snapped its own two-game losing streak and ended Rider’s best-ever 6-0 start in the MAAC via 62-49 victory.

At the outset, however, it seemed like recent business as usual would continue with coach Lynn Milligan’s squad bolting to an early 11-point lead only to allow the Golden Griffins (7-12, 5-3 MAAC) to get back into contention with a 21-13 attack in the second period and then seal things off in the final 10 minutes.

Amari Johnson had a game-high 21 points for Rider (10-8, 6-1) while Stella Johnson, a recent MAAC multi-player of the week honoree, had 15 points.

“It was a disappointing result today on our home floor,” Milligan said. “Credit to Canisius, they did a great job. Defensively, they were very strong.

“We didn’t shoot the ball well today, which hurt us and we had some lapses on defense, particularly in rebounding that hurt us. We had a little adversity today and we didn’t respond to it as well as we wanted to,” she continued.

“Just like we learned from six previous games, we’ll learn from this one and put ourselves in a better situation heading into Wednesday.”

The Broncs will hit the road Wednesday to meet perennial contender Marist in McCann Arena in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. The game will air on ESPN+ and Rider will seek to end a two-game losing streak to the Red Foxes.

Rider had beaten Canisius four straight. The 6-1 mark in conference matches the best seven-game MAAC start under Milligan and in program history following a similar run two seasons ago when the Broncs finished runnerup in the league.

Next Sunday the Broncs head to the first of two meetings with Quinnipiac and return home again Feb. 7 hosting Monmouth.

La Salle Upended by Richmond Third Quarter Surge

The Spiders had been winless in the Atlantic 10 until edging Saint Joseph’s at home Wednesday by a point and Saturday they finished a sweep of the Philly teams in the conference winning at La Salle 74-60 thanks to a 20-2 run in the third quarter.

The rout ruined the Explorers’ day getting four players scoring in double figures for the first time since the win earlier this season over Pepperdine in Providence’s tournament.

It looked promising for La Salle (3-18, 0-7 Atlantic 10) taking a 43-41 lead at the outset of the third until Richmond (5-15, 2-5) lowered the boom.

Shayla Sweeney had 11 points for the home team while Shalina Miller, Jeryn Reese, and Rayshel Brown each scored 10 points. Defensively, Miller blocked three shots and had seven rebounds while Reese had eight rebounds.

La Salle will continue to stay home Thursday hosting Fordham at 7 p.m.

Nationally Noted: Old Dominion on a Tear

Year two for former Tennessee star Nikki McCray continues to be quite the success after winning only eight games in her first season in charge of Old Dominion after her hire off Dawn Staley’s staff at South Carolina.

The Lady Monarchs on Alumni Day at home in the Ted Constant Center in Norfolk, Va., cruised over UTSA 72-47 in a C-USA game won despite the absence of Victoria Morris with a foot injury.

The opposition fell to 6-13 overall and 1-6 in the conference.

Special uniforms were given to honor the memory of all-time great Anne Donovan who died suddenly last June.

The Lady Monarchs (15-5, 6-2 C-USA) have won six straight and are off to their best 20-game start in 11 seasons.

“Anne Donovan meant so much to this university and this program,” McCray said afterwards. “The jerseys were a secret and it surprised our team. I think they fed off that and they never looked back.”

ODU next weekend visits North Texas and league-leader Rice.

Looking Ahead: Drexel and Nova Look to Key Sweeps

On the local front, Drexel on Girl Scout Day will look to get into sole possession of third, minimally, a game behind the front runners in the Colonial Athletic Association when the Dragons host a revived UNCW squad at 2 p.m. in the Dasklalakis Athletic Center.

At the same time, Villanova will be at St. John’s in the Big East looking to complete a sweep of the Metro teams and get some traction for postseason play.

Penn tunes up for the Ivy race ahead by hosting Division III Haverford at 1 p.m. at The Palestra.

Saint Joseph’s will try to shake off its loss at Richmond visiting Dayton at noon in the Atlantic 10 on ESPNU.

Delaware hosts Charleston at 1 p.m. looking to complete a weekend sweep in the CAA at the Bob Carpenter Center in Newark.

No. 14 Rutgers heads to Penn State looking to shake off the loss at Iowa in the Big Ten and stay at least a game ahead when meeting the Lady Lions at 2 p.m. in the Bryce Jordan Center on the Big Ten Network in State College.

Nationally, LSU is at Tennessee at 1 p.m. in the Southeastern Conference where the host Lady Vols have lost six straight, matching a program low, in fact the dip has other marks being matched also.

No. 6 Stanford in the Pac-12 is at No. 21 Utah at 2 p.m. where the host UTEs having beaten California on Friday night is looking to enhance its regained status.

Elon is at James Madison in their first CAA meeting since Elon upset JMU last year in the CAA semifinals.

No. 15 Kentucky is at No. 25 Texas A&M in a game where positioning in both the SEC and rankings become a factor.

And that is the report.