Guru’s WBB Report: Temple, Rutgers, and Rider Sweep to Victories Heading Into the Holiday Break

Guru’s note: Merry Xmas to all in Guru land who deal and/or come here. And again, apologies for typos on the cataract recovery but the track is going great.

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

For all the roller-coaster experiences G\uru local, as well as national, teams have dealt with coping with the effects of the coronavirus this season and dating to the ill-fated finish of the previous, Wednesday was an enjoyable time for the three area teams that helped wrap up action before moving on for the next several days in however they are able to celebrate the Xmas holiday day.

After stops and starts dealing with with Covid-19 mandated protocols and an 0-3 start that ended with a whopping setback at No., 5 South Carolina last Thursday, Temple has reversed itself in dramatic fashion off to a 2-0 start in the American Athletic Conference building on Sunday’s home win over SMU and then using a strong second half still at home in McGonigle Hall to beat Tulsa 69-52.

Within the hour of the Owls’ triumph, Rutgers finished an historic afternoon for the program as Big Ten preseason co-player of the year Arella Guirella posted a triple double in the Scarlet Knight’s lopsided 84-41 victory over Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference favorite Manhattan at home in the Rutgers Athletic Center in Piscataway, N.J.

And putting a ribbon on the afternoon’s events, Rider took a short trip from central New Jersey up to Newark where the Broncos broke out of their 0-8 start rallying to beat NJIT 57=53.

Penn State had originally been scheduled to meet No. 17 Michigan on the road in Ann Arbor put protocols on the Wolverines’ side caused a postponement.

Nationally, two ranked teams that played had easy times with No. 6 Arizona hosting Idaho in Tucson and winning 96-42, while within the Big Ten, No. 19 Indiana rolled to a 76-54 win on the road over Minnesota in Minneapolis.

A Big Ten nationally-ranked showdown between No. 18 Ohio State and host No. 14 Maryland in College Pafrk also hit the postponement pile, whose total amounted to six on the NCAA final day of pre-Xmas competition.

Temple Wins Second Straight — Temple broke away from a competitive first half as the offense got in synch to drive the Owls to another win, perhaps beginning to fulfill coach Tonya Cardoza’s forecast after the opening home los to Villanova that the squad could start to look much better by the end of the calendar year.

Off producing a 17-10 third quarter for a five-point lead, the Owls (2-3, 2-0 AAC) soared to a 22-10 run over the final ten minutes. During the quarter, Temple held Tulsa ()1-2, 0-2) to 30 percent from the field while shooting 55 percent on the offensive end.

The Owls also owned the boards for the game, 41-29.

Career-accolades, almost a daily occurrence somewhere across the Guru local front along with those in the national scene, went to Alexa Willikamson, who scored 20 points, while also grabbing five rebounds and dealing a pair of assists. Senior all-American prospect Mia Davis, who is believed to have suffered a non-disruptive rolled ankle in the game, had another double double with 17 points and game-high 11 rebounds.

Temple newcomer Jasha Clinton had 12 points, while sophomore Asonah Alexander dealt a career-high 10 assists.

“I thought that was a tough team to play against,” Cardoza said. “Tulsa’s always a disciplined team. They make you really work on the defensive end and I thought they really came out in the first half snd had us on our heels. They make open shots and they do a good job penetrating and kicking the open man.

“In the second half, we did a better job of contesting more and not giving open looks, not giving penetration and closing out on open shooters,” Cardoza said. And we got stops and because of that, we were able to get out in transition,” Cardoza continued.

“Lex did an excellent job of scoring in the paint. She was very efficient and we need that from here. I think she knows that we need her. Outside of Mia, she’s the next guy who is someone that has potential, we talked about as a junior, you can’t talk about potential, you got to start showing us. Over these last two games, she’s played with a lot of confidence. And she wants the ball. If Lexa and Mia continue to do that, we can take open shots and we have to knock them down.

“I still think we’re turning the ball over a little too much and we have to be smarter with our decision making, but every day I’m doing something different or some new wrinkle but that’s what happens in the game. You have to see how people are being guarded. They do a good job paying attention and trying to do what I’m asking them to do. The focus is to get Mia and Lexa the ball and they are doing a good job trying to do that.

“Those two people, I don’t think they are many people in our league that can guard the two of them together,” Cardoza said.

“Certainly there’s one less with the departure of powerful Connecticut to the Big East, where Villanova got its first taste of the No. 3 Huskies in eight seasons on Tuesday night in a loss out on the Main Line.

“I feel that’s always going to be a mismatch in most games, so if that’s our strength, we definitely have to take advantage of it. We have to be able to knock down open shots because as we get deeper in conference play, people are going to try to take that away from us and we’re going to have our guys make outside shots.”

Of Alexander, the Temple coach noted, “She’s one of the guys one our team who can get a triple double because she’s capable of all three of those things. She wants to be more of a distributor than a scorer, so we’re asking her to come outside her comfort zone and look to be aggressive and look to shoot the ball. She should be able to get eight shots a game.

“We started off non-conference and we knew they were going to be tough, two of them on the road. I think it gave us an opportunity to say, there’s a lot of things we can get better and we have to work and if we can put those things together we can do a lot of things in conference. So to start off 2-0 going into Christmas break, that’s definitely a bonus.”

When the schedule resumes, Temple will be in the Sugar Bowl city of New Orleans next Wednesday two days ahead of New Years to play Tulane, but with Covid-19 precautions in play, a good southern meal in the team’s hotel quarters might be the best the Owls will get this trip though the cuisine will still be an extra to what another win in the collection and back to .500 would provide.

Guirantes Leads Rutgers Explosion:  The Scarlet Knights took Manhattan, but unlike the old classic tune, that did not involving any last-minute holiday shopping, dining, or watching ice skating across the Hudson in Rockefeller Center.

Still there was joy all around in the RAC in another non-conference dominating win, this time over the Jaspers (3-3), who are located in the NYC suburbs.

For the first time in 30 years, before Rutgers Hall of Fame coach C. Vivian Stringer arrived with her heralded defensive schemes, when the name of the game was spiced with offense, the Scarlet Knights have gone above 80 points in four straight contests, the latest, Wednesday’s 84-41 triumph.

Arella Guirantes, likely to be the next Stringer product bound for the WNBA, posted just the third triple double in the program’s history and first since Khadijah Rushdan performed the feat in February, 2011, a decade ago.

“It was truly a special day,” Stringer said. “We are proud of a consistent team effort and contributions from everyone.  Arella has set out to be the best, and again proved that she is the best today with a complete game, making the extra pass, and being a true, veteran leader. We’re going to let our playerd go home for Christmas and enjoy family, and we’ll be ready to go to Iowa and the rest of the. Big Ten.”

Stringer’s squad (5-1) heads to the Hawkeyes and the program she previously coached on New Year’s Eve at 3 p.m.

For a while, it seemed Guirantes wouldn’t reach her milestone, leaving at halftime with an apparent injury, but she did return a minute into the third period.

Her final numbers against the Jaspers guided by former Villanova assistant coach Heather Vulin, showed 17 points, of which 12 came in the second half, dealing a career-high 11 assists, and with her rebound with 49 seconds left in the game, that gave her 10 for the triple double.

A 16-0 run midway in the first quarter had the outcome in this one decided well in advance of the finish.

For the fifth straight game, four players scored in double figures, led by Philly freshman Diamond Johnson, the newcomer from Neumann Goretti, who collected s game-high 23 points. Besides Guirantes’ contribution, Zipporah Broughton matched her career best with 19 points, while dealing five assists, and Mael Gilles scored 12, shooting  5-for-9 from the field with seven rebounds.

It seems Rutgers gets a triple double once every decade because the other one prior to Rushdon was achieved by one of the all-time program greats in Tasha Pointer, in February 2001.

Rider Gets First Win: Fighting off a 10-point deficit, this time the Broncs ralled in a non-conference meeting with their in-state rival played in Newark and snapped an eight-game season-starting losing streak to win at NJIT 57-53 on the strength of three career-day performances and a season-high 10 completed shots on 30 attempts from beyond the arc.

Five of those long outsiders for Rider (1-8) came from Daja Moses on eight attempts against the Highlanders (1-5) to fuel a 15-point output for personal bests in points and the three-balls while it was also a day of personal best for Maya Hyacienth, who scored 20 points.Mikayla Firebaugh  also scored in double figures with 11 points and grabbed a career-high seven rebounds.

This start nor this struggle would have happened with last year’s unit, led by WNBA draftee and through two trades Washington Mystics member Stella Johsnon, who was the top scorer in Division I.

Like many others, the Broncs’ season-ending fate on the court would be forever unknown after tying Marist for first and earning the top seed in the MAAC tourney, which had moved to Atlantic City in Boardwalk Hall.

But after taking the quarterfinal round, Rider was declared the NCAA representative on the tourney shutdown but that quickly went for naught with the cancellation of the NCAA tourney and sports’ total stoppage due to the coronavrius.

Fall arrived with a revamped roster but little time to do an early rebuild due to the continuing spread of the disease across the world.

Like several mid-major  conferences, the MAAC went to a new format with the men’s and women’/s teams playing the schedule on Friday and Saturday against the same original home-and-home opponent on the road or at home.

Rider got to open hosting this year’s favorite Manhattan and got swept and then last weekend traveled to Iona and got swept to swell the total of losses.

But in closing out with Wednesday’s win, at least the Broncs head into the Xmas pause with an upbeat feeling, especially after being able to  close out against an opponent.

When they return they like many teams are playing games New Year’s Day. In Rider’s situation, it will be back to the MAAC competition hosting Fairfield Friday and Saturday in Alumni Gym in Lawrenceville, N.J.

And that’s the report.