The Guru Report: Rider Rallies Over Niagara and Penn Cruises at Chaminade

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

LAWRENCEVILLE, N.J. – The  way the cry from the public address system kept belting out the name  “Stella” from Alumni Gymnasium during the second half of the Rider women’s Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) opener against Niagara, one might wonder whether tryouts were being held here Thursday night for the Marlon Brando role in Streetcar Named Desire.

No question, though, desire kept clanging for both the Broncs and senior Stella Johnson to carry Rider to a stunning rally and narrow 79-75 victory and for the native of Denville, N.J., a sensational 29-point performance resulting in reaching a tie for the program’s all-time career scoring record that will likely be broken Saturday afternoon (1 p.m., ESPN+) on the road at Iona in the host Gaels’ Hynes Athletic Center outside New York City.

In reality, both the Broncs (8-2, 1-0 MAAC) and their nation’s scoring leader seemed on a trolley line to nowhere, trailing the Purple Eagles 39-30 at the half with Johnson (28.1 ppg) held to two points.

But the wheels began to roll in the third period with the gap closed to 56-53 tagainst Niagara (2-8, 0-1) setting up a wild fourth-quarter  in which Johnson exploded for 18 points to finish with 31 points and 12 rebounds for her initial double-double on the season.

The score was tied at 70 with just over a minute left when Johnson put the Broncs in front for good on a driving layup. A stop the other way got the ball back and she scored again to make it 74-70 with 20 seconds left.

Suddenly it became a double anticipation with her now rapping on the door of acclaim and it seemed about to happen when she went to the line with a chance to tie and then take sole possession.

 But Johnson missed the second opportunity and will have to spend 48 hours alongside Debbie Snyder’s total of 1,706 points.

But don’t think the verge of history contributed to the missed free throw because Johnson said she had no idea the career total was in play. 

“It’s kind of cool,” she said. “Coming in as a freshman, I didn’t think I would do any of this. I just came here to win. It’s an honor to just tie that scoring record.”

Johnson already has set the career steals record and earlier in the season set the single game mark collecting 41 points down at Disney’s Wide World of Sports near Orlando against Lipscomb as part of the MAAC/ASun Challenge.

“We don’t talk about any of that because she is going to set lots of them before she is done,” said veteran coach Lynn Milligan.

It was the second straight game this week that she was involved in a nail-biter after the Broncs wrapped up their non-conference schedule by beating Delaware State 71-69 Monday afternoon down in Dover at the buzzer in overtime.

The win also came on a night that longtime ruler Quinnipiac fell 75-71 at home in Hamden, Conn., to Iona (2-8, 1-0), the next Rider opponent.

 The Gaels’ Dejah Williams had a career and game-best 20 points against the host Bobcats (3-7, 0-1) at the People’s United Center.

Paige Warfel had 16 points and 15 rebounds, one of four players scoring in double figures for Quinnipiac, which had won 52 straight games in the MAAC after formerly playing in the Northeast Conference.

Elsewhere, Marist, the previous longtime MAAC ruler who was tabbed the preseason favorite ahead of Quinnipiac and Rider, won its opener at home in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., beating Monmouth 76-66.

Back here, besides Johnson’s heroics, Amari Johnson had 10 points and 13 rebounds, while Amanda Mobley scored 13 and dealt nine assists.

Mobley also hit a critical three to give the home team a brief lead down the stretch before Stella Johnson drove Rider to the finish line.

Early on, however, the night seemed ready to belong to Niagara’s Jai Moore, who finished with 27 points. 

“You’ve seen performances by two of the best guards in the MAAC,” Milligan said.

Maggie McIntyre completed six of nine three-point attempts and collected 18 points while Rider got away with a futile effort beyond the arc other than Mobley’s collection long range.

“Welcome to the MAAC,” Milligan said of the action here and elsewhere on the conference’s opening night. “We really executed down the stretch and Amanda and Stella both made plays.”

The 8-2 start is the best for Rider since 1982-83 before Rider joined Division I and also was 8-2 while the 4-0 record at home to date is the best in the Milligan era. 

The Broncs have won 6-of-7 in their recent series with the Purple Eagles.

Penn Completes Hawaii Sweep Tossing A Tsunami at Chaminade

Following the Quakers’ New Year’s Eve win over Hawaii in the middle of the Pacific Tuesday night, Penn maintained its best start ever overall and in non-conference action romping over host Chaminade 90-39 in an afternoon game.

At 10-1, it’s the third most wins conference but that could improve and if the Quakers win their other two later this month at Villanova and Temple, they will have captured their first-ever outright Big Five title.

The record also sets up a super showdown a week from Saturday in The Palestra at home at 1 p.m. when Princeton visits for the Ivy opener between the two dominant women’s teams in the league in the past decade.

But with the Tigers coming in at 11-1, losing just an overtime encounter at Iowa under new coach Carla Berube, and Penn at 10-1 with the sole loss at Duke, it is the first time in league history on the women’s side that two teams have such gaudy overall records against each other that includes the earlier era of the Dartmouth and Harvard wars of the 1990s.

Out near the palm trees Thursday involving the only other of two of the Guru’s 11 Division I teams who took their first steps in the new decade of the 2020s, Penn’s rookie sensation Kayla Padilla scored 17 points and had three rebounds in 22 minutes against Chaminade (2-9).

Off the bench, Mia Lakstigala had a career-high 15 points in 13 minutes, helped by a perfect 3-for-3 from beyond the arc, and went 5-for-7 overall from the field. Phoebe Sterba scored 10 points, and Emily Anderson scored 10 points.

With 13 made three-pointers, Mike McLaughlin’s teams are 30-0 when shooting 10 or more three-balls.

Looking Ahead: Delaware, Drexel, La Salle and Saint Joseph’s Start Conference Play

On Friday, Drexel and Delaware begin a weekend road trip to open play in the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) with Drexel at Charleston and Delaware at UNCW before switching visiting sites Sunday with the Dragons at UNCW and the Blue Hens at Charleston.

Villanova has a Big East visit Friday afternoon to Seton Hall at Walsh Gym in South Orange, N.J., and continues in the Metro area Sunday heading to Queens to meet Saint John’s at the Carnesecca Arena in Jamaica, L.I.

On Saturday, La Salle and Saint Joseph’s open play in the Atlantic 10 with the Explorers hosting Dayton at 2 p.m. at Tom Gola Arena while the Hawks open in Hagan Arena against Richmond, also at 2 p.m.

Temple, after having hosted now-No. 1 Connecticut on Nov. 17 to accommodate the American Athletic Conference helping the departing Huskies, who are heading next season back to the Big East, the Owls resume conference play visiting Tulsa at 3 p.m. on Saturday.

Penn State continues on the Big Ten trail on the road, visiting Wisconsin at the Kohl Center Saturday at 4 p.m., while Rutgers makes a Big 10 visit Sunday to Purdue at noon.

In Small College action, Division II Lincoln, off to its best start, on Saturday hosts Livingstone College.

Jefferson (4-7, 1-2 CACC) hosts a Central Atlantic Athletic Conference game at 1 p.m. Saturday against Felician at the Gallagher Center, while Holy Family (6-5, 4-0 CACC) hosts Post in a conference game at 1 p.m. Saturday at the Tigers’ Campus Center in Northeast Philadelphia, and USciences (9-3, 3-1 CACC) on Friday is at No. 21 St. Thomas Aquinas, and on Saturday visits Concordia, both in upstate, N.Y.

Nationally Noted: UConn Rallies Over Wichita State While Syracuse Upsets Florida State

The Huskies, after their win at Temple in The American back in November, resumed the remainder of their farewell tour before heading back to the Big East by starting slow Thursday against Wichita State and then rolled to a 83-55 win at the XL Center off campus in Hartford.

UConn has been perfect in AAC play in regular season and six conference tournaments to now be 110-0 since leaving the old Big East when The American was formed.

Crystal Dangerfield scored 22 points for coach Geno Auriemma’s group, Megan Walker scored 21, and Chrystin Williams had 19 on the unbeaten Huskies (11-0, 2-0). 

South Carolina Tames Kentucky

In a game between two ranked Southeastern Conference squads in an opener, No. 4 South Carolina handled at home in Columbia No. 13 Kentucky 99-72 as Brea Beal had 15 points as did Zia Cooke for Dawn Staley’s Gamecocks (13-1, 1-0 SEC) while the visiting Wildcats (11-2, 0-2) collected 28 points courtesy of Rhyne Howard, the reigning freshman of the year from last season.

ACC Upsets for Georgia Tech and Syracuse

Syracuse got an uplifting finish at home felling No. 8 Florida State from the unbeaten column 90-89 on the last play of the game in the ACC in overtime as Emily Engstler hit a layup in the final play of the game in the Carrier Dome. 

Kiah Gilliespie had scored for Florida State (13-1, 2-1 ACC) 0.6 seconds left. She had 27 points for the visitors while Kiara Lewis scored 21 for the Orange (7-1, 1-1).

Georgia Tech at home in Atlanta topped No. 23 Miami 61-54 as Jasmine Carson and Lotta-Maj Lahtinen each scored 15 points for the Yellowjackets (11-2, 2-0 ACC) under new coach Nell Fortner, who had previously coached at Auburn and was an ESPN studio analyst on women’s basketball.

Kelsey Marshall had 14 points for the Hurricanes (9-4, 1-1).

Wake Forest edged Duke in ACC action 60-58 in Durham, N.C. in the Blue Devils’ Cameron Indoor Stadium.

In key PAC-12 games Friday Arizona State will be at No. 10 UCLA while and No. 18 Arizona will be at Southern Cal with the two Arizona schools switching visit sites on Sunday.

Parker Earns USBWA Hall of Fame

Longtime women’s basketball correspondent Wendy Parker, who went on to other pursuits several years ago, will be inducted in the Hall of Fame of the United States Basketball Writers Association at the Final Fours in April.

Parker joins yours already inducted yours truly as the second journalist focusing on women’s coverage to be inducted.

And that’s the report.