Guru’s WBB Report: No. 6 UCLA Tops No. 5 Stanford While La Salle Surges Past George Washington

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

All the national action of note happened where it usually happens on Friday nights out in the PAC-12 where No. 6 UCLA prevailed in the closing minute to upset No. 5 Stanford 70-66 on the road, handing the previous No. 1 team their second straight loss, this one in the host Cardinal’s adopted Kaiser Permanente Arena home in Santa Cruz, Calif.

Elsewhere in the conference, No. 10 Arizona beat visiting Utah, 66-54, while No. 13 Oregon at home completed a season series sweep beating Washington State 58-50.

Locally, La Salle finished with a rush in the closing minutes of the fourth quarter to beat visiting George Washington 60-45 in an Atlantic 10 game at home in Tom Gola Arena, while in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Quinnipiac romped host Rider 72-50 in the Broncs’ Alumni Gym in Lawrenceville, N.J., taking the first of two back-to-back games that will be completed Saturday afternoon.

Saint Joseph’s remains shut down again off positive testing for the coronavirus thereby causing postponements of Friday’s A-10 home game with George Mason, which goes to La Salle Sunday afternoon, and Sunday’s A-10 home game with George Washington.

UCLA Pounds Boards to Edge Stanford:  A month ago when the Bruins, playing on a short roster having trouble getting their foreign players stateside, fell at home to the Cardinal in Pauley Pavilion 61-49, coach Cori Close had a postgame message to their squad.

“I told them unless they became the toughest team and most together team in the conference, this is how it’s going to be in big games,” she said on a zoom call Friday night after gaining a split with the PAC-12 no longer frontrunners.

The Bruins (9-2, 7-2 PAC-12) showed their developed toughness outrebounding Stanford 44-31, including 21-7 on the offensive glass.

UCLA also had a lot of charisma, specifically Charisma Osbourne, who had 24 points, her fourth straight game with 20 or more points, while Michaela Onyenwere had 16 points on a poor shooting night from the field and 10 rebounds. Natalie Chou scored 12 and Emily Bessoir scored 11.

Stanford, which has not been on its own campus since Dec. 1 due to strict COVID-19 protocols in Santa Clara County, had won its first 11 games until last Sunday when host Colorado in Boulder became the seventh unranked team in the 45-year history of the Associated Press women’s poll to upset the team at the top.

Kiana Williams had 19 points for the Cardinal (11-2, 8-2), which dropped a half-game behind No. 10 Arizona, while freshman Fran Belibi scored 14, Haley Jones scored 12, and Lexi Hull scored 11.

“I have to credit UCLA, they were extremely physical and they came to play,” said Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer, the all-time Division I women’s coaching victory leader at 1,105.

In close pursuit is No. 3 Connecticut’s Geno Auriemma who got his 1,100th Thursday night winning at Tennessee and hosting Georgetown in a Big East game Saturday afternoon.

“The whole game was frustrating with rebounding,” VanDerveer said. “We don’t grab the ball. There were some big, strong bodies out there. They out-hustled us. They were scrappier. It’s disappointing.”

UCLA went up 11 late in the third quarter and was still ahead by seven with under five minutes remaining in regulation, when Stanford came alive with a 7-0 run to tie.

Deadlocked 66-66 with 1:23 left in the fourth quarter, Osborne hit 2-of-3 to snap the tie for the visitors after Jones fouled her while attempting a shot from deep.

There were 18 seconds left and Stanford was in possession to tie or go ahead but Belibi turned it over, one of 14 miscues by the hosts.

“We had some really stupid plays,” VanDerveer said. “It was very disappointing.”

After the turnover, Osbourne made the first but missed the second from the line, but the Bruins maintained possession on an offensive rebound. Onyenwere went to the line and likewise was 1-for-2 and another offensive rebound to end it.

Close praised Osbourne.

“I just hugged her so tight after the game and just was like, “Look, you did it. you lived it. you earned the confidence now of what it means to be an elite player in big games on both sides of the ball, on the road. I can’t give you that confidence —you’ve got to earn it — but you sure earned a whole lot of confidence tonight.”

With California shut down by the virus, UCLA’s week is done and next hosts Arizona State Friday while Stanford hosts Southern Cal Sunday, having  lost consecutive games for just the fourth time since 2010.

Arizona Gains PAC-12 Lead: Aari McDonald scored 20 points to lead the No. 10 Wildcats to a 66-54 win over Utah (3-9, 2-9 PAC-12) at home in Tucson and a half-game lead at the top of the conference.  It was a slow start for Arizona (11-2, 9-2) until eventually moving to a 19-point lead in the fourth quarter.

Utah countered with a 10-0 run to finish respectfully. 

McDonald, who scored her 2000th point, has the longest active streak in NCAA Division I scoring in 79 straight games in double figures.

Bendu Yeaney had 14 points for the home team, and Cate Reese had 11 points, including her 1,000th career one, and nine rebounds.

The Utes got 11 points from Kemery Martin and 10from Niyah Becker.

“We started slow, I didn’t really think we were on point besides Bendu,” said Arizona coach Adia Barnes. “Second quarter we did better, third quarter we did better, fourth quarter was like the first quarter, so credit to Utah.

“For us to be an elite team, we have to sustain leads and put people away when we’re up.”

Colorado visits Sunday.

Oregon Tops Washington State: The Ducks used defense to shake off last week’s tough loss at Arizona in downing the Cougars 58-50 back home in a PAC-12 game in Matthew Knight Arena in Eugene.

“We’re going to find our noxie, we’re going to get it together offensively,” said Oregon coach Kelly Graves. “Right now it's not clicking but as long as we get it done on the offensive end.”

Sedona Prince, getting her first start in a month, scored 14 points, shooting 7-for-14 from the field for Oregon (10-3, 8-3 PAC-12), while freshman Charlisse Leger-Walker out of New Zealand scored 24 for the Cougars (7-4, 5-4).

Washington State two weeks ago upset then-No. 7 Arizona in overtime and earned a first-ever AP ranking only to drop out following overtime losses at Southern Cal and UCLA.

The Cougars lost by four to the Ducks in their previous meeting.

“I love our competitiveness, I love our demeanor, I love how hard we play, I love our want, I feel so much so maybe they feel pressure on the offensive end,” said Cougars coach Kanmie Ethridge, a former Texas star. “We’re just not making enough shots right now and people are starting to challenge us.”

The Locals - La Salle Puts Away George Washington: The Explorers used a strong second half, especially in the fourth quarter at home to down the Colonials (4-8, 1-5 A-10) and get overall to .500 as Kayla Spruill had her third straight efficient game returning from missing five due to injury, scoring 23 off 8-for-16 from the field.

“Four-of-five isn’t precisely a win streak, but if we win Sunday, it’s five-of-six and then we go on the road next weekend and do against Massachusetts and Rhode Island what we missed doing here, we got something going,” said La Salle coach Mountain MacGillivray.

Molly Masciantonio and Claire Jacobs each scored 11 for the Explorers (7-7, 3-4) in their first home win over GWU in nine seasons.

The defense produced the lowest yield of the season.

Sydney Zambrotta scored 17 for the visitors and Jasmine Whitney scored 10.

Meanwhile Rider continues to be on the blunt end of the paid back tour after being the No, 1 seed in the MAAC tourney in Atlantic City, which shut down hours ahead of the NCAA tourneys and the rest of the sports world victimized by the coronavirus.

This weekend is Quinnipiac’s turn, so far, the Bobcats (7-4, 5-2 MAAC) winning 72-50 off a 20-7 second quarter.

Mikala Morris had 19 points and 11 rebounds for the  visitors while Rose Caverly scored 11, and Sajada Bonner scored 10.

Rider (2-14, 1-10) got 11 points from Makayla Firebaugh and 10 from Raphaela Toussaint.

“I thought we missed an opportunity today on our home floor,” said Rider coach Lynn Milligan. “It was disappointing. 

“The first half is a half we’d obviously like to get back. We came out in the third quarter with the intensity, execution and defense we needed. We just ran out of gas a little bit.”

The two teams return Saturday at 1 p.m. to finish the series.

Looking Ahead: On Saturday locally Temple will try to snap a two-game slide when the Owls host Wichita State at in an American Athletic Conference game at 1 p.m. in McGonigle Hall on ESPN+ while over in the Colonial Athletic Association Delaware will be looking to launch another weekend sweep when the Bluehens host UNCW at 1 p.m. in the first of two games in the Bob Carpenter Center in Newark before returning Sunday at the same time, and Drexel will seek likewise, bouncing off a loss, hosting Elon at 1 p.m. in the Daskalakis Athletic Center, All four games will air on the Flohoops service.

Lehigh is hosting Holy Cross un a Patriot League game at noon, while Texas is at No. 24 Iowa State at 6 p.m. and No. 9 Baylor is hosting Oklahoma at 8 p.m., both in the Big 12.

There are 30 games in Saturday’s postponed or cancelled games list.

And that’s the report.