The Guru Report: USciences Drops Jefferson From Unbeatens While Temple Streak at Four

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

PHILADELPHIA — The point counterpoint that has become the Division II national/local rivalry continued Tuesday night with USciences at home in Bobby Morgan Arena delivering a payback to Jefferson with a 70-59 victory that knocked the visiting Rams from the overall unbeaten ranks and flipped the top of the standings in the Southern Division of the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference.

Prior to the pre-sunset tipoff in the first game of the men’s/women’s doubleheader between the two schools, the Rams arrived from their East Falls campus with their second-best ever start at 20-0 overall with one of those victims being USciences 67-61 on January 3 in the Rams’ Gallagher Center.

That was the sole setback by the Devils  (21-1, 12-1 CACC), though last weekend they escaped from a visit to Northern Division leader Dominican with a 71-66 triumph after forcing overtime.

Jefferson was only one of three remaining D2 teams unbeaten prior to the opening tip here.

With fans of the Rams easily making the short trip to add to the crowd ambience, the place throughout the game could be tabbed as a mini Palestra, the nearby Cathedral of Basketball on Penn’s campus.

For the most part the Devils owned this one just as a year ago  they answered Jefferson’s taking the first season meeting. 

And the same pattern several months ago in the Philly women’s summer league also occurred with Jefferson winning the first game and get to the title game unbeaten only to again see a one-loss Devils  contingent win the second encounter.

As for the difference from Tuesday’s winners?

“We just played better, overall, they’re so good,” said six-year coach Jackie Hartzell, a Delaware Valley College grad who previously coached Archbishop Ryan. “We rebounded the ball (45-34). We limited them to one shot.

”Their guards still really hurt us but it was a good game with two good teams.”

In the latest WBCA Division II Poll released earlier in the day, Jefferson had slipped a spot to third while USciences moved up one to eighth. But in the D2SIDA media poll the Rams remained second, highest ever, while the Devils also moved up to eighth.

As for the game, the number 22 loomed large in the number of points as Jefferson’s Caitlyn Cunningham scored while Jessica Kaminski scored 19.

 But the Rams suffered a loss in the outset of the fourth  quarter when Alynna Williams, who had eight points, went down and had to be carried off the floor.

The Devils did see their double digit lead dip but were able to stay enough in front to regain stronger control down the closing minutes.

Alex Thomas and Irisa Ye each scored 22 points to match the Rams’ Cunningham for game honors while Taylor Hamm grabbed 10 rebounds.

Thomas shot 6-for-13 from the field, including 4-for-8 on three-ball attempts, along with a perfect 6-for-6 from the line, while Yes was 8-for-16 from the field.

The Devils also connected with nine 3-pointers to five by the Rams.

“(Colleen) Walsh and Ye really played well,” veteran Jefferson coach Tom Shirley said of the difference from the team’s first meetings. “USciences made foul shots, they made 19 out of 20 foul shots.

“I thought offensively we struggled to get any kind of continuity, we let too much pressure on Jess Kaminski to get any kind of offense. Give them credit. They played good defense and we played bad offense.”

As for moving forward, as large as the matchup loomed ahead, it is now just one more game in the rear view mirror with seven left, though now if the teams were to finished tied, a coin flip would determine top seed in the CACC playoffs, whose finals will be held at Caldwell.

“You know, now we split so fair’s fair,” Shirley said. “We’ll see what happens over the next seven games. 

“Alynna Williams hurts her ankle so that’s going to hurt us, at least in the short term, so we’ll see what happens.”

Temple Win Streak Extends Against Houston

Earlier in the day, on the only D-1 local game on the Guru’s slate, Temple had it’s annual Kids Day game in the larger Liacouras Center and kept its winning ways reach four straight games by topping Houston 76-65 after a previous loss to the Cougars 78-65 in Texas on Jan. 12, both games in the American Athletic Conference.

Mia Davis didn’t let her last career scoring high of 30 points that also occurred with 13 rebounds last weekend at Wichita State last long after her performance earned her AAC player of the week.

Against Houston, Davis had another powerful outing scoring 33 points and grabbing 17 rebounds for the Owls (8-14, 4-5 AAC), while Alliya Butts had 19 points and Marissa Mackins had 14 while the latter two each dealt four assists and Butts blocked two shots.

Dorian Branch had 17 points for Houston (11-11, 5-4), while Serithia Hawkins had 15 points and 10 rebounds, and Angela Harris scored 11.

Temple won the first seven games in the series with Houston but then dropped the next two prior to Tuesday’s game.

“This is a great win,” Temple coach Tonya Cardoza said. “We talked about how when we were at their place, how we gave it away with committing fouls, and turning the ball over, and giving up offensive rebounds.

“We wanted to make sure in today’s game we didn’t do those things and it was a great win for us because we took care of the ball, in the fourth quarter when it mattered the most how we came up with big stops.

“And everybody mattered, not just Mia who had a new career high and it’s been a total team effort and I’m really glad to see them buying in and wanting to get stops and how important it is to get rebounds and making things accountable when it’s not happening on the court.

“It’s not just coming from Mia. It’s coming from all of them now.”

At floor level, in terms of the recent reversal of fortune and what’s suddenly working well, Davis said, “On the defensive end we’re getting a lot of stops just by communicating better and getting each other open.”

Temple’s been able to handle other team’s presses better during the current streak.

“Right now we’re just happy to be getting wins, and we’re just focusing on our next game and nothing more,” Cardoza said. “I don’t even think they know their next game.”

That would be No. 5 Connecticut in the return game, which will be Saturday in Storrs at the Gampel Pavilion campus arena  at 1 p.m. and then the next game is not until Sunday, Feb. 17, hosting Cincinnati next door in McGonigle Hall, where the rest of the home games will be played.

The No. 5 ranking is the Huskies’ lowest in 12 seasons dating back to 2007 when Cardoza was still part of Hall of Fame coach Geno Auriemma’s staff.

Looking Ahead

Still a limited Guru D-1 schedule, Wednesday morning it’s La Salle’s turn to host a Kids Day game, which will be 11 a.m. in Tom Gola Arena hosting Rhode Island in an Atlantic 10 game.

The Explorers are still looking for their first conference win of the season.

Saint Joseph’s at night will host Davidson at 7 on Hawk Hill at Hagan Arena. The Wildcats are in a virtual tie for first with VCU in the A-10.

Penn State will travel to Ohio State for a Big Ten game. This used to be a key game for either or both in terms of the regular season title, but not this year.

On Thursday, Rider at 7 will host Monmouth at Alumni Gym in a Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference game. 

The Broncs also host Marist in a MAAC game at 2 on Saturday and after beating the Red Foxes last week up in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., a sweep this week could put the Broncs three games in front of Marist for the second spot behind Quinnipiac.

Also on Thursday, No. 10 Maryland hosts Northwestern where a win by the Terps would put therm a half-game ahead in first of Rutgers heading into Sunday’s showdown with the Scarlet Knights as the Terps try to even the score for a Rutgers upset in their first meeting in College Park.

Also on Friday, Villanova heads to DePaul in the Big East while Penn hosts Brown snd Princeton hosts Yale before switching visitors on Saturday in the second weekend in the Ivy League.

And that’s the report for now.