The Guru Report: Temple Takes Houston While Small Colleges Still Hot

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

PHILADELPHIA/LAWRENCEVILLE, N.J. - While the Guru was here in town mentioned in the first part of the combo dateline at La Salle, to open on a positive note, the first mention goes to the one of the three of the local Division I teams who played Wednesday night and won.

That would be Temple, which on the road in the Lone Star State turned in its third straight victory, beating Houston 61-58 in an American Athletic Conference game that once again was one the Owls (9-6, 2-1 American) had the upper hand in a narrow differential following a Big Five win at La Salle and an overtime victory Saturday at Tulsa.

Temple is in an interesting situation between now and March in that the Owls will have a road view devoid of top-ranked UConn the rest of the way unless they match up in the AAC tournament at the Mohegan Sun for a spot in the Big Dance via the automatic bid.

And after this season the view will be entirely clear in terms of conference standings with the Huskies, who this summer is heading back to the Big East.

Earlier this season in the second week of November off a favor the Owls agreed with the AAC, they met UConn early in the Liacouras Center to accommodate a larger slate of non-conference games on the January side of the season, which has the Huskies hosting No. 6 Baylor Thursday night, No. 23 Tennessee on January 23, the USA Women’s National Team on Jan. 27 as well as a home game with No. 2 Oregon and a road game at No. 4 South Carolina in February.

Asked about seeing the Huskies far earlier than conference teams open with each other in general, coach Tonya Cardoza noted that in the past at times, “we’d be on a pretty good run and then played them and it would take another week or two to recover.”

Since the competitive loss last month to Dawn Staley’s South Carolina team, which pleased Cardoza in her squad  finally looking like what she desired other than the home blowout by Florida Gulf Coast, Temple has been on an improved track, though not necessarily at 100 percent at all times.

That continued against the Cougars (8-8, 1-1) with Mia Davis posting her sixth straight double-double scoring 16 points and grabbing a career-high 18 rebounds. Transfer Ashley Jones had a game-high 23 points fueled by a career-high five three-pointers. 

Furthermore, the depth Cardoza thought she had back in the early season showed itself with the bench producing 31 points while overall the Owls attacked the boards for a 50-35 advantage, and 23 were off the offensive glass.

Houston used an 8-0 run at the end of the third quarter for a 46-44 lead setting up the final stanza for what became another tight battle.

Davis tied it 48-48 before the Cougars snapped it with a three-ball and then the sides took turns getting control until Alexa Williamson got an old-fashioned three-point play for a 59-55 Temple lead with 2:43 left in regulation.

Dorian Branch had a chance to force the Owls into another overtime game but the Houston player’s shot went off the rim and Temple’s win streak stayed intact.

Next up the Owls come back home for another AAC game Saturday hosting SMU at 3 p.m. in McGonigle Hall.

Temple has one huge non-conference game remaining hosting Penn in McGonigle Hall on Thursday, Jan. 23.

 In that one the Owls will be playing for a tie in the Big Five with a win which off a potential victory would be with either the Quakers or Villanova depending who beats who in the Main Line the week before.

A Penn win ahead means either the Owls tie with the Quakers or otherwise Penn wins its first outright City Series crown.

A Penn loss to Villanova means the Quakers tie the Wildcats by beating Temple or the Owls tie the Wildcats by beating the Quakers.

La Salle and Saint Joseph’s Suffer Atlantic 10 Setbacks

At the top of this report, your Guru mentioned he was at La Salle, where the Explorers played better than Saturday’s 40-point loss to Dayton here in Tom Gola Arena, but still fell to Saint Louis 77-61 for their eighth straight loss.

Saint Joseph’s joy off Saturday’s A-10 opening win at home against Richmond became short-lived in Richmond, Va., losing to VCU 47-40 at the Stuart C. Siegel Center, though being that close has some hope for the future in that the host Rams were the pre-season favorites of the conference coaches.

In the game at La Salle, the Billikens (9-6, 1-1 A-10) jumped to a lead and held for a 22-15 advantage at the end of the period.

La Salle (6-9, 0-2) fought back for a bit before Saint Louis surged to finish the quarter with another 22 points and a 44-29 lead.

The differential briefly got back to single digits off an Explorers 9-0 run in the third, a period in which Claire Jacobs scored 13 points but the home  team still couldn’t keep going to grab the lead and Saint Louis was able to take one on the road.

Claire Jacobs off the bench scored 16 for the game while her twin sister freshman from Australia Amy scored 12 points. 

Kayla Spruill scored 11 while Shalina Miller scored 13 points, grabbed eight rebounds, and blocked two shots which brought her within one to tie and two to pass the Explorers career rejection mark of 151 set by Amy Griffin.

Kate Hill dealt seven assists.

On the other side, the Billikens’ Ciaja Harbison poured down 25 points, helped by 9-for-10 from the charity stripe, while Myia Clark scored 17, Rachel Kent used 4-of-7 three-ball completions on the way to 15 points, and Myriama Smith Traore got a double-double of 11 points and 13 rebounds.

Incidentally, one of the officials in the game, Karleena Tobin, played at Delaware with the 2003 group that included Tiara Macolm. 

La Salle now heads to Pittsburgh Saturday for a league game at Duquesne at Duquesne at 2 p.m. followed by another road visit in the conference next Wednesday at UMass in Amherst at 7 p.m. and then returns here to host St. Bonaventure, Sunday, Jan. 19 at 3 p.m.

Meanwhile, Saint Joseph’s found scoring a problem on the visit to VCU (7-8, 2-0 A-10), though freshman Gabby Smalls in her second career start for the Hawks (7-7, 1-1) scored a team-high 14 points, which all came in the second half.

In the fourth quarter, Smalls was exceptional gaining 10 of her points shooting 5-for-7 She also had six rebounds for the game, two steals and a blocked shot in 22 minutes of action.

Katie Jekot also scored in double digits, collecting 10 points for the visitors, while Mary Sheehan grabbed eight rebounds.

VCU’s Sydnei Archie had 12 points and Danielle Hammond scored 10 but the home team doubled the Hawks scoring in the paint, 28-14, and also outscored the visitors 15-8 on points from turnovers.

Saint Joseph’s is now off a week until taking the floor at home in Hagan Arena next Wednesday at 5 p.m. hosting Rhode Island.

Lehigh Keeps Rolling

The Mountain Hawks are not in our daily mix but with a nudge from certain people the Guru does check in, so since Lehigh played Wednesday night, they used an array of three-pointers, a season-high dozen to be exact,  to down Boston U. 51-34 in a Patriot League game at home at Stabler Arena in Bethlehem, Pa.

The defensive yield was the lowest in seven seasons since v bb opposition total to a 53-37 win over Bucknell in January 2013.

Lehigh (11-3, 3-0 Patriot League) has now won four straight games, nine straight at home dating back to last season, and eight straight in the conference dating back to last season.

Megan Walker, not that Megan Waker who plays for UConn Thursday night, had a career-high five treys, and finished with 15 points from the long-range shooting. Hannah Hedstrom scored 11. 

Annabelle Larnard was the leader for Boston U. (6-8, 1-2) with eight points.

Lehigh next goes to American U. Saturday at 1 p.m. in the Eagles’ Bender Arena in the nation’s capital. 

 Small Colleges: Holy Family, USciences, Lincoln, and Rowan Stay Hot

Holy Family ought to have a slogan saying the Tigers are best playing it close to the vest.

For the second straight game, the Tigers managed to stay unbeaten in the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC) holding first in the Southern Division with a hold-your-breath narrow victory, this time 65-64 at Goldey Beacom in Wilmington, Del.

In this one, senior Elizabeth Radley had a season-high 28 points on the road in the Jones Center against the Lightning (1-12, 1-4) just under two points of the career-high she set last season. 

Mia Ehling scored 12 points and had six rebounds while Moe Moore had 10 points and six rebounds.

Amanda McGrogan scored 20 for Goldey Beacom.

Holy Family is now under alum and former Penn and Tigers associate head coach Bernadette Lukaitis.

Talk about omens, the Tigers were the surprise winners of the Philadelphia/Suburban NCAA Certified  Women’s Summer Basketball League in Hatboro, beating out CACC leaders USciences, whom Holy Family upset in the season opener this fall and Jefferson, who Holy Family has also claimed.

On Wednesday, the game seemed wrapped up when the visitors reached a 59-45 lead with 3:36 left in regulation.

But then Lightning struck, so to speak, with an 11-0 run to move within a three-point shot of a tie at 59-56.

Ehling’s two foul shots pushed the edge out to 61-56 with 39 seconds left and then the Tigers claimed the win shooting 6-of-10 the rest of the way.

It did get to a one-point differential but Goldey Beacom couldn’t take advantage of two missed foul shots and a turnover though as time expired the Lightning got a shot off that was short.

The 6-0 start in the CACC tops all Holy Family conference wins last season and equals the 2013-14 start that went on to 10-0. The Tigers are 33-6 in the series and have won four of the last five in the series meetings.

Holy Family is on the road Saturday visiting Nyack near the Tappan Zee Bridge that crosses to Tarrytown, N.Y., with the tip set for 1 p.m.

Meanwhile, USciences and Jefferson, the conference power hitters who also made lots of noise nationally last season in the upper Division II rankings met Wednesday night for the first time this season and USciences had an easy time of it 60-44 at home in Bobby Morgan Arena in Southwest Philadelphia.

Jefferson (5-8, 2-3 CACC) has been struggling off injuries this season.

The game came under control of the Devils (12-3, 5-1) with a 10-0 run across the third and fourth quarters and Jefferson was held to 26.5 percent shooting for the game.

Irisa Ye and Jess Huber scored 14 and 13 points, respectively, for USciences while Mikaela Guliani blocked four shots and Taylor Hamm had a game-high 10 rebounds to match a career-high.

The Devils dominated the boards 44-26 setting a new season high and Jordan Vitelli scored 10 points and grabbed eight rebounds.

Allie Warren had 10 points for Jefferson.

USciences is back on the road visiting Bloomfield Saturday at 1 p.m. while Jefferson hosts Concordia (N.Y.) at 2 p.m.

In case you are wondering, the return Holy Family/USciences game is not until well into next month.

Meanwhile, Rowan on the other side of the Delaware River continues to fire away in the New Jersey Athletic Conference, posting a 75-63 win at home over William Patterson in Glassboro to expand their streak to nine straight games.

The Profs (12-1, 6-0 NJAC) are tied for first in the conference.

Savannah Holt tied a career-high 18 points, Alexis Kriley scored 15, Nicole Mallard scored 12 and had nine rebounds while Ayanna Johnson was a defensive force with nine blocks to tie the school record for a game. She also pulled down 24 rebounds.

 Madison Delude scored 17 for the Pioneers (6-7, 4-2).

Rowan heads to North Jersey Saturday playing Montclair at 3 p.m.

Since with no Division I local games Tuesday, the Guru let the report go.

So, to catch up since Lincoln U. continues to set records, the Lions are on a three-game road trip down South and on Tuesday, the Lions easily beat Elizabeth City State 74-45 in the R.L. Vaughn Center in North Carolina in a Central Intercollegiate Athletic Assocation (CIAA) game.

Lincoln is ranked sixth this week in the D2SIDA Atlantic Region media poll while receiving votes in the national WBCA Division II Coaches poll.

Kwanza Murray scored 18 points and had a game-high 18 points for the Lions (13-2, 4-1 CIAA). 

The Vikings fell to 6-8 overall and 2-3 in the league.

Lincoln now heads to Shaw University on Thursday at 5 p.m. in Raleigh at 5:30 p.m.

Looking Ahead: Rider and Quinnipiac in A Morning Special

The visiting Bobcats, who have owned the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, have already been nicked but that doesn’t stop the Broncs to wanting to apply another shot.

 The matchup at Alumni Gymnasium here in Lawrenceville, N.J., school day special, is already sold out though the game is on ESPNU and Hall of Famer and former Tennessee coach Holly Warlick will be doing the color commentary.

The other two local Division I games on the slate are the Big 10 duo, with Rutgers visiting Illinois at 8 p.m. and Penn State, still looking for its first conference win, hosting Michigan State at 7 p.m. both on the Big Ten plus digital network.

Nationally, the first UConn challenge hits the Huskies for the first time since reaching No. 1 and perhaps for the entire season to date when No. 6 Baylor visits in the XL Center in Hartford for a 7 p.m. tip.

Later Thursday the finalists for the Women’s Basketball Hall of fame will be announced.

 And for the moment, that’s the report, which is finished completion up here at Rider in Lawrenceville now to begin a unique day-night doubleheader.

Stay tuned.