Guru’s Report - National: Top-Ranked Stanford Upset By Unranked Colorado; Texas Also Falls While UCLA and Kentucky Escape

Guru’s note: The blog was split in two, the local previously posted, and information for this report was drawn on wire service, emails, and school websites, particularly Colorado.

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

Top-ranked Stanford joined No. 23 Tennessee in the dubious distinction department Sunday in the 45-year history of The Associated Press women’s poll.

By virtual of unranked Colorado’s stunning 77-72 win over the previously unbeaten Cardinal in overtime in a PAC-12 game played in Boulder, Stanford joins the Lady Vols as the only two No. 1 teams to have been upended by unranked teams twice, though the Cardinal takes it a step further, having the setbacks occur both times in the regular season and, furthermore back-to-back.

No. 2 Louisville off its 84-56 win at home over Florida State Sunday afternoon in the Yum Center in an Atlantic Coast Conference game appears poised for those Cardinals’ first-ever No. 1 ranking when the new poll is released earlier Monday afternoon.

Reserve Kianna Smith came off the bench to score 11 of her 16 points in the first half for Louisville (12-0, 5-0 ACC), while freshman Hailey Van Lith led the other four players scoring in double figures, collecting 15 points. The Seminoles (4-2, 3-2), who had not played since New Year’s Eve, the cause being the coronavirus protocols, dressed just eight players.

Originally, the Cardinals were supposed to play No. 3 North Carolina State, a match postponed due to the Wolfpack being in a pause dealing with the virus. 

Meanwhile, a year ago Stanford was on top in December when Texas took the Cardinal down in Austin, though the Longhorns were certainly a team worthy of being ranked at the time.

Tennessee lost to an unranked Georgia team while No. 1 in the SEC tournament and later lost in-season to Rutgers.

Two seasons ago, North Carolina was unranked when the Tar Heels beat No. 1 Notre Dame 78-73 in an Atlantic Coast Conference game in January, improving to 12-9 overall and 3-4 on the conference with the win.

Way back in the early days of the NCAA tournament, Penn State had finished No. 1, got a bye, and then lost at home to an unranked James Madison squad.

And Purdue had upset Tennessee to be No. 1 the first week of the regular season, jumping from No. 5 to the top, only to have an 0-3 unranked Stanford squad take down the Boilermakers the next week, 73-72. The Big Ten squad made up for it the rest of the way to winning the 1999 championship over Duke.

That out of the way, Mya Hollingshed scored a career-high 32 points for Colorado (6-6, 4-5 PAC-12) and Frida Formann came up big in overtime with five points at the CU Events Center to pave the way for the Buffaloes’ first-ever win over a No. 1 team. 

The record of the home team might consider this one a fluke but a year ago Colorado had near upsets of Tara VanDerveer’s squad (11-1, 8-1), losing by one in overtime and another on a buzzer beater.

Until Sunday, Stanford had handled adversity from a coronavirus-challenged season, having been away from campus since Dec. 1 due to stringent COVID-19 protocols in Santa Clara County in the Bay Area of Northern California.

Along the way, VanDerveer passed the late Tennessee legend Pat Summitt to become the all-time winningest Division I women’s coach, now with 1,105 victories. 

Her closest pursuer, Connecticut’s Geno Auriemma recently tied Summitt for second at 1,098, put his Huskies have been stymied by the same virus situations, shut down for a while on their side due to a positive test at the Tier I level, and then having games cancelled, particularly the one against No. 6 Baylor, and a bunch of Big East postponements due to issues on the other side.

As now UConn is set to play Butler in a Big East game Tuesday night at home at 6:30 p.m. in the Huskies’ Gampel Pavilion arena on campus in Storrs.

Colorado trailed until the third quarter, then it became a nail-biting affair with the sides exchanging leads until the Buffs’ Jaylyn Sherrod stole the ball and scored inside with 23 seconds left to tie it at 67-67 to force overtime.

The Buffs went ahead to stay on Formann’s three-ball with 1:36 left in the extra period for a 72-70 lead. She then nailed two foul shots to make it a four-point lead before the Cardinal got within a basket with 42 seconds left.

Peanut Tuitele’s free throw got Colorado near safety and Stanford missed a shot before Hollingshed scored her final two shots from the foul line to complete the upset. She also had 10 rebounds while Formann scored 15 overall and Tuitele had 10 points.

Lexi Hull scored 19 for the Cardinal.

“I’m just unbelievably proud of our ballclub,” Colorado coach JR Payne said. “I told them all there’s 1,000 reasons I’m proud of them. The way we performed today was the biggest.

“We just really had the right mindset going into this game. There was no fear. We were really excited for the opportunity,” she continued.

“We didn’t start out necessarily the way that we wanted but our team rallied and really dug in and stayed really positive with each other and with themselves and just continued to compete on every single possession.”

As for her star player, Payne said, “Mya was unstoppable. She was scoring in every possible way. She did a great job against a fantastic defense.”

The points and shooting percentage of 41.5 percent were the best anyone had done against Stanford’s defense to date.

On Sherrod’s steal, the Colorado coach observed, “It took an incredible amount of fortitude. That’s what it takes, especially our history with Stanford.”

The win was the first over the Cardinal was the first since Colorado jumped from the Big 12 to the PAC-12, adding to an overall misery index of 16 straight losses until Sunday. The Buffs, while still in the previous conference did once upset Stanford in an early round of the NCAA tournament.

“We knew what it felt like to lose,” Sherrod said. “It was our will today. We were just not going to lose.”

UCLA And Arizona Prevail: There were two other PAC-12 games of note, one in the Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles where No. 8 UCLA got forced into overtime by No. 25 Washington State, the third straight overtime by the Cougars, but the Bruins regrouped and prevailed 68-66 at Pauley Pavilion.

The other was in the desert where No. 11 Arizona, after beating No. 10 Oregon decisively 57-41 on Thursday, met Oregon State coming out of its long pause due to virus test results and hammered the Beavers  67-61.

In the win by UCLA (8-2, 6-2 PAC-12), the Bruins’ Charisma Osborne scored 28 points, including eight in the extra period, for the team’s third straight win. The home team is now 33-0 against the Cougars (7-3, 5-3), who upset then No. 7Arizona in overtime last week at home to gain the program’s first-ever AP ranking and then headed to the West Coast, where Washington State fell in overtime to Southern Cal before Sunday’s comeback that got away.

Michaela Onyenwere double doubled for the Bruins for the fourth time this season, scoring 14 points and grabbing 15 rebounds.  Natalie Chou added 15 points.

Freshman Charlisse Leger-Walker out of New Zealand, the heroine forcing overtime and then making the winning shot last week, had 18 points. She also forced the extra period against the Trojans. The Cougars also got 14 points and 16 rebounds from Bella Murekatete.

Trailing by three with regulation about to expire, Leger-Walker made the first shot, missed the second on purpose, and then her sister Krystal grabbed the offensive rebound and scored to tie the game.

Meanwhile, Oregon State (3-4, 1-4 PAC-12) hadn’t played in nearly a month, falling out of the AP Poll in mid-December after losing to Washington State.

The Wildcats (10-2, 8-2) took advantage of the rust as Aari McDonald scored 20 points, her 78th straight game in double digits, tying the PAC-12 mark of former Oregon star, Sabrina Ionescu, the overall No. pick in the WNBA by the New York Liberty in last spring’s draft.

Helena Pueyo scored all 15 of her points for Arizona in the first half.

Oregon State, which last played December 19, got 11 points each from Taylor Jones and Savannah Samuel.

Arizona hasn’t opened 8-2 in the PAC-12 since the 2003-04 season, 17 years ago.

Texas Upset: On the road at the United Supermarkets Arena in Lubbock, the Longhorns got felled by Texas Tech 74-66, the program’s first win over the opposition since 2013, eight seasons ago.

In the loss, Charli Collier had 13 points and 15 rebound for Texas (9-3, 3-2 Big 12) in the Big 12 contest, while Celeste Taylor was one better on the offense, scoring 14 for the visitors. Joanna Allen-Taylor scored 12, while Audrey Warren, who had been sidelined, scored 14.

Vivan Gray had a big outing for Texas Tech (7-6, 2-5), scoring 24 points and grabbing 13 rebounds, while Lexi Gordon scored 14, Naje Murray scored 13, and Maka Jackson scored 11.

Kentucky Escapes: Besides UCLA among ranked teams, No. 12 Kentucky, missing a bunch of players due to virus protocols, or nagging injury to standout Rhyne Howard on her ankle, managed to use a balanced attack to beat visiting Vanderbilt 80-73 at home in Memorial Coliseum in Lexington in a Southeastern Conference matchup.

In all, the Wildcats (10-3, 3-2 SEC) were down five players, but got a career-high 22 points from Blair Green to beat the Commodores. She was 7-for-10 from the field, including 4-of-5 from down deep. Four other players also scored in double figures, Chasity Patterson poured 16 points and dealt seven assists and grabbed seven rebounds, Dre’una Ewards had 16 points and eight rebounds, and KeKe McKinney and freshman Treasure Hunt scored 11 each.

“I was feeling pretty hot on my shot,” Green said. “My teammates kept giving it to me. They believe in me and I was confident it was a good night.”

Though Kentucky jumped out front quickly by the fourth quarter, Vanderbilt had rallied to erase the deficit and then exchange leads that at one stage showed the Commodores up 69-65 with 5:04 left in regulation.

The Wildcats then rallied with a 9-0 run, though Vandy got back within three, 74-71, with 1:06 left. But Kentucky then sealed it the rest of the way with six foul shots.

“Our message was consistent all game,” said Kentucky first year coach Kyra Elzy. “We have to dig in. It’s going to take everybody. But the biggest message, do not panic.”

The two big stars for the Commodores (4-4, 0-3) were Koi Love with 32 points and nine rebounds, and Chelsie Hall, who scored 24.

“We knew we had to have other people step up in this game because we were down almost half the team,” said senior guard Chasity Patterson. 

SEC Power Clash: Elsewhere in the SEC, two ranked teams coming off upsets from Thursday night, saw No. 7 Texas A&M, coming back with from its loss to LSU, thump No. 14 Mississippi State 69-41 at home in Reed Arena in College Station as the Aggies (13-1, 4-1 SEC) got their first win over the Bulldogs (8-4, 3-3) in five seasons to snap a seven-game losing streak in the series.

The visitors’ scoring output was their worst of the season.

The host Aggies got a game-best 19 points from Kayla Wells, while Aaliyah Edwards scored 15 and grabbed nine rebounds, and Ciera Johnson had 14 points and a game-best 12 rebounds.

“I thought it was going to be interesting to see which team responded, not regarding who won or loss, but which team responded in the first ten minutes of the game,” said A&M coach Gary Blair, whose overall record is now 821-331, including 418-168 with the current program he came over from Arkansas to lead in 2003-04.

“I thought we responded very well, even though we missed some layups.”

Myah Taylor had 14 points and Rickea Jackson scored 11 for Mississippi State (8-4, 3-3).

“First off, our team talked after the game,” said Bulldogs first-year coach Nikki McCray-Penson, who had been at Old Dominion. “They needed to have a conversation and come to the conclusion that there are some things moving forward we have to start doing. They needed to have a pow-wow before I came in there today.”

Meanwhile, No. 23 Tennessee bounced back from its home upset loss on Thursday to Georgia, to win at Alabama 82-56 as Rennia Davis scored 21 points and grabbed 10 rebounds for the Lady Vols (9-2, 3-1 SEC), while Rae Burrell scored 17, Tamari Key scored 15, and Jordan Horston had 14. The Tide (11-2, 4-2), coming off an upset at No. 14 Mississippi State, got 22 from Jordan Lewis.

No. 5 South Carolina hosts No. 17 Arkansas in the one game of note at 7 Monday night, though the ranking numbers are likely to change earlier in the day off the number of upsets poll teams had this week. Also earlier in the day will be the dedication of the new statue at the Gamecocks’ Colonial Life Arena, honoring all-time player A’ja Wilson, now with the WNBA Las Vegas.

Maryland Still Big Ten Perfect: The No. 9 Terrapins (11-1, 7-0 Big Ten) remain unbeaten in the Big Ten following a 79-70 win at Wisconsin at the Kohl Center as Chloe Bibby scored 16 of her 17 points in the first half against the Badgers (3-8, 0-8).

Mimi Collins added 13 points and grabbed 17 rebounds, just one less than Kalia Charles scored last season against Iowa.

“I thought Mimi and Chloe really helped carry us today,” veteran coach Brenda Frese said.

Diamond Miller scored 17, and Ashley Owusu scored 14, while Katie Benzan, the former Harvard player, scored 12.

No Rust on Syracuse: The only other Sunday game involving a ranked team was in the ACC, where No. 24 Syracuse at home cruised over Miami 99-64, despite having not played for three weeks, dealing with COVID-19 protocols.

There was hardly a trace of rust for the Orange (6-1, 3-1 ACC) playing in the Carrier Dome and in a game for the first time since Dec. 20, when a case within the program shut things down.

Some players were still going through protocol procedures but are expected to be back in action shortly.

The outcome with the Hurricanes (6-5, 3-5) produced the largest scoring total and differential in the ACC this season.

“I’m just really happy with the performance,” said Syracuse coach Quentin Hillsman. “We were able to get some rest, obviously. I thought that was huge for us. We got up a lot of shots (during the shutdown). We just got into the gym and got back to running our offense all the way through.”

Orange freshman Priscilla Williams had a career-high 26 points, making all nine shots from the field, of which six came from down deep, while Tiana Mangakahia had a double double with had 10 points and 10 assists, though she also committed nine turnovers.

It was Mangakahia’s first double double in two season’s, prior to her fighting breast cancer and it as her first full contest since since incurring a left foot injury in the first game with the Hurricanes in Miami on Dec. 10. Standout freshman Kamilla Cardoso scored 17 and grabbed eight rebounds.

Among other teams, Holy Cross pivoted off last weekend’s emotional sweep of Army in the Patriot League in which first-year Crusaders coach Maureen Magarity bested her veteran father Dave Magarity, a native of Philadelphia, by completing another sweep Sunday, at home in Worcester, Mass., edging Colgate 63-62 when with three seconds left and the scored tied in regulation, Bronaugh Power-Cassidy missed the first foul shot but made the second for the one-point win for the Crusaders.

Army ended its losing streak and gaining a split in its home series at West Point, beating Boston U. 54-43.

And that is the report.