The Guru Report: Rider, Penn and Princeton Defense Foes Into Submission

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

LAWRENCEVILLE, N.J. – It was lockdown day for three of the four of your Guru’s 11 local D-1 group that saw action Saturday afternoon here at Rider and up in New England involving the Ivy duo of Penn and Princeton.

Here in Alumni Gymnasium in front of a homecoming crowd the Broncs kept rolling along emerging unscathed from a five-game/10-day slate with a 48-25 victory over area rival Monmouth to maintain a two-game lead in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC).

 Rider (17-2, 10-0) extended its program record win streak to 14 straight games – the two losses being the season opener up the road at Princeton and a few weeks later to North Florida down in Orlando at the MAAC/ASUN Challenge at Disney’s Wide World of Sports.

The win over the Hawks (5-15, 2-9) also kept the Broncs perfect at home at 9-0.

 The conference record to this point has put Rider in a place no previous Rider women’s hoops team has been, including the recent historic 2016-17 season.

The last time Rider soared to a 9-0 start here was 27 seasons ago in 1992-93.

The defensive effort saddled Monmouth with a first-ever hold under 30 points in the Hawks’ Division I competition of over 1,100 games. 

And the 25 points are the lowest ever limited to the opposition in the era here under veteran coach Lynn Milligan.

It’s also the second time the Broncs have held the opposition to 16 percent or less from the field and just eight field goals.

Switching the conversation to the offensive attack for a minute, Rider’s Stella Johnson, the nation’s leading scorer, had 16 points, seven rebounds, five assists, two blocks and four steals. 

In the process, she’s now the ninth player in program history to collect 1,900 career points.

Amari Johnson racked up her sixth straight double-double with 11 points and 11 rebounds – she leads the MAAC with 13 overall and has now claimed the most since MyNeshia McKenzie, now on the Saint Joseph’s staff in Philadelphia, picked up 19 double-doubles in 2013-14.

Lea Favre had 15 points.

“I thought today defensively we were locked in,” Milligan said. “We took away some of the looks that they wanted. Offensively, I thought we were in the flow and took great shots, they just didn’t fall. 

“We know we can always rely on our defense. We did a terrific job defending them, particularly in the third quarter.”

After the heavy workload, Rider is now off until Thursday when the Broncs visit St. Peter’s at 7:30 p.m. in Jersey City.

Penn Snaps Losing Streak Via Easy Win at Dartmouth

The Quakers finally put the skids to having a dicey matter from becoming worse by bouncing off Friday’s tough loss at Harvard and keeping up with the defensive theme of the day with a 66-33 win over Dartmouth in the Ivy League on the road at the Big Green’s Leede Arena in Hanover, N.H.

 Just like that with the Ivy race still in the early stage, a second place finish in the regular season is still very attainable, which may have been the best prospect in any situation given the invincible look of two-time defending Ivy tourney champion Princeton.

After rocketing to Penn’s best non-conference start ever, coach Mike McLaughlin’s team went into a four-game stall, losing the Ivy opener in the Palestra, then falling in two Big Five games at Villanova and at Temple, a game the Quakers had control the first three quarters, and then Friday night at Harvard off a sluggish performance in the first half. 

But on Saturday, the Quakers (11-5, 1-2 Ivy) thundered with a 29-0 run across the first and second periods to put Dartmouth (7-10, 1-3) deep in the rearview mirror on the way to the program’s 600^th win in its history.

If Penn began to look like the vintage Quakers of recent seasons, by coincidence junior post player Eleah Parker played like the force she was as a freshman and sophomore, with 14 points and 16 rebounds. It’s her 20th career double double. She also had two blocks to move into third on the program career chart.

Phoebe Sterba was 6-for-8 from the field, including connecting on 3 of 4 triples, and finished with 15 points, while freshman Kayla Padilla had 15 points.

Allie Harland was the sole Dartmouth player in double figures, scoring 10 points, while Veronica Kelly grabbed 11 rebounds for the Big Green.

Standings wise, the Quakers in the loss column with two in the Ivies trail Yale (4-0) and Princeton (3-0) but are tied with Columbia (2-2), Harvard (2-2), and Cornell (2-2).

So certainly, if Penn plays more like the Quakers did Saturday night, making the four-team field for the Ivy tourney, this year at Harvard, is still realistic and even finishing second.

 Yeah, mathematically, finishing over Princeton with help is possible, but until further notice, let’s stay with reality.

So, it’s on to the next step in the process, which is this weekend at The Palestra back home hosting Columbia Friday at 7 and then on alumni night hosting Cornell, also at 7.

Princeton Slams Harvard

Any idea the host Crimson had of making it a sweep of Penn and Princeton on the weekend died in the Tigers’ road completion of a counter-sweep, following the lopsided Friday win at Dartmouth with a 60-46 triumph over Harvard at Lavietes Pavilion in Boston.

Julia Cunningham had a game-high 16 points for the two-time reigning Ivy champion visitors (15-1, 3-0 Ivy), who, as Penn’s travel partner, will be in position to help the Quakers for the next few weekends assuming coach Mike McLaughlin’s group can take care of its own business.

Two-time reigning Ivy player of the year, Bella Alarie scored 13, Carlie Littlefield scored 10, while Princeton, in the first year under coach Carla Berube, demolished the home team on the boards, 38-23, and grabbed ten steals, four of them by Littlefield.

The Tigers’ sole loss has been in overtime 77-75 at Iowa.

Lola Mullaney and Jeanine Boehm each scored 10 points for the Crimson (11-6, 2-2).

The Tigers return home to Jadwin Gym this weekend in central New Jersey, up the road from here at Rider, hosting Cornell Friday night at 6 and Columbia Saturday at 5.

La Salle Streak Ends at Fordham

The Explorers’ two-game win streak ended in a 62-45 loss at Fordham Saturday in an Atlantic 10 game at Rose Hill Gym, in the Bronx (N.Y.) home of the reigning league champions.

La Salle (9-13. 3-6 Atlantic 10) was still hopeful of an upset, rallying to a one-point deficit off an 8-0 run late in the third period but the Rams (13-8, 5-3) answered with four straight points to close the quarter.

Fordham then stayed in control the rest of the way opening the final quarter with a 10-4 differential and finishing the game with 11 of the final 15 points.

Claire Jacobs scored 11 for the visitors and Shalina Miller had nine rebounds.

La Salle gets the week off until next hosting Richmond on Sunday at 2 p.m. in Tom Gola Arena looking for revenge against a Spiders bunch that recently won the first meeting by two points in Virginia.

Nationally Noted: Ionescu’s Triple Double Powers Oregon over Colorado

No. 3 Oregon got ready for its cross-country non-conference visit Monday night at No. 4 Connecticut in the Huskies’ Gampel Pavilion in Storrs on campus by cruising on the road in the PAC-12 over Colorado 101-53.

The Ducks’ Sabrina Ionescu, frontrunner for national player of the year and likely overall No. 1 pick in April’s WNBA draft by the New York Liberty, increased her combination NCAA men’s and women’s triple double career mark to 23, scoring 24 points, dealing 13 assists, and grabbing 10 rebounds.

It took just 27 minutes of play across the game in Boulder, Colo., to collect those statistics with Oregon (19-2, 9-1 PAC-12).

Satou Sabally had 17 points, Minyon Moore scored 15, and Ruthy Hebard scored 10.

On the other bench Emma Clark had 18 and Mya Hollingshed scored 11 for Colorado (14-7, 3-7).

Oregon, which opened the season No. 1 in the Associated Press women’s poll, last played UConn in the 2017 NCAA tournament in the Elite Eight in Bridgeport, Conn., when the Ducks were moving up the national scale, beating Temple with a block at the finish at Duke in the first round and then beating the host Blue Devils to advance to the Sweet 16 and dealing an upset to Maryland.

That was Ionescu’s freshmen season.

Small Colleges: Holy Family Upset at Dominican and Gets Tied by USciences

The Tigers’ unbeaten run in the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC) that began with an opening upset at USciences ended Saturday with a 76-64 loss to Dominican College at the Hennessy Center in Orangeburg, N.Y.

Holy Family (13-6, 11-1 CACC) opened in control into the start of the second quarter with an 18-7 lead. 

But the Chargers (11-10, 9-3) then launched a 23-11 run to go ahead by a point at 30-29 at the half.

The Tigers threatened in the fourth moving within four points before the home team cut the rally and held off the visitors the rest of the way.

Moe More had a career-high 23 points for Holy Family, while Elizabeth Radley had 17 points.

Dominican’s Taylor Tomlinson scored 18 points.

The Tigers will try to bounce back Tuesday traveling to Georgian Court at 6 p.m. at the Wellness Center in Lakewood, N.J.

USciences finally caught Holy Family for first in the Southern Division of the conference by winning its 12^th straight, the No. 24 Devils beating host Nyack 63-45 in Bowman Gym in suburban New York City.

Jordan Vitelli scored 20 points and grabbed nine rebounds for USciences and set the program record for career three-pointers to lead the visitors to a wire-to-wire ownership of the game against the Warriors (7-12, 5-7).

She now has 250, topping the previous mark of 247 by Jessica Sylvester (2011-15) and became the fifth active Division II player with her current total.

Jess Huber scored 12, all in the third quarter, and reserve Kendall Keyes scored 11.

 Irisa Ye had a career-high six steals while another career-high in thefts was obtained by Brigit Coleman with five.

The Devils end a road stint of two-and-a-half weeks returning Tuesday to Bobby Morgan Arena in Southwest Philadelphia at 5:30 p.m. to host Goldey-Beacom.

In another CACC game, Jefferson went ahead just before the close of the first quarter and stayed in front the rest of the way for a 67-59 win at Caldwell in Northern New Jersey.

Alynna Williams had 25 points for the Rams (9-11, 6-6), while Maddie Haney had 14 points and 12 rebounds.

Jefferson has won six of its last eight games with Caldwell (5-16, 5-7).

Coach Tom Shirley is now at 786 career victories, of which 637 are with the Rams.

Jefferson next has a non-conference game Wednesday at 6 p.m. hosting Southern Connecticut State in the Gallgher Center.

Lincoln Streak Continues as Lions Reach 20 Wins

It was senior day at Lincoln University’s Manuel Rivero Hall and the upper class celebrated big with an 83-40 win over Shaw in the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA) for the Lions’ seventh straight win to reach 20, a total only held elsewhere in the region by top-ranked Indiana (Pa.).

DeAshia Young and Kwanza Murray combined for 43 points while Brittany Hinton got her first double-double for Lincoln (20-3, 10-1 CIAA).

The Lions are first in the CIAA north in overall conference record and division record at 5-0.

Shaw fell to 6-15 overall and 2-10 in the league.

Darrell Mosley is just the second coach in Lincoln history to reach 20 wins in a season.

Murray had a game-high 27 points and collected seven rebounds and a career-high seven steals, just the sixth in program history and second this season following Young doing the same against Cheyney in November.

Young had 16 points and dealt seven assists, which she leads the CIAA. It was her sixth game with seven or more assists this season and 13^th with at least five.

Hinton getting just her second start had 11 points and 11 rebounds. 

The other seniors honored besides Murray, Young, and Hinton were Shahra Madison, Kenzie Spencer and manager Natasha Howell.

Lincoln Monday will host Winston-Salem State at 7:30 p.m.

Rowan Regains Sole Possession of First in the NJAC

The Profs bounced back from their recent loss to TCNJ that resulted in a tie for first between the two in the New Jersey Athletic Conference by beating Ramapo College 84-53 in Glassoboro, N.J., while TCNJ fell to Montclair State.

Nicole Mallard scored 18 points and had six rebounds and four assists, while Jazlyn Duverglas scored 12, and Savanna Holt scored 11.

 Eliana Santana had 10 rebounds for the Profs (17-3, 11-2 NJAC) against the Roadrunners (9-11, 3-10), which got 11 points from Jessica Repasy and 10 from Samantha Rinaldi.

Rowan travels Wednesday to Stockton in Galloway, N.J., for a conference game at 6 p.m.

While the Profs were winning, up in Ewing, N.J., just above Trenton, TCNJ fell to Montclair State 52-38. The Red Hawks (16-4, 11-2) also have a win over Rowan.

Shannon Devitt got her 1,000^th point for TCNJ (13-7, 10-3) in the loss. 

Rachel Gazzola scored 15 for the Lions and Devitt scored 14.

TCNJ travels to Rutgers-Camden Wednesday night.

Looking Ahead: Drexel and James Madison Fight for First in the CAA

In their first of two meetings this season, Drexel will host James Madison at 2 p.m. Sunday in the Daskalakis Athletic Center for sole possession of first place in the Colonial Athletic Association. 

Several times in past meetings the top spot has been up for grabs.

The Dukes were the preseason favorite.

Meanwhile, Delaware in the CAA, after losing at home to JMU on Friday, will host Towson at 1 p.m. in the Bob Carpenter Center in Newwark.

Villanova is also home, hosting Seton Hall at 1 p.m. looking to complete a weekend sweep following the overtime win Friday against St. John’s, and also a season sweep of the Pirates in the Big East game at Finneran Pavilion.

Saint Joseph’s will be home in Tom Hagan Arena at 2 p.m. hosting powerful Dayton in an Atlantic 10 contest.

 The visiting Flyers are hosts for the conference tournament’s quarterfinals, semifinals, and finals next month for a berth in the NCAA tournament. 

Rutgers will look to extend its last triumph when the Scarlet Knights visit Minnesota at 3 p.m. while Penn State hosts Northwestern at noon, both games part of the Big Ten Conference.

After that, none of the Guru’s 11 local Division I group play until a single game Wednesday when Temple hosts Wichita State in McGonigle Hall at 7 p.m. in the American Athletic Conference looking to avenge a last second loss several weeks ago in Kansas.

And that’s the report.