The Guru Report: Rider Opens Two-Game Lead in MAAC

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

LAWRENCEVILLE, N.J. – Three years removed from their greatest season in program history, the Rider women continue to blaze a path toward even greater achievements and Thursday night the Broncs forged ahead on two fronts continuing to help themselves and getting help from afar.

Here in Alumni Gymnasium it was another night for star-gazing performances from Rider’s Stella Johnson, the nation’s leading scorer, and Amari Johnson, the MAAC’s double-double machine, powering the Broncs to a 76-53 win over Manhattan.

The two Johnsons each scored 24 points, with Stella being deadly shooting 9-for-12 from the field, including 4-of-5 triplets, while Amari grabbed 16 rebounds, and Lea Favre was 5-for-7 from the field and finished with 12 points.

Amanda Mobley had eight points and dealt five assists.

Only three of the Guru’s local 11 D-1 teams were in action, the other two being the Big Ten duo of Rutgers, which won, and Penn State, which lost, both playing at home.

Back here, Rider (16-2, 9-0 MAAC) has now won a Broncs record 13 in a row and in terms of perfection, the Broncs now overlook the rest of the MAAC from the top of standings at 9-0 for the first time and here in Alumni Gymnasium they are now 8-0.

Manhattan (8-11, 5-5), coached by former Villanova recruiting director Heather Vulin, challenged early with a six-point lead but after Rider caught up to tie at the end of the first quarter, 14-14, Stella Johnson got unleashed while Amari had her 11^th double-double by the half as the Broncs outscored the Jaspers 47-29 over the next two periods.

The visitors did get three of their group in double figures with Emily LaPointe scoring 13 points, while Courtney Warley and Gabby Cajou each scored 10 points.

Meanwhile, as play progressed down here, further north Fairfield shook off its 60-52 setback here Tuesday night and upset preseason favorite Marist 52-48 at home in Alumni Hall in Connecticut, limiting the MAAC’s top-ranked offense to 27 points in the second half.

The loss by the Red Foxes (10-8, 7-2), who had already lost at home in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., in overtime to the Broncs, brought them to a second-place tie with Fairfield (10-8, 7-2), which rallied from a 21-8, 13-point deficit that existed in the first quarter.

The Stags went on to outscore Marist 44-27 the final three quarters and give Rider a two-game lead heading into the final of a three-game homestand on Saturday when Monmouth visits here at 2 p.m. on Alumni Day.

In 2017, the Broncs finished just behind existing ruler Quinnipiac in the regular season standings and then advanced to the title game, losing to the Bobcats but landing a first-ever postseason appearance in the WNIT, which they reappeared last season after finishing second again.

“I’m glad to see (Fairfield) do that to someone else besides us, even though we won our game,” said Rider veteran coach Lynn Milligan. “It’s a credit to the Stags that they were able to shake off a loss from a game they had a chance to win and then do that well against Marist.”

In the fourth period, after Fairfield went ahead late in the previous quarter, the Stags built an 11-point lead with just under five minutes left in regulation and then had to withstand a furious Marist rally in which the Red Foxes sliced the differential to a basket at 49-47 with 1:05 left to play.

But Fairfield then cut off the comeback, yielding just a foul shot while scoring three more points.

“I think you have to experience tough times and tough games and you have to grow from them,” said Fairfield longtime coach Joe Frager after their game. “You can either grow from it or bad things can keep happening.

“I’m just so happy that they kept their composure when we were down 13 and withstood a furious rally. I’m just thrilled with the win.”

It was Fairfield’s fourth game in seven days  but Rider here has had a heavy workload, also, playing four games in eight days with Saturday’s contest to make it five out of ten.

“One more to get through,” Milligan said.

As to her assessment of the night, “I’m really proud of our overall effort,” Milligan said. “We talked collectively as a group after Tuesday’s game and we really weren’t happy how we executed.

“We came out today with a purpose. We really locked in on the scout. We handled pressure pretty good and shared the ball terrific. Our pace on offense was really solid. We good some good looks just by taking that half a step and extra breath.”

The Broncs had 27 turnovers against the Stags.

As impressive Thursday as the firepower was, Rider continues to get it done on the defensive end.

“It was great. We are built on our defense. People watch on offense and seeing Stella putting numbers up and Amari putting numbers up but our defense is what fuels our offense and I thought tonight, particularly in that third quarter I thought that’s what happened, Milligan said. 

“I thought that third quarter was one of the more solid quarters we played all year.”

Rider’s only two losses were the season opener up the road at Ivy power Princeton and a few weeks later down in Orlando to North Florida at the MAAC/ASUN Challenge at Disney’s Wide World of Sports.

The night’s events here and up north places Rider in terrific position barring injury and when it comes to potential tiebreakers should the Broncs slip.

But Milligan is worried to just keep matters at hand under control, though, interestingly, prior to the Broncs taking over the MAAC, Amari Johnson had proclaimed her squad the team to beat in the conference.

That hasn’t changed.

“We are the best. We play like we’re the best and we are the team to beat,” she said after getting her MAAC-leading 11^th double-double.

The coach, however, is not getting carried away over a performance to date even better than the breakthrough 2016-17 season.

“We’re never content. No content here. We’re a game-to-game, week-to-week, kind of team,” she said. 

“We certainly don’t look back and we certainly do not look ahead,” said Milligan, noting the team already has its scouts for Monmouth and is ready for Friday’s practice.

“To me, it’s a little early for scoreboard watching for us. But like I said, the MAAC’s a grind. 

“And this year the way the schedule is set with Thursdays-Saturdays, you kind of tend to look at what’s going on because we’re playing and everyone else is playing at the same time, but we stay locked in on us and what we do and prepare to do our best and make sure we’re ready to go.”

Rutgers Snaps Two-Game Skid Beating Illinois

Back home in the RAC in Piscataway, N.J, Rutgers halted its recent losses beating Illinois in a one-sided 72-41 outcome in the Big Ten as Arella Guirantes had 20 points and nine rebounds, with four assists and two blocked shots and two steals.

Jordan Wallace had a double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds while Khadaizha Sanders had 10 of her 12 points in the first quarter for the Scarlet Knights (16-4, 6-3 Big Ten).

Rutgers owned the boards 52-32 while in the paint topped the Illini 44-12.

 A 19-0 run across the first and second quarters settled matters with the visitors (10-10, 1-8) for a season sweep of the two games.

“Our biggest issue is that we didn’t want them to get close because we needed to have a killer instinct basically and be stingy on defense and continue to attack and do the things we need to do on the offensive side,” said Rutgers Hall of Fame coach C. Vivian Stringer.

“We did a good job with all of that.”

Rutgers next goes to Minnesota to play the Gophers at 3 p.m. on Sunday and returns home Thursday to host longtime geographical rival Penn State, trying to sweep the series.

Penn State Rally Falls Short in Fourth Period

Speaking of the Lady Lions, they faced frontrunning Iowa in the Bryce Jordan  Center where they fell 77-66 though they did reduced a 23-point deficit to the Hawkeyes (18-3, 9-1 Big Ten) down to single digits in the fourth period.

Iowa’s Kathleen Doyle had 23 points, while McKenna Warnock had 16 points, Alexis Sevillian scored 15, and Makenzie Meyer scored 14.

Kamaria McDaniel scored 19 for the Lady Lions (7-14, 1-9), while Makenna Marisa scored 10 and Shay Hagans had a career-high nine rebounds and grabbed three steals.

“I’m extremely proud of our underclassmen tonight for the fight they showed in that fourth quarter,” said Penn State first-year coach Carolyn Kieger, previously with Marquette. “I just thought they poured their heart out in the fourth quarter, which is the team we need to be moving forward.

“I just want to say I’ve had so much respect for Iowa, not only this year but in years past. They share the basketball. They do things the right way,” she added. “They develop their kids and Lisa (Bluder) has done a great job with their program and we have to get there.

“We have to get to that level of intensity. We have to get to that level of sharing the basketball and we’re taking strides and we’re getting better every day, but that fight we had in the fourth quarter needs to be the team that we are moving forward.”

Penn State next hosts Northwestern Sunday at noon and it’s alumni weekend with several members of the Final Four team of 2000 that played in Philadelphia at the now-called Wells Fargo Center expected to return.

And then as mentioned above, the squad heads to Rutgers next Thursday.

Nationally Noted: North Carolina Continues to Rise

The Tar Heels beat visiting Virginia 78-68 in an Atlantic Coast Conference game at home in Chapel Hill as Janelle Bailey had 23 points. Elsewhere in the ACC, unranked Boston College took down No. 14 Florida State, 65-56, on the road, while Louisville won at Notre Dame 86-54.

Old Dominion at home beat Southern Miss. 67-50, in a C-USA game in Norfolk, Va., to go 17-3 overall.

Looking Ahead: Showdown Weekends for Drexel and Villanova

Something has to give in the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) in terms of top of the standings and down in Philly is the place where it will happen. James Madison, the preseason favorite, and Drexel are tied for first at 6-1 at the top of the standings and Towson is a game behind.

It begins Friday night with JMU visiting Delaware at the Bob Carpenter Center at 7 in Newark and then heading to Drexel at the Daskalakis Athletic Center on Sunday at 2 p.m.

Drexel on Friday at 7 hosts second-place Towson in the first meeting between the two since Towson rallied to beat Drexel at Delaware last March in the closing minutes of the CAA title game. 

It’s Dollar Dog Night, meaning hot dogs are just a buck at the Drexel concession stand.

Towson on Sunday will be at Delaware at 1 p.m.

Meanwhile, Villanova on Friday will host St. John’s at 7 at Finneran Pavilion with both teams in a large standings crunch in the Big East behind No. 11 DePaul. The Wildcats beat the Red Storm in overtime in Queens in New York earlier this month.

Villanova will be looking for a sweep also Sunday at 1 hosting Seton Hall.

The Ivy Race finally resumes on Friday with Penn visiting Harvard at 7 while at the same time Princeton visits Dartmouth. On Saturday, they switch with Penn at Dartmouth and Princeton at Harvard.

The rest of the D-1 group not previously mentioned has La Salle going for a third straight win visiting Fordham Saturday at 2 while on Sunday Saint Joseph’s will be hosting Dayton at 2 p.m.

And that’s the report.