The Guru Report: Drexel Shuts Down JMU To Take Sole Possession of CAA Top Spot

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

PHILADELPHIA – Drexel reserve Keishana Washington was first in points with 27 and first in threes with six Sunday afternoon and as a result thanks to the Canadian foreigner from Pickering, Ont., as well as several others, the Dragons are now alone in first in the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) following an impressive 70-48 victory over preseason favorite James Madison.

Up for debate on the day is what was more tantalizing from the home team, the offense in which the Dragons fired from the field for 48 percent or the defense in which Drexel (15-6, 8-1 CAA) grabbed nine steals, outrebounded the Dukes 37-28 and held them to a season-low 29.1 percent from the field.

“It was a great game,” said Drexel coach Denise Dillon. “I just said to ‘Kee’ walking up here that besides the offensive execution putting down shots, we were most pleased with our defense. 

“We thought with a great team like JMU (16-4, 7-2), we thought it would be tough with a 55 number as our goal and holding them to 48 is quite the effort and we were rewarded on the offensive end making shots.

“I’m proud of their offensive execution on both ends of the floor besides the bench.”

The squad even got help from its geographical rival to the near south in Delaware, the other of the Guru’s two local D-1 teams in the CAA, which upset Towson 69-62 at home in the Bob Carpenter Center in Newark as Nicole Enabosi, the 2018 conference player of the year, had a Blue Hens near first triple double with 27 points, 16 rebounds, and eight assists.

Drexel has won eight straight since the conference-opening upset loss at Charleston and is now 10-1 at home here in the Daskalakis Athletic Center.

 The day began with Drexel and JMU tied at the top of the standings.

But while normally many of the affairs in this long-running series have been tightly fought, in this one Drexel jumped to an 11-1 opening attack and finished the first quarter ahead 18-5.

JMU got it back to nine in the next period with all appearances of continuing the run but Drexel exploded with a 10-0 spurt to expand the differential to 19 and the Dragons kept it in double digits for a 33-22 lead at the break.

At that point on the Drexel side reigning CAA player of the year Bailey Greenberg was doing her thing with 10 points while Washington in her newer role as a reserve had come off the bench to score six points by connecting on both attempted triplets.

The Dukes in the third got within three points at 35-32 but Drexel’s defense would not break, and the Dragons got to the end of the period with a 44-37 advantage.

That’s when Washington and her teammates saved the best for last, the Canadian erupting for 14 of her career-high 27 points, of which 21 came in the second half. 

For the entire game, she shot 10-for-13 from the field, including 6-of-8 threes while Hanna Nihil keyed the defense in the fourth period with all three of her steals. 

That helped Drexel in the final 10 minutes connect with 7 of 10 from the field to outscore the visitors 26-11.

Greenberg finished with 18 points, helped by making 9-of-10 from the line, and eight rebounds, along with four steals, while Kate Connolly continued to be a productive reserve scoring 11 points off 5-of-9 from the field.

Jackie Benitez had 13 points for James Madison while Neumann-Goretti grad Kamiah Smalls, the CAA preseason player of the year, scored 11 points.

“I do believe (being comfortable) playing my role and doing whatever ‘coach needs me to do off the bench,” Washington said. “My teammates trust me making shots and just be comfortable making them. They’re a team that scores a lot of points (70.2) so to be able to hold them below their average … “

Discussing the defense, Dillon said, “You’re playing better competition, so with each team you have to adjust to their tendencies and I think our team is playing better as a whole on both ends of the floor, but just working it out and understanding what they want to do.

“Stopping teams in transition has been big. They got some looks early, we weren’t too happy about it, but the group never wavered in what needed to be done. 

“The rebounding was the number one stat we were concerned so beating them on the boards – it’s the effort, the energy and the effort make up for a lot.”

Drexel is on the road next weekend visiting Hofstra on Long Island at 5 on Friday and then visiting Northeastern at 2 Sunday in Boston.

In their first meetings here, the Dragons beat Hofstra 74-54 after beating Northeastern 50-41.

Besides gaining a one-game lead on the Dukes, the Delaware win scrambled the standings below with Northeastern moving into third two games behind Drexel, and Towson and William & Mary three games back.

In the Delaware game, Enabosi tied a program record with her 47^th career double-double while passing 1,500 career points and 1,000 career rebounds.

Colleen McNamara achieved 47 double doubles from 1991-95 and believe it or not there are some marks that do not have Elena Delle Donne’s working signature in her Delaware collegiate career.

Enabosi’s points and rebounds totals for her career make her the third to reach those numbers besides Delle Donne and McNamara.

Additionally, in Sunday’s game, Jasmine Dickey had 17 points and nine rebounds for the Blue Hens (7-13, 3-6) and Abbey Gonzales scored 11.

Kionna Jeter scored 28 for Towson (10-10, 5-4), which rallied in the closing minutes to beat Dexel last season in the CAA title game at Delaware. Qierra Murray scored 14.

“This is a group, we still haven’t put our best foot forward yet,” said Delaware coach Natasha Adair, “but I challenged our seniors. We have so many players that can go out there and make the difference.

“I tweaked with the starting lineup today, I did want to send a message.

“As much as I want to highlight Nicole, I want to shout out Abbey and Semone (DeFrese), two seniors who responded. I’m proud of the resiliency, toughness and fight that was shown today.”

Delaware next weekend makes the same road trip in the conference as Drexel, only playing Northeastern Friday at 7 in the Cabot Center and then visiting Hofstra in the Mack Sports Complex in Hempstead Sunday at 2 p.m.

Villanova Caught at the Finish by Seton Hall

The Wildcats were deprived of a weekend and double season sweep Sunday when they failed to maintain a three-point lead with 49.5 seconds left in regulation and lost to Seton Hall 65-63 in Finneran Pavilion in a Big East contest that came after completing a sweep of St. John’s in overtime Friday night.

Villanova (12-10, 6-5 Big East), which beat the Pirates (14-8, 7-4) last month up in South Orange, N.J., at Walsh Gym  dropped out of the fourth-place tie group.

With 4.3 seconds left, trailing by a point, Seton Hall guard Mya Jackson went to the line and tied the score on her first attempt but then missed the second free throw and the rebound went the Wildcats’ way only to have Shadeen Samuels break it loose and score on a layup with two seconds left.

Freshman Maddy Siegrist fired a long three-point attempt, which fell short.

“If you look at it from a realistic point of view, for us to go 3-1 against St. John’s and Seton Hall is actually a miracle,” veteran Villanova coach Harry Perretta said. “The sad part is we were in a position to go 4-0 and we lost the game because we did more things to lose the game. That’s the way it goes.”

With Perretta’s retirement ahead at the end of his 42^nd season, all on the Main Line, this weekend was the last he will coach against those teams in the regular season, given they might collide next month in the Big East tournament in Chicago.

Ahead 55-48 going into the fourth quarter, the Wildcats got caught by a switch of defenses by Seton Hall, which went to a zone and Nova was reduced to shooting 1-for-10, scoring just eight points.

“We’re not very good against a zone,” Perretta said. “If there is a span we don’t score three or four minutes, they can make up 6 or 8 points pretty easily. You have to keep making shots.”

Mary Gedaka scored a game-high 26 points, one short of her career record, for the ‘Cats, while Siegrist had a double-double, her Big East-leading eighth of the season, with 13 points and 10 rebounds.

Gedaka is now ninth on the all-time ‘Nova chart with 1,398 career points.

Seton Hall’s Samuels had 25 points, Desiree Elmore had 12, and Alexis Lewis scored 11.

Villanova, which had a seven-game series win streak against Seton Hall snapped, hits the road next weekend playing at Xavier in Cincinnati at 7 at the Cintas Center and then on to Butler, Sunday at 3 in Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.

Saint Joseph’s Handled by Dayton

The Hawks held their own for the first half of Sunday afternoon’s Atlantic 10 contest, trailing by just a point, but Dayton took control outscoring Saint Joseph’s by 14 points the rest of the way for a 59-44 victory.

Katie Jekot scored 11 for the Hawks (8-13, 2-7 Atlantic 10) while freshman Kaliah Henderson got her first start and scored 10 points, grabbed six rebounds, and grabbed two steals against the Flyers (15-7, 8-0), who lead the conference besides being the host next month for the quarterfinals, semifinals, and final of the conference tournament at UD Arena in Ohio.

The Hawks next head to Saint Louis Thursday for an 8 p.m. contest and then stay on the road to go to Duquesne in Pittsburgh on Sunday to attempt to get a split in the two-game series.

Rutgers and Penn State Take Losses in the Big Ten

Two other teams in the Guru’s 11-member local Division I group played Sunday and both suffered losses in the Big Ten with Rutgers falling in double overtime at Minnesota, while Penn State fell at home in the Bryce Jordan Center to Northwestern.

Rutgers’ marathon game ended when the Scarlet Knights’ Khadaizha Sanders went for the winner shooting a three-pointer that clanged off the rim as time expired enabling Minnesota to escape with a 73-71 win at the Williams Center in Nonneaplis.

The visitors (16-5, 6-4 Big Ten) had a defensive effort wasted in which they forced 26 turnovers to outscore the Gophers 29-16 in points off the miscues.

In the extended periods, however, Minnesota (14-8, 4-7) held the Scarlet Knights to 3-of-16 from the floor.

The Gophers thrived on the foul line, shooting 30 of 39 from the charity stripe.

Rutgers’ Arella Guirantes tied for game honors with 19 points, was perfect on the line, shooting 8-for-8, and had eight rebounds, three assists, two steals, and a block.

Tekia Mack had 16 points and 14 rebounds for her first double-double in conference competition, while Sanders had 17 points, three assists and four steals.

Taiye Bello for Minnesota had 19 points and 22 rebounds, while Jasmine Powell also scored 19 points, and Gadiva Hubbard scored 17. 

It was the first double overtime game for the Scarlet Knights since Dec. 5, 2016, an 82-76 setback to James Madison.

Rutgers heads home for a Thursday meeting with Penn State, looking for a season sweep in the game at the RAC at 7 in Piscataway, N.J.

Penn State on Sunday fell to No. 23 Northwestern 82-59 at home in the Bryce Jordan Center at State College, as the Wildcats (19-3, 10-2 Big Ten) got 19 points each from Lindsey Pulliam and Veronica Burton.

Abbie Wolf added 15 points and Abi Scheid 13 to propel Northwestern into a tie for first with Iowa, a half-game ahead of Maryland.

The Wildcats trailed by a point at the half and then surged in the third period outscoring the Lady Lions 29-7.

Penn State (7-15, 1-10) had its losing streak extended to eight straight on a day the program honored the 2000 contingent that advanced to the NCAA Final Four in Philadelphia on the 20^th anniversary season of that achievement.

Kamaria McDaniel scored 16 points and Siyeh Frazier scored 15, while Makenna Marisa scored 12.

Nationally Noted: Michigan Upset Drops Iowa in Big Ten Tie

Naz Hillmon scored a career-high 30 points for the Wolverines (14-7, 5-5) and also grabbed 10 rebounds to lead Michigan to a 78-63 upset of No. 18 Iowa at home in Ann Arbor, Mich., sending the Hawkeyes (18-4, 9-2) into a first-place tie with Northwestern.

Iowa had won nine straight games.

In the Southeastern Conference unranked Florida beat No. 13 Kentucky 70-62 on the road in Lexington as freshman Lavender Briggs scored nine of her 18 points in a lop-sided 25-5 run in the fourth quarter.

Florida (12-10, 3-6 SEC) snapped a five-game losing streak taking advantage of the Wildcats (17-4, 6-3), who now have played two straight game without star sophomore Rhyne Howard, who has a broken finger. 

Kentucky’s Chasity Patterson had a career high 25 points.

Top-ranked South Carolina topped No. 22 Tennessee 69-48 at home in Columbia in the SEC as Zia Cooke scored 20 for the Gamecocks (21-1, 9-0 SEC). 

However, coach Dawn Staley may have lost prized freshman Aliyah Boston with a right knee injury.

Rennia Davis had 18 points and 10 rebounds for the Lady Vols (17-5, 7-2), who have lost eight straight times to a No. 1 ranked team since beating LSU in 2005.

Unranked LSU beat No. 15 Texas A&M 59-58 at home in Baton Rouge as Khayla Pointer had nine of her 18 points in the fourth quarter for the Tigers (16-5, 6-3 SEC) while Jailin Cherry hit two foul shots with 4.3 seconds left in regulation for the win against the Aggies (18-4, 6-3).

Faustine Aifuwa had 18 points and a career high 16 rebounds for LSU.

The Aggies have been without Chennedy Carter, who sprained her ankle in Texas A&M’s (18-4, 6-3) loss to LSU on Jan. 9.  

Elissa Cunane had 27 points as No. 7 N.C. State rallied for a 63-60 win at unranked Duke (11-10, 5-5 ACC) in an Atlantic Coast Conference game at Cameron Indoor Arena in Durham, N.C.

Haley Gorecki had 21 points for the Blue Devils against the Wolfpack (21-10, 10-1).

Also in the ACC, North Carolina beat Clemson 86-72 at home in Chapel Hill as former Princeton coach Courtney Banghart continues having ongoing success rebuilding the Tar Heels (16-6, 7-4 ACC).

Taylor Koenen had a career high 26 points and Janelle Bailey scored 23 against Clemson (7-15, 3-8).

And that’s the report.