The Guru Report: Drexel, Penn and Rider Move Closer to Postseason Play

Guru note: Most of the St. John’s report is a truncated version of AP national writer Doug Feinberg’s story with some Guru extra knowledge sprinkled in between.

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

PHILADELPHIA — Drexel, Penn, and Rider took another step Friday night toward a minimal guarantee to still be playing in March once the conference playoffs have concluded.

Princeton and Delaware also won to make it a sweeps night among the Guru locals in Division I while nationally, St. John’s pulled a huge  rally and win in the Big East and No. 3 Oregon won the first of the weekend annual Pac-12 in-state Border War at home in Eugene with No. 9 Oregon State 77-68 with the second part to be played Monday night concluding in Corvallis.

As for the trio at the top, all would have to win their respective leagues to earn a bid to the NCAA tourney, a tall but not impossible order, but Rider in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, Drexel in the Colonial Athletic Association, and Penn in the Ivy League are closing in on at least a second place finish in the regular season and that guarantees a place in the 64-team WNIT field unless the NCAA becomes a reality.

Since your Guru was here at Drexel’s Daskalakis Athletic Center in West Philadelphia, let’s start with the Dragons’ 62-39 CAA win over Hofstra (7-17, 1-11 CAA) for a season sweep of the Pride, as well as talk about Delaware’s win over Northeastern and the rest of the conference needing attention.

Drexel (16-5, 8-2) got off to a fast start in this one, jumping to a 14-5 lead propelled by an 11-0 run from the middle of the first period, holding serve in the second and then accelerating to a 17-6 ruling in the third to extend the Dragons’s current win streak to nine, a tie for third best in the history of the program.

Holding the opposition down also helped maintaining the nation’s No. 1 defensive scoring average, which was at 48.1 points per game prior to the opening tip.

“That was a tremendous team effort, obviously on both ends of the floor, our defense gave us an opportunity to open the game up,” said coach Denise Dillon, a former Villanova star who picked up career win No. 299.

“Hannah Nihill did a tremendous job dictating that defense and making it as hard as possible for them to get in a flow.”

Nilhill scored nine points and dealt a career-high nine assists while Bailey Greenberg may not have had another 20-point game with being given rest in the second half, but she still had a game-high 15 points, shooting 7-for-10 from the field, and grabbing seven rebounds.

Keishana Washington had all ten of her points in the second half, while Niki Metzel, and reserve Ana Ferariu joined Nihill with nine points each.

Hofstra’s Sandra Karsten scored 13 points but Boogie Brozowski, the Pride leader at 17.1 points per game,  was held to four points, shooting 1-for-8, succumbing to Nilhill’s defense, which procured four overall steals.

“It’s huge, when you can take the top player out of the equation, it becomes highly disruptive,” Dillon said.

A win Sunday, when Northeastern visits at 2 p.m. on NBC Sports-Philadelphia, would make Dillon the fourth coach in CAA history to reach 300 and the victory streak would be the third in the 37-year history of the program to reach 10.

Standings-wise, preseason favorite James Madison’s 76-35 win over Charleston kept the Dukes (19-4, 11-1)  in first a game ahead of Drexel. 

However, Towson’s 82-61 home win over UNCW (15-8, 8-4) dropped the Seahawks, the CAA surprise in year two of the Karen Barefoot era, into a tie for third with the Tigers (14-9, 8-4), two games behind Drexel in the loss column.

Towson, another surprise, upset Drexel here in the season opener two days before JMU also won here and the Dragons will play both on on the road at the end of the regular season next month.

UNCW is even drawing mid-major polling attention.

Delaware off its Friday 77-63 win over Northeastern at home in the Bob Carpenter Center in Newark holds fifth, a game behind third place in the loss column but two games in front of Northeastern (15-8, 5-7).

In the win over the Huskies, the Blue Hens (11-12, 6-5) got two career-high performances, one from Samone DeFreese, who shot 14-for-21 from the field for 31 points, while all Paris McBride’s 14 points were achieved on the foul line.

Makeda Nicholas had 10 points and eight rebounds as the Blue Hens spit the season series with Northeastern.

Delaware will host Hofstra at home on Sunday at 2 p.m.

Penn Stays Unbeaten in Ivy Play Winning Over Dartmouth ; Princeton Tops Harvard

With the CAA totally discussed, time to turn attention to the Ivies, where Penn and Princeton each won the first half of their New England swing, the Quakers topping host Dartmouth 60-44 in Hanover, N.H., while Princeton edged host Harvard 75-71.

Yale held its ground behind Penn winning at home against Columbia, 69-61, at New Haven, Conn.

In olden days at this point there would be more emphasis on the Quakers, who have tied their 2016 best start in program history at 19-3 to go with their 6-0 lead of 2 games in the loss column over Yale and Princeton, in their quest for an NCAA automatic bid. 

But this is year three of the new era Ivy tourney, moving to Yale after Penn hosted the first two, so though the first half of the league slate concludes Saturday night, the discussion is first  more of landing one of the four seeds knowing there is still a second game with Princeton and the tourney.

But at this point, of course, holding first for the top seed has its value because unlike last year for Penn as the second seed, there’s more time for the turnaround between the Saturday night semifinals and Sunday afternoon title game, not that Princeton was still the heavy favorite no matter what.

So in landing an Ivy tournament berth, which with a win over Harvard will be potentially five in front with seven left, Penn is in excellent shape. 

Finishing first or second prior to the Ivy playoff will guarantee at least a WNIT bid, and this will be refined after Saturday in this discussion.

But for now, as for Penn’s romp over Dartmouth (10-10, 3-4), which sits a game out of a playoff spot right now, the Quakers pounded the boards 42-24.

Ashley Russell led the visitors, scoring 19 points, shooting 8-for-14, and grabbed eight rebounds, while Princess Aghayere scored 13, and Eliah Parker had 12 points and 11 rebounds.

Next up to complete the New England swing is a visit south on the way home to Harvard in Cambridge, Mass., at 5 p.m.

Meanwhile, on Friday, Princeton (12-9, 4-2) reversed direction, climbing over Harvard (11-9, 4-3) by a half-game and one in the loss column to third dropping the Crimson to fourth, holding the last playoff spot by a game over Dartmouth as of now.

A three-way attack of Bella Alarie, the reigning Ivy player of the year, Carlie Littlefield, and Gabrielle Rush combined for 50 points for the Tigers.

Alarie’s share were 19 points, and nine rebounds with four block sand two steals. Littlefield scored 16, and Rush scored 15.

Madeline Raster topped four other teammates who also scored in double figures, scoring 16 points for Harvard.

Princeton now heads north before returning home visiting Dartmouth at 5 p.m., an annual homecoming for Tigers coach Courtney Banghart the Big Green no longer relishes given the visitors’ success since she was hired. 

Former Princeton star Addie Micir of Bucks County had been an aide recently at Dartmouth until returning to work for Banghart this season.

Rider Cruises Over St. Peter’s 

The Broncs are getting closer to at least returning to the WNIT for the second time in three seasons, though to expect more means likely taking down heavyweight Quinnipiac which stands a game in front in first place but has owned the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference the way UConn has owned the American Athletic Conference.

Of course sometimes a benefit can be derived by someone else doing the dirty week and then becoming the replacement opponent.

Rider ran roughshod at St. Peter’s 78-43 Friday night at the Yanitelli Center in Jersey City, the largest rout  of an opponent in the Lynn Milligan era in Lawrenceville, N.J.

The win keeps the Broncs (15-9, 11-2 MAAC), two games in front of Marist, which they swept. After Sunday’s visit from Manhattan at 1 p.m. at Alumni Gym at home, there’s just four games left in the regular season and each has one to play with the Bobcats so baring a shocker we could be talking two in front with three to play once each plays the Lynn Sacca-Fabbri powerhouse.

In Friday night’s win over the Peahens (6-17, 1-11), Lea Favre and Lexi Posset each scored 15 points, Stella Johnson scored 14, and Amari Johnson scored 12.

Rider held St. Peter’s to 22 percent shooting from the field and forced 17 turnovers.

It’s the 10th straight win in the series for the Broncs.

"We preach that you have to steal games on the road in this conference to have a chance and we have fortunately been able to do that this season,” Milligan said. 

“We pride ourselves on our defensive discipline on the road. That's usually how we get ourselves going and on the road you have to do that. We did that tonight right from the start." 

 The 11-2 conference start is one better for both Milligan and the entire program than the landmark 2016-17 overall season. 

"The team responded well after the Iona game,” said Milligan who was not happy with the execution in Tuesday’s home win over the Gaels. “We talked about a couple things where we felt we could be better and expectations for ourselves. I thought today we came in focused.

 “It's a Friday night on the road in the middle of February and we did what we had to do to get the win.”

And she might add, do what’s needed to stay under the penthouse while from their perspective still focused on one game at a time.

The second Quinnipiac game, by the way, is next Thursday at Rider at 7.

Shocker in Queens as St. John’s Takes Down No. 8 Marquette

The Red Storm men have swept Marquette and now the St. John’s women, who have struggled most of the season, have taken their shot at the Golden Eagles after almost upsetting UConn early in the season in the tropics.

Tiana England scored 20 points and St. John's rallied from a double-digit deficit to beat No. 8 Marquette 81-74 on Friday night, the first win for the Red Storm over a top-10 team since upsetting then-No. 2 UConn on the road to end the Huskies' 99-game home winning streak on Feb. 18, 2012.

''It's obviously huge, we need to understand the breadth in what happened here,'' Red Storm coach Joe Tartamella said. ''They are the No. 8 team in the country, undefeated in the Big East and beating teams by 40. For us to compete at that level here and to able to finish the game is great.''

The victory was a season-best fourth in a row for St. John's (13-12, 6-8 Big East).

''In the scope of my time here as a head coach what happened tonight, that's one of the biggest wins we've had,'' said Tartamella, now in his seventh season after his promotion.

 St. John’s trailed by 14 in the second quarter and eight at the half before pulling off the shocking win that ended a 12-game winning streak for the Golden Eagles (21-4, 12-1).

They still have a dominating three-game lead over Butler and DePaul, the latter of which comes to the Red Storm on Sunday.

''St. John's wanted it more than us,'' Marquette coach Carolyn Kieger said. ''That's really hard for me as a head coach to say. They wanted it more than us. They were tougher than us and deserved the win. They were coming in with a chip on their shoulder and did it from start to finish.''

The score was tied at 56 heading into the fourth quarter and St. John's was down 67-66 midway through the quarter when Jasmine Sina's 3-pointer from the corner in front of the Red Storm bench started a 9-1 run. After a defensive stop, England scored on a fast-break layup to extend the Red Storm's advantage to four. That was the team's biggest lead of the game to that point.

The Red Storm kept the run going as the Golden Eagles had no answer on the offensive end. England's layup with 2:17 left made it 75-68. Marquette could get no closer than five the rest of the way.

''The difference today and some of our closer games earlier in the season was that we were locked in,'' England said. ''We got down and didn't stay down. We made it our mission to come back and play together as a team.''

Erika Davenport had 24 points and 13 rebounds to lead Marquette while Amani Wilborn added a season-high 22 points.

“The first half we kept them off the boards and the second half we gave up eight (offensive) that was the difference down the stretch,'' Kieger said.

The rest of the conference from fourth down is bunched together.

On Saturday, the Guru at 1 p.m. will be at the only other local game on the schedule other than the Ivies up north when Villanova in fifth place hosts traveling partner Georgetown looking for a split when the teams tip off in Finneran Pavilion.

Though the Wildcats are not likely to return to the NCAAs nor get a WNIT automatic bid, the Wildcats could get one of 32 at-large bids.

“The WNIT is fun because anybody can win it,” Villanova coach Harry Perretta said when his team recently made a deep run.

Indeed several years ago Drexel won the whole thing.

Also of note Saturday is Divsion III Rosemont looking to finish the Colonial States Athletic Conference unbeaten at 16-0 and 17 straight while Division II Jefferson and USciences who have only beaten each other look to keep rolling over the rest of the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference.

And that’s the report.