The Guru Report: Overtime is Drexel’s Time While Oregon Takes First of Weekend Border War

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

Back when the University of Maryland won its NCAA title in 2006 in Boston in overtime, the outcome was appropriate because the Terrapins had played a bunch of extended affairs to the point that the motto became Overtime is Our Time.

The way it’s been going for Drexel so far, the Dragons could be excused for doing a little slogan hijacking.

For the second straight game directly after last Sunday’s thriller at home against local rival Delaware and for the fourth time this season without a setback, Drexel pulled out a key victory in overtime at the first stop on the road this weekend in the Colonial Athletic Association.

In this one, Drexel used the campus of this season’s CAA tournament in March to edge Elon 55-53 in overtime at the Schar Center in North Carolina.

The triumph enabled the Dragons (12-6, 5-1 CAA) to become part of what was reduced for now to a two-way race at the top of the conference standings after Northeastern fell 81-68.

James Madison, the preseason favorite, held serve in its position at the top by thumping Hofstra 92-50 at home.

Delaware, one of three Guru local D-1 teams in action Friday night besides Drexel, the Blue Hens’ travel partner in the conference fell at William & Mary where the Dragons head this Sunday in Williamsburg, Va. 

In the Drexel game, the Dragons had to shake off a squandered 12-point lead to ultimately emerge with the triumph.

Keishana Washington and Bailey Greenberg each scored 13 points for Drexel with Washington riding a trio of connected triplets for her total while Greenberg, the reigning CAA player of the year, went 7-for-8 from the line and, defensively, tied for a team-best eight rebounds while blocking a shot and grabbing two steals.

Niki Metzel also grabbed eight rebounds while Mariah Leonard shot 5-of-9 from the field on the way to 11 points and Hannah Nihill dealt six assists.

The Phoenix fell to .500 at 9-9 overall and 4-3 in the conference.

After Greenberg tied it 49-49 on a pair of foul shots, Elon lost a chance for a lead when it lost the ball out of bounds, but the game went into overtime when Nilhill’s shot with 5.8 seconds left in regulation was off the mark.

With 52.8 seconds left in the first extended period, Leonard made an old-fashioned three-point play for a 54-53 lead and then the Drexel defense forced Elon off the mark on two shooting attempts the other way and regained possession with 10.9 seconds remaining.

Nihill nailed a foul shot and blocked an Elon attempt and Drexel survived once again before heading off to one of the rising teams in William & Mary, which hosts the Dragon Sunday at 2 p.m. in Kaplan Arena.

The Tribe took down Delaware 68-58 Friday night by jumping to a 21-10 lead in the first period before the game settled to a virtual even-up battle the rest of the way.

Jasmine Dickey and Nicole Enabosi each scored 18 points with Dickey also grabbing nine rebounds and dealing four assists. Enabosi, the 2018 CAA player of the year who missed last season with a knee injury, is now eighth in program history with 1,457 career points and sixth with 977 rebounds.

Lizzy Oleary had eight points and seven rebounds for the Blue Hens (5-12, 1-5 CAA).

Eva Hodgson had 28 points, helped by a perfect 12-for-12 from the line for the Tribe (13-5, 4-3) while Victoria Reynolds scored 17 points, and Gabby Rogers scored 12. 

It doesn’t get easier with Sunday’s visit to Elon at 2 p.m. and then back home Friday night next week to host James Madison at 7 p.m. at the Bob Carpenter Center in Newark.

Villanova Dominated by DePaul

Friday night was not the best time for Villanova to catch a nationally-rising DePaul squad that has made it to No. 11 in the latest Asssociated Press women’s poll and now has a three-game lead with a perfect record in the Big East after beating the Wildcats 85-69 for the Demons’ ninth-straight win.

But there is a logjam just below with a six-way tie for second though Villanova (11-8, 5-3 Big East) managed to plunge from the second slot it held to seventh.

Sonya Morris had a career-high 30 points for DePaul (18-2, 8-0), which has won nine straight with a setback to Connecticut being one of the two defeats. She also had six rebounds, five assists, and tied a career-high five steals.

Lexi Held had 21 points and a career-high eight rebounds while Deja Church had 12 points and six rebounds.

Chante Stonewall scored 10 points while Kelly Campbell had 11 rebounds and eight assists.

The Stonewall-Campbell combo managed to hold Villanova freshman sensation Maddy Siegrist to four points in the first half before the conference’s leading scorer broke free to finish with 19. 

That could be enough depending what she does Sunday to earn a ninth weekly top freshman citation which would be one short of the Big East record held by former UConn stars Maya Moore and Natalie Butler.

Mary Gedaka had 20 points for Villanova and Bridget Herlihy scored 14.

The Wildcats Sunday head to Marquette in Milwaukee for a 3 p.m. tip at the Al McGuire Center in Wisconsin.

The Wildcats are back next Friday at the Finneran Center at 7 hosting St. John’s and looking for a sweep of the Red Storm.

Nationally Noted: A Wild Night in the Pac-12 With Border Wars and Near-Upsets

The first of the two awaited weekend showdown home-and-home events between the two Oregons occurred, likewise the Arizonas, while Stanford and UCLA got off the ropes to avoid chaos in the PAC-12 standings.

Rankings wise, several weeks ago, the flow pointed to a 1 vs. 2 weekend involving Oregon and Oregon State in their border-war showdown until then Arizona State disrupted things with a pair of upsets.

Nevertheless, the first round Friday was tantalizing enough with No. 4 Oregon, which began at the top of the polls in the preseason vote, hosting No. 7 Oregon State and drawing first blood with a 76-64 win in the Ducks’ Matthew Knight Arena in Eugene that drew a sellout of 12,364, including a bunch of WNBA coaches and general managers as WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert.

Sunday’s game in Corvallis is also a sellout.

Oregon’s first basket brought yet another record for the Duck’s top star of several on the squad in Sabrina Ionescu, a frontrunner for national player of the year as well as likely the first pick in this spring’s WNBA draft, held by the New York Liberty.

Ionescu’s pass to Ruthy Hebard broke a tie for the Pac-12 assist record for men and women held by NBA great Gary Payton who dished for 938 at, ironically, Oregon State.

The win kept Oregon (16-2, 6-1 PAC-12) in a three-way-tie atop the conference with UCLA and Stanford, both of which had to rally to escape with victories Friday night.

Ionescu, who holds the NCAA men’s and women’s combined record with 22 triple doubles finished with 23 points and nine assists, while Satou Sabally had a double double with 17 points and 12 rebounds.

Freshman Taylor Jones had 21 points for the Beavers (16-3, 4-3), whose losses are all in conference to Arizona State, Stanford, and now Oregon.

Ionescu in her storied career has never won at Oregon State, which has won 15 of the last 17 in the rivalry with a split last season.

“That’s where my focus is right now,” Ionescu said. “I’m already over this one and ready to get that one Sunday.”

Destiny Slocum, who originally played at Maryland, had 18 points.

The game also drew Oregon governor Kate Brown and former Oregon and NFL quarterback great Dan Fouts.

Ionescu, the Oregon all-time scorer, several times connected on three-pointers that just beat the shot clock.

Arizona Makes Rivalry History

From winning the WNIT postseason title last spring and moving forward Arizona continues to achieve milestones.

On Friday night, the No. 18 Wildcats made some more rivalry history with No. 16 Arizona State at home in Tucson, winning 59-53 in McKale Center for a series sweep for the first time since 2000 and with avcrowd of 10,160 becoming the most to ever watch the two teams play.

Recently, Arizona State then unranked became the first of that stature to take down the two Oregons when both were in the top five in the AP poll.

In this one, Aari McDonald had 24 points and 11 rebounds for Arizona (16-3, 5-3 PAC-12), while Sam Thomas had 13 points, and Amari Carter scored 11.

Robbi Ryan scored 25 for the Sun Devils (15-5, 5-3).

A 7-0 run near the end of the game clinched the win for Arizona.

Stanford and UCLA Avoid Shockers Prevailing in Overtime

While the border war games of Friday night were considered potentially up for grabs, few envisioned No. 6 Stanford at home in Maples Pavilion in Northern California, to be threatened by Colorado nor No. 10 UCLA to be similarly in trouble with Washington at Pauley Pavilion in Los Angeles.

The host Bruins (17-1, 6-1 PAC-12), who a week ago became the last Division I unbeaten to fall courtesy of an upset by unranked and crosstown rival Southern Cal, were in trouble again early trailing Washington by 11 after the first quarter.

But after getting into overtime, UCLA took over with an 8-1 run and Michaela Onyenwere finished with a career-high 31 points for an 85-80 victory against the Huskies (10-8, 2-5).

Natalie Chou, who made the Bruins’ only three-pointer in 28 attempts, had 18 points off the bench.

Amber Melgoza had 14 points and Missy Peterson had 13 for Washington.

Meanwhile, it was a thriller at Stanford where in the closing minute of regulation, Colorado, which had a big lead earlier, was poised for a first-ever win on the Cardinal’s floor when Mya Hollingshed hit a three-pointer with less than two seconds left in regulation for a 64-62 lead.

But a perfect inbound pass and ensuing lay-in from freshman Ashten Pretchel got Stanford into overtime and then she made a putback in the final two minutes of the extended period to send the Cardinal on to a 76-68 triumph.

“We work on that play every day in practice,” Hall of Fame Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer said. 

Lexi Hull had a career-high 29 points for the home team (17-2, 6-1 PAC-12), while Jaylyn Sherrod scored 21 points for Colorado (13-5, 2-5).

Stanford hosts Utah and UCLA hosts Washington State on Sunday.

Looking Ahead:  Rider Heads to Niagara

The first-place Broncs are the only of the Guru’s Division I locals in action, believe it or not, and in that one Rider heads to Niagara Saturday seeking to stay unbeaten in the MAAC and either take sole possession of first place or get set for a Tuesday night showdown with Fairfield pending what the Stags do against Quinnipiac.

There’s nothing of significance nationally in Division I.

On Sunday, though most of this was noted above, but involving the locals Villanova is at Marquette in the Big East; Drexel is at William & Mary while Delaware is at Elon in the CAA; Penn State is at Purdue and Rutgers is at Michigan in the Big Ten while Temple is at Cincinnati in the AAC, and Saint Joseph’s is at La Salle in both the Atlantic 10 and finishing out the last of the Big Five games.

Nationally, as noted above the return from Friday night of the Oregons moves the Ducks to Oregon State.

 No. 22 Northwestern will be going for a sweep visiting No. 20 Maryland in the Big Ten; and unranked North Carolina will be looking for a sweep of No. 8 N.C. State visiting the Wolfpack in Raleigh in an ACC game.

And that is your Guru report to get you up to date.