Guru’s WBB Report: Temple and Delaware Win While No. 21 West Virginia Bests Host Texas and Oregon Edges Unbeaten UC Davis

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

With Villanova on the part of the Wildcats and Drexel on part of the opposing Hofstra program sent into postponement model, the local game card for Saturday was small but joyous as Delaware took the first of its two back-to-back weekend home games, beating Northeastern 59-47 in a Colonial Athletic Association matchup in the Bob Carpenter Center in Newark, and Temple finished its road trip with a second straight triumph, winning at Wichita State, 65-57, to take the season series in the American Athletic Conference.

Nationally, it was also light but nevertheless quite newsworthy.

No. 21 West Virginia, for the first time since joining the Big 12 in 2012, has swept the series with Texas, winning 81-75 at the Longhorns’ Frank Erwin Center in Austin for the Mountaineers’ 10th straight season win, longest since 2018-19 when 13 straight was the run.

Among the other two ranked teams in action, No. 23 South Dakota State rallied and completed its two-night in-state series with South Dakota, winning 80-75 at home in the Summit League to sweep the action.

Tylee Irwin hit the game-winner with 14.1 seconds left in regulation in the game in Brookings as the Jackrabbits (15-2, 8-0 Summit League) scored the last 13 points of the game. Following the score, Tori Nelson stole the inbounds pass and hit two foul shots and the winners got two more connected free throws after Chloe Lamb’s three-point effort became an air ball.

Myah Selland scored 26 points and Paiton Burckhard scored 22 to combine for 48 points against the Coyotes (10-5, 6-2) in the battle for the conference lead to increase the win streak to 12 straight.

Lamb scored 18 for the visitors, who had built a 75-67 lead with 2 minutes, 56 seconds left in regulation.

Out West, No. 12 Oregon, ahead of another PAC-12 marquee matchup Monday with No.9 Arizona, found a respectable non-conference foe to insert into the schedule and after challenged all night, put down UC Davis 63-57, the first ever meeting between the two programs, and in the process reduced the national list of Division I unbeaten teams to two.

Bucknell (8-0), off to its best start, did not play its Patriot League start of games with Loyola (Md.) after the Bisons went into pause do to a Tier 1 positive test under COVID-19 protocol.

And California Baptist of the Western Athletic Conference finished its fourth straight series sweep, beating New Mexico State 70-51 at home in Riverside to improve to 16-0 and 8-0 in the conference.

The overall win streak continuing from last season prior to the cancellation of the WAC tournament is 19 straight, behind the 22-game finish of Princeton, which has since been unable to compete because of the cancellation of the Ivy tournament last spring due to the outbreak of the coronavirus and the league’s ensuing cancellation of the current season.

Caitlyn Harper, who was re-inserted late in the game, tallied nine of the Lancers’ final 12 points and totaled 19, while Ane Olaeta and Brittney Thomas each scored13, and Taylor Wu scored 12. Olaeta also dished nine assists, to bring her Division I-leading total to 114.

The loss dropped New Mexico State to 3-8 overall and 1-3 in the WAC.

Temple Sweeps Shockers: The Owls quelled a closing rally to beat Wichita State 65-57 in the Shockers’s Charles Koch Arena in Wichita, Kansas, as Temple (7-7, 7-4 AAC) got back to .500 overall in following up Wednesday’s win at Cincinnati.

Mia Davis, who joined the Owls’ all-time top five scorers in the Cincinnati game, had 17 points as did Asonah Alexander against Wichita State (4-8, 1-6), with Davis grabbing seven rebounds and Alexander hauling down six. Freshman Jasha Clinton continued her fine rookie season with 16 points and five assists among her stats, while Emani Mayo had nine points, seven rebounds, six assists, and a pair of steals.

Alexa Williamson had seven rebounds.

“We won, we got the flight and beat the snow home, and now I can watch the Super Bowl,” said Temple veteran coach Tonya Cardoza, checking in to Guru Central after landing back in Philadelphia.

“You know, (Wichita State) threw a lot of junk defenses at us, so I’m very proud of our guys for keeping their composure.”

The frenetic finish saw the home team use a 6-0 run to move within seven until Alexander’s two foul shots blunted the run with 2:17 left.

Mariah McCully then connected from deep to make it a six-point game with 1:36 left, but Temple exchanged scores, besting the Shockers 8-6 over the final minute to prevail.

As for the Super Bowl, though in the past Cardoza adhered to her Boston roots rooting for the New England Patriots and quarterback Tom Brady, though he is now with Tampa Bay, she noted, “you got two great quarterbacks. It should be an outstanding game.

“In fact, we got two nights of great games to watch.”

Yeah, that’s as far as she was willing to go in that other one, considering the likely to have climbed to No. 1 South Carolina squad when the 800th AP women’s poll in history is released early Monday afternoon is coached by her good friend and former Virginia teammate, as well as Owls predecessor Dawn Staley, will be visiting either No. 2 or remain No. 3 Connecticut, coached by Geno Auriemma, her boss for as an assistant for 14 seasons with the Huskies prior to succeeding Staley at Temple.

The Owls will be looking for revenge Wednesday afternoon when Houston visits McGonigle Hall in an AAC contest at 3:30 p.m. that will air on the ESPN+ streaming apps.

Delaware Back on the Winning Side: Following the disruption of a long win streak in the second meeting at Elon last Sunday, Delaware separated Saturday afternoon from Northeastern to head to a 59-47 victory in the Blue Hens’ Bob Carpenter Center in Newark in Colonial Athletics Association game.

Delaware (13-2, 10-1 CAA) is unbeaten in seven home games and leads Drexel (9-4, 6-2) by 2.5 games and could extend to 3.0 Sunday as the Dragons were forced to stand down due to Hofstra’s positive tests in Tier 1. 

The two local rivals meet head-to-head twice next weekend, and while the conference pursuing safety has shifted from home-and-home with some normal date spacing to playing either home or on the road back-to-back against the same opponent on weekends, the one-hour distance between the campuses allows for Friday’s game to be played at Delaware, and then Sunday’s at Drexel baring any disruptions between now and then.

In the latest encounter, Jasmine Dickey continued to dominate, scoring 22 against Northeastern (3-9, 2-7), which lost last weekend’s second Drexel game at the buzzer in Boston.  It’s her fifth straight 20-point contest and 12th of the season, while grabbing seven rebounds and swiping a pair of steals.

With Dickey in early foul trouble, the visitors were able to get to the break at the half with a 22-19 lead until Dickey restored order in the third quarter, scoring 11 to get the hens to a two-point advantage heading to the final ten minutes. She scored all the points in a 9-2 run to regain the lead.

Two Northeastern went ahead by two points in the fourth, Delaware then used a 12-0 run to seal the triumph on Jewel Smalls’ three-pointer.

Ty Battle added 13 points to the attack by the Blue Hens and grabbed eight rebounds.

Ty Skinner scored eight built on a perfect 6-for-6 at the line.

The home team dominated the boards 44-32, including 18 on the offensive end to score 22 second-chance points. The defense was also bolstered with 18 steals.

Delaware finishes its series Sunday at 3 p.m. on the Flohoops streaming device.

That will become the first time the Hens face the same opponent four times in one season with a fifth possible in the event the CAA tourney can be held and the two match in the draw.

The three wins over the same team is a first since beating Northeastern three times in 2015, though one was in the conference tournament.

How this happened as conferences keep shuffling schedules to help their teams get to the 13-game minimal number for potential NCAA tourney consideration was back at the turn of the New Year both had opponents shut down, according to a CAA official, so not knowing the future, the two got hooked to play a pair in Boston, the home of Northeastern.

This weekend’s games were the ones on the original CAA schedule.

West Virginia Sweeps Texas: Kirsten Deans’ career-best 30 points was the story of No. 21 West Virginia’s 81-75 win at Texas and first-ever Big 12 series sweep of the Longhorns (13-5, 7-4 Big 12) since abandoning the old Big East for the 2011-12 season. 

Kysre Gondrezick scored 20 for the Mountaineers (15-2, 9-2) while Esmery Martinez scored 12 and grabbed 13 rebounds for her 10th double double among the nation’s leaders, and Kari Niblack scored 10 in the closely-fought contest.

Texas got 21 points from Charli Collier but the visitors were able to stop her recent thundering rebound domination, limiting her to just six in a overall 39-29 team advantage. Joanne Allen-Taylor scored 15, Kyra Lambert scored 11, Celeste Taylor scored 10, while reserve Lauren Ebo scored 12.

“We have a lot of respect and admiration for West Virginia, coach Mike Carey and his staff, they have a heck of a team,” said Texas first-year coach Vic Schaefer, who previously had built the Mississippi State powerhouse before returning to his home state last spring. “They made enough plays at the end to win. It was a heck of a game. I’m certainly proud of our effort. If you’re going to beat a veteran team, a top 20 team like that, we just made too many mistakes. We do some undisciplined things.

“Whatever we are is a reflection of me. You’re either coaching it or allowing it. I’m disappointed. As good as we played. To beat a team like that, you can’t miss eight free throws at home. It’s knowing out-of-bounds plays at critical. Anything we’re not, it’s a reflection on me. I just got to do better.”

Deans is the second West Virginia player to get to 30 this season, making it the first since three players got to the milestone in 2018.

The Mountaineers, who next return home to WVXU Coliseum Wednesday to host Kansas (ESPN+)  sizzled from the field, shooting 53.4 percent (31-of-58), including 40 % (6-of-15) from deep.

Texas was at least better than the first of the two in the series, losing 92-58 early last month on the road in Morgantown.

“They have a great team, they didn’t play very well the first time,” said West Virginia coach Mike Carey. “We accepted the challenge this time and went right at them.

“I’m very pleased how hard our girls played, it wasn’t pretty, but our girls played hard.

“KK can score,”he said of Deans, “but I was very pleased with her defense. (Defensively, we did a lot better job in the second half. She played incredibly, I can’t give her enough credit, I can’t give them all enough credit. They played great.”

Oregon Shakes the Dust on an Unbeaten: Having been shut down for almost two weeks due to safety concerns involving COVID-19 protocols, the No. 12 Ducks took on new team for the first time outside the PAC-12 schedules, playing unbeaten UC Davis (5-1) out of the Big West and dodging an upset down the stretch to prevail 63-57 at home in the Matthew Knight Arena in Eugene.

Oregon (12-3, 9-3 PAC-12) had been set to host Arizona State on the conference schedule, Friday, but would have been short of players under the protocol, according to coach Kelly Graves. Several got cleared several hours ahead of Saturday’s game.

“We had to gut that out,” he said of the win. “Give UC Davis credit — they’re good; they’re legit. Everybody knows that. ... We were good in some spots, not so good in others. Overall, not great. But good enough to win a game.”

Early in the fourth and final quarter, the Ducks rallied from a 46-42 deficit to a 49-46 lead on the play of Nyara Sabally, a sister of Oregon graduated WNBA first-round draft pick Satou Sabally, who scored the first seven points of the period.

That extended to an 11-0 run that finished with Erin Boley’s three-pointer and a 53-46 advantage.

UC Davis fired back to within a point at 53-52 stopped by another Sabally trey and she also scored on the Ducks’ ensuing possession to keep Oregon ahead.

“Honestly, I don’t know if we would have won the game without the lift we had from her, it was crucial,” Boley said.

Boley had 17 points and eight rebounds, causing Graves to say of her post play, “That’s what she’s suppose to do. She’s a fifth year senior, she’s been on some really good basketball teams, and we have to be able to count on her.”

Sabally had 15 points and six rebounds, while Sedona Prince scored 12. The threesome combined for four blocks and four steals, defensively.

“In the back of my head, I know I need to step up and be a leader,” Sabally said. “But it’s still kind of hard for me to think that way. Today in the game it kind of clicked, and then it worked out. I’m definitely looking to be a leader more for this team.”

Graves mentioned astonishment from some of his friends in the coaching community for gambling to play a team at 5-0 coming out of a long pause. Boley noted the difficulty and short time to prepare once they were getting clearance.

Nevertheless, “We came out and competed to the end. I think it was good for us to have that kind of competition, especially having a week off,” Boley said.

Two players were still unavailable in Taylor Chavez and Maddie Scherr with Graves not hopeful of their return for Monday’s key PAC-12 game at 7 p.m. on ESPN2.

Looking Ahead: Super Bowl Sunday will be bringing a little more activity earlier in the day from the local contingent.

Rider (5-14 overall) in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference will be looking to extend it’s three-game win streak out of last weekend, beginning a two-game game series back-to-back at Marist in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., playing the Red Foxes (10-2, 8-2 MAAC) in McCann Arena at 1 p.m. on ESPN+ and then return Monday at 5 p.m. on ESPN3.

Delaware, as mentioned, finishes off its two-day series hosting Northeastern in the CAA.

In the Atlantic 10, La Salle will be hosting front-running Dayton at noon on ESPN+ in the Tom Gola Arena, while Saint Joseph’s to get a makeup in will host Saint Louis at 2 p.m. in Hagan Arena and then on Monday at 5 p.m., the Billikens will return, both games on ESPN+

In the Big Ten, after more than a month off dealing with the COVID-19 protocols from opponents and among themselves, Rutgers will host Nebraska at 2 p.m. on the Big Ten Network in the RAC in Piscataway, N.J. That span also included the recent passing at age 89 of Scarlet Knights’ coach C. Vivian Stringer’s colleague and close friend, John Chaney, the Hall of Fame Temple men’s coach who worked with her back in the day when both were at Cheyney University.

The funeral service on Monday at Temple’s Liacouras Center will be streamed.

Penn State, suddenly showing some heat, will look to extend it’s three-game win streak, hosting Wisconsin at 2 p.m. on the Big Ten Network.

Drexel continues on standby with the second of the two homecoming weekend games that also included Saturday with Hofstra postponed on the part of the visiting Tide.

Villanova continues with postponements at Providence Monday and hosting No. 20 DePaul Friday in the Big East.

Nationally, speaking of the Big East, were not No. 3 UConn back in the conference, this would have been the fight for first in the conference as No. 20 DePaul visits its longtime rival Marquette at  noon on the Big East/Flohoops network.

No. 11 Ohio State hosts Minnesota in the Big Ten at 1 p.m., while also in the conference, No. 17 Indiana is at Iowa at 2 p.m. on ESPN2, and No. 22 Northwestern is at Michigan State at 3 p.m. on the Big Ten network. No. 13 Michigan continues in pause, thus the visit from No. 10 Maryland is postponed, delaying Terrapins coach Brenda Frese from reaching her 500th Maryland victory to break the program tie with her predecessor, Chris Weller.

In the Atlantic Coast Conference, perhaps for a while, Louisville, after the earlier upset loss to No. 4 North Carolina State, makes its last appearance at No. 1, hosting Notre Dame, while the Wolfpack, looking to move up a spot or two in the next AP poll, visits North Carolina at 2 p.m. on the ACC network.

No. 14 South Florida in the AAC continues in pause, postponing its trip to UCF.

In the Big 12, No. 8 Baylor visits Kansas State at 2 p.m. on ESPN+

In the Southeastern Conference, No. 18 Arkansas, re-inserted here due to the pause by No. 18 Tennessee, visits No. 7 Texas A&M at 3 p.m. on the SEC network, while in the PAC-12, No. 6 Stanford finishes its first weekend home stand since a non-conference opener on Nov. 25 hosting Utah at 4 p.m. on the conference network, while No. 5 UCLA looking to bounce off its upset loss at Washington State visits Washington in Seattle at 5 p.m. Washington State looking for a weekend sweep, hosts Southern Cal at 3 p.m.

On Monday, besides the locals mentioned just above, the Oregon-Arizona game at 7 is on ESPN2 as mentioned while the South Carolina-Connecticut showdown at the same time is on FS1.

And that is the report.