The Guru Report: Season Ends for Saint Joseph’s and La Salle While CACC Locals Advance

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

 

NEW YORK – The season is over for Saint Joseph’s and La Salle.

In the case of the Hawks here, it came quick enough Tuesday night with a good portion of game still

to be played at Fordham’s Rose Hill Gym while for the Explorers the tide turned against them late in the final period at Davidson in North Carolina in two of the opening rounds affairs in the Atlantic 10 tournament.

 

While there was no reversal of the same kind of treatment Saint Joseph’s suffered at the hands of the Rams just three days ago here in the final game of the regular season, in a similar encore setup as a consequence of the seeds and final standings, elsewhere Richmond flipped George Washington in the nation’s capital.

 

“Fordham’s playing very well right now,” said Saint Joseph’s veteran coach Cindy Griffin following her team’s 59-36 defeat.

 

The third-seeded Rams (20-10) would not be a surprise to emerge with the crown, other than it would have to be accomplished in top-seeded Dayton’s UD Arena in Ohio this weekend.

 

But if they are not NCAA-bound, look for a long run in the WNIT.

 

As for the Hawks (9-20), the loss of two quality scorers early in the season from Ireland and Australia were the equivalent of an airliner having two engine flameouts.

 Defense kept the squad aloft for a bit but the lack of scoring again became a problem here.

 

Freshman Kaliah Henderson, a late-season bright spot, was the only Hawk in double figures, socring 11 points, while the next highest for the visitors was Katie Jekot, who hit some shots for a bit until they stopped dropping and she finished eight points off of 2-for-13 from the field, the same connected pair also accounting for 2-for-9 three-pointers. She also had seven rebounds.

 

Fordham mainstay Bre Cavanaugh, on the other hand, poured down 22 points, off of 8-for-17 from the field, including 4-of-7 three-balls shooting, while Kendell Heremaia had 15 points and eight rebounds, and Anna DeWolfe scored 11.

 

La Salle, meanwhile, having seen last week’s Davidson game get away at Tom Gola Arena, costing the Explorers being home in a different seed slot Tuesday night, had notions of pulling the upset of a home team that No. 9 Richmond executed against No. 8 George Washington.

 

Ultimately, it was not to be but not for lack of effort in a 67-63 to bring the second year under Mountain MacGillivray to a close with progress made.

 

Davidson (16-14) jumped to a 13-point lead early in the game but La Salle (13-17) exploded the next period for a  a one-point lead at the half.

 

Then the Wildcats went up eight late in the game only to have to withstand another Explorers rally, this on a 7-0 run to come within a point 61-60 with 3 minutes, 11 seconds left in regulation.

 

But that’s where the season died as Davidson scored six of the last nine points.

 

Kayla Spruill for La Salle scored 21 points and shot 4-of-6 on three-point attempts. Claire Jacobs, the newcomer from Australia, scored 14 and set an Explorers freshman scoring record with 412 points.

 

Fordham will meet sixth seeded Duquesne (20-10), the last of Saturday’s quarterfinals, while Davidson will meet second-seeded VCU (18-11), which had one of the two byes.

 

The other was Dayton (22-8), which was awarded the site well in advance of this season. The Flyers will get things going in Saturday’s quarterfinals hosting No. 9 Richmond (15-19).

 

The other quarterfinal has fifth-seeded Massachusetts (20-10) meeting fourth-seeded St. Louis (18-12).

 

Other than George Washington, five of the other seeds all won as home teams. The Colonials season, which began in suburban Philadelphia beating Villanova, ended with a 14-16 record.

 

Massachusetts advanced by topping 12^th seeded St. Bonaventure 72-54 to end the Bonnies’ season at 7-23 while 

Duquesne eliminated 11^th seeded Rhode Island 70-53 to conclude the Rams’ season at 13-16.

 

Saint Louis knocked out 13^th-m seeded George Mason 69-61 as the Patriots finish 9-21.

 

The semifinals are Saturday with the title game Sunday for an NCAA automatic bid.

 

Small Colleges: USciences, Jefferson, Holy Family Advance to CACC Semifinals

 

Top-seeded USciences and second-seeded Holy Family had easy times at home winning their quarterfinal openers in the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference quarterfinal openers, while Chestnut Hill, the fourth seed out of the South fell to Post, the top seed out of the North on the road.

 

Jefferson, the third seed South had more of a challenge on the road but the Rams moved ahead with their 10^thstraight victory.

 

For USciences, ranked 14^th in the current national Division II coaches poll, everything was coming in threes at home in Bobby Morgan Arena in Southwest Philadelphia in a 94-59 triumph over Nyack, the No. 4 seed out of the North.

 

In extending their program-record win streak to 20, the Devils (26-3) shot 21 triplets, second best across all three NCAA Divisions this season.

 

USciences will meet third-seed South Jefferson at noon Saturday in one of the semifinals, while second-seed South Holy Family will face No. 1 North Post in the other semifinal at 2 p.m.

 

The championship for an automatic bid to the NCAA Division II tournament will be played at noon Sunday.

 

Both semifinals and final are at USciences.

 A year ago after the two teams split their games when both were in the Top 5 for a bit, Jefferson won the championship in overtime at the buzzer.

 

In Tuesday’s win both Jess Huber and Irisa Ye scored 22 points, each, and Huber shot a game and career high six three-balls while Ye  shot four. The Devils had 22 assists, one less than the all-time total last achieved in the 2012-13 season.

 

All 12 of Jordan Vitelli’s points came off of four shots connected from beyond the arc.

 

Nyack (6-14) was held to 32.8 percent shooting while the home team shot 54.1 percent.

 

Jasmine Cruse scored 20 for Nyack.

 

Meanwhile No. 2 South Holy Family, back in the tournament after a year’s absence, crushed No. 3 South Caldwell 73-37 at home in the Tigers’ Campus Center Gym in Northeast Philadelphia.

 

Mia Ehling had 19 points for the Tigers (17-10) under first-year coach Bernadette Lukaitis, an alum who previous was associate head coach to Mike McLaughlin at Penn.

 

Elizabeth Radley had 15 points and nine rebounds, while CACC rookie of the year Moe Moore had 14 points and nine rebounds for the Tigers, who limited Caldwell (8-21) to 22.6 percent from the field.

 

Up north in Orangeburg, N.Y., near the Tappan Zee Bridge, Jefferson’s game against Dominican, the No. 2 seed out of the North, was like its season in which the Rams struggled early and then came on strong down the stretch.

 

In gaining a 73-70 triumph for their 10^th straight win, Jefferson (19-11) fell behind quickly 8-0 and in the second period and a 14-0 run by the Chargers (15-14) put the home team up 30-20 before the visitors began working their way back into contention.

 

Sabria Lytes gave Jefferson the lead for good with 2:10 left in regulation and then the Rams hunkered down defensively to give veteran coach Tom Shirley his 795^th career victory, including 646 with Jefferson.

 

Alynna Williams had 19 points for the Rams while Lytes had 14, and Haley Meinel scored 14 with four steals.

 

And that’s the report.