Guru’s WBB Report: Slow Start Dooms La Salle While Saint Joseph’s Shuts Down Again

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

 Dragged down by the worst start in a game this season, La Salle could not make up all the ground from a 14-point deficit in the first quarter, 22-8, and the Explorers fell at St. Bonaventure 65-60 in an Atlantic 10 game in Olean, N.Y., near Buffalo, bringing an end to the two-game win streak earlier this week that came at home over Saint Joseph’s and Drexel.

Short in the good news department was the return of Kayla Spruill after missing five games and she ended up with a game-high 16 points for La Salle, shooting 4-for-5 from the field and 6-of-6 on the line.

Claire Jacobs add 11 points and grabbed a game-high nine rebounds.

It looked hopeful for La Salle (5-7, 1-4 Atlantic 10), pulling within three of the Bonnies at the end of the third, but a late 7-0 run by the home team in the next period was enough to hold the visitors off the rest of the way at the Reilly Center.

Asianae Johnson scored 15 for St. Bonaventure (2-6, 1-4), while Olivia Brown scored 14, helped by 4-for-7 from down deep.

La Salle now heads to Pittsburgh and a game at Duquesne at 2 p.m. on Sunday.

Saint Joseph’s Stymied:  The Hawks started out on the same road trip as La Salle in reverse and while they got to the city of Pittsburgh, that’s as far as they got, once again victimized by protocols and positive tests involving the coronavirus.

It was just a week ago Saint Joseph’s came out of a three-week hiatus off positive tests to whomp La Salle at home before the Explorers got even with a blowout of their own two days later at the Explorers’ Tom Gola Arena.

That was the second pause, one coming earlier after the official start of the season.

Saint Joseph’s has been testing every day and when the Hawks arrived and looked to play at Duquesne, Friday, word came of positive results to those at the T-1 level, which includes the roster, the coaches, the managers, and support personnel. The two Atlantic 10 games were the only ones on the local slate for Friday.

Word on the Hawks’ resumption is to come.

Everybody on the Guru’s local list of 11 schools have all been hit by pause status besides having games cancelled or postponed through positive tests on the other side.

Penn and Princeton were part of the Ivy ancient eight that were shutdown for the winter before the season got under way by directive from the league presidents.

Villanova had been coping, got off to a great 8-2 start overall and 3-2 in the Big East until recently felled and currently on a pause now set to resume a week from Monday, hosting St. John’s on FS1 from Finneran. Pavilion.

Drexel and Delaware have been in hit out of the Colonial Athletic Association.

Penn State had schedule gaps and Rutgers is currently on a pause, both schools members of the Big Ten.

Temple has had stops and starts in the American Athletic Conference.

Rider, struggling with a very young roster following the graduation of the best senior class in program history, also had pauses to complete the list.

Nationally, due to stringent protocols in Santa Clara County in Northern California, Stanford, the nation’s top team currently in the Associated Press women’s poll, has not been at home in its own arena all season.

Duke and SMU, this week, were joined by Virginia and San Jose State as programs who have short circuited the rest of their seasons.

No. 15 Ohio State, which was on a long pause, previously announced the Bukeyes were taking themselves out of the postseason but are playing the regular Big Ten schedule.

And that is just a small sampling of the entire country.

Games of Note:  Unlike Thursday’s power packed list of results and upsets, the Friday elsewhere list is quite smaller. But there are things to note.

In the Big East, Seton Hall at home in Walsh Gym in South Orange, N.J., beat Marquette 77-66  as former UConn member Andra Espinoza-Hunter scored 25 for the Pirates (5-3, 3-2 Big East) and reserve Desiree Elmore scored 20 against the visitors (6-2, 3-1), who got a team-high 13 points from Lauren Van Kleunen.

No. 25 Washington State, in the Cougars’ first game since becoming a ranked team for the first time ever, suffered a tough 81-77 loss to Southern Cal in overtime in a PAC-12 game in Los Angeles. Jordan Sanders had 24 points for the home team, while reigning national freshman of the week Charlisse Leger-Walker scored 25 for the visitors.

Elsewhere in the Pac-12, top-ranked Stanford won at Utah, 82-54.

In Conference USA, Rice won at Old Dominion 77-66 while Middle Tennessee at home beat Southern Mississippi, 78-58.

Looking Ahead: Locally, Delaware and Drexel are on a collision course in the Colonial Athletic Association, but ahead of next weekend comes this weekend’s back-to-back games on the road.

Delaware’s Blue Hens (7-1 overall) will be at Hofstra on Long Island Saturday and Sunday at the Mack Sports Exhibition and Complex at 2 p.m. each day on Long Island, while Drexel (5-2), coming out of a tough non-conference loss at La Salle, will be at William & Mary at Kaplan Arena in Williamsburg, Va., the same days and times. All the games are available in the Flohoops Apps.

Rider, in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, which has won just one non-conference game, will be host Saint Peter’s from Jersey City, N.J., Saturday and Sunday at 1 p.m. in Alumni Gymnasium in Lawrenceville, N.J.

Penn State, which won its first Big Ten game of the season last Sunday, seven days later will host No. 22 Northwestern Sunday at 2 p.m. in the Bryce Jordan Center in State College.

Nationally, on Saturday, No. 6 Baylor in the Big 12, comes out of a two-week pause that claimed an intersectional showdown with UConn, hosting Iowa State, the team that beat the Bears at the finish in Texas last March in the last regular season game prior to the conference tournament’s cancellation at the outset of the national sports shutdown. The game will air at 8 p.m. on ESPN2.

No. 15 Ohio State is at Nebraska in the Big Ten, No. 19 DePaul is at Georgetown in the Big East, and No. 20 Gonzaga is at San Francisco in the West Coast Conference.

Rice will be playing its second game in the C-USA Saturday at Old Dominion, looking for a sweep. 

In the SEC Sunday, both teams coming out of upset losses, No. 7 Texas A&M will host No. 14 Mississippi State at 1 p.m. on ESPN2. 

And that’s the report.