Guru Report: Temple Fourth Quarter Surge Carries Owls Over Xavier

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

PHILADELPHIA – Temple bounced back off this week’s narrow loss at Saint Joseph’s in the first Big Five game of the season, using a 17-0 run, including four-straight three pointers, in the fourth quarter Thursday night to send the Owls to a 78-65 win over Xavier at home in the Liacouras Center.

But for those expecting a quick visit to the postgame press conference from coach Tonya Cardoza, and  the usual opening, “This was a good win for us … “ give your betting action a 24-hour rest.

Rather, as she took her seat up front along with newcomer Ashley Jones, who had another productive game with 23 points, eight rebounds, and eight assists, and veteran Mia Davis, who scored 18 and grabbed 11 rebounds, we got this:

“I really didn’t like the way we played the game after the way we played the game on Monday,” she said after Temple improved to 3-1. “I thought our approach would be with a lot more hunger and passion, we started off, we made some shots, but then we relaxed, defensively, we just didn’t do the things we’re capable of doing.

“I think we really need to bear down on the defensive end because we’re making games tougher than they have to be because of what we’re doing on the defensive end. 

“We need to play with more passion and energy on the defensive side,” she continued. “We’re not talking as much as we did a couple of weeks ago.

“But I think we got lucky to come out with a win, down the stretch, fourth quarter, some guys stepped up and made some shots, Rayniah (Walker) came in off the bench, knocked down a couple of threes, I thought she brought some energy, but we need more energy from our players, especially on the defensive side.”

MarIssa Mackins also scored in double figures, collecting 15 points fueled by four three-balls.

In all, the Owls got 11 long-rangers from beyond the arc, with Jones connecting with three, the two from Walker, who celebrated her birthday with her first collegiate points, and two from freshman Asonah Alexander.

Xavier, a former league rival of the Owls when both were in the Atlantic 10, dropped its first game after beating Utah in the season opener, giving new coach Melanie Moore her first win after being an assistant to former Princeton coach Courtney Banghart and Michigan’s Kim Barnes Arico.

A’riana Gray got 20 for the Musketeers, now in the Big East, while Carrie Gross came off the bench to score 12 points.

Xavier will stay in the area and travel an hour north to visit Rider, Saturday, at noon in the Broncs’ Alumni Gymnasium. It will be the home team’s first game since upsetting Penn State Sunday in State College.

Moore’s group returns to these parts Jan. 12 to visit Villanova as part of the Big East home-and-home slate.

Meanwhile, Cardoza is not happy with the team not scoring on a lot of open shots, complaining about her players rushing things.

Of Jones, while giving the transfer from West Virginia, who is also a Neumann-Goretti grad, her props, Cardoza looks for her to eventually reach a greater potential.

“I’m a tough grade when it comes to the guy with the ball in their hands,” she said, having been a teammate of former Temple coach Dawn Staley at Virginia in the early ‘90s. “I think Ashley has another level she can get to, I know she’s young, but we’re not settling for being young.

“I expect her to be great every night and make sure she’s connected to what I want to get done on the floor. Up to this point for me she’s just been ok … because Ashley wants to be really, really, good. 

“She needs to stay locked in and focused and making sure everybody‘s involved, but, more importantly, for me, Ashley needs to be the key on the defensive side.

“I mean, I wouldn’t trade her for anything.”  

Cardoza is optimistic overall, however, saying, “we’ll make adjustments.”

Of course, all of this didn’t stop her from chiding your Guru from bringing up Sunday’s opponent, back in this building at 1 p.m. when No. 4 Connecticut comes to town, to kick off its American Athletic Conference farewell tour before returning to the Big East next season.

“You mean you’re not celebrating this victory,” she responded, referencing the Guru’s alumni connection.

“You have to tell people they’re coming,” the Guru responded.

“Like no one knows.”

The game is earlier on the conference slate because of the Huskies’ January portion that has a few extra heavy-duty non-conference games with NCAA defending champion Baylor, the revival game hosting Tennessee, besides an exhibition game with the USA national team.

South Carolina, which visits here in a few weeks, plays the Huskies in February. 

“Who, the Patriots are coming into town,” Cardoza, the Boston native, noted her hometown NFL team playing the Eagles later in the day for their first meeting since the locals here beat the Pats for their first Super Bowl title.

“I’m ok with that, playing them early. Let’s see what happens. It will be a nice Sunday. Temple. Patriots.”

American 76, Villanova 54 – In the only other local tilt out of the Guru’s 11 in the group, the Wildcats are still winless at 0-3 after Thursday’s non-conference loss to the Eagles of the Patriot League at Bender Arena in the northwest section of the nation’s capital in Washington.

Freshman Madison Siegrest had a career-high 22 points and eight rebounds in the loss while Mary Gedeka scored 15.

American got its first win of the season to even up at 1-1 as Jade Edwards scored 24 points, Emily Fisher scored 22, and Kaitlyn Marenyi scored 14.

It was the Eagles’ first win against the Wildcats in their short three-game series.

Villanova next travels to Fordham (0-3) Sunday for a non-conference matchup in the defending Atlantic 10 champions’ Rose Hill Gym in the Bronx.

Rams coach Stephanie Gaitley is a former star for Garry Perretta at Villanova in the early 1980s.

The game is part of a doubleheader, which has Saint Joseph’s meeting Seton Hall in the opener.

Nationally Noted: No. 15 Notre Dame fell at home in South Bend, Ind., to No. 16 Michigan State after a closing rally fell short, 72-69.

On the heels of Monday’s home loss to unranked Tennessee two years removed from a second national title and one season from a narrow loss in last April’s championship game against Baylor, coach Muffet McGraw’s team is in danger of dropping  from next week’s Associated Press women’s poll for the first time in 11 seasons.

NU - It’s the first time since November 2010 that Notre Dame has dropped two straight and first time since January 2008 the Irish have dropped two straight at home. 

The Irish have made 234 straight appearances, third on the current list behind Connecticut’s front-running 491 across 26 seasons and Baylor’s 301 across 16.

The Spartans of the Big Ten are 3-0.

Katlyn Gilbert and Sam Brunelle each scored 19 points for the Irish while Nia Clouden poured a career-high 28 for Michigan State, which beat the Irish for the first time in eight tries since the Spartans’ last series win.

Meanwhile, in a Preseason WNIT semifinal game in the Northwest, No. 7 Oregon State topped No. 18 DePaul, 98-77, at home in Corvallis, as the host Beavers (3-0) had six players score in double figures led by Taylor Jones, who had 24 points and nine rebounds in the game played in Gill Coliseum.

The Blue Demons, also the Big East favorites, dropped their first game to go 2-1, but got a career-high 29 points from Sonya Morris.

The Beavers will host Missouri State (4-0) for the championship Sunday, while DePaul is off until next Friday, hosting Arkansas State in a morning game.

The Lady Bears, formerly coached by Kellie Harper before she returned to take over at Tennessee, her alma mater, after last season, advanced to the title game by rallying from a 20-point deficit at Oklahoma Thursday night to beat the Sooners, 96-90, to drop them to 2-1.

Alexa Willard scored 29 points for the winners, who beat Minnesota on the road on opening night when the Gophers were ranked in the AP preseason poll.

The USA national team, coming off the history-making exhibition setback at No. 1 Oregon last week, opened play with a 76-61 victory over Brazil in a FIBA Pre-Olympic qualifying tournament in Bahia Blanca, Argentina.

The Americans have already qualified for next year’s summer games and will be coached by South Carolina’s Dawn Staley.

 Because of her current duties with the sixth-ranked Gamecocks, another Philadelphia area native, USA assistant Cheryl Reeve, a former La Salle star and coach of the WNBA Minnesota Lynx, is coaching the team.

The Seattle Storm’s Dan Hughes is also with the team, while the other assistant, George Washington’s Jen Rizzotti, is stateside with the Colonials.

Minnesota’s Sylvia Fowles and Los Angeles’ Chelsea Grey each scored 21 points while Nneka Ogwumike of the L.A. Sparks scored 11.

Seattle’s Sue Bird had seven of USA’s 28 assists.

Next up is a meeting against host Argentina 7 p.m. Saturday night. Group B also includes Colombia in the four-team section.

Old Dominion, continuing its revival under former Tennessee star Nikki McCray in her third season, grabbed an 89-77 upset at Auburn of the Southeastern Conference.

Ajah Wayne, in her home state of Alabama, had 35 point and 10 rebounds for the visiting Lady Monarchs (2-0) while the host Tigers (1-1) had 17 points from Daisa Alexander.

It’s Old Dominion’s first win over a Power 5 school since the end of the 2015 season when the school beat in-state rival Virginia of the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Looking Ahead: It’s a lite schedule Friday with the Guru paying his first visit to La Salle (1-1), which hosts Harvard (3-0) of the Ivy League at 7 p.m. at Tom Gola Arena.

The Explorers, who faced the Crimson in Boston last season, losing 88-43, are coming off a tough home loss in overtime last Saturday to Robert Morris.

Harvard has a win at home over Cal of the Pac-12 in its resume.

A game we originally had for Thursday but was either a wrong Guru entry on his composite or was recently changed before the season opened, has Princeton, off to a 2-0 start, playing its state rivalry matchup, traveling to Seton Hall for a 7:30 tip in Walsh Gym in South Orange.

The Tigers have wins over Rider at home and George Washington on the road. Despite the glitch, the Guru plans would not have changed either way.

On Saturday, as already mentioned, Xavier is at Rider at noon, where the Guru originally intended to visit, until the Drexel loss Monday at DePaul sent the Dragons back home in the Daskalakis Athletic Center, where they will host Pacific in a consolation game at 2 p.m.

The Tigers lost their last game to Oregon State.

On Sunday, the Guru will be, as mentioned, right here at Temple for the 1 p.m. tip against No. 4 Connecticut in the Liacouras Center.

La Salle heads from Friday’s game to Penn State at 2 p.m. while Harvard will move on to Rutgers at 2 p.m. 

And as mentioned earlier, Saint Joseph’s meets Seton Hall, coming out of the Pirates’ game hosting Princeton, playing the them at Fordham at 2:30 p.m. before Villanova meets the host Rams at 5.

Delaware, coming off its first loss, which was at home, in 12 meetings with in-state rival Delaware State, heads to Maryland at 1 p.m. in College Park, where the eighth-ranked Terrapins are coming off a narrow rallying road win at James Madison and previous home loss to South Carolina.

Princeton, coming out of Friday’s Seton Hall game, heads back home to Jadwin Gym, to host Florida Gulf Coast.

Nationally, besides the Oregon State/Missouri State Preseason WNIT championship, revived Arizona is at Texas, while Northwestern is at Duke, and Texas A&M is at Rice.

A sneak peak into the new week actually has an open day game-wise Monday for the Guru, who will still be busy updating the database from the next AP women’s poll, and doing the first USBWA national player of the week selections while also voting in some of the conference weekly polls.

On Tuesday, the Guru has no games so we will check or D2 and D3 people but Virginia is at UConn and South Florida is at Baylor.

And that’s the report.