Guru’s WBB Report: No. 8 N.C. State Shocks Top-Ranked South Carolina While Penn State Wins at the Buzzer

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

 

Not long after the Penn State women’s basketball team avoided a stunner in the lone local game on the card Thursday night with a last-second shot at home in the Bryce Jordan Center to edge Rhode Island 70-69 on Makenna Marisa’s layup, a national shocker of the young season was recorded with the 54-46 upset by No. 8 North Carolina State of top-ranked South Carolina in the Gamecocks’ Colonial Life Arena.

 

Kayla Jones had a double double with 16 points and 12 rebounds for the Wolfpack (3-0) as did Jakia Brown-Turner with 11 points and 12 rebounds, while all-American Elissa Cunane scored 14 points and Raina Perez scored 11.

 

 “I’m just very excited right now,” Jones said. “Usually I take a back seat and just do the little things to get my teammates open. But I knew I had to be aggressive so we could come out and get this win.”

 

South Carolina’s Zia Cooke and Laeticia Amihere each scored 11 and Amihere completed a double double with 15 rebounds. Aliyah Boston, last season’s national freshman of the year, had a near double double with 9 points and 9 rebounds.

 

On one hand, it can be argued that at last as disruptive as it has been everywhere to everything, the coronavirus took a back seat for at least just this night in sports to what happened on the court.

 

On the other hand, Covid-19 might counter that claim in that the visitors in both places were helped by current conditions for lack of building juice in the banning of fans in State College and an allowance but at a far lower capacity in Columbia.

 

Ironically, there was a tie to the two events in that Rhode Island coach Tammi Reiss and South Carolina coach Dawn Staley were the heralded backcourt duo in the early ‘90s when Virginia was a top-ranked power.

 

The event in Columbia actually would make longtime fans of the Wolfpack dating to the days of the late legendary coach Kay Yow extra thrilled in that for them the outcome provides some revenge for the era when Staley and Reiss won their share of battles with the Cavaliers over N.C. State in the wars in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

 

Yow, a Naismith Hall of Famer, died in 2009 after a lengthy battle against breast cancer and is now in his eighth season following Kellie Harper who next landed at Missouri State before returning to her alma mater coaching Tennessee last season.

 

The setback for the Gamecocks comes just over a year ago when they were upended in the Virgin Islands by Indiana, sending the Hoosiers on to their greatest season off the 71-57 victory.

 

South Carolina then went on to its second greatest glory behind the 2017 NCAA title taking off on what became a 29-game win streak that ended Thursday night and finishing No. 1 for the first time in the Associated Press women’s poll.

 

Unfortunately, neither the Gamecocks nor Hoosiers nor anyone else got to make good on their success of the regular season when the NCAA tournament was shut down as the virus began to manifest itself across the globe and has now become even worse.

 

Still, Staley made her case with much to support to want to be proclaimed champs until finally moving ahead to make up for the ending to open this season on top for the first time and taking a 3-0 start with an eye to a promising finish as one of the prime contenders in 2021.

 

For the moment, the USA Olympic coach was left to perform a quick postgame autopsy on just went wrong against the Wolfpack.

 

“We just had no flow,” Staley said, recounting a career that began with instant success transforming Temple in her native Philadelphia not far from her neighborhood into a nationally-relevant program for eight seasons prior to heading for the next challenge in the rugged Southeastern Conference.. 

 

“In 21 years, I never felt what I felt during what I felt during the game. Uncoachable, untamable, just not listening, just selfish play,” she said. “It will open our eyes to see how we need to be and how we need to play every time we step on the floor.

 

“We need some leadership. We need somebody who is going to step up and say, ‘We need to get organized, we need to take better shots.

 

“We can’t rely on just being talented. That talent has to play as a cohesive unit, and we did not do that tonight. And it’s disheartening. We’ve got to reel them back in and figure how to bounce back.”

 

The Gamecocks had not been held under 50 in over seven seasons dating to a 50-48 home loss to SEC rival Texas A&M 50-48 on Feb. 10, 2013.

 

Until Thursday night, Wolfpack coach Wes Moore’s greatest triumph with the program was winning the ACC tournament last season.

 

“Normally we talk about trying to hold a team to 60 points,” Moore said. “Our defense has not been good. Tonight, we stepped up in a big game and did a great job for the most part keeping them in front of us. 

 

“I’ve been the worst critic of our defense so far this year.”

 

N.C. State was 2-17 against top-ranked teams in the AP Poll, now in its 45th season dating to 1976-77 when the Wolfpack and then-ACC rival Maryland, competing in the AIAW prior to the NCAA 181-82 launch, were ranked in the first poll and had the longest original run, dropping out the same week.

 

It’s the first win in 14 seasons over a No. 1 team dating to the semifinals of the 2007 ACC tournament upsetting then unbeaten-Duke.

 

Barring virus-caused disruptions, South Carolina heads to No. 23 Iowa State Sunday, while North Carolina State next hosts Coastal Carolina the same day in Raleigh.

 

As for the new No. 1, it is going to be interesting to see what the national media panel does with Monday’s next rankings.

 

No. 2 Stanford won its opener but is going to UNLV Saturday instead of opening at home in the PAC-12 against Washington and Washington State due to virus protocols in Santa Clara County.

 

Additionally, Cardinal coach Tara VanDerveer is four wins from passing the late Tennessee coach Pat Summitt to become the all-time victory women’s Division I coach at 1,099 while Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski is 63 in front holding the men’s D-1 record.

 

No. 3 Connecticut, whose coach Geno Auriemma is at 1,091, is on a delayed season start now set for Dec. 15, while No. 4 Baylor is at No. 16 Arkansas Sunday coming off a quality win at South Florida Tuesday.

 

No. 5 Louisville has a key game Friday night meeting No. 20 DePaul at the Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, Conn., following Thursday Jimmy V event at South Carolina with the second one at 6:30 p.m. which will also feature the WNBA draft lottery draw at halftime among New York, Atlanta, Dallas, and Indiana.

 

Should the two Top 5 teams fall, the next two are Mississippi State and Arizona but at that point N.C. State could make a case and make the highest one-week leap ever to No. 1 in the women’s poll.

However, No. 7 Arizona will be opening hosting No. 9 UCLA at 9 Friday night, which could make an impression if the Wildcats also beat Southern Cal Sunday, though in a close call the Wolfpack win would have slightly more value topping the  Gamecocks on the road.

 

Michigan bests Notre Dame: The No. 24 Wolverines stayed unbeaten at 3-0 and handed the Irish their second loss in three games, winning at Notre Dame 76-66 as coach Kim Barnes Arico got her first win over the opposition in five tries in her era in Ann Arbor following when she was at St. John’s and both programs competed in the old Big East.

 

It’s the program’s first win in South Bend since 1979. 

 

“For us to come here and be able to win a game on their home court is really special,” Barnes Arico said.

Notre Dame is in its first season under alum Niele Ivey following the retirement of Muffet McGraw.

Naz Hillmon, the preseason Big Ten player of the year, had 20 points and 11 rebounds and blocked three shots, while Hailey Brown had 18 points. 

Maddy Westbeld scored 18 for the home team and Anya Peoples scored 13.

The other ranked teams that played all had easy victories in No. 17 Oregon State, No. 13 Indiana, No. 14 Maryland, No. 16 Arkansas, and No. 11 Kentucky.

Penn State Avoids Upset: On the local front, in the sole game, the Nittany Lions escaped at home over Rhode Island 70-69 to go 3-0 as Makenna Marisa scored a layup as time ran out, depriving Rams second-year coach Tammi Reiss of what would have been one of her better wins since taking her first head coaching job.

Marta Vargas had given Rhody a 69-68 lead with three seconds to play. 

On the Nittany Lions’ next possession Johnasia Cash lostt the ball in a double team defense but Marisa was able to dash over and recover it and score as time expired.

Marisa had a career-high tying 17 points with the game-winner. Shay Hagans also had a career night, scoring 13 points and grabbing eight rebounds, while former Villanovan now graduate student Kelly Jekot finished with 11 points. Cash scored 13, all in the second half.

Emmanuelle Tahane had a career-high 17 points for Rhode Island while Johanna Muzet matched her career best with 12 points, and freshman Catherine Cairnes scored 11.

The Nittany Lions scored 21 points off 17 visitors turnovers.

It’s the first game-winner scored in under 10 seconds for PSU since Julia Trogele scored at Illinois on Jan. 27, 2011. 

The Nittany Lions are now 18-1 and 11-0 in Happy Valley against Rhode Island, dating back to win Penn State played the Rams regularly when a member of the Atlantic10.

“Wow! What a game,” said second-year coach Carolyn Kieger. “Rhode Island is a very good team and they’re going to have a lot of people worried as the season goes along. This is a big win for us because that is going to be avery good team down the stretch. I’m just really proud of our composure. With 13 newcomers who were in that position for the first time, great to come out with the win.”

Penn State next heads to No. 22 Syracuse on Sunday at 2 p.m. on the ACC network while Rhode Island opens Atlantic 10 play at Massachusetts Tuesday at 2.

Looking Ahead: Back in play Temple now gets a two-day earlier start to its delayed season hosting Villanova at noon Friday in McGonigle Hall on ESPN+. The Wildcats were supposed to open Big East play Friday night hosting DePaul but league competition will now start at St. John’s Sunday night  with the DePaul game to be rescheduled.

The Blue Demons got tabbed late to replace coronavirus-sidelined Connecticut to meet No. 5 Louisiana Friday night in the Jimmy V game at Mohegan.

Temple hits the road Sunday afternoon returning last season’s game visiting Florida Gulf Coast.

That was the only local game Friday. Nationally eight games Thursday and 10 Friday were either postponed or cancelled.

On Saturday, Rider is still listed at Delaware State at 1, while La Salle will host Saint Francis (Pa,) at 2 p.m., the same time Drexel will be at Monmouth. 

No. 6 Mississippi State is at South Florida at 6.

Six games nationally are cancelled at the moment.

Delaware is at Pittsburgh at 6 on Sunday while No. 12 Texas A&M is at No. 25 Texas.

And the cancelled toll is at 11.

The South Carolina game story was drawn on Guru institutional knowledge and reporting by the Associated Press while most everything else was also drawn from school and local news reports.

And that’s the report.