The Guru Report: La Salle Gets First Road Win

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

PHILADELPHIA — It was four up and three down, including here at Temple’s McGonigle  Hall Wednesday, among the Guru local D-1 teams that played but with not a lot of conversation let’s start with La Salle, which up at St. Bonaventure in the Atlantic 10 picked up win number five on the season and number two in the conference, beating the Bonnies in a defensive lockdown 52-45 in Olean, N.Y.

It was the first road win for the season for La Salle (5-24, 2-13 A-10).

There were positives for the Explorers all over in holding the Bonnies (8-20, 5-10) to just six points in the second quarter, a season best for the visitors, who tied a program record set opening day in the loss to Howard with 61 rebounds.

Shalina Miller, who had 6 points and ten rebounds, tied Linda French’s single season block record at La Salle with 55 and will have two games to break it minimally — Saturday’s senior farewell home game  hosting George Mason at Tom Gola Arena at 2 p.m. and a first round game on the road against an opponent to be named thos werkend for Tuesday.

Janay Sanders had 13 points, while senior Jeryn Reese had 10 points and a career high 16 rebounds.   

“We hadn’t won a road game all season and we have been talking about it, and we came out here and they really performed,” La Salle first-year coach Mountain MacGillivray said. “I thought we had been a defending team for a while, now, holding teams down, but we couldn’t throw the ball in the ocean tonight.

“But you know what, we took care of the ball, we didn’t turn it over, and we defended for the entire game. Played as a unit. Rotated.  Got stops. That’s a beautiful way to win. It’s kind of the recipe I’ve been telling them,” he continued.

“If we can get more shots than our opponent, we’ve got a good chance to win. And we went out there and did that tonight. Nice to pick up that first road win.”

Emily Calabrese had 10 points for the Bonnies, a team high matched by Asianae Johnson, who also grabbed 11 rebounds.

Saint Joseph’s Falls at George Mason

If the Hawks are to open at home in one of six first round games in the Atlantic 10 tournament next Tuesday, they now have their work cut out for them after losing at George Mason 68-59 at EagleBank Arena in Fairfax, Va.

Had Saint Joseph’s (11-17, 7-8 A-10) held on to a 53-49 lead they had with 6 minutes, 31 seconds remaining, as the night played out, the Hawks would have clinched a home game without regard to Saturday’s Senior Day season finale at Hagan Arena at noon against Fordham.

But the Patriots (16-12, 8-7) soon thereafter exploded on a closing 19-6 run that gave them a first round home game without regard what happens when they finish on the road Saturday at La Salle.

Alyssa Monaghan had 18 points, Katie Jekot scored 13, Kristalyn Baisden scored 10 and Katie Mayock grabbed 11 rebounds for Saint Joseph’s.

So right now, the Hawks and George Washington are tied for eighth and Saint Joseph’s in that scenario if it holds has the tiebreak off a head-to-head win in Washington at the Smith Center.

But Fordham is on a roll and clinched along with VCU the two first-round byes so Saint Joseph’s is going to be the underdog Saturday needing to pull an upset to take care of its own business.

Otherwise, some help is going to be needed from Richmond, which will host GW on Saturday.

In a three-way, which happens if George Mason loses to La Salle while the Hawks and Colonials win,  GW is the odd team out because it went winless against both Saint Joseph’s and George Mason.

Temple Rally Erased by Tulsa

Tulsa got revenge for Temple’s 75-61 win over the Hurricanes last month in Oklahoma by pulling away from a 52-52 tie on a 6-0 run in the fourth quarter the Owls had rallied to following an 11-point halftime deficit and picked up a 64-61 win here in McGonigle Hall in an American Athletic Conference game.

Crystal Polk had 16 points for Tulsa (12-15, 6-8 AAC), while Rebecca Lescay scored 13, and Alexis Gaulden had 12 points, 11 of which came in the first half.

Mia Davis had another double double for the Owls (9-18, 5-9) with 18 points and 13 rebounds, while freshman Marissa Mackins tied a career high with 19 points and Alliya Butts had 12 points and dealt six assists.

“Hats off to Tulsa, they really wanted to win,” Temple coach Tonya Cardoza said afterwards. “I thought they came in here and really took it to us right from the start and I feel like we were playing on our heels the entire game.

“I think we were still in our minds when we played there and winning is important and I feel like we went through the motions today.”

Cardoza pointed to one simple reason the comeback occurred at all, which was also part of the explanation of how the Owls got far behind quickly.

“We started making shots, in the first half, we didn’t make shots,” she said. “We had a lot of open shot opportunities. I feel like when you’re in the gym and you have open shots, whether it’s layups or three-pointers, you ought to make them.

“In the second half, we started to make them. Same thing happened at UCF. If you’re not making wide open shots, you need to be in the gym.”

Temple will finish up its home schedule Saturday hosting Wichita State at 2 p.m. in McGonigle Hall, in which will be the final appearances here for senior Lena Niang and Butts, a graduate student who missed last season with a knee injury.

The Owls then go to Memphis Monday in a game that will determine their seed in the AAC tournament the following weekend, which continues as it has ever been, since the conference formed,  at the Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, Conn., near New London.

Penn State Rally Falls Short at Michigan State

Down 20 in the fourth quarter the Lady Lions began to roar and chopped the deficit under 10 points but they were unable to finish the comeback and lost 57-48 to Michigan State in a Big Ten game on the road in East Lansing, Mich.

Coincidentally, 20 is also the number below the Michigan State scoring average the Spartans were held by Penn State (12-16, 5-12 Big Ten), which will go into next weekend’s Big Ten tourney as the 12th seed.

The Lady Lions finish the regular season Saturday on Senior Day hosting Nebraska at home at 3 p.m. in the Bryce Jordan Center.

Lauren Ebo, a Penn State freshman, had her first double double in conference play and second overall with with 13 points and 11 rebounds. Kamaria McDaniel had 12 points and dealt four assists.

Nia Clouden had 14 points for Michigan State (19-8, 9-9), which is tied for sixth with Northwestern and tied a program record with its 15th home seasonal win in the Breslin Center.

Looking Ahead: Rider Seeks a Clincher for the Postseason

Just two games are on the Guru local D-1 slate and both are in New Jersey not far apart from each other on Thursday.

Rider looks for a season sweep and more when the Broncs host Siena in Alumni Gymnasium at 7 p.m. in Lawrenceville, N.J.

A win clinches second place and second seed in next week’s Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference tournament in Albany, N.Y., but the standings placement guarantees an automatic bid to the WNIT if Rider doesn’t win the NCAA slot in the conference playoff that’s been going to Quinnipiac.

The Broncs are a game ahead of Marist but hold the tiebreak off a season sweep of the Red Foxes. 

Should Rider lose this one and not get help from somebody downing Marist, there will be one more chance Saturday when the Broncs finish on the road at Fairfield.

Meanwhile Thursday night at 6:30 Rutgers seeking to lock up third in the Big Ten hosts Minnesota, which recently beat the Scarlet Knights in Minneapolis.

The Gophers are coached by Minnesota grad and recently retired WNBA All-Timer Lindsay Whalen.

Rutgers will be in its second game without C. Vivian Stringer on the sidelines after taking doctors advice to rest the remainder of the schedule and Big Ten tourney and return for postseason, likely to be in the NCAA for the first time since 2015.

Tim Eatman is running the team in Stringer’s absence. 

Rutgers finishes its schedule Sunday at Ohio State.

On Friday, after battling each other Tuesday night and now tied for first following the Tigers’ win, Penn, which had been alone in first, and Princeton seek to clinch two of the four available spots in the third annual Ivy tourney, which will be held in two weeks at Yale in New Haven, Conn., after having been at The Palestra.

Harvard, which beat Penn in double overtime in Cambridge, Mass., earlier this month and is holding third, is here at The Palestra Friday at 7, while Dartmouth, in a tie with Yale at fourth, is at Princeton at 6.

On Saturday, Dartmouth visits Penn at 6 and Harvard is at Princeton at 5.

Drexel, holding  second in the Colonial Athletic Association, hosts William & Mary Friday in the Daskalakis Athletic Center at 7 while Delaware hosts defending champion Elon at the Bob Carpenter Center in Newark at 7.

On Sunday Elon, which beat Drexel in the DAC last season for the CAA title, visits the Dragons, who haven’t lost since the first weekend in January, at 2 while at the same time William & Mary visits Delaware.

Villanova seeking to finish fourth in the Big East is at Xavier Friday night at 7 and at Butler Sunday at 2.

And that’s the report.