Guru Report-Part 1: LaSalle Completes Comeback Weekend Rallying At Penn State

(Guru’s log: So much happened Sunday the report is being rolled out in segments. This is the first)

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

If you thought La Salle’s comeback act Friday night was thrilling in erasing a 16-point overall deficit from the second quarter and 14 at the half to beat Harvard, the Explorers’ encore up at Penn State Sunday afternoon was even better.

Down by as many as 18 points at the half, 21 during the game, and 20 with 8:23 left in regulation, the Explorers rode a closing 33-11 spurt, including 6-for-8 three-point shooting exhibition in the fourth quarter to edge the Lady Lions 69-67 for La Salle’s first-ever win between the two, coming in the sixth game of the series.

It’s the first win over a Power 5 school in four seasons dating to Nov. 11, 2015, when LaSalle beat Miami.

The two schools last met in 2000 but Explorers veterans will claim this win as revenge for an NCAA first round game before the La Salle renovation in Hayman Hall.

 With the home team ahead by quite much at the half, then Penn State senior Suzie McConnell took over the game in the second half and personally brought the Lady Lions back to live another day.  

Meanwhile, a year ago, as La Salle began a rebuild under Mountain MacGillivray, a former longtime associate head coach under Trish Fabbri at Quinnipiac, he did not get his first victory until La Salle’s ninth game on Dec. 9.

The Explorers went on to finish 6-25 overall, 3-13 in the Atlantic 10, and as recent as a month ago were picked last for this season by the conference coaches.

Of course, maybe someone didn’t get the memo.

After Friday’s Australian twin-sister guard attack of Amy and Claire Jacobs carried the day, the freshmen duo from Perth were at it again Sunday, this time with Claire scoring 17 points and Amy scoring 10.

The triumph brought the team to 3-1, the loss a tough one at home in overtime to Robert Morris.

ESPN said the chances of Penn State (2-2) winning the game with its lead at the half was 99.6 percent.

Not to worry on the La Salle side, where another newcomer, 5-10 forward Jordon Lewis from Houston took care of the Explorers’ 0.4 percent shot, especially in the fourth quarter.

For the game, Lewis had 12 points with seven rebounds and three assists.

But let MacGillivray explain Lewis’ fourth-quarter exploits, which he stated when the team returned home from Happy Valley.

“Jordan Lewis, hit a three, had two layups, including the game-winner, and a free throw while also assisting on two other made threes,” he said.

He also gave credit for the defensive adjustment in the fourth quarter off the teachings of associate head coach Chris Day, who’s resume shows a previous stop with La Salle, and on the staffs of Saint Joseph’s Cindy Griffin, Penn’s  Ivy-winning Mike McLaughlin, Indiana’s Curt Miller (now coach of the WNBA Connecticut Sun), and a brief stint as head coach at Vermont.

“Coach Day does such a great job with the scout and teaching our 2/3 defense, which on this day we played every possession in the fourth,” MacGillivray said.

In assessing his roster in year two, he said, “This team is so young they just don’t know any better,” MacGillivray said. “Three freshmen in double figures, two from Australia, who wouldn’t know the Big 10 from a Big Mac, and a kid from Texas, who, in seeing (PSU) the football stadium, said, ‘Why is it so big?’

“So down 18 at the half, they are not thinking, ‘we are supposed to lose,’ they are thinking ‘How do I get this guy to stop fussing at me and get him to take us to the creamery!’”

Penn State’s one positive was a career high from junior Kamaria McDaniel, who scored 25 points, fueled by 10-for-16 from the field. Sophomore Lauren Ebo had her first double double with 12 points and 10 rebounds.

The Lady Lions are also in a rebuild with first-year coach Carolyn Kieger, who had made Marquette into a Big East power.

“We are learning some very, very hard lessons right now and I hope that’s what they will be,” Kieger said. “We need to learn how to be winners and that’s what I came here to do, and I  came here to change the culture.

“I give Mountain a lot of credit … You can tell his players really wanted to win at the end of that game. We’ve got to get there,” she continued.

“We cannot give up 33 points in the fourth quarter and expect to win a game. It’s on me. I’m the head coach of that team. I’ve got to coach a better game, I’ve got to get my players ready to play ball and we’ve got a lot to fix.”

La Salle stays on the road for its next game, heading to Norfolk State in Virginia, Friday at 6 p.m., while Penn State hosts Clemson Thursday at 7 in the Bryce Jordan Center, though the meeting is not one of the ones out of the Big 10/ACC Challenge.