Guru’s WBB Report: Rutgers Defense Leads to Big Ten Opening Win at Wisconsin

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

After a series of losses everywhere but on the scoreboard in this strange year of coronavirus-induced cancellations and postponements, the Rutgers women’s basketball team faced one more delay — leaving for Wisconsin Friday morning in place of Thursday for the Scarlet Knights’ Big Ten opener against the Badgers.

Despite turning the road trip into a same-day adventure causing a 90-minute holdup from the original scheduled tip time, Rutgers pulled itself together to overwhelm Wisconsin with 22 steals and scoop out a 70-65 victory in the Kohl Center in Madison.

The Scarlet Knights (2-0, 1-0 Big Ten) had their season and home opener delayed two days into right after Thanksgiving due to virus concerns involving the other side before Monmouth appeared and lost.

Since that win over the Hawks of West Long Branch, N.J., there have been a bunch of cancellations, postponements, and attempted additions before Rutgers finally got off the ground to head to the Midwest  and take its first road win since January.

Overall off the Rutgers press, Wisconsin (1-2, 0-2) committed 27 turnovers which enabled the Scarlet Knights in the transition to pick up 27 points.

“Our team had high spirits and were supportive of each other, and that’s going to be they key,” said Rutgers Hall of Fame coach C. Vivian Stringer, who is in the start of her 26th season in New Brunswick (N.J.) and 50th overall with previous stops in Cheyney and Iowa. “We were glad to get that win.

“We had veteran players that were able to play the press, putting pressure on Wisconsin and stepping it up throughout the game. They are an excellent shooting team so we tried to take them out of their rhythm.”

Zipporah Broughton had a game high 18 points and grabbed six of the steals for the Scarlet Knights, one off her personal best, while rookie Diamond Johnson in her short collegiate career notched 17 points  after scoring 15 in last month’s season opener, Arella Guirantes, the preseason Big Ten co-player of the year, used 10 of 11 foul shots to score 16 with a team-high nine rebounds, and Tekia Mack had 11 points and five steals.

Sydney Hilliard had 22 points for Wisconsin, while the Badgers’ Estella Moschkau had 13 points, and Imani Lewis notched a double double of  12 points and 10 rebounds.

Next up is a conference and national showdown Monday afternoon at 1 p.m. back home when Rutgers hosts No. 14 Rutgers at 2 p.m. in the RAC in Piscataway, N.J., the game to be aired on the Big Ten Plus subscription companion to the Big Ten Network.

La Salle Yields to Howard: Perhaps the Explorers should have left well enough alone.

 In a game originally set for late last month in the opening week of the season and then moved toward the end of this month all due to coronavirus issues on the opposition side, the contest was set earlier this week to Friday afternoon and resulted in La Salle squandering a 23-point lead from the third quarter to fall to Howard 75-72.

It was just the second game for the Bison (2-0) while the Explorers (2-3) were in their fifth and coming out of Wednesday’s rout by Villanova out on the Main Line to return home to Tom Gola Arena.

It went well at the outset as the home team surged to a 44-31 lead at the half shooting 50 percent both overall from the floor and beyond the arc.

The lead expanded further in the next period before the visitors began to rally and closed the deficit to 60-55 off a 16-2 surge heading to the last period.

Tied at 65-65 with 4 minutes, 18 seconds left in regulation, the comeback continued by Howard, which went up by five with 2:02 left. The home team got back to within a point with 46 seconds left in regulation but the rally died there.

Sophomore Claire Jacobs had a game-high 21 points for La Salle, while Jordon Lewis scored 14, and Amy Jacobs scored nine. 

Howard’s Anzhne’ Hutton scored 20 points and completed a double double with 11 rebounds, while likewise was posted by Kaiya Creek with 14 points and 10 rebounds, Jayla Thornton scored 15, and Iyanna Warren scored 10.

“It was like it was in parts against Villanova,” said La Salle coach Mountain MacGillivray. “We got out-toughed in the second half. Part of it was we weren’t as athletic but a lot of it was more than that. And we gave up 30 points on offensive rebounds. You’re not going to be winning a lot of games doing that.”

It’s back to the local wars next for the Explorers, hosting Drexel next Wednesday at 7 p.m.

Rider Rally Falls Short in MAAC Opener: In the revised Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference schedule due to Covid-19 that calls for back-to-back weekend games against the same teams either home or away depending on which team is being focused, Rider had the good fortune to draw preseason favorite Manhattan as a home slot in Alumni Gymnasium in Lawrenceville, N.J.

The bad news was it didn’t help totally as the Jaspers (1-1, 1-0 MAAC), which had missed games off coronavirus concerns, rode from a slim four-point halftime lead to a double-double digit advantage in the third, enough to withstand a Broncs comeback in the fourth and win 56-51.

In the final period, Rider (0-5, 0-1), which has yet to win in five games, used an 11-0 run to get within a point with 1:21 left but there it all died as Manhattan shut down the home team and made good on free throws. The Broncs get to do it again with the Jaspers at home Saturday night at 7 with a chance to gain a split.

Manhattan’s Courtney Warley scored 19 points, while Dee Dee Davis scored 11, and Gabby Cajou scored 11.

Rider’s Makayla Firebaugh scored 17 and Amanda Mobley scored 10.

“It’s a disappointing loss tonight,” said veteran Rider coach Lynn Milligan, whose Jasper counterpart Heather Vullin is a former Villanova associate head coach. “We had some self-inflicted wounds with the 22 turnovers and our free throw shooting.

“That’s not who we are,” she said. “We are an excellent free-throw shooting team and we did not show that tonight. We needed some more shots at the basket and we needed to make some free throws.”

Rider will try to avoid a payback sweep, which the Broncs pulled on Manhattan a year ago on the way to the top seed in what became the aborted MAAC tourney in Atlantic City.

Looking Ahead: Only six games were cancelled or postponed Friday night, nationally, but already in the ACC, Sunday’s North Carolina/No. 2 Louisville and Syracuse vs. Binghamton in non-conference action are on the non-active list. 

Locally, Saturday, besides the Rider game set to be played, La Salle had  a visit to Mount St. Mary’s on its slate before cancellation. 

Nationally, No. 3 Connecticut, which had been in quarantine due to a non-basketball Tier 1 member of the Huskies operation testing positive, hosts Massachusetts-Lowell at 1 p.m. at Gampel Pavilion.

On Sunday, locally comes the battle of the unbeatens at 1 p.m. at Villanova hosting Drexel, while Saint Joseph’s hosts regional Division II power Lincoln at 2 p.m. 

Nationally, Tennessee is at No. 23 Texas at 5 p.m. and late night encounter here in the East, top-ranked Stanford goes across the bay to California at 10 p.m. in the PAC-12 to meet the Golden Bears where a win by Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer will tie her with the late and legendary Tennessee coach Pat Summitt for most Division I women’s basketball coaching wins at 1,098. 

Also in the PAC-12 in another partner game, No. 8 Oregon is at No. 15 Oregon State in Corvalis at 7 p.m.

And that’s the report.