Guru’s WBCB Report: Career Efforts Fuel La Salle and Drexel to Wins While Nationally AAC Favorite South Florida Stuns No. 6 Mississippi State in OT

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

 

Kayla Spruill lit up Tom Gola Arena Saturday afternoon with five three-balls and a career-high 28 points to lead the La Salle women’s basketball team to it’s second straight victory, a 76-68 triumph over winless Saint Francis (Pa.), while career-marks were also in play helping Drexel to the Dragons’ second straight win, a 61-59 triumph at Monmouth (0-3) as Kate Connolly scored 16 points, grabbed nine rebounds and swiped four steals.

 

Winless Rider, however, continued to struggle, dropping the Broncs’ fourth straight, this one a narrow 58-51 setback at Delaware State in the only other game involving the locals on a day when 17 more women’s games across the country were either cancelled or postponed caused by the coronavirus.

The Rider start is the worst since 2017-18, though explainable below.

 

Nationally, American Athletic Conference favorite South Florida provided the second straight stunner in three days, upsetting No. 6 Mississippi State 67-63 in overtime in Tampa. On Thursday, top-ranked South Carolina had fallen at home to No. 8 North Carolina State.

 

USF’s win at home in its Yuengling Center was its first over a Top 10 opponent and for years had to deal with UConn in the AAC until the Huskies left this season to return to the Big East.

 

In the other game involving a ranked team, more for the significance of the win than the score, No. 2 Stanford, one of several teams bidding to replace South Carolina at the top of Monday’s next Associated Press women’s poll, routed host UNLV 101-54.

 

The win by the 2-0 Cardinal moved Hall of Fame coach Tara VanDerveer within two of a tie and one more to pass the late legendary sister Hall of Famer, Tennessee’s Pat Summitt for Division I career women’s victories, which now stands at 1,098.

 

Hall of Famer Geno Auriemma is currently at 1,091 but his No. 3 Connecticut squad is currently stalled off starting the season due to several Covid virus tests that came up positive at the tier one program level.

 

Stanford played its game in place of an opening weekend slate at home in the PAC-12 due to emergency health protocols in Santa Clara County, 

 

Haley Jones had a career-high 25 points, while grabbing seven rebounds and dealing seven assists over UNLV (1-2), which got 14 points from Nia Johnson and 10 from Bailey Thomas.

 

Lady Rebels first-year coach Lindy La Rocque had previously been a Stanford assistant and played for VanDerveer, advancing to Final Fours in each of her four seasons from 2009-12.

 

Stanford will remain in Las Vegas on Sunday to use the Thomas and Mack arena as its adopted home court to host PAC-12 rival Washington after having made the Lady Rebels a late add to the Cardinal’s schedule.

 

Two other ranked teams, No. 14 Maryland hosting Coppin State, and No. 21 Missouri State hosting Tulsa, were among the group that has cancelled or postponed games.

 

Mississippi State Falls in OT at USF: The Bulldogs (2-1) struggled offensively against one of the more formidable unranked squads. The Bulls, coached by veteran Jose Fernandez, recently lost a narrow outcome at home to No. 4 Baylor.

 

“First of all, I’m very disappointed in our loss,” said first-year coach Nikki McCray-Penson, who previously coached Old Dominion back to relevance in a short stint following a long run as an assistant Dawn Staley at South Carolina. “I want to give our hat off to South Florida.

 

“I thought they came in and really controlled tempo. They made us play in the half court. The story of the game is 23 offensive rebounds. We talked about that.

 

“We were 21-34 from the free throw line. You’re not going to win games on the road that way. Also, 21 turnovers. That’s the story.”

 

The Bulls in the overtime went ahead for good on a pair of foul shots with 29 seconds left in the extra period.

 

Rickea Jackson had a game-high 18 points and nine rebounds for the visitors, while Aliyah Matharu scored 17 and Jessika Carter had 15 for Mississippi State. Meanwhile, USF got 14 points, 11 rebounds, nine assists, and three steals from Elisa Pinzan, who made two key foul shots to extend the lead after Bethy Mununga made the separating free throws.

 

The teams, knotted 60-60 near the end of regulation, both missed chances to end it right there but once it got to the extra period, the Bulldogs were cold from the field at 0-for-5.

Before breaking the Top 10 opposition barrier Saturday, the previous highest wins over ranked teams for USF came over a pair of No. 11 squads — DePaul 79-77 in overtime on Dec. 7, 2005, and Louisville 73-62 on Feb. 20, 2013 when both opponents were conference rivals.

“I’m just happy for our players,” Fernandez said. “I’ve coached a lot of games, but for them, this is something they’ll remember for the rest of their lives.”

The Bulls were coming off a tough 67-62 loss to No. 4 Baylor on Tuesday.

“You have to bounce back,” Fernandez said, referencing Thursday’s practice when his players were still dealing with the emotions of the loss. “When you have adversity, true character comes out, and I’m just happy for them.”

La Salle Rallies for Second Straight Win: Trailing 32-26 at the half, the Explorers came to life after the break to end the third period tied 52-52 and taking over in the final quarter.

“I don’t know why it took so long in the first half to get started,” said La Salle third-year coach Mountain MacGillivray, “but I wasn’t happy with the way we were playing and I went to a short rotation with seven players, which isn’t my thing, and we seemed to respond.

“We had had a good practice leading up to the game,” he said. “But we as coaches can be our worst critics and sometimes it’s the other team (that’s responsible for its lead). But I’ll go back to what I had been doing next time.”

That would be Wednesday when the Explorers travel to Villanova for a 4 p.m. game in Finneran Pavilion. The Wildcats are a Big Five rival but there is no formal City Series competition this season because there is not a full round-robin, especially with the Ivy League shutting down winter sports for all its members, including Penn here in the area, and multi-defending champion Princeton up the road in the region.

“I feel bad for their kids,” MacGillivray said. “I can’t say enough about our administration the way they’ve busted their butts to get us to play games and get us through a season while also adhering to all the safety precautions.”

Besides Spruill’s big game, Molly Masciantonio scored 10 points, shooting 40 percent from the field for La Salle. (2-1). Claire Jacobs and Jordon Lewis each scored nine points and Kate Hill dealt six assists.

Drexel Tops Monmouth: A week after taking a season opener on the road at Rider, the Dragons (2-0) returned to the same general area in Central Jersey and beat Monmouth at the OceanFirst Bank Center in West Long Branch.

Besides Connolly’s career effort, senior Hannah Nihill came out huge again, scoring a game-high 18 points, shooting 7-of-15 from the field with four rebounds, four assists, and three steals, while Keishana Washington was in double digits with 14 points. 

Sophomore Brianne Borcky joined the career high brigade with nine points and four rebounds, as did junior Maura Hendrixson dealing eight assists while grabbing four rebounds.

The Dragons mainstay defense has not missed a beat so far with the ascension of Amy Mallon to head coach following Denise Dillon’s move back to guide her alma mater at Villanova as Drexel forced the Hawks into 17 turnovers which were good for mining 14 points.

Speaking of the Wildcats, the Dragons’ next stop will offer a quick reunion with Drexel heading to Villanova next Sunday for a Philly 6 schools matchup at 1 p.m. Last. Season after the nicety of pregame presentations to Harry Perretta on the way to retirement in his 42nd season, the Dragons won on the last play in overtime.

Rider Still Winless: Poised in rebuilding mode following the graduation of a strong senior class led by WNBA draftee Stella Johnson, the Broncs got closer but remained in search of a victory at 0-4 after a rally fell short to lose at Delaware State 58-51 in Dover.

The home team took its season opener after suffering a delayed start being stymied over cancelled games due to coronavirus protocols, most recently nearby Delaware during the week.

Sophia DeMauro and Makayla Firebaugh had career days, however, as a hopeful sign moving forward with the sophomore DeMauro scoring 11 points and Firebaugh scoring 10.

“It was another tough loss, but another game for us to continue to see the growth we need to see,” said veteran coach Lynn Milligan. “We had some players step up and make some big plays. We are becoming a very balanced team at both ends.

“We seem to have a couple of plays in our control that cost us each game,” she said reflecting to losses to Villanova, Drexel, and Army. “We have to continue to make the necessary adjustments and get ready for MAAC play.” 

Last season Rider and Marist tied in the regular season standings of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference with the Broncs drawing the top seed in the tournament at Atlantic City that was aborted after the Broncs’ quarter final win as the virus worsened across America. 

Declared the champion, that was as far as they got with the NCAA tournaments for men and women closed down along with the rest of the sports in America a few days later.

Rider had beaten Delaware State four straight in the non-conference series.

MAAC play opens next weekend in the specially arranged format to deal with the virus and Rider will meet preseason favorite Manhattan Friday and Saturday at home in Alumni Gymnasium in Lawrenceville, N.J.

Looking Ahead: Villanova looks to stay unbeaten and opens Big East play Sunday night at St. John’s at 7 p.m. at the Lou Carnesecca Arena in Jamaica, N.Y. on Long Island with the game on both Big East digital and the new flohoops arrangement while Temple in the  Owls’ second game following the season and home opening route by Villanova moves on to return a game from a year ago, visiting Florida Gulf Coast in Fort Myers at 2 p.m. 

Delaware will be at Pittsburgh for a 6 p.m. non-conference game, while Penn State will be at No. 22 Syracuse for a similar game in the Carrier Dome in upstate New York at 2 p.m. Both will be on the  home teams’ ACC network out of the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Nationally, No. 12 Texas A&M will be at No. 25 Texas in a non-conference battle of ranked teams at 8 p.m. on ESPN2 featuring a reunion of sorts. 

New Texas coach Vic Schaefer, who had rebuilt the Mississippi State program into a national force that in recent seasons made two final-four trips in 2018 and 2019, was a long-time assistant to Texas A&M coach Gary Blair.

Two other nationally-ranked teams meet at 6 p.m. on ESPN2 with No. 4 Baylor traveling to No. 16 Arkansas.

In the afternoon, Tennessee is at West Virginia at 2 p.m,, on the Big12/ESPN+ network while two national teams meet withNo. 13 Indiana visiting No. 11 Kentucky at 4 p.m. on ESPNU.

Two other ranked teams meet with No. 1 South Carolina coming out of Thursday’s upset home loss to North Carolina State visiting No. 23 Iowa State at noon on ESPNU.

Out West, in the PAC-12 as mentioned, Washington plays Stanford in Las Vegas, No. 7 Arizona will be going for a weekend home sweep after edging No. 9 UCLA, by hosting Southern Cal while No. 10 Oregon hosts Utah and No. 17 Oregon State hosts Colorado, and UCLA will look to bounce back visiting Arizona State.

No. 18 Gonzaga is at South Dakota State.

In non-ranked involvement, unbeaten North Carolina gets a bit tougher competition hosting Charlotte.

The cancelled/postponed games list for Sunday nationawide is at 16 and the victims list includes Virginia at George Washington, No. 3 Connecticut at Seton Hall, Xavier at No. 20 DePaul, Creighton at Georgetown, and No. 15 Northwestern hosting Bradley.

With game statuses threatened to change on the shortest notice, the Guru recommends that his public service references to game in these posts that you may have special interest to be double checked at the schools’ website before searching for ways to view by remote, especially if you are involved with events allowing limited fans as opposed to no fans. 

Portions of the above were drawn on information from team emails and websites, the Associated Press, and Tampa Times.

And that’s the report.