The Guru Report: Rider Upset Bid Foiled in Late Quinnipiac Rally

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

LAWRENCEVILLE, N.J. — One of the safest bets in women’s collegiate basketball has been the ongoing domination of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference by the Quinnipiac Bobcats.

But after one quarter here Thursday night in Rider’s Alumni Gym in a conference 1 vs. 2 showdown the bettors on Trish Fabbri’s bunch were about to end up the same way as the gamblers in 2016 on the presidential election who relied on the university’s respectable polling organization to go all-in on Hillary Clinton.

Despite a trend of 15-0 lifetime against the host Broncs in the series between the two, the home team opened with a 7-0 outburst and expanded the differential to 16 points at 27-11 after one quarter, continuing to lead until the outer districts produced a 14-0 run in the fourth quarter and sent the Quinnipiac patrons smiling on the way  to the cashier windows off a 66-60 victory.

Also smiling, according to Fabbri, were her players after the Bobcats (20-6, 15-0 MAAC) clinched a fifth straight regular season crown and No. 1 seed in next month’s MAAC tourney in Albany, N.Y., at the Times Union Center (March 7-11), the site of an NCAA Women’s Regional again several weeks later.

After a long stay in upstate New York, next year the MAAC tourney for both men and women will move to Atlantic City.

With the win the former Northeast Conference member made it 46 straight in MAAC competition dating back to a loss at Fairfield two seasons ago. Overall the Bobcats are 87-6 against MAAC opponents in their sixth season and together with Rice of C-USA have won 15 straight overall, the second best streak currently behind No. 1 Baylor’s 16 straight.

Quinnipiac has won two straight conference tourneys and three of the last four.

But all that seemed set to become as off the mark as calling 2016 in Pennsylvania for Hillary until the Bobcats shaved the deficit to six at the half and to four after three periods.

“We’re seeing everyone’s last desperate punch,” Fabbri said of the stretch drive. “But there’s no panic here and how do we answer? We get it right back in the second quarter down to striking distance.

“Look, (Rider) on their own floor, they’re coming off a loss, they’ve got a lot of pride. They’re sitting at number two, it’s us and they’re coming off a loss and they have a lot of fire, and they’re good.

“For this game and Marist for us is a nice little look into the MAAC tournament and what’s going to come,” said Fabbri.

“You know you carry around such a big target on your back. I just said to these ladies, we can finally let our hair down and have some fun with the season now.

“Mission accomplished. Now it’s fun time.”  

Paula Strautmane had 17 points, Aryn McClure had 16 after a slow start and Jen Fay, who had missed several games with an injury, scored 11, including the go-ahead points in the fourth period.

Fabbri played at Fairfield for South Jersey’s Dianne Nolan, who now is the analyst on Quinnipiac radio broadcasts. A native of Delran across the river from Philadelphia in the same neighborhood as soccer sensation Carli Lloyd, Fabbri’s brothers John and Tony Sacca were quarterbacks for Penn State football.

In fact, some believe that whenever a future vacancy in the coaching position with the Lady Lions occurs, Fabbri would be a good place to go for the hire.

 At the same time, it should be noted that athletic director Sandy Barbour was the SWA at Cal who hired Lindsay Gottlieb, an East Coast native who played in the Ivy League, and at the moment PSU all-time star Suzie McConnell-Serio is free collecting let-go money out of Pitt in her native city.

Meanwhile, on Rider’s side of things, despite being forced into 19 turnovers as opposed to eight by the visitors, the Broncs hung around after the answer from Quinnipiac but was hampered when star Stella Johnson got a technical at the start of the fourth, her fifth personal, and thus was sent to the sidelines.

“I felt like Duke when they lost Zion Williamson,” veteran Rider coach Lynn Milligan said referencing the injury 24 hours earlier to the Blue Devils’ sensation at the outset of the North Carolina game.

Johnson had nine points while Lexi Posset had 15 points and Amari Johnson had 10 points and 13 rebounds.

The Broncs suffered when shots that went down early in the opening barrage failed to drop late in the game.

“I thought we played really hard tonight,” Milligan said afterwards. “We came in with a good game plan and the young ladies were really focused and ready to go.

“ Really proud of our effort. I think it was a good ball game.  Defensively, we were on point. When we made our mistakes it was obvious. We gave them a couple easy ones that came back to get us.

“ Overall, it was a solid basketball game. It's a growth game for us. A lot of lessons to take from this." 

The loss dropped Rider (15-11, 11-4) into a second place tie with Marist (19-8, 11-4), but the Red Foxes still have to play Quinnipiac one more time and the Broncs have a tie-break for second seed off a season sweep.

But academically finishing second or third in terms of Albany is moot but second seed also earns an automatic bid to the WNIT, which Rider debuted two season ago in its record year.

The Broncs go to Niagara Sunday at 2 p.m. and then finish up hosting Siena and visiting Fairfield, two of which Rider already beat while Niagara is just a one-time meeting though there is an revenge factor losing to the Purple Eagles last season.

Rutgers Falls at Michigan While Penn State Upsets Purdue in Big Ten Play

Only two other of the Guru’s local D-1 teams played Thursday night and both were in the Big Ten where Rutgers is just below the top two teams and Penn State is mired in 12th.

And on a night of national intrigue, rallies, and upsets, two game in the conference affected the top of the Big Ten race.

But first addressing the Lady Lions, in their final regular season home game at the Bryce Jordan Center in State College, Penn State handled the Boilermakers 72-61 on a strong shooting night making 50 percent of its field goal attempts (26-for-52).

Siyeh Frazier had a career-high 18 points to go with nine rebounds and four assists, while Amari Carter had 18 points, Jaida Travascio-Green had 14, and Kamaria McDaniel scored 12 for Penn State (11-15, 4-11).  

 “It felt really good to get back home and play in front of our fans after being on the road all of last week,” said Lady Lions coach Coquese Washington. “I thought we came out today with a high level of intensity while playing a little short-handed without Teniya Page and Alisia Smith.

“It was an opportunity for other people to step up and take advantage of the opportunity. I thought we played really well together as a team, which we talked about all week coming into this game. We just had to play hard and play together as a team,” she continued.

Dominque Oden had 14 points for the Boilermakers (17-12, 8-8), while Karissa McLaughlin and Ae’Rianna Harris each scored 13 and and Harris got a double double grabbing 11 rebounds.

Penn State finishes on the road with two beginning Sunday at 4 p.m. at Illinois prior to next month’s conference tourney in Indianapolis.

Meanwhile at Ann Arbor, Mich., in Crisler Arena, the Wolverines continued to be untouchable this month in topping Rutgers 86-76 for their seventh straight victory.

Hall of Fame coach C. Vivian Stringer did not make the trip due to illness so Tim Eatman of her staff ran the visitors.

The Scarlet Knights (18-8, 10-5) sit right below Maryland, who they split, and Iowa, who they lost.

It’s the first time a Rutgers opponent this season was not held below it’s scoring average and the 23 points off turnovers by Michigan (19-9, 10-6)  are the most against the Scarlet Knights this season.

Rutgers’ Charise Wilson had 14 points, and Stasha Carey and Arella Guirantes each scored 13 points.

Michigan’s  Naz Hillmon scored a game-high 21 points, while Nicole Munger scored 16 points as did Hallie Thome while Deja Church scored  11.

 

Rutgers is home next week hosting Wisconsin on Monday and Minnesota on Thursday.

At the top of the conference, split second endings had Maryland coming back from a huge deficit to ruin Minnesota’s upset bid as Kalia Charles stole a pass and scored as time ran out to give the Terrapins a 71-69 win at home in College Park and sole possession of first at 24-3 and 13-3 in the conference.

The tie got broken when Iowa fell to Indiana 75-73 after the Hoosiers had previous lost Monday to visiting Rutgers.

The Hawkeyes sit in second at 21-6 and 12-4.

Small Colleges: Rosemont Cruises to CSAC Championship

From the Main Line, this segment is right off the Rosemont website.

The ultimate moment that has been the goal since the middle of October is now within the grasp of the Rosemont women's basketball team.

The Ravens moved one game away from a Colonial States Athletic Conference title and an automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament on Thursday night, using a fierce defensive performance in the first half to down Wilson by a 70-41 margin before a capacity crowd at Alumnae Hall.

Rosemont has won 18 straight games dating back to Dec. 21 and improved to 23-3 overall (17-0 within conference play). 

They can win their first CSAC title on Saturday afternoon when they face Keystone - a 69-60 winner over Cairn in the other CSAC semifinal on Thursday night- in the championship game at Alumnae Hall. Game time is set for 4 p.m.

There has been a reason why the Ravens have been one of the hottest teams in America since the Christmas break and it has been defense. 

Rosemont entered play on Thursday holding opponents to 32 percent on defense. That is 10th best in the nation out of 432 teams.

In the first half on Thursday night, the Ravens held the Phoenix to 4-for-18 from the floor in the first half and just 30.2 percent (16 of 53) from the floor overall. They also forced 10 steals and 23 turnovers on the evening.

"We rely on our defense to get our offense going," women's head coach Rayne Reber said. "We take a lot of pride in keeping teams to one shot and done on defense. They have two very tough players offensively (in All-CSAC Kai Wyatt and Lindsay Pervis) and it wasn't just one person who had to defend them tonight.

“ We always had weakside help and didn't allow splits on the drive. It was a great team effort to stop those two players from getting the points they normally get."

Wyatt had seven points for the Phoenix. Purvis- who was in foul trouble for most of the night- had four points.

That defense allowed the Ravens offense, which struggled early on in the first half, to find their sea legs and start to getting the ball into different areas of the floor.

 With Wilson running a triple team on CSAC Player of the Year Ashley Murray for most of the night, the rest of the Ravens offense had to find some gaps. 

Shawn Dowd (8 points), Ke'alohilani Naone-Carter and Ayanna Thompson (11 points) filled that void until Murray could get rolling in the second half as part of a 19 point, 18 rebound performance.

And now, the Ravens are on the doorstep of a grand finish to an incredible CSAC run. The NCAA goal that has been the focal point since practice began back on Oct. 15 is now within their sights. Only Keystone stands in the way.

Looking Ahead: Drexel Looks to Keep Streaking While Penn and Princeton Begin Ivy’s Second Half.

Drexel Friday night takes its true 13-0 road streak and overall 10-0 win streak to UNCW, which is 12-0 at home this season under second-year coach Karen Barefoot.

The visiting Dragons are a game behind first-place James Madison in the Colonial Athletic Association.

Delaware, holding fifth, will visit Charleston at 6 p.m.

Penn and Princeton running 1-2 in the Ivies host games beginning Friday when here at 5:30 the Quakers host Columbia in the Palestra while up the road the Tigers host Cornell at Jadwin Gym, both games at 5:30 p.m.

In the Big East Villanova hosts St. John’s at 7.

And that’s the report.