Guru’s WBB Report: No. 4 N.C. State Topples No. 1 Louisville While No. 22 Northwestern Snaps No. 11 Ohio State Streak

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

Though the game count for Monday’s schedule was indicative of not a lot going on, what came out of the two contests played involving ranked teams was certainly much ado about something.

For the second time this season, a rarity in women’s basketball saw No. 4 North Carolina State dislodge the nation’s No. 1 team, the name of victim different, however, in being Atlantic Coast Conference rival Louisville 74-60 in the Cardinals’ KFC Yum! Center, removing the last unbeaten team in the Associated Press women’s poll.

The previous Wolfpack-caused upset also came on the road early in the season when coach Wes Moore’s squad dislodged host South Carolina 54-46 on Dec. 3 at the Gamecocks’ Colonial Life Arena in Columbia.

That setback dropped coach Dawn Staley’s squad to fifth, their only loss to date, and pushed N.C. State into the top five.

It’s just the third time in the last 20 seasons, claims ESPN Stats & Info, that a Division I women’s team played the No. 1 team twice and swept both games, and the first to achieve the feat in the regular season on the road.

When South Carolina fell, Stanford took over until unranked Colorado took down coach Tara VanDerveer’s bunch three weeks ago, allowing Louisville (16-1, 9-1) to reach the top for the first time in program history.

The Wolfpack (12-1, 7-1 ACC) kept moving with them, though were idle nearly a month caused by the coronavirus.

Off the original reshuffles caused by COVID-19 protocols, Monday loomed as a No. 1 vs. No. 2 battle of unbeaten squads. 

But that branding went by the boards last Thursday night when N.C. State’s perfection was punctured in overtime by Virginia Tech in an ACC game four days after the Hokies were on the way of getting it done in Raleigh, before the Wolfpack rallied for a two-point escape.

N.C. State had just returned from a long pause when it met the Hokies the first time.

At the same time Thursday, No. 3 UConn, the other unbeaten, was stunned at then-No. 19 Arkansas, but managed to hold the Huskies’ poll position Monday.

Thus, earlier Monday, the new poll for the week in the penthouse listed Louisville first, South Carolina Second, UConn third, and N.C. State, fourth.

Though 1 vs. 2 is a long shot to occur next Monday, hours earlier that daybthe new poll will likely show the Gamecocks back where they finished for the first time last season and began this time until the Wolfpack came calling. 

Then it will be a matter of where UConn is ranked in the Top 5 prior to hosting South Carolina in Gampel Pavilion on the Huskies’ campus in Storrs.

Though the Wolfpack returned to action, last week, their star player Elissa Cunane, who had contracted the disease, was still sidelined but returned Monday night, scoring 16 points, while the taut defense held Louisville to its lowest total of the season.

Jakia Brown-Turner snd Jada Boyd also scored 16 for the visitors while Raina Perez scored 15.

“Having four people in double figures and a lot of people contributing, it was just a great team win,” Moore said. “Really proud of them.”

On Louisville’s side, Dana Evans continued to do her thing, scoring 29 to tie a career mark, which also was a game high, but the rest of her teammates were kept out of double digits.

The Wolfpack won the rebounding battle 44-29 and  scoring contest in the paint, 36-18, while limiting Cardinals shooting to 38 percent from the field.

“You give credit to N.C. State’s defense, we just didn’t get it done,” Evans said.

While Moore was hit with sky’s the limit questions from his media and a logic stance that his group has a case to get it’s first No. 1 ranking, he played it all down, saying, “that’s for other people to decide,” and expressed that things looked stagnant till Monday night.

“We needed to get our mojo back and tonight I think we did.

“What about Evans, holy cow,” Moore said. “She takes over ball games. But just thought we did a great job defensively on the boards. those are the things we have to do to be successful.”

Cunane, meanwhile,  afterwards was laughing and acting like the recent holidays had returned for an encore.

“It feels so good,” she grinned. “We were ready for this moment. We knew going on the road to play the No. 1 was going to be hard but we did it before. 

“So we just prepared. We knew we had to have energy and go into it like we know what we’re doing.

“I was so excited. I wasn’t winded at all. I was just running out there. I had too much energy. ‘Coach’ had to tell me to calm down a little bit.”

Meanwhile, Louisville coach Jeff Walz said, “We had some good looks, especially there in the first half, which we didn’t make. But we didn’t do a good job following the scouting report, which I’ll take responsibility for that. I have to make sure they’re dialed in and prepared.

“A few of their players did exactly what we knew they were going to, and we just, I don’t know if we weren’t prepared for it, or didn’t know it was coming, or what. But we didn’t do a very good job defensively in a few situations.

“It was just a bad game. It was not one of our better performances. I got a very resilient group and they’re ready to get back to work.”

Louisville heads to Boston College Thursday while N.C. State will be at North Carolina.

Northwestern Stops Ohio State:  Having beaten three straight Top 15 teams in the rougher part of their Big Ten schedule, the Buckeyes arrived looking to make the stretch a sweep of ranked teams only to be shown the door in a 69-57 loss to the No. 22 Wildcats (10-3, 8-3 Big Ten) in Welsh-Ryan Arena in Evanston, Ill.

Earlier in the day the Buckeyes (10-2, 6-2) had continued their recent climb in the A.P. Women’s Poll, reaching No. 11.

Ohio State fell behind quickly in this one, trailing by 17 points before rallying several times within a one possession game before Northwestern sped away down the stretch.

The Buckeyes pulled within a point in the fourth period but the Wildcats re-ignited with a 9-2 run to seal the win.

The visitors’ Dorka Juhasz had 11 points and 14 rebounds, while Aaliyah Patty scored 10 points.

Veronica Burton had 20 points, 15 rebounds, and nine assists, just a helper short of a triple double, while Lindsey Pulliam had a double double of 15 points and 10 rebounds, and Jordan Hamilton was a third Northwestern player in double figures with 13 points.

“We played with such focus and intensity recently and we did not have that today,” said Ohio State coach Kevin McGuff. “I’m not disappointed we lost, we lost to a good team, I’m just disappointed in the way we played.”

“It’s great to be home, we had a big road win at Iowa, and then to come home, national TV game, I thought it was our best defensive effort of the year, against a team that averages, can score in the 90s, and to hold them in the 50s, just a lot of credit to every one on our team,” said Northwestern coach Joe McKeown, a Father Judge grad who grew up in Northeast Philadelphia and previously coached George Washington in the nation’s capital. 

“When Ohio State made runs, we came right back and scored, which you have to do because they’re so talented.”

After a long pause earlier in the season, the Buckeyes declared themselves out of the postseason, but it is unknown whether they’ll play in the conference tourney or might change their mind about playing in the NCAAs.

“Ask them what is the postseason because they self-declared,” said an official. “As for the other, that’s an NCAA question.”

Northwestern next goes to Michigan State Sunday while Ohio State in a makeup game Thursday at 6 p.m. hosts Iowa on the Big Ten Network and then heads to Minnesota Sunday for a 1 p.m. tipoff.

Looking Ahead: There’s no locals on Tuesday  with an ACC game Syracuse at Georgia Tech of interest.

On Wednesday Villanova hosts Providence in a Big East game at 4 p.m., while Temple is at Cincinnati at 6 p.m. in the American Athletic Conference. UConn hosts St. John’s in the Big East at 6:30 p.m.

Rutgers, which missed seven games all in the Big Ten, makes up one traveling to No. 17 Indiana Thursday.

Rider is now at Marist Saturday and Sunday in the MAAC and the Canisius trip instead will be Saturday and Sunday Feb. 20 and Feb. 21.

And that’s the report.