Guru’s WBB Report: Rutgers and Delaware Gain Key Wins, Texas A&M Tops Tennessee, Frese Sets Win Record at Maryland

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

It was a super Sunday and Valentine’s Day for Rutgers, Delaware, and Rider, among the locals, while the ranked teams that played swept, the head-to-head exception being No. 6 Texas A&M pulling away at the end to down No. 16 Tennessee, 80-70, in the Southeastern Conference.

Maryland coach Brenda Frese guided her No. 9 Terrapins, the Big Ten leader, to an easy 95-73 win at Nebraska in the Cornhuskers’ Pinnacle Bank Arena in Lincoln, thus gaining her 500th victory with the program and breaking a tie with Chris Weller, her predecessor, to become the Terps’ all-time record holder in College Park.

As the coronavirus keeps affecting schedules, No. 21 at No. 12 Ohio State in the Big Ten was postponed, preventing the visiting Wildcats from attempting a sweep, as was No. 3 Louisville at Syracuse in the Atlantic Coast Conference, and No. 8 UCLA at Colorado in the PAC-12.

Guirantes’ 30 Carries Rutgers to Third Straight: The Scarlet Knights continued their Big Ten run to three straight and began heading higher in the standings as Arella Guirantes scored 30 to lead Rutgers to a 75-57 at Purdue in the Boilermakers’ Mackey Arena in West Lafayette, Ind.

Having been idle for 35 days since Jan. 3 under COVID-19 protocols, the Knights (8-3, 4-3 Big Ten) returned to action a week ago winning big at home over Nebraska and then taking a two-game road trip upsetting No. 21 Northwestern and then handling the Boilermakers.

In their first game back last week, Hall of Fame coach C. Vivian Stringer promised her squad would soon hit its stride and it appears to be happening.

On the positive side, they are two games away from reaching the minimal 13 in this particular season to be considered NCAA tournament eligible and the remaining four of the five games remaining on the posted schedule they should be considered favorites on the slate that includes Minnesota visiting Wednesday (7 p.m. on Big Ten+), Illinois doing likewise Saturday (12 p.m.), at Michigan State on Feb. 24, at Penn State Feb. 28, and hosting No. 11 Ohio State March 5 prior to the conference tourney in Indianapolis.

The wildcard in this assumption, however, is whether virus protocols become disruptive, or unforeseen injuries, and also whether the conference will cram some of the past postponed games into the remaining calendar.

In Sunday’s win the visitors shot 52 percent from the floor and forced 13 turnovers in the second half to pull away from a competitive and leading 34-31 contest at the break on a 41-26 finish against the Boilermakers (6-11, 3-10).

“We played tough and we played together which is what was needed to win against a very good Purdue team,” Stringer said.

Diamond Johnson, who is fifth in the nation in three-point shooting (30-of 60, 0.500) was a thrifty 4-of-8 from deep in this one to go on to 19 points scored behind Guirantes. The freshman from Philadelphia also had a pair of personal bests in her young collegiate career, grabbing nine rebounds and dealing six assists. Tekia Mack also scored in double figures, collecting 12 points.

“We’re getting focused on playing our best basketball of the season heading into to March,” Guirantes said. “We will hold ourselves to that standard.” 

Out of the half, Rutgers turned up the defense forcing eight turnovers in the first five minutes of the third quarter and took off on a 13-0 run.

The Boilermakers had a comeback in them with a 7-0 run late in the game to move within six with 4 minutes, 50 seconds left in regulation but then the visitors hit right back with a 10-0 run to be in front 70-54.

Guirantes’ production was her third 30-point involvement this season and fifth in her career, all coming against Big Ten rivals. She also tied a career-high with five blocks and has nailed 28 straight foul shots,  and at the current .918 pace is heading to break Tomora Young’s .901 set during the 1997-98 season, 23 years ago.

Delaware Deals Sweep on Drexel: After dealing with domination by the Dragons in their long local rivalry in the Colonial Athletic Association and previous conference affiliations  for 11 games prior to Friday’s win in their Bob Carpenter Center in Newark, the Blue Hens completed their sixth weekend sweep in the conference, taking a 66-55 triumph in Drexel’s Daskalakis Athletic Center.

The league leaders (16-2, 13-1 CAA) even got help from Northeastern, which upset Towson in the second game of their weekend series in Boston, giving Delaware a one-game lead in the loss column but four overall because of the less number of contests played by the Tigers because of COVID-19 protocols postponements.

The Blue Hens’ performance to date is the best since the final two seasons in the legendary Elena Delle Donne era in 2012 and 2013, in fact the most CAA wins since going a perfect 18-0 and the title her senior season.

Jasmine Dickey had a game-high 25 points, including 17 in the second half, and also grabbed eight rebounds and dealt three assists. Ty Battle picked up her conference leading 12th double double with 12 points and 11 rebounds, along with three steals and two blocks.

Delaware will finish out with two games at preseason-favorite James Madison next Saturday and Sunday at 6 p.m. each day in Harrisonburg, Va., and then will return home the following weekend to host Towson on a pair of games.

A Drexel first-half lead was erased when the Blue Hens launched a 17-2 run across the second and third quarters but the Dragons (9-6, 6-4) stayed in contention with a 10-0 run of its own to move within two possessions late in the game.

The home team’s Keishana Washington scored 23. Hannah Nilhill scored 14 and dished seven assists,

“It was good to see Keishana do what she is capable of doing,” said first-year coach Amy Mallon. “We’re hoping to build off of that.”

Kayla Bacon had a team high seven rebounds and before the game she and Nilhill were honored on homecoming weekend with senior day attributes.

Most schools usually hold their senior days in normal times in the final regular season appearances in home arenas.

Mallon echoed, though, what many other programs are doing in taking advantage and getting the events in ahead of time to play it safe with the next day not always a given during the pandemic.

La Salle, for example, was minutes from boarding a bus Sunday morning to travel to Fordham to play one of the Atlantic 10 frontrunners in Rose Hill Gym in the Bronx, when word came the Rams were shutting down the next two weeks due to a spike of coronavirus cases on campus, per directives from the New York state government.

One of Drexel’s major problems Sunday against Delaware was coping with the offensive rebounding, which is among the nation’s leaders.

“Our goal is to cut the offensive boards in half,” said Mallon, who was promoted in the offseason from her 17 years as associate head coach under Denise Dillon, who last March left to return to her alma mater, succeeding the veteran Harry Perretta, who retired from Villanova after 42 seasons on the Main Line.

“It’s something they do extremely well. Somewhere at crucial points where they had three and four in a row. That’s what we have to find a way to fix. That can’t happen.”

Ball handling was also a problem in an area the Dragons usually have under control but made 19 turnovers against the Blue Hens.

“We tried to make the harder pass sometimes,” Mallon said. “Against a team like Delaware it’s tough to make the simple pass  because they’re so athletic and long. We were trying to make the harder pass.”

Between second chance points and the turnovers combined the visitors had a 39-17 advantage.

Mallon noted, unlike a year ago, the same players are not on the floor for short-possession games, many of which Drexel has been involved.

“My hope is that we get Washington, Nihill, (Maura) Hendrixson, and (Mariah) Leonard on the same page one night doing what they know they are capable of and we are moving in that direction.”

Drexel’s final two weekends are against the teams they are contending with for second under Delaware.

The Dragons next Saturday and Sunday will be at Towson in Maryland and then return home the final weekend to host preseason favorite James Madison.

The CAA tournament will return next month to Elon, giving the university near Greensboro, N.C., a second chance after last year’s event was cancelled before the quarterfinals when the sports world began shutting down reacting to the outbreak of the pandemic.

Drexel, the No. 1 seed, was declared the champ, though it became moot when soon thereafter both NCAA men’s and women’s tourneys became cancelled.

Rider Closes With a Win: A 27-12 third quarter followed by seven more points of advantage in the fourth gave the Broncs a 68-54 win over Niagara and a split on the weekend at home in Alumni Gym in a Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference game in Lawrenceville, N.J., and now they will get a long rest and wait for the start of next month’s tourney in Atlantic City.

That’s where they left off a landmark season as the No. 1 seed a year ago after the quarterfinals when the MAAC tourney joined the mass sports shutdown.

The reason Rider (6-17, 5-13 MAAC) has a long wait is the Broncs are among a handful of teams who have managed to get through their seasons at the higher end in terms of number of games.

They had some go by the boards in non-conference but were able to find replacements early in the season and once MAAC play began they were on the available side as games began getting postponed and shifts were made to keep the season rolling without too many permanently cancelled games.

The MAAC had preserved on the original schedule Feb. 27-28 dates in case they were needed for makeups.

The telling different between a year ago when then-future WNBA rookie Stella Johnson and a bunch of teammates were finishing up is this time around just one senior, Daiji Moses was on the roster to be honored.

Down at the half, Rider was able to mount a 13-0 run and flip to a double-digit lead on Niagara (2-4, 2-4), a program that has been hard hit with shutdowns because of COVID-19 protocols. 

On Saturday the Purple Eagles were back on the court for the first time in three weekends.

Maya Hyacienth scored 17 for the home team while Makayla Firebaugh scored 13, and Moses scored 10 and grabbed five rebounds.

“We are happy we got this win today and with it being our last home game and the last game of the regular season,” said Rider veteran coach Lynn Milligan. “Obviously, we wanted to be for Daija and send her out with a great moment. 

“I’m really pleased with our effort and how we bounced back in the second half.”

Rider was improved on the back half of the season and the record could be even a little better were it not for several heartbreakers along the way. For example, the Broncs were in both games most of the way at Marist, one of the MAAC leaders coming down the stretch.

As Mulligan said, the key was to get as many games as we can, the more the better, and use it as learning for the future.

Saint Joseph’s Falls Short: The good news on Sunday for the Hawks was they got some more scoring punch but unfortunately it wasn’t enough as two-point 55-53 deficit midway through the fourth quarter became the high watermark as Davidson then launched an 18-9 run in the closing 5:27 to gain a 71-64 victory in the Atlantic 10 game in North Carolina.

Katie Jekot scored a season-high 21 points, 17 in the second half, while she also dished four assists for Saint Joseph’s (3-7, 7-10 A-10), which has had to go through several shutdowns this season. Kaliah Henderson had a career-high 17 points, 11 in the first half. Mary Sheehan had a season-best 14 points.

It was the Hawks’ first loss in the eight-game series with Davidson (7-10, 4-7), a relatively newer member of the conference.

Saint Joseph’s will be back on the road for its next game, visiting Richmond in Virginia at the Robins Center on Thursday at noon on ESPN+. 

The National Look — No. 6 Texas A&M pulls away on No. 16 Tennessee at the Finish: Still one of the newer members of the Southeastern Conference, though the Aggies have been in the club for a while, A&M turned a close contest in its direction down the stretch to down the Lady Vols 80-70 at home in Reed Arena in College Station and stay a game behind No. 1 South Carolina in the conference race.

The triumph moved the Aggies (19-1, 10-1 SEC) just a win behind Tennessee (12-5, 6-3)  in their 15-game series at 8-7 but Gary Blair’s squad is now 4-1 at home after handing the Lady Vols their second straight loss following the one at No. 20 Kentucky on Thursday.

The home team has beaten eight ranked opponents, the only overall imperfection, an upset loss at LSU which was later avenged.

For the moment the 19 wins are the most in the nation with the home overall record at 12-0, the best start six seasons.

Sunday’s matchup had twice been scheduled earlier but changed twice when Tennessee had to go into pause mode due to positive coronavirus tests within the program.

Texas A&M’s Destiny Pitts scored 18, of which 11 came in the decisive fourth quarter when she nailed two from deep and went 5-of-6 on the line.

Kayla Wells, who scored her 100th career trey early in the game, scored 13 points, while Jordan Nixon had had 15 points and a personal best five steals. She also was 12-of-14 from the line, accounting for most of her points. Ciera Johnson was also in double digits, scoring 10 and grabbing seven rebounds, while Aailyah Wilson added 13 points to the Aggies’ cause.

With her seven rebounds in the game and 980th in her career, N’dea Jones is within 22 caroms of the program-record 1,002 set by Anriel Howard.

Texas A&M will host Missouri later this week on Thursday at 8 p.m. on the SEC Network+.

“McKinzie Green and Pitts both played great off the bench,” said Hall of Fame coach Gary Blair, who pushed his overall record to 832-331, including 424-168 in Aggieland since coming from Arkansas in 2003-04. “We outscored them 22-7.

“McKinzie was very instrumental in speeding up the offense when we had to have it. Interior passion was very good between the post players the majority of the game. They knew they were not going to be the focal point of the offense until we had the right mismatches, and we exploited that down the line. 

“Nixon’s free throws, Wells, and Pitts, that’s 21 out of 24. I had my best free throw shooters go to the line at the right time.”

Texas A&M has been opposite of Arkansas within the lead, winning narrow outcomes in games with ranked teams.

“We know what we need to do, and we’re a veteran team so kudos to that,” Wells said. “I just think we just don’t panic when it comes to those situations.”

The Aggies shot 63 percent from the field in the final quarter besides making 17-of-22 foul shots in the final 10 minutes.

Tennessee’s Rennia Davis scored 25 and grabbed four rebounds, while Tamari Key scored 10 and grabbed 10 rebounds for her second double double. Rae Burrell contributed 18 points, while Kasiyhna Kushkituah scored 10 points and grabbed eight rebounds.

“It was a hard-fought game against a really terrific team in A&M,” said second-year coach and alum Kellie Harper, who previously coached at Missouri State. “They’re deep. They’ve got a lot of different weapons, and very efficient.

“We played well throughout the game, we just put them on the line too many times and we didn’t get there enough and that was the difference in the ball game. We gave ourselves a chance, I’m proud of that. Now we have to finish it out.”

Tennessee now stays on the road Tuesday to head to a makeup game visiting Mississippi State in Starville at 5 p.m. on ESPNU. The Bulldogs’ Sunday game at in-state conference rival Ole Miss was postponed.

Then the Lady Vols come home to Knoxville for Thursday night’s no longer 1 vs. 2 conference showdown when No. 1 South Carolina visits, though off the loss to current No. 2 Connecticut in overtime last Monday, the Gamecocks are likely to have a new but not much lower ranking number when the next Associated Press rankings are released early Monday afternoon.

Because Mike Siroky will be coming along with his weekly SEC report on the next go-round, we won’t go into too much detail on the other two conference games involving ranked teams but South Carolina was home to handle LSU 66-59 in Colonial Life Arena, while No. 24 Georgia won at Missouri 82-64.

The Gamecocks have now won 31 straight games with SEC opponents, counting the conference tournament last season, and have extended their program record regular season SEC streak to 28.

In the win by South Carolina (17-2, 12-0 SEC), Destanni Henderson scored 19 points and Aliyah Boston scored 12, grabbed 13 rebounds, and blocked six shots. Zia Cooke scored 13.

The Gamecocks have won 12 straight over LSU (8-10, 6-6), while Dawn Staley, in her 12th season since leave Temple, has matched the active leadership in the conference with Gary Blair with 150 wins each.

In the win by Georgia (16-4, 8-4 SEC), Gabby Connally equalled her season best with 29 points while Que Morrison with 11 points and 10 rebounds, and Jenna Staiti with 18 points and 11 rebounds had double doubles against the host Tigers (7-9, 3-8).

The Bulldogs next are home in Stegeman Coliseum Sunday at noon hosting Tennessee and looking for a sweep after last month’s win over the Lady Vols, Georgia’s first in Knoxville in 25 years.

Frese Sets Maryland Record:  The only drama was the numerical total for coach Brenda Frese, whose No. 9 Terrapins made it easy routing host Nebraska 95-73 in Pinnacle Bank Arena in Lincoln in the Big Ten to earn her a 500th record victory with the program, snapping a tie reached over a week ago at 499 with her predecessor Chris Weller.

Weller wishes her the best.

“You know when Brenda got hired, she wanted the administration to let me guest coach a game to get to 500,” Weller related to the Guru in a recent conversation. “They wouldn’t do it, and she got mad.

“But I didn’t care. I never coached for the number. I coached for the legacy and it’s more about the things I did. When I coached in high school, all we had was play days, and I was able to get four team sports started, though I didn’t know a lot about one of them.

“Plus having No. 499 is pretty neat cause people are going to keep coming around asking about it,” she laughed.

Frese is in her 19th season in College Park, having been hired from a one-year stint turning around Minnesota’s program.

Weller coached from 1975-76 in the old AIAW era until 2002.

Frese is now 500-130 and among the high end of all-time coaches with rankings in the Associated Press women’s poll, even higher on the active list.

Four years after Frese arrived in College Park, she led the Terrapins’ to an NCAA title in an exciting overtime game in Boston playing then-Atlantic Coast rival Duke with the game extended when Kristi Toliver hit the three-ball near the end of regulation.

That season, Maryland won a series of games in extra periods, leading the base to take up the slogan that “Overtime Is Our Time.”

Of her current group, Frese said afterwards, “You see the love that they play with in this game. Just given the resiliency of our travel day to have to come in the day of the game to be able to watch that first quarter where I thought we punched first. They played extremely hard for one another. There’s not another team I would rather celebrate this milestone with. You look at the resiliency of this team and what they’ve been through this season.”

The 95 points set an arena scoring record at Nebraska.

Ashley Owusu scored a game-high 25 points for the Terrapins (14-2, 10-1), grabbing seven rebounds and dealing seven assists. Diamond Miller scored 24, while Mimi Collins scored 19, and Chloe Bibby scored 16.

Nebraska (9-10, 7-8) got a career-high 19 from Ruby Porter.

Maryland next hosts Illinois back home in the XFINITY Center Wednesday at 1 p.m. on the Big Ten Network.

In another conference game involving a ranked team, No. 15 Indiana edged host Illinois 58-50 at State Farm Center in Champaign.

“Well, that was ugly,” Hoosiers coach Teri Moren said after her squad had let a comfortable 17-point lead melt down to a single point with 2 minutes, 39 seconds left in regulation.

“As I said to our group, they’re not always pretty,” Moren said. “Sometimes you have to find ways (to win) and grind it out.”

Both teams combined to shoot under 31 percent from the field with 41 fouls and 31 turnovers.

The Hoosiers (13-4, 11-2 Big Ten), who trail Maryland by a game in the loss column in the conference, scored 20 points off 16 turnovers in the first half and were 16-of-20 from the line through the first two quarters.

A 12-2 run by Illinois (3-13, 1-12) got the home team within seven going into the final period.

Indiana, which got a game-high 16 points from Ali Patberg, continued to stagnate, offensively, and an 8-0 run moved Illinois within a point at 51-50 with 2:39 left in regulation.

However, Nicole Cardano-Hillary, a former George Mason player, driving layup with 57 seconds left to help Indiana stay alive.

“One of the other players fell on the ground and kind of left the floor wide open,” she said after finishing with 11 points. “My shot hadn’t been falling, so I figured this would be a good time to attack and I finished it. I felt like that was a good push for the team.”

Indiana hosts No. 12 Michigan in a showdown game among the top conference teams Thursday with time and network to be announced.

No. 7 Baylor 60, Texas 35:  When Vic Schaefer was hired away in the offseason from the powerhouse he built at Mississippi State to revive Texas’ fortunes, the mission need not be said allowed for everyone to know that Get Baylor was the battle cry.

For starters, the Lady Bears turned that into a whimper in the first Big 12 meeting since the coaching change with Baylor in its Ferrell Center arena in Waco, Texas, choking off the Longhorns 60-35 to prevail and stay on top of the conference with West Virginia coming Wednesday to take the next shot, one after being upset at home by Oklahoma on Saturday night.

Hall of Fame coach Kim Mulkey guided Baylor (16-2, 11-1 Big 12) to its ninth straight win over the Longhorns (14-6, 8-5) across four seasons as NaLyssa Smith scored 14 points.

Holding Baylor to a season low on offense sounds good when you’re on the winning side or the game’s a nail biter, but it will be lost in the crowd looking at the 25-point differential and locking down Texas’s main weapon Charli Collier to to two points  off 1-for-3 from the field with five rebounds. Celeste Taylor was the only one in double figures for visitors, scoring 11 points.

The Bears dominated the boards 51-31.

After Smith, Baylor got 13 points from Dijonai Carrington, while Queen Ebo double doubled with 11 points and 12 rebounds, and Moon Ursin did likewise, scoring 11 and grabbing 12.

“We put put NaLyssa Smith on her,” Mulkey said of stymieing Collier. 

“NaLyssa Smith was chosen (Big 12) preseason player of the year and in my mind, that hasn’t changed. NaLyssa Smith plays on a team with a lot of talented players around her and she doesn’t score 40 or 50 enough against teams, what she does is get double doubles for you and she almost got another one tonight. If you watched this team grow around the last two or three weeks, guys, this team isn’t about one individual.

“This team is about a lot of players. Four scored in double figures today. I thought our defense was outstandings, not just on Collier, but on their other players.

“We hit a stretch, where we couldn’t score. It was not a game you watch on TV and go, ‘ooh man, that’s entertaining. You got to really love basketball to watch some defensive things that were done today to stay with it.

One of the way to beat Texas was not give them the extra shot. Keep them off the offensive boards and I told the guards, they’d had to help us rebound. 

“We were never bothered by any pressure. Vic likes to press. It was a glorified scrimmage. No fans. Just referees and national television. I never played in a setting like that.”

Mulkey talked about the mutual respect she and Schaefer have for each other.

“Vic Schaefer was hired for a reason and that was to win championships, so give him time.”

From the Texas perspective of the outcome, “I thought we did some good things today, not about moral victories,” Schaefer said. “I thought we did some good things, defensively. We held them to eight points in the third quarter. Held them to 60 points. That’s a really good offensive team over there. The glaring stat is we played the big lineup and still got out-rebound a lot by 20.

“Ourselves, we had 17 offensive rebounds. We good a lot of good looks, but couldn’t make a shot.They did a good job taking away Charli and when that happens, gotta work a littler harder and at the same time a lot of other people have to step up.”

Texas next travels to TCU Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. on ESPN+

Arizona Stays in Pursuit of Stanford: The No. 10 Wildcats completed a sweep of the Northwest visitors weekend in the PAC-12 beating Washington 75-53 in the final regular season home game as senior Sam Thomas celebrated her class’ day of honor with a career-high six 3-pointers, with seven rebounds and three blocked shots for the sixth straight victory by Arizona (14-2, 12-2), which is in the hunt with Stanford for the regular season title.

The Cardinal finish their last road game of the year at No. 11 Oregon Monday.

Thomas, who had 20 points, said, “My teammates always tell me to shoot the ball more, so on senior night I thought I would listen.”

Senior Aari McDonald had 20 points and eight assists while Cate Reese scored 12, and Shaina Pellington scored 11 as Arizona is enjoying its best league performance in program history.

The three seniors honored, including Trinity Baptiste, have the option under the special NCAA rule this season of returning for an extra season of eligibility.

None have yet made their plans public, though McDonald is being projected as a WNBA first-round draft pick.

“I’m not sure I’ll be three-for-three,” said Arizona coach Adia Barnes. “I’ll be one for three or two for three.”

As for Thomas’ performance against the Huskies (5-11, 2-11), Barnes said, “Sam was aggressive. She was looking for her shot, feeling it. We know Sam is always going to be constant and consistent on her defense. But when she is looking for her shot and she’s hitting them, we’re just a better team overall.”

The Wildcats from deep were 12-of-16 for 75 percent, good enough to set a team record for three-point percentage in a game.

Washington had snapped an eight-game losing streak at Arizona State on Friday night and in this one got 13 points and nine rebounds from Quay Miller and 12 points from Haley Van Dyke.

Arizona is scheduled to visit the Bay Area in Northern California next weekend with the first stop being at California in Berkeley on Friday night at 11:30 but Cal was unable to compete this past weekend so it remains to see whether the Golden Bears have enough healthy players for the game.

In another PAC-12 game, Washington State fell at Arizona State 67-61 but Cougars freshman sensation Charlisse Leger-Walker out of New Zealand set a rookie record scoring 29 points for her 10th 20-point or more contest, eclipsing the nine held by Borislava Hristova.

Ula Motuga added 15 for Washington State (9-9, 7-9 PAC-12), while Arizona State (10-7, 5-7) at home in Tempe in its Desert Financial Arena got 15 points from Jaddan Simmons and 12 from Taya Hanson.

The other ranked team which played Sunday out of the Summit League was No. 23 South Dakota State which completed a weekend sweep at Oral Roberts 73-61 in Tulsa, Oklahoma as Myah Selland had a career-high 30 points with eight rebounds and six assists for the front-running Jackrabbits (17-2, 10-0 Summit League).

South Dakota State has won 18 straight in the series with Oral Roberts (6-12, 4-6).

Maine Regains America East Command: After losing at Stony Brook on Long Island on Saturday, the Black Bears recovered on the second day of the weekend series, rallying from a 16-point deficit to win 54-49 over the Seawolves.

The huge deficit was in the first half, though the visitors in the America East 1-2 showdown still trailed by nine early in the final period but outscored Stony Brook 24-10 in those last 10 minutes. 

An 11-0 run within that spurt regained the lead at 43-41 for Maine (15-2, 12-2 AEC).

Blanca Millan scored 15 of her 17 points in the second half for the visitors, who coach Amy Vachon called the win one of the best in her 41/2 seasons since assuming head coaching duties.

“I am so proud of this team,” Vachon was quoted in the Bangor Daily News. “It was a gutsy win. We had no business winning this game. The way we shot the ball through the first three periods wasn’t good. But we shot 64 percent in the fourth quarter and held them to 10 points.”

Stony Brook (11-5, 9-3) had ended Maine’s nine-game win streak before having its six-game streak snapped and falling to second by a game in the loss column.

India Pagan had 12 points for Stony Brook.

Elsewhere, Dayton topped visiting VCU 67-62 to stay atop the Atlantic 10 with a perfect conference record while 16 games, including La Salle-Fordham were on the postponed list off Sunday’s games.

Perfect But Unlisted: Your Guru has been in recent weeks adding Cal Baptist of the Western Athletic Conference to the report because of the Lancers’ overall unbeaten record of 18-0 and current win streak of 21 games across two season, one less than the inactive run of Princeton, which finished a year ago with 22 but has been barred along with the rest of the Ivy League from winter sports activities, promulgated by the league office.

However, the only unbeaten squad listed in the NCAA stats is Bucknell’s best-ever 8-0 start overall and also in the Patriot League, which did not allow any of its teams to start play until the conference schedule at the beginning of the new year. The exception was made of the two service academies Army and Navy. The Mountain West also allowed Air Force to compete.

The reason Cal Baptiste is not listed is because the program is still in transitional state moving to Division I and thus is ineligible for this season’s NCAA tournament.

Looking Ahead: A significant Monday in that in the Big East, Seton Hall, coming off two losses at No. 2 Connecticut and last-second loss to Creighton at home in overtime will be at No. 22 DePaul at 7 p.m. on FS1, which with Marquette is in a three-way battle for second, though the Pirates off the second loss, dropped to fifth behind idle Villanova.

The Wildcats are expected to end their most recent pause and host Butler Tuesday night at 7 on FS2.

Also on Monday, as Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer seeks to extend her record Division I women’s win record at 1,113, when the Cardinal travel to No. 11 Oregon in the PAC-12 at 7 p.m. on ESPN2. No. 20 Kentucky is at Florida in the SEC at 7 p.m. on the SEC network.

We’ll talk about Wednesday once Monday’s games have concluded.

So for now, that’s the report.