Guru’s WBB Report: Delaware Completes Northeastern Sweep While Baylor-UConn Cancelled On Mulkey Positive Test

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

It was much closer than Monday’s win but ultimately Delaware prevailed 68-61 over Northeastern Tuesday afternoon to complete a sweep of the Huskies in a Colonial Athletic Association game at Cabot Center in Boston.

Jasmine Dickey scored 19 points for the Blue Hens (5-1, 2-0 CAA)  of which 12 came in the second half in the closely fought contest. Point guard Paris McBride added to the attack with 4 of 6 three-point shooting on the way to 16 points against the Huskies (0-4, 0-2) while Ty Battle had 12 points and 10 rebounds for her fifth double double, tops in the conference.

The series became a re-schedule insert following Delaware’s original conference-opening weekend postponement due to coronavirus issues with Charleston that has also caused a postponement of a series at Drexel this weekend. The Dragons will resume CAA play the following weekend at William & Mary in Williamsburg, Va.

Likewise, Northeastern became available for Delaware off the postponement from Elon.

A makeup game from a previous Drexel shutdown of a non-conference local Philadelphia Six game at La Salle was announced to be played Wednesday, Jan. 13, at 6 p.m. at the Explorers’ Tom Gola Arena.

La Salle inserting a makeup from a previous Saint Joseph’s cancellation will now play home-and-home this weekend traveling to the Hawks’ Hagan Arena Friday at 2 p.m. on ESPN+ which would become the home team’s Atlantic Ten opener before the two teams play Sunday at Tom Gola Arena at 2 p.m. on CBSSN. Neither is also a Big Five counting game due to the Ivy season shutdown that includes Penn.

Meanwhile Rutgers’ Big Ten game Thursday at home with Purdue is postponed due to positive tests within the home team’s organization.

Back in Boston in the Delaware game the visitors built a 15-point lead in the third quarter before Northeastern shaved it to four in the fourth before a Blue Hens response put the game away.

Delaware is home this weekend hosting William & Mary Saturday and Sunday at 1 p.m. in the Bob Carpenter Center in Newark.

On Wednesday Villanova is at Seton Hall in a Big East game while Temple looks to stay unbeaten within the American Athletic Conference when the Owls visit East Carolina.

UConn-Baylor Cancelled - Thursday’s nationally anticipated showdown with the No. 3 Huskies visiting the No. 6 Bears in Waco, Texas, is the latest schedule victim claimed by the coronavirus. Baylor coach Kim Mulkey came up with a positive test causing a shutdown though she texted the Guru she is feeling fine.

While the cancellation is disruptive to Baylor’s NCAA profile it is even more so on the UConn side. The Bears still have two Texas games in the Big 12 among several other games. But the Huskies have but three majors left as of now visiting Tennessee on Jan. 21, hosting No. 5 South Carolina, and a return Big East game to No. 20 DePaul. 

Certainly the Big East return is helpful to the Huskies but the potential exists for a fine point determination involving the two schools for No. 1 seeds with Stanford, Louisville, South Carolina and several others in the mix.

USBWA Weekly Awards: After a delayed start the first weekly awards of the United States Basketball Writers Association were announced, now determined by a committee under yours truly. The new team of the week easily went to Kentucky for its upsets of  Arkansas and Mississippi State while Iowa’s Caitlin Clark, also the Big Ten winner for the fifth time, easily took the Tamika Catchings freshman award. In a vote for the Ann Meyers Drysdale national player, UCLA’s Michaela Onyenwere, also the Pac-12 Conference winner, impactful in the road upset of Oregon, barely edged Kentucky’s Rhyne Howard, also the SEC winner, who was impactful in the two Wildcats upsets.

Here is a link to the release at the USBWA website. http://sportswriters.net/usbwa/news/2021/women210105.html 

Depending on location, there is room for a few more women’s writers on this committee. DM the Guru @womhoopsguru  or email poll416@gmail.com if interested and state where your work appears.

That’s the report.