The Guru Report: A Sweep Saturday Featured by Rallies and More Milestones

By Mel Greenberg @wwomhoopsguru

PHILADELPHIA – More milestones and rare achievements continued into Saturday among the Guru’s six local Division groups who played – two against each other, while the small colleges continued for the most part to enjoy outstanding seasons coming to the stretch drive leading into their respective D-2 and D-3 conference tournaments.

The exception was D2-Lincoln, one game after setting a new season mark with 23 victories, the Lions’ 10-game win streak was stopped, losing at Virginia Union 62-47 in a Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA) game in Richmond. 

Here at Saint Joseph’s in Hagan Arena, second year La Salle coach Mountain MacGillivray smiled and accepted a suggestion as a compliment that his Explorers have improved from a really bad inexperienced bunch to a team of mediocrity, perhaps the only outfit that could qualify for that description.

That’s a result of La Salle’s 59-53 victory in the Atlantic 10 over Saint Joseph’s for a first-ever regular season sweep of the Hawks (8-16, 2-10 A-10) and first win here on the road since 1998.

The Explorers (11-14, 5-7) did win twice in 1996 but one was in an opening round of the Atlantic 10 tournament. 

Last month, La Salle’s 67-59 win back home near here at Tom Gola Arena snapped a seven-game slide in the series and also counted in the Big Five standings where the two teams tied for fourth (1-4) behind co-champions Villanova (3-1) and Temple (3-1) and third-place Penn (2-2).

Meanwhile, in a close battle, Rider on the road outlasted Manhattan 55-50 in a Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) game at Draddy Gym in Riverdale, N.Y., that kept the Broncs (19-4, 12-2 MAAC) exactly tied for first with preseason favorite Marist (19-4, 12-2), two games ahead of Fairfield (12-10, 9-4), which fell at home to Iona 59-52.

The Stags held third, though, important for the Broncs because if they and the Red Foxes win out, Rider would get the top seed by having swept Fairfield for next month’s MAAC tournament, which is moving from its long stay in Albany, N.Y., to Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City.

A day after Penn’s win at Brown gave coach Mike McLaughlin his 600^th victory, the Rider win made longtime coach Lynn Milligan the winningest in the program with 163 triumphs breaking a tie with her former coach Eldon Price.

Down on North Broad Street, Temple broke a two-game slide, rallying from a 16-point deficit to beat Houston 76-75 in an American Athletic Conference game in McGonigle Hall.

In the Ivy League, up in lower New England, Princeton thumped Brown 85-48 to stay two games in front after another weekend sweep while in a closely fought contest Penn rallied to edge Yale 53-51 to move into second place courtesy of Columbia thumping Harvard 89-64 at home in Levien Gym in the Upper West Side of New York City. 

The Small Colleges in the area continued to win – D2-USciences, Holy Family, and Jefferson were triumphant in the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC), D3-Rowan stayed ahead in the New Jersey Athletic Conference by beating host Rutgers-Newark, but as mentioned above, Lincoln was the one taking a loss besides Saint Joseph’s, where one had to lose with two locals playing each other.

La Salle Getting More Respectable

The thrills continued for the Explorers as the woes also continued for the Hawks while La Salle also dodged a scare when one of the area’s top rookies went down with a seemingly knee injury but Claire Jacobs, who along with her twin sister Amy, are from Perth, Australia, returned to action several minutes later here at Hagan Arena to help keep La Salle in front and on to a 59-53 victory.

As mentioned in the Guru’s overture above, it’s the first-ever regular season sweep over Saint Joseph’s (8-16, 2-10 A-10) for La Salle (11-14, 5-7), tied for 10^th with George Washington in the Atlantic 10, but within reach of a potential opening round home site for next month’s conference tournament.

The top four teams get byes in the 14-team league, while the next five seeds host and then the winners and frontrunners advance to Dayton at the Flyers’ UD Arena for the quarterfinals, semifinals, and championship to earn an automatic NCAA bid.

In this one, Saint Joseph’s trailed by as much as 10 points three different times in the first half and again at 40-30 with 6 minutes, 51 seconds left in the third quarter before rallying to get within a basket several times in the fourth before La Salle held the Hawks off from never taking the lead in the game.

“They weren’t going to give up, and we had to stay with it and try to match it,” MacGillivray said. “I lik the way we responded.”

Claire Jacobs shot 7-for-10 from the field and 4-for-5 in the second half on the way to a game-high 18 points, along with five rebounds, career highs in steals (3) and blocks (2), and an assist. 

Her sister Amy had 11 points, shooting 4-for-7 from the floor, including 3-of-5 from beyond the arc.

“That’s what they continue to do, score the ball,” MacGillivray said. “They’re getting much better on the defensive end of the floor. I’m pleased with that.” 

Kayla Spruill had 10 points, five rebounds, and career highs with five assists and three blocked shots.

La Salle is now five wins better overall from MacGillivray’s first season with four left before the A-10 tourney.

“They’re starting to build a memory on how we defend, what our expectations are, and it’s really playing off, MacGillivray said. “We’re getting more comfortable in these situations.”

Saint Joseph’s, meanwhile, tied for last, dropped the Hawks’ sixth straight game after an earlier buzzer-beating win at St. Bonaventure last month.

For the most part, shots not dropping – 10 more were put up from the field – contributed to the latest setback.

Positives were a 40-28 advantage in rebounding, including 16-4 on the offensive end leading to a 19-3 advantage in second chance points.

With reserves Gabby Smalls scoring 17 points, and Kaliah Henderson scoring nine, the home team had a whopping 32-11 advantage in bench points. Starter Katie Jekot scored 12.

“The outcome isn’t obviously what we wanted it to be today,” said Saint Joseph’s veteran coach Cindy Griffin. “We’ve been fighting, our kids have been fighting, I’m proud of our effort today, things didn’t go our way down the stretch, we needed to get some stops and weren’t able to do it. And we had some layups we weren’t able to convert.”

Of Smalls, Griffin said, “Gabby’s been doing that all year, the thing we’ve been trying to get out of her is some consistency. As a freshman, it’s hard but she certainly showed up today and gave us that energy.

“We’ve outshot our opponents most games – the challenging part is we’re not making them. The great thing today is we got to the foul line, but we missed eight so that kind of hurts you in a two-minute game down the stretch. We’re working hard, defensively, so it’s getting the shots and making the shots that we want.”

La Salle, which has won two straight, hosts VCU at 5 p.m. Wednesday in the front end of a doubleheader with the Explorers men’s team at 5 p.m. Wednesday at Tom Gola Arena while the same night the Hawks travel to Davidson in a game in North Carolina at 7 p.m.

Penn and Princeton Complete Another Weekend Sweep

The first half of the Ivy regular season race is over with it looking like a 5 for 4 competition for the four spots in the fourth annual tournament next month, which will be at Harvard in Boston with an NCAA bid at stake.

Actually, it’s business as usual at the top, even with new coach Carla Berube running Princeton after longtime coach Courtney Banghart left for the world of North Carolina and the Atlantic Coast Conference to rebuild the Tar Heels into the traditional power of the past.

The big news here is Penn has now shaken off the problem of a rare four-game losing streak – two here in the Big Five and two in the Ivies, those two being Princeton and Harvard.

The Quakers came through Saturday afternoon with a gritty 53-51 win at Yale in the Bulldogs’ John L. Lee Amphitheater in New Haven, Conn., which allowed Penn (15-5, 5-2 Ivy), to gain a half-game edge on Yale (15-6, 5-3), though two games behind the unstoppable Tigers (19-1, 7-0).

But some help also came in the climb with Columbia (13-8, 4-4) finally getting a break-through win over a league elite, blasting Harvard 89-64 in Levien Gym to knot the Crimson (13-7, 5-3) with Yale but only a game in front of the Lions.

Columbia is in front of Cornell and Dartmouth by two games.

In Penn’s victory, the Quakers’ fifth straight after the slide, the winners came back from a double-digit deficit in the second half.

Phoebe Sterba shot 5-or-9 to score 16 points, while Kendall Grasela and rookie Kayla Padilla each scored 11, while Tori Crawford grabbed a team-high 11 rebounds, including a missed foul shot with less than three seconds left to clinch the win.

The rally from ten down in the second half to get a win was the visiting team’s largest rally this season.

The Eli got to a double digit lead with 6:23 left in the third.

Michae Jones stole an inbounds pass at the finish to get the Quakers into the winners’ column.

Penn next weekend hosts Dartmouth Friday at 7 p.m. at the Palestra and then Saturday hosts Harvard at 7 with a chance to go up three on the Crimson if Princeton helps out.

The Tigers were busy Saturday just helping themselves against the last place Bears 85-48 at Brown’s Pizzitola Sports Center in Providence, R.I.

Princeton has now won 15 straight losing just to Iowa in overtime by two points last December on the road at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

The nation’s top defense allowed just six buckets in the first half.

Carlie Littlefield had 19 points, nine rebounds, five assists, and a block, while two-time reigning Ivy player of the year Bella Alarie had 16 points, nine rebounds, five assists, and five blocks, while Ellie Mitchell scored 13 and grabbed eight rebounds against Brown (7-14, 1-7). Maggie Connolly had 11 points off the bench.

Reversing the hosting assignments off Penn, on Friday, Princeton will host Harvard at 6 at Jadwin Gym in Central New Jersey and then host Dartmouth Saturday at 6.

The following Tuesday at 7 on Feb. 25, Princeton will host the return game with Penn at 7 p.m., the game to be televised on NBC Sports Philadelphia and SNY.

All of this allows Columbia to become a bigger factor following the game with Harvard.

The Lions will be going to Brown 6 p.m. Friday night and Yale at 4 p.m. Saturday.

If Harvard gets swept by Princeton and Penn, then Columbia with a sweep could minimally tie Yale for fourth a game ahead of the Crimson if the Lions sweep.

In the game with Harvard, the visitors’ Lola Mullaney scored 12, Jeanine Boehm scored 11, and Rachel Levy scored 10.

Columbia rookie Abbey Hsu had a career-high 31 points and Sienna Durr, last season’s Ivy rookie of the year, scored 20 as the Lions had their first weekend sweep in nine seasons when they beat Yale and Brown in 2011.

“I just loved the way we shared the ball,” Hsu said on SNY’s postgame interview.

“From a total defensive standpoint, this is the kind of effort we need every day and every night,” Columbia coach Megan Griffith said.

Mikayla Markham added 12 points for the Lions. 

Rider Stays Tied for MAAC Lead as Milligan Becomes Program Wins Leader

Coming back from Tuesday’s loss to Marist at home to drop back into a tie with the Red Foxes, and then a win at Siena Thursday, the Broncs completed a three games in five days portion of the schedule winning at Manhattan College 55-50.

Snapping a tie with her college coach Eldon Price, the all-time wins leader in the program with 163 now belongs to Lynn Milligan, a former Broncs star under Price, who is in her 13^th season at her alma mater after serving six seasons as an assistant at Saint Joseph’s to Cindy Griffin. She also spent a previous six seasons at Drexel.

“This is something I’ll process later,” Milligan said after the game. “It really means that I’m old and I’ve been here a long time. I’ve been blessed with tremendous assistant coaches, people around me and tremendous players.

“I’m very thankful for all of them to make something like this happen. The person that I passed was my coach, Coach Price, he’s down in Florida. I hope he’s watching, he was like a father second dad to me. It’s really special for me for me to be mentioned with him.”

As for the game with the Jaspers, Stella Johnson, the nation’s leading scorer, had a game-high 27 points against the Jaspers, who have lost three of their last four games.

Rallying, an 11-0 run carried the Broncs to a 23-21 lead at the half and they never trailed over the final two quarters.

 Johnson also had seven rebounds, five assists, and four steals, and three blocks. Lea Favre had 14 points off 7-for-14 from the field.

“This was our third game in six days on the road in a really tough place to play,” Milligan said. “Stella needed to step up for us to come out of here with a hard-fought win and that’s what she did. 

“It’s been a tough week being on the road. We knew what we were in for tonight. They are an incredibly well coached team. We had some tremendous stops and I thought we executed really well. We are really happy to get the win.”

It’s the first time Rider has been 12-2 in the MAAC passing last season’s 11-3 start over 14 games. 

Amari Johnson just missed another double double with nine points and 10 rebounds.

The Broncs next go for a season sweep visiting Quinnipiac at 6 p.m. on Thursday in Hamden, Conn.

Temple Rallies to beat Houston

The Owls joined the teams with rallies from deep deficits, ending a two-game slide by coming from 16 down to edge Houston 76-75 in an American Athletic Conference game at home in McGonigle Hall.

Mia Davis had another stellar afternoon, in this game scoring 27 points for the Owls (14-10, 6-5), who fell 16 behind the Cougars (12-14, 5-7) in the first quarter.

Temple moved to sixth but just a game behind three teams in front and likely four on Sunday if USF falls at home to No. 5 Connecticut.

The Owls had a season-high eight steals. 

Davis also had seven rebounds while Ashley Jones had 22 points and a game-high eight assists, and Lena Niang had 11 points.

The Cougars bolted to an 11-0 lead, but Temple closed the quarter on a 10-0 run.

Jones hit a foul shot for a three-point lead with six seconds left in regulation and Houston came down but scored on just a layup to finish a point short of forcing overtime.

Temple next plays next door Wednesday in the larger Liacouras Center hosting Memphis in a league game at noon in the annual school day 

Nationally Noted: Old Dominion Alone at the top of C-USA

Two days after Old Dominion’s landmark upset of Rice in overtime the Lady Monarchs are alone in first in Conference -USA courtesy of Charlotte’s follow-up takedown of Rice 62-51 in North Carolina while ODU held on to win at home in Norfolk, Va., over North Texas 71-66.

At 22-3 ODU good enough to earn a ranking for the first time in 11 seasons while Princeton also has a claim to return.

Small Colleges: Wins to USciences, Holy Family, Jefferson, Rowan While Lincoln Upset

The stage is set for Tuesday’s showdown at USciences 5:30 p.m. hosting Holy Family in Southwest Philadelphia near The Palestra, though from the visiting Tigers it may be more about sending a message.

Holy Family at home in its Campus Center Gymnasium in Northeast Philadelphia earlier upset the Devils in the opener of the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC), the same way the Tigers had done in the title game of the Philadelphia/Suburban NCAA Certified Women’s Basketball Summer League several months earlier.

USciences hadn’t lost since, however, while the Tigers, under first-year coach and former star Bernadette Laukaitis, who had been an associate at Penn under Mike McLaughlin, recently hit a two-game slide to drop a game behind the Devils and then yielded a big lead last week and lost by a basket.

So with two in front the host Devils can clinch a top seed out of the South Division but the Tigers can still prove to be dangerous with an upset heading to the looming playoffs.

Both teams won their games Saturday.

USciences, ranked 18^th in the D-II WBCA Coaches Poll easily triumphed at Felician 88-58 in Rutherford, N.J., for the 16^th straight win by the Devils (22-3, 15-1 CACC), who bolted to a 27-4 advantage through the first quarter.

Jordan Vitelli scored 16 points, Jess Huber scored 12, and Irisa Ye scored 11 against the Golden Falcons (3-19, 2-13). 

The Devils with 27 assists were just one short of the record set on Jan. 19, 2011, dating all the way back to 2005-06.

 A win Tuesday clinches a fourth straight South title and fifth in the last six years.

Holy Family, meanwhile, had another close one, but outlasted Caldwell University 56-52 at home Saturday to clinch a postseason berth after breaking a 31-31 tie late in the third period.

Elizabeth Radley had her sixth-leading double double for the Tigers (15-9, 13-3 CACC), scoring 11 points and grabbing a game-high 13 rebounds, while freshman Moe Moore had her fifth, scoring 15 points and grabbing 12 rebounds, while Casey Schweitzer had 10 points and 11 rebounds, and Mia Ehling scored 12 against Caldwell (7-18, 7-9).

The win snapped a five-game losing streak in the series.

The Tigers will be heading to next month’s tournament after missing the field last season. 

Meanwhile, Jefferson, despite earlier struggles, continues to prove as a late season threat, beating Nyack 79-40 at home in the Gallagher Center for the fifth straight win by the Rams (13-11, 9-6).

Alynna Williams had 14 points and six rebounds and five assists, while Sabria Lytes had 11 points, and freshman Morgan Robinson and Haley Meinel each scored 10 points against Nyack (8-14, 6-9).

 It was coach Tom Shirley’s 790th win, of which 641 have come with the Rams.

Jefferson, which hosts Georgian Court Tuesday at the Gallagher Center at 6 p.m., is holding the fourth and final playoff spot out of the South Division with four games remaining.

The Rams are tied with Chestnut Hill but would lose the spot on a head-to-head tie-breaker. They meet again on Feb. 22 next Saturday. Goldey-Beacom is a game behind.

Career Night for Caldwell Carries Rowan to Win at Rutgers-Newark

Paige Caldwell had a game and career-high 18 points to keep Rowan in first place in the New Jersey Athletic Conference after a 78-63 win in Newark, N.J. She also had seven rebounds.

Alexis Kiley and Savanna Holt each scored 13 points for the Profs (21-3, 15-2, NJAC) while Nicole Mallard scored 11 and grabbed a career-high eight steals, and Ayanna Johnson had 13 rebounds and three blocks.

Hannah Ashby had 17 points for the Scarlet Raiders (4-20, 2-15).

Rowan finishes the regular season home Wednesday hosting Kean University at 6 p.m. in Glassboro, N.J.

Montclair State remains a game behind after beating Stockton at home 75-52 and travels to Rutgers-Camden at 6 p.m.

The two teams split their season series.

The NJAC tourney quarterfinals begin Saturday.

Lincoln Win Streak Snapped

The Lions’ 10 game win streak was snapped a game after Lincoln set a season record for triumphs, falling to Virginia Union University 62-47 in Barco-Stevens Hall in a Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA) game in Richmond, Va.

It was the first loss for Lincoln (23-4, 12-2 CIAA) in North Division games, where they are now 6-1.

Shooting did the Lions in with a mediocre 28.1 percent from the field.

DeAshia Young had 12 points against the Panthers (20-3, 11-2), while Joy Morton scored eight.

 Lincoln’s next game, the regular season finale, is at Bowie State in Bowie, Md., Saturday at 2 p.m.

Looking Ahead: Drexel Goes for Sweep at Delaware to Stay Alone in First in CAA

Only five of the Guru’s local D-1 teams play Sunday and two go against each other with the second of the annual two-game rivalry games in the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) between Drexel and Delaware.

Drexel won the first meeting at home last month 63-59 in overtime and the Dragons meet Delaware at the Blue Hens’ Bob Carpenter Center at 1 p.m. in Newark, Del. 

The home team is celebrating National Girls & Women in Sports Day with the game televised on NBC Sports Philadelphia and SNY.

The Dragons (17-6, 10-1 CAA) will look to extend their 10-game win streak that began on the conference’s opening weekend with a loss at Charleston followed by an overtime triumph at UNCW to get the streak under way.

A recent lopsided win at home in the Daskalakis Athletic Center over preseason favorite James Madison allowed Drexel to go into sole possession for first place ahead of the Dukes with the meeting down in Harrisonburg, Va., coming at the end of the regular season.

Two of the conference’s top players will be against each other Sunday in Bailey Greenberg for Drexel and Nicole Enabosi for Delaware (9-13, 5-6). 

Both have won CAA player of the year honors the previous two seasons with Greenberg’s coming last year when Enabosi was sidelined with a knee injury.

In the other locals in action, Villanova is at Georgetown in the nation’s capital playing a Big East game looking for a sweep of the Hoyas when the two will meet at 2 p.m.

Next Sunday, when No. 13 DePaul visits Finneran Pavilion, will be the last regular season home game for Wildcats coach Harry Perretta, who is retiring at the conclusion of his 42^nd season, all on the Main Line.

Th other two teams are the Big Ten duo of Rutgers, trying to finish in the top six for a first-round bye in the conference tournament, and Penn State, which is just trying to win.

Rutgers will be hosting Michigan at noon, in the game in Piscataway, N.J., while Penn State will be hosting No. 10 and first place Maryland at 2 p.m. in the Bryce Jordan Center in State College.

Nationally, No. 5 Connecticut, likely to be heading out of the Top Five for the first time since Feb. 5, 2007, after the Huskies’ bashing last Monday from No. 1 South Carolina, will be at South Florida at 2 p.m., one of the few teams capable of challenging the Huskies in the conference where they are unbeaten lifetime. 

UConn is heading for the Big East after this season.

Texas A&M is at No. 25 Tennessee, Sunday, with the host Lady Vols in danger of falling from the poll following its loss Thursday at LSU.

No. 3 Oregon following Friday’s rout of UCLA in Los Angeles is across town at Southern Cal trying to hold its one-game lead in the PAC-12, while Oregon State, which has slid to No. 11, visits UCLA Monday night.

And that’s the report.