The Guru Report: La Salle Handles George Washington While USciences Widens CACC-South Lead

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

Looking at the finishing slate in the regular season before the Atlantic 10 tourney gets under way on the home courts of the higher under seeds, La Salle second-year coach Mountain MacGillivray thought the Explorers had the potential to end up on a high note.

Though they had to fight  back several rallies from George Washington Wednesday night in the nation’s capital at the Colonials’ Smith Center, the Explorers grabbed the first of the remaining games and tucked it in the hopper, winning 61-54 to snap a six-fame losing streak in the series.

La Salle (10-14, 4-7 A-10), which was the only D-1 squad in the local Guru group to see action, is now four games better overall than a year ago and with the win eclipses the total of three conference wins in MacGillivray’s rookie season. 

George Washington (10-14, 4-7) has an identical record to the Explorers, who get a tie-break and lands in the 10^thslot for now in the 14-team conference. 

Mathematically, La Salle is just a game behind three teams tied for seventh and two games behind teams tied for fifth, so in theory there is a shot at hosting a first-round game though in reality this operation is still a work in progress.

But it is progress and Wednesday’s game had the Explorers deadly from beyond the arc, connecting 12 three-pointers.

The long-range attack proved valuable because after taking a 10-point lead early, the Explorers got bypassed by the Colonials, who surged to a lead as much as nine points in the third quarter.

GWU, coached by former UConn star Jennifer Rizzotti, a member of this summer’s USA Olympic squad under Dawn Staley, has done well when behind in double digits, having rescued wins six times this season but La Salle did not allow number seven.

After reaching the nine-point deficit, MacGillivray’s squad exploded by scoring 25 of the next 27 points for a 54-40 lead with 6 minutes, 20 seconds left in regulation. 

GW wasn’t through, however, and got within three over the next three minutes.

But that was as far as the Colonials could get.

Claire Jacobs, half the rookie twin sister duo from Perth, Australia, the other being Amy, helped the attack for the Explorers in the second half, scoring 15 of her 16 points.

 Kayla Spruill scored 11 with all three of her attempts from 3-point landing finding their target. Amy Jacobs scored 10 and blocked two shots while matching her personal best with five rebounds.

La Salle’s last win over the Colonials occurred six seasons ago, also at the Smith Center.

 They now head to Saint Joseph’s, Saturday, at 2 p.m. in Hagan Arena to complete the season series after winning the first last month to snap a seven-game losing streak against the Hawks.

. That was also the final Big Five game of the season enabling the Explorers to finish tied with the Hawks at 1-3 in the round robin that was shared by Villanova and Temple at 3-1. Penn was third at 2-2.

Small Colleges: Rowan Maintains Lead in the NJAC.     

 The Profs had an easy time of it, beating William Paterson 72-53 on the road in Wayne, N.J., to stay a game in front of Montclair State in the New Jersey Athletic Conference as the regular season winds down to its last few games.

Montclair, however, is now alone in second place after The College of New Jersey suffered a loss.

Rowan (20-3, 14-2 NJAC) reached 20 wins for the first time since 2016, when the Profs finished 23-6. They are currently ranked second in the first NCAA Atlantic Region listing.

Reserve Savannah Holt had 16 points for Rowan, while Grace Marshall and Kennedy Brown, each scored nine points.

Jykayla Elting had a double-double of 12 points and 12 rebounds for the Pioneers (9-13, 8-8).

Rowan finishes by visiting Rutgers-Newark in North Jersey Saturday at 6 p.m. and ends at home in Glassboro, next Wednesday at 6 p.m. against Kean.

CACC: USciences Widens Lead Over Holy Family in the South Division

The Devils put on a scoring fireworks display on the road, beating host Georgian Court 99-53 in Lakewood, N.J., thus opening a two-game lead in the South Division of D-II Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference over Holy Family, which fell at home to Goldey-Beacom 62-60 in Campus Center in Northeast Philadelphia.

USciences (21-3, 14-1 CACC), now 18^th in the latest D2 coaches’ poll, won its 15^th straight game since dropping the conference season-opener to Holy Family, which is under first-year coach Bernadette Laukaitis, a former player and previously associate head coach to Mike McLaughlin at Penn after also serving with him at her alma mater.

The Tigers after the upset stayed in front most of the way until a recent two-game slide that was stopped Saturday knocked them a game behind with the return match set for next Tuesday at the Devils’ Bobby Morgan Arena in Southwest Philadelphia.

The points against Georgian Court (7-14, 5-0) were the most by the Devils, since their program-record total of 104 at the front-end of the 2013-14 season and that mark dated back to 2003-04.

USciences shot 35-for-56 for a 62.5 percent attack from the field, while defensively held the home team to 29.7 percent (19-of-64). The Devils also connected with a season-high 19 foul shots.

Irisa Ye scored 34 points and grabbed nine rebounds for personal bests, while also dishing five assists and she grabbed three steals in just 21 minutes of action. She was 11-for-12 from the field and 12-of-14 from the line.

Jordan Vitelli scored 16 points and Jess Huber scored 10, while Vitelli’s 4-of-6 three-balls gives her 69 on the season, which is second on the program charts. Huber nailed two to tie for fifth with 65.

Ahead of next week’s Holy Family visit, USciences on Saturday visits Felician at 1 p.m. in North Jersey.

Memwhile, Holy Family (14-9, 12-3 CACC) tossed away a game to the Lightning (7-15, 7-7) in which the Tigers jumped to an 18-0 lead and was still comfortably ahead at the half, 32-17.

Goldey-Beacom then methodically slashed the deficit and things got dramatic in the closing minutes after a 22-4 run brought the teams to a tie at 58-58 with 1:31 left in regulation.

Amanda McGrogan hit two foul shots and then scored off a steal to knot the score for the visitors.

The Tigers then went back in front, but the Lightning tied it again on a shot with 1:01 left.

 Holy Family next missed a three and then McGrogan kept possession of missed shots with two offensive rebounds and got fouled to go to the line and score the game-winners.

The Tigers missed two shots in the final 10 seconds attempting to force overtime.

Elizabeth Radley scored 19 for Holy Family, while Anjelai Hayes scored 16 and had seven rebounds and four assists.

McGrogan scored 19 of her 21 points in the second half.

The Tigers next host Caldwell University Saturday at 1 p.m.

In another CACC game of local import, Jefferson continued its improved play of late, beating Wilmington 84-71 in Newark, Del.

After the home team scored first, the Rams (12-11, 8-6 CACC) took over the rest of the way.

Alynna Williams had 31 points, the second time this season she scored at least 30, while Maddie Haney had 11 points and 10 reounds, and Haley Meinel scored 14 against Wilmington (4-18, 4-11).

Jefferson tied a season-high with 13 three-pointers as coach Tom Shirley reached career win number 789, of which 640 have been compiled with the Rams.

Next up Jefferson will host Nyack at 2 p.m. Saturday in the Gallagher Center.

Looking Ahead: Just three games on the local D-1 slate on Thursday with Rider, trying to bounce back from its loss Tuesday to Marist, meets Siena near Albany, N.Y., in a Metro Atlantic Athletic Contest (MAAC) at 7 p.m.

 Meanwhile the local duo in the Big Ten of Rutgers and Penn State are on the road – Rutgers visits Michigan State at 7 p.m. while Penn State will be at Nebraska at 8 p.m.

Three games of national note: In the Big Ten, a showdown with Maryland hosting Iowa at 6 p.m. while in the Atlantic Coast Conference, Louisville is at N.C. State at 8 p.m.

 Down in Norfolk, Va., trailing by just a game, Old Dominion will try to end visiting Rice’s long run in Conference USA at 6:30 p.m. and move into a first-place tie. 

In the Southeastern Conference Tennessee visits LSU at 7:30 p.m.

On Friday, locally, the Ivy duo of Penn and Princeton are on the road – Penn is at Brown at 6 p.m. in Povidence, R.I., while Princeton is at Yale at 6 p.m. in New Haven, Conn. They are the only two D-1 in action because Delaware, Drexel, and Villanova are in bye weeks in their respective conferences.

Nationally, in the PAC-12 Oregon is in another conference showdown game, visiting UCLA at 11 p.m.

On Saturday locally, besides the La Salle-Saint Joseph’s game mentioned, Temple is hosting Houston in an American Athletic Conference game at 2 p.m., and Rider in the MAAC continues on to Manhattan College at 2 p.m. 

Penn and Brown switch visits from Friday – Penn is at Yale at 4 p.m. and Princeton is at Brown at 5 p.m.

On Sunday, Drexel finishes its season games with its travel partner Delaware in the Colonial Athletic Association, visiting the Blue Hens at 1 p.m. in the Bob Carpenter Center in Newark, Del.

Villanova visits its travel partner Georgetown at 2 p.m. in the nation’s capital while the local Big Ten duo has Rutgers hosting Michigan at noon in Piscataway, N.J., and Penn State hosting Maryland at 2 p.m.

On Monday, Oregon State is at UCLA at 9 p.m.

And that’s the report.