Guru’s WBB Report - I- Local: La Salle, Drexel, Penn State, and Rider Come Up Big While Saint Joseph’s Short in Overtime, Delaware Streak Ends, Temple Nipped

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru 

Milestones of sorts were achieved Sunday afternoon by La Salle, Penn State, and Rider, while Drexel prevailed at the finish with eight of the nine locals in action. 

On the flip side, Saint Joseph’s came up just short of at least forcing another overtime, Temple got edged, though the Owls were better by differential in their second day in New Orleans, and the shocker wasn’t as much as the loss but in the lopsided manner Delaware’s winning streak was abruptly ended in the second of two weekend meetings down at Elon.

Nihill Saves Drexel at the Finish: Following Saturday’s easy win over Northeastern, the Dragons found the Huskies more arduous 24 hours later in the Cabot Center in Boston but senior Hannah Nilhill saved the day at the finish, scoring with 1.6 seconds left in regulation for a 58-56 win and weekend sweep in the Colonial Athletic Association.

It was the 14th straight win over Northeastern (3-8, 2-6 CAA), and in the process, Drexel (9-4, 6-2) moved within a game of catching Delaware ahead of their home-and-home showdown in two weeks.

“From the scoring side, it was a tale of two games,” said Drexel coach Amy Mallon of the weekend and Sunday’s result. “But we found a way to fight and put ourselves in position to win it. A sweep on the road is a big step for this team.”

At the outset, the Dragons quickly fell behind, trailing as much as 13 points into the second period before exploding with a 14-3 run to move within four points at the halftime break.

With the score knotted 40-40 going into the final quarter, Drexel then dropped five points down with six minutes left in regulation before pushing ahead on a 7-0 run with Nihill hitting a kay three-ball.

Still, the Huskies, who have combined for some interesting meetings in their long series, like the famous six overtime affair won by the Dragons in Philadelphia, got to a tie and seemed headed for overtime until Nihill hit the winning shot.

Although Drexel didn’t have as good a shooting day from the field as Saturday, with a 30.9 percent mark from the field, the compensation came by way of season bests in nine made three-pointers and 15 connected foul shots.

Defensively, the Dragons forced 20 turnovers and gained a season-best 30 points for their efforts in that category.

The frenetics at the finish began with the score tied and a Northeastern miss sent out of bounds that reversed a call in Drexel’s favor to take possession with 8.5 left in regulation. 

The Dragons advanced the ball and Nihill was fouled with 2.4 left. The ball was then inbounded to her racing to the basket and she then hit the winning layup.

Nilhill’s winning shot became her 18th and 19th point on the afternoon, coming off three shots from deep, four on the line, while she also had three steals, two assists, two rebounds and a block to disrupt a Northeastern three-point attempt to steal the game as time expired.

Maura Hendrixson finished the weekend with nine threes, of which five were in Saturday’s win, and four more on Sunday to account for all 12 of her points in the second meeting. She also dealt six assists.

Keishana Washington had nine points and three steals.

Reserve Kayla Bacon scored seven, of which 5-of-6 came on free throw attempts.

Next up back in Philadelphia on Saturday, also homecoming day, Hofstra is the weekend visitor, for the 1 p.m. tip that will air on NBC Sports Philadelphia. On Sunday, the game also will air at 1 p.m. with the Pride and both games are also available on the Flohoops Streaming Apps.

La Salle Ends UMass Drought: What didn’t start well in a Friday loss at Rhode Island, became a splendid finish 48 hours later with a 69-63 win in an Atlantic 10 game at UMass in the Minutewomen’s Mullin Center in Amherst as the Explorers snapped a four-season losing streak in the series, dating back to La Salle’s last win on Jan. 25, 2017.

Kayla Spruill and Claire Jacobs combined for 37 points for the Explorers (9-8, 5-5 A-10), who inched above .500 again overall. 

Spruill, individually, had a game-high 21 points, while Jacobs scored 16 against UMass (10-5, 6-4), which won the first meeting back in Philadelphia.

Molly Masciantonio had a well-rounded boxscore performance with five points, four rebounds, six assists, four steals, and was unblemished by turnovers.

“We were a quarter away from a (weekend) sweep,” said La Salle coach Mountain MacGillivray, in dual reference to Friday’s loss to the Rams. “Any time you can go on the road against teams at the top of the standings and get a split, I guess it’s good but we wanted both.

“But I am so proud of the way these ladies are defending holding a team to 34 percent and force 19 turnovers, you’re playing pretty well.”

The Explorers are off until this weekend, hosting Saint Louis in the Tom Gola Arena at 6 p.m. on ESPN+.

Penn State Completes Road Sweep: The weeks ahead will tell whether the youthful roster that is the Lady Lions is turning the corner, but they’ll take this week for sure as a sign of possibly making progress. On the heels of Thursday’s win at Illinois, they followed up Sunday with a 64-44 win at Purdue in the Big Ten in a game at the Boilermakers’ Mackey Arena in West Lafayette, Indiana.

Overall, it’s three straight on the road, including a triumph over Minnesota in the Gophers’ Williams Arena in Minneapolis several weeks ago, and the win Sunday is the first at Purdue in six seasons.

Penn State (6-7, 3-6 Big Ten) got a third straight double double from Johnasia Cash, a first in the program since the last string occurred 14 seasons ago by Amanda Brown in 2007.

Cash’s totals saw a career-best 28 points and 12 rebounds against the Boilermakers (6-8, 3-7), who got 16 points from Tamara Farquhar, a double double 14 points and 18 rebounds from Fatou Diagne, and 11 points from Brooke Moore.

Besides the work of Cash, Penn State’s Niya Beverly had 14 points and dealt seven assists, while Anna Camden scored 12, and Maddie Burke scored nine, Makenna Marisa scored eight.

“Second game in a row that we kept our composure and fought back,” said Penn State coach Carolyn Kieger, who previously built Marquette into a force in the Big East. “I’m extremely proud of everyone and this is a total team win from top to bottom.

“Everybody contributed, everyone was focused, and everyone was `we above me.’ Cash has been a woman on a mission lately. Our team has done a great job finding her and her second jump has been phenomenal on rebounds. She’s just playing within herself and letting the game come to her and being very successful with that. I think our team has started to learn how to play together, and we’ve passing the ball really well, which I think has allowed her to have a lot of success in the paint.

“When she plays like that, she’s very hard to guard and hard to stop on the boards. Niya’s presence has been huge. She had some sweet assists in transition tonight for shooters and had her head up and she’s been a huge difference maker for us.”

The Lady Lions now head home for a two-game stand, beginning Thursday night when Nebraska visits the Bryce Jordan Center for a 6 p.m. tip in State College on the Big Ten Network.

Villanova Does it to Butler:  The Wildcats hit the road, recovering from the setback at home to Marquette, and blasted their way over the Bulldogs 90-53 in a Big East game at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, making a season-best 14 from deep to bolster the offensive attack.

Maddy Siegrist had a game-high 26 points and produced her eighth double double on the season with 10 rebounds for for Villanova (10-3, 5-3 Big East), which with Sunday’s game hit these season’s minimal 13-game requirement for consideration for the NCAA tournament as an at-large team if not gaining automatic entry through a conference championship.

Freshman Lior Garzon had a personal best 19 points, shooting 7-for-11 from the field against Butler (1-12, 1-11). Brianna Herlihy scored 11 while Garzon’s total was helped by five from deep.

Overall, the visitors shot 52 percent on 33-of-63 from the field. The Wildcats got this done quickly, opening with a 30-11 lead after the first quarter. Coach Denise Dillon’s team hit five threes in the period.

The output was the seventh time Villanova scored 30 or more points in a quarter since the sport reverted from two 20-minute halves to present four 10-minute quarter system that began in 2015-16.

At one stage, the Wildcats built a 44-point lead at 88-44 near the end of the game.

Defensively, Villanova made good with a 17-3 advantage in points off turnovers and was 16-0 in fast-break points. 

In the previous four Hinkle visits, the teams split 2-2 in narrow differentials.

On Sunday, Butler’s Okako Adika and Jaia Alexander each scored 14 points.

After going 2-1 on the week coming out of a 19-day pause due to the coronvavirus, the Wildcats are back home Wednesday hosting Providence in Finneran Pavilion at 4 p.m. on the Big East Digital/Flohoops apps streaming network.

Rider Sweeps Monmouth, Wins Third Straight: The Broncs completed a wire-to-wire lead and weekend sweep of hOURglass rival Monmouth, 45-31, winning a third straight including the upset of Quinnipiac a week ago, in a Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference game at the host Hawks’ OceanFirst Bank Center in West Long Branch, N.J.

On the heels of Saturday’s win, Rider (5-14, 4-10 MAAC) returned 24 hours later, took a 9-0 opening lead and never trailed the rest of the way against winless Monmouth (0-8, 0-4).

The visitors’ Daija Moses was the lone player in the game, scoring double digits as she collected 14 points.

The Broncs have won six straight and nine of the last 10 in the series with the central New Jersey school.

Defensively, Rider registered eight blocked shots, the sixth straight game with five or more, if one is looking for signs of awakening on a young roster following the mass graduation from last season of a group which earned the top seed in the MAAC tourney in Atlantic City, but didn’t get passed the quarterfinals when the men’s and women’s event was shutdown as the sports world began to react to the onset of the virus.

That group included Stella Johnson, who became a WNBA draft pick and through a trade and then free-agent signing became a member of the Washington Mystics.

After Moses, Amanda Mobley came close with nine points, and also dealt seven assists, while Victoria Toomey pulled down nine rebounds and blocked four shots.

“I’m very pleased that we were able to take two hard fought road games,” said Rider coach Lynn Milligan. “It is a big step in our growth to put two strong days together, especially on the defensive end.

“We were a little out of flow on offense today but held very strong in defense. We have to be able to rely on our D when we are not shooting as well as we like.”

Rider is back on the road this weekend, traveling to the Buffalo area to play Canisius on Friday on ESPN+ and Saturday on ESPN3 with tip times yet to be announced.

Saint’s Joseph’s Just Short at Rhode Island: If La Salle was just a bad-quarter short of a weekend sweep on the same New England road trip, but in reverse order, in the Atlantic Ten, then Saint Joseph’s was that much closer, falling at Rhode Island 50-48 in overtime in the Ryan Center in Kingston.

The Hawks (5-2, 3-2 A-10) were unable to get off a decent shot and force another period as the clock expired in the first additional period.

Catherine Cairns’ three from down deep became the dagger for the Rams (7-5, 5-2), under second-year coach and former Dawn Staley backcourt Virginia star Tammi Reiss, who won their fifth straight.

Saint Joseph’s was able to thrive, defensively, on its three-point defense, but, unfortunately, couldn’t cash in the other way, shooting just two from beyond the arc in 11 attempts.

“We had a rough shooting day, but our defense put us in position to win the game,”  said veteran coach Cindy Griffin. “Unfortunately, it was not enough today, but there are certainly a lot of takeaways that we will learn from.”

The home team thrived on the boards, outrebounding the Hawks, 44-35, including 16 on the offensive end.

Gabby Smalls, who had not played since January 10, returned for Saint Joseph’s and scored 11 while also passing her 200th rebound to 203 in 34 games.

Katie Jekot scored nine, including all four of the Saint Joseph’s overtime scores. Katie Mayock had seven points and seven rebounds.

League-leading Dayton visits Friday at Hagan Arena at 6 p.m. on ESPN plus while Saint Louis visits Sunday at 2 on the same network.

Temple Edged by Tulane: The Owls fared much better 24 hours later in New Orleans but not enough to get a split with Tulane, which got enough ahead to blunt a rally and win 71-69 for a weekend sweep in the American Athletic Conference at home in Avron B. Fogelman Arena at the Devlin Fieldhouse.

The second and third quarters were the undoing of Temple (5-7, 5-4 AAC), being outscored 16-8 in the former following a 10-point lead in the first that became erased and then 28-19.

Turnovers were again deadly for the Owls, the Green Wave (10-5, 6-4) forcing 16 and gaining 19 points off the miscues.

Mia Davis had 22 points for the visitors, while Asonah Alexander had nine rebounds and seven assists to lead the team in both categories.

Freshman Jasha Clinton had 17 points and dealt five assists, while Alexa Williamson scored 15 and grabbed seven rebounds. Emani Mayo scored 10.

In the final period, in what had been a relatively close game, Tulane built a 10-point lead before the Owls rallied to within three 69-66 with 0:39 seconds left.

Tulane’s two foul shots from JerKaila Jordan built the advantage to five with 26 seconds left.

Rayniah Walker’s second-chance layup at the end of the regulation for Temple narrow differential in the final outcome.

Temple remains on the road heading to Cincinnati Wednesday trying for a series split. The tip is at 6 p.m. and the game will air on ESPN+.

Delaware Streak Comes to Shattering Stop: The Elena Delle Donne era junior and senior season marks in 2012 an d 2013 are safe following the Blue Hens’ overall nine-game win streak and perfect 9-0 mark in the Colonial Athletic Association coming to a stunning end to host Elon 83-61 as the Phoenix gained a series split in the Schar Center.

Jasmine Dickey performed well again for the visiting Blue Hens (12-2, 9-1 CAA), scoring 22 points, her fourth straight with 20 or more and 11th overall, while Jewell Smalls had three from deep to gain nine points and she also grabbed nine rebounds.

The first half was close with lead exchanges, though Elon (7-5, 3-3) was up three at the half, 37-34.

Then proverbial roof fell in, following an easy win 24 hours earlier, as the Phoenix had a thumping 22-11 third quarter performance and 46-27 overall.

Delaware had not lost since Dec. 20, perhaps only outperformed by famed alum and now President Joseph’s R. Biden Jr. It’s the first CAA setback since March 1 a year ago, though there is mitigating factors considering the CAA tourney at Elon got cancelled before the quarterfinals as part of the national sports shutdown reacting to the onset of the coronavirus.

A cure for more basketball damage may be on the way, however, since this weekend Northeastern visits the Bob Carpenter Center Saturday and Sunday at 1 p.m. each day in Newark.

Checking the CAA standings leaderboard is interesting, Delaware remains on top at 9-1, followed by Drexel at 6-2, followed by Towson at 2-1, and then by preseason favorite James Madison at 4-3.

The Blue Hens and Dragons won’t see JMU, barring disruptions, till near the end of the regular season, while in two weeks, and allowing home and home action because of their geographical proximity, Delaware will host Drexel on Friday, Feb. 12 at 6 p.m., while the teams will then travel Sunday on Valentines Day back to Drexel to play at 1 p.m. in the Daskalakis Athletic Center.

All CAA games are on the Flohoops streaming apps.

As for how Delaware will have a four-game season series with Northeastern, a league official said Sunday night, the previous games played in Boston on Jan. 4-5 were inserted when simultaneously a Charleston shutdown postponed the Delaware series while an Elon pause did likewise to the Northeastern series, making Northeastern and Delaware available to play each other.

(It’s all about getting the minimum 13 games played).

This weekend’s Northeastern pair were part of the original Delaware schedule.

And that’s the local report, the national one to come in a few hours.