The Guru Report: Drexel Overtime Win Highlights Guru Five Team Sweep

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

PHILADELPHIA —  Five of the Guru’s local Division I group were on the Friday card and all had a winning day and night though the game that was the most competitive was right here in Drexel’s Daskalakis Athletic Center where the Dragons fought their way through their fifth overtime of the season to emerge with an 84-74 victory over William & Mary in the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA).

Elsewhere, Villanova upset Marquette, 61-47, in the Big East at home in Finneran Pavilion, while in the Ivy League, Penn thumped Dartmouth 67-31 at home in The Palestra and first-place Princeton took down Harvard 66-45 at home in Jadwin Gym in Princeton, N.J., and Delaware got the day started in late morning, bouncing back from Sunday’s drubbing from Drexel to beat Elon 73-60 in another CAA game.

Drexel Rallies for 12^th Straight Win, Beating William & Mary in Overtime

In a pre-game chit-chat with the Guru, looking to the action about to begin, Drexel coach Denise Dillon on the prospects of her Dragon, commented, “I don’t know, these guys can score.”

The Guru then responded, “But you guys can defense.”

Ultimately, we were both right, Dillion early on and the Guru at the finish, though obviously the action was much closer than the 10-point spread off the 84-74 outcome.

The result kept Drexel (19-6, 12-1 CAA) a game ahead of James Madison in first place with their second showdown set for next Friday at 7 p.m. in Harrisonburg, Va.

 The Dragons took the first meeting here 70-48 earlier this month.

“Well, that was something,” Dillon said. “It was a battle as we thought. We came out ok. Second quarter, not so great. But that balanced out in the third. We gave ourselves a chance with a possession game. Went to overtime and the team did an amazing job to do whatever was necessary.

“Every game is huge. But it’s a big win.”

Drexel has gone 5-0 in extra periods, beating local rival Villanova 54-52 in non-conference play, followed by a bounce-back rally victory 73-72 at UNCW to get the streak started after the Dragons dropped their CAA opener at Charleston 73-59 two days earlier.

The other previous games requiring extra work were here 63-59 to win the first of what became a two-game sweep of Delaware, and at Elon, 55-53, where the CAA tourney will be held next month in North Carolina.

On Friday, Drexel jumped to a nine-point lead and preserved it just before the first quarter ended as Hannah Nilhill hit Bailey Greenberg underneath just beating the clock for a 20-11 lead.

Then Dillon’s worst fears were realized as the visiting Tribe (18-7, 9-5) erupted for a 28-13 domination of the second quarter, featuring a 14-0 run to go into the break ahead at the half 39-33.

Eva Hodgson was the big scorer, collecting 17 of her game-tying high 25 points for William & Mary before the Dragons were able to limit her the rest of the way in a game that had 8 ties and 8 lead changes.

Drexel rallied back into contention at the outset of the third, launching a 5-0 run and ultimately ending the period with a slim 56-55 lead.

The Dragons might have helped themselves to the win in regulation had they been able to make more free throws in the second half, though in the overtime they were 6-for-9 to help the 16-6 performance individually dominated by Keishana Washington, who made all five shots from the field for ten of her game-tying high of 25 points.

Drexel’s defense tightened considerably down the stretch of regulation and the Dragons came up with big rebounds and several of their nine steals of the game.

The home team outscored the Tribe 22-9 in points off turnovers to offset William & Mary’s 38-30 advantage of points in the paint.

   The 12-game streak is third behind two streaks of 16, one of which in 2009 ended with the CAA championship prior to losing Drexel’s first round game in the NCAA tournament.

Greenberg finished with 20 points, while Niki Metz scored 12, and Nihill dealt seven assists besides scoring nine points.

The Tribe’s Victoria Reynolds had 18 points.

William & Mary is in third, three games behind JMU and four behind Drexel, which swept the series and is close to getting a worse-case automatic qualifier to the WNIT.

On Sunday, the Dragons host Elon, looking for another sweep, with tipoff scheduled for 2 p.m.

Enabosi Sets Double Double Mark in Delaware Win

Elon will be coming from Friday afternoon’s 73-60 loss in the CAA at Delaware, where the Blue Hens on their annual Education Day promotion, shot a season-best 55.8 percent (24-for-43) from the field in the win at the Bob Carpenter Center in Newark.

Nicole Enabosi had 24 points and 11 rebounds to set the Delaware career double double mark with 48, passing the 47 from Colleen McNamara (1991-96) and 46 from Elena Delle Donne (2009-13).

Jasmine Dickey had 17 points for the Blue Hens (10-14, 6-7 CAA), who are seventh, while Abby Gonzales had 15 points and four assists, and Paris McBride scored nine. 

“We showed grit, toughness, and emotion today,” said Delaware third year coach Natasha Adair.

The Blue Hens have won four straight and four of the last five against Elon (12-13, 7-7), which is tied for fifth with Northeastern.

Enabosi now has 1,042 rebounds, just 22 short of Danielle Parker’s program record, while Gonzales is tied for second in career assists (358) with Sue Whitfield (1984-88).

William & Mary off its Drexel loss visits Sunday at 1 p.m.

Penn and Princeton Blast Their Way to Wins to Start Their Ivy Weekend

The four-game losing streak that was getting Penn near a perilous situation in terms of the Ivy four-team tournament is getting further behind in the Quakers’ rear-view mirror.

A dominating 67-31 victory over Dartmouth at home in The Palestra and season-sweep of the Big Green (8-14, 2-7 Ivy) kept the Quakers (16-5, 6-2) in second a half-game in front of Yale (16-6, 6-3) but still two behind  first-place Princeton (20-1, 8-0).

Eleah Parker dominated again as she had in most games her first two seasons, this time with 24 points and 13 rebounds. No one else with the Quakers hit double figures.

It was Parker’s fifth double double in her last eight games and fourth in her last sixth, while she has reached 20 points in three of her last five games.

Penn has not lost to an Ivy team not named Princeton in The Palestra since Feb.  6, 2015.

The Quakers will be out for revenge Saturday night at 7 when Harvard visits and they get their second shot at Princeton Tuesday night up at Jadwin Gym.

The frontrunning Tigers made it 16 straight on the entire season after beating Harvard 66-45 after re-entering The AP women’s basketball poll at 25 last Monday.

That gave Princeton (20-1, 8-0 Ivy) a sweep of the Crimson (14-8, 5-4), which is now fourth but in the fifth slot of a tiebreak with Columbia, which top Harvard last weekend, at home in Levien Gym in New York’s Upper West Side.

Princeton’s only loss came in overtime last December, dropping a two-point setback at Iowa of the Big Ten in Iowa City, Iowa.

Against Harvard, two-time reigning Ivy player of the year Bella Alarie had a game-high 18 points off 8-of-13 from the field, while grabbing six rebounds, two steals, and blocking a shot. Taylor Baur had 11 points.

The two-time Ivy tourney champion Tigers are the No. 1 defensive unit in the nation and against the Crimson, they had 10 blocks and 11 steals.

Early in the second period Harvard was within eight but soon thereafter the Tigers extended the lead to double digits and that’s where it stood the rest of the way under first-year coach Carla Berube.

Dartmouth visits Jadwin Gym at 6 Friday night to complete the Princeton weekend card.

Elsewhere in the Ivies, Columbia (14-8, 5-4) on the road handled Brown 76-66 in the Bears’ Pizzitola Sports Center in Providence, R.I. to clinch the Lions’ first winning season in a decade since an overall mark of 18-10 in 2009-10.

The win also put into Columbia into a tie for fourth but in fourth off beating Harvard very badly last weekend.

The Lions on Saturday visit Yale in New Haven, Conn., and are now in a position to help Penn in a trade off by each team winning. 

If that occurs, the Columbia win allows Penn some  distance in second from Yale, while Penn beating Harvard would put Columbia a game in front plus the tie break for the critical fourth spot, with an eye to the Ivy tourney at Harvard.

Villanova Upsets Marquette

Mary Gedaka and Bridget Herlihy scored all 14 points in a lopsided second quarter, allowing the Wildcats to go ahead and gain a season split in the Big East with Marquette after winning 61-47 at home in Finneran Pavilion.

Elsewhere, DePaul beat Georgetown in the nation’s capital to clinch the regular season title and top seed for next month’s tournament in Chicago at Wintrust Arena.

The Blue Demons come to Villanova Sunday for a 1 p.m. game that also serves as the last regular season home game for longtime coach Harry Perretta, who is retiring at the end of the season and his 42^nd all on the Main Line with the Wildcats.

There will be a special ceremony after the game in which ‘Nova will be a heavy underdog.

Against Marquette, Gedaka had a game-high 21 points for the Wildcats (15-11, 9-6 Big East), who became WNIT eligible and could land an encore home game for Perretta in an early round.

Villanova is tied for fourth and could climb higher off its last three games.

Herlihy had a season-high 18 points against Marquette (20-7, 11-5), which is second.

The Golden Eagles had 18 turnovers.

“What we did was take them out of their comfort zone on offense,” Perretta said.”When you get out of your comfort zone, you turn the ball over on your own.”

Looking Ahead: La Salle and Temple Look to Improve Seeds

On Saturday, besides the Ivy games for the locals, La Salle visits Rhode Island at 1 p.m. in Kingston with a chance to stay in play for a potential first round home game in the Atlantic 10 tournament. 

Temple, likewise, is looking to move higher in the American Athletic Conference when the Owls visit East Carolina, also at 1 p.m.

Saint Joseph’s is at home in the Atlantic 10 at Hagan Arena, where the Hawks will host George Mason at 2 p.m.

In the Big Ten, Penn State is at Iowa at 3 p.m. while Rutgers will be hosting Ohio State.

On Sunday, besides all the games mentioned within the Friday roundup sections, Rider will host Iona, looking to stay within range at the top of the MAAC with Marist.

And that’s the report.

b