Guru’s WBB Basketball Report: Rutgers Ends Month Hiatus With Win While Penn State Gets Fourth Straight; No. 4 N.C. State Upset By North Carolina

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

Even though it all occurred earlier before the big NFL game, Super Bowl Sunday was certainly super several hours earlier in the women’s collegiate basketball world, at least for the fan, if not every team, both locally and nationally, with upsets, narrow escapes, and other satisfying wins.

That was certainly true on the local side of the Big Ten, where after just over a month of inactivity, Rutgers returned and gained a split series, beating Nebraska, 78-62, while Penn State won its fourth straight, with another offensive explosion, beating Wisconsin at home 98-74 in the Bryce Jordan Center in State College.

Delaware, meanwhile, made it a rare four of a kind, completing another weekend sweep beating Northeastern 65-59 at home in the Bob Carpenter Center in Newark to go with the previous road sweep of the Huskies in Boston last month in the Colonial Athletic Association.

Rider and Saint Joseph’s, though, let games get away, the former in the first of a two-day back-to-back at Marist 47-46 in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, while the latter couldn’t make shots and gave Saint Louis a lopsided foul shooting advantage in losing 63-60 at home in Hagan Arena in the first of a two day back-to-back on Hawk Hill in the Atlantic 10. 

La Salle got buzz-sawed by A-10 frontrunner Dayton 95-66 at home in Tom Gola Arena.

Nationally, the stage is likely set for an appropriate and likely 1 vs. 2 game Monday night (7 p.m. FS1) a few hours after the 800th Associated Press women’ rankings for the week are released.

No. 2 South Carolina, who will be visiting No. 3 UConn, is poised to move into the top spot where the Gamecocks started the season, in the wake of No. 1 Louisville’s home upset loss last Monday to No. 4 North Carolina State in the Atlantic Coast Conference. The Cardinals nearly lost again Sunday, edging Notre Dame 71-65.

But the Wolfpack likely are precluded from jumping over UConn to second, being upset in another ACC game Sunday by second-year coach Courtney Banghart’s North Carolina squad 76-69 in the Tar Heel’s Carmichael Arena in Chapel Hill.

Another near upset occurred in the Southeastern Conference but for the second time in the two-game season series Jordan Nixon scored the game winner at the finish for No. 7 Texas A&M on Sunday giving the host Aggies a 69-67 win over No. 16 Arkansas.

Among the remaining ranked teams playing Sunday, no one else lost, but many games were close. Those winning safely were the PAC-12 duo of  No. 6 Stanford with a 83-41 win over visiting Utah while No. 5 UCLA came off Friday’s upset loss at Washington State to handle Washington 84-50 in Seattle.

On the road in the Big East No. 20 DePaul edged geographical rival Marquette 87-82 in Milwaukee.

Other Big Ten action saw No. 11 Ohio State handle visiting Minnesota, 83-59; No. 17 Indiana win at Iowa 85-72; and No. 22 Northwestern edge host Michigan State 63-60.

In the Big 12, No. 8 Baylor beat host Kansas State 64-52 in Bramlage Coliseum in Manhattan.

The Local Section

Rutgers Shakes Off the Rust: Calling the last month the strangest in her 50-year coaching career since Hall of Fame coach C. Vivian Stringer’s Scarlet Knights last played at Nebraska in a 53-50 loss on Jan. 3 the Scarlet Knights after a series of shutdowns because of COVID-19 protocol issues on their side or the opposition causing seven postponements took the home RAC home court against those same Cornhuskers and prevailed 78-62.

Playing a limited roster though Stringer acknowledged more will see action in the heavy makeup load ahead this month the Knights (6-3, 2-3 Big Ten) set a 10-game lifetime series scoring high with widest differential in the 16-point outcome while defensively swiping 13 steals and forcing 19 turnovers while committing just 10.

Stringer said the 10 turnovers for a game is acceptable.

Tekia Mack had a career-high 26 points in the game against Nebraska (9-7, 7-6) with five rebounds, four assists, four steals and a pair of blocks, while Philadelphia’s Diamond Johnson scored 22, and Arella       Guirantes had 17 points and a game-high six assists.

“It was worth the wait,” Stringer said. “Tekia and Arella did everything we needed them to do as leaders of this team, and Diamond certainly did not look like a freshman out there. 

“For us to come together like this after not being able to play, l’m confident we’ll be hitting our stride real soon when it counts the most.

Tyia Singleton had a career high 11 rebounds.

The next game on the evolving schedule is a trip to No. 22 Northwestern at Welsh-Ryan Arena in Evanston, Ill., Thursday at 4 p.m. on the Big Ten Network.

“We’re going to be playing a lot of games, a lot of games,” Stringer said. “It’s going to be like the NBA, or better still, the WNBA.”

The women’s pro league last summer played a 22-game pre-playoffs reduced season at the IMG Academy near Tampa in a bubble competing virtually every other day..  

Mack referred the idle period as a blessing being the real off-season, replacing the normal summer activity lost during isolations to fight the pandemic.

“We needed it,” she said.

Stringer noted, “Our foundation is good, we can adjust, and play the way we need to play each time we hit the floor. T-baby shot the heck out of the ball.”

Penn State Streak Continues: It may not be a return to vintage times just yet considering the Lady Lions have one of the youngest groups in the nation but they are suddenly looking like they are heading that way with a win streak up to four plus five of the last seven after beating Wisconsin 98-74 in the Big Ten.

The points are the most against a Big Ten rival in nearly two decades dating to a 101 eruption on Illinois Feb. 15, 2001, the season after advancing to the Women’s Final Four in Philadelphia.

Penn State (8-7, 5-6 Big Ten) had a season-high 26 assists and set an arena record  for the program committing a low number of three turnovers against the Badgers  (4-12, 1-13).

Coach Carolyn Kieger’s group had a lopsided 37-4 scoring off turnovers as well as 33-8 advantage in fastbreak points.

Overall, the total Lady Lions’  points are the most in five seasons since blasting Saint Peter’s with 106.

Leading Sunday’s barrage, Makenna Marisa scored 20, Johnasia Cash registered 18,Maddie Burke had 15, Anna Camden tied her personal best with 14, and Shay Hagans scored 11.

“That was a complete team victory from top to bottom,” Kieger said, calling the assist to turnover stat “an amazing percentage. We’ve been working on that the last two years, so to see that pay off is a testament to the hard work of our players.l’m really excited for our whole program’”

Penn State next goes to No. 17 Indiana Wednesday at 4 p.m. in Bloomington on the Big Ten Network national feed.

Delaware Makes It Four of a Winning Kind on Northeastern: The Blue Hens outlasted the Huskies 65-59 to complete a fifth weekend sweep and first ever downing an opponent four times in the same season that could become five if they meet in the CAA tournament next month at Elon in North Carolina.

In part, credit the havoc in scheduling caused by the coronavirus and the need to give teams a chance to reach the minimal 13-game requirement to fulfill NCAA eligibility criteria.

Back in the first week of January both opponents of Delaware and Northeastern on the schedule were in pause so the the two played each other to help the game count. This past weekend were the matches on the original schedule.

The Blue Hens (14-2, 11-1 CAA) on Sunday got a pair of double doubles from Ty Battle with 18 points snd 11 rebounds, and Jasmine Dickey with 17 points and 10 rebounds against Northeastern (3-10, 2-8). 

The key was rebounding in Delaware’s lopsided 40-25 advantage, including 20 on the offensive glass worth 24 second-chance points.

Mide Oriyomi had 18 points and 12 rebounds for the Huskies.

Drexel was idle this past weekend because Hofstra was in pause causing a two-game postponement and allowing Towson to slip into second ahead of the Dragons.

Nevertheless, showdown is still an appropriate tag on next weekend’s annual rivalry with front-running Delaware.

This will have different twist.

While the league, as did several others, went to a model of  meeting the same opponent on back-to-back days primarily on Saturday and Sunday, some on the road, others at home, the one-hour geographical campus proximity has caused an exception, so the two will play at Delaware on Friday at 6 p.m. and then move to Drexel Sunday at 1 p.m., which is Valentines’ Day.

Both games will air on the Flohoops streaming apps.

La Salle and Saint Joseph’s Hit With A-10 Losses:  If La Salle’s home game Sunday in Tom Gola Arena against Atlantic 10 leader Dayton was handled like national election TV coverage, the decision desk would have called this one quickly off the 13-0 start by the Flyers (10-1, 9-0 A-10), though there were stretches the Explorers (9-10, 5-7) temporarily stopped deficits from getting worse.

Claire Jacobs was again productive for the home team with 19 points, while Kayla Spruill scored 11.

The Explorers nissed just three foul shots, getting 18 in 21 attempts.

Dayton, which had given Saint Joseph’s the same treatment Friday, got 20 points from Tenin Magassa, 17 from Jenna Giavone, who hit 4-of-5 from deep, and 11 from Erin Whalen.

La Salle heads to Davidson in North Carolina Friday afternoon.

While that game was under way, for a while things were more promising for Saint Joseph’s, which at home in Hagan Arena had a lead on Saint Louis until the Billikens launched a 10-0 run in the third and then outscored the Hawks 18-11 in the fourth to eke out a 63-60 win though the reality was slightly more than the differential.

The visitors are hanging around to make up a previous postponed game in the series so the two squads will be back in the arena Monday at 5 p.m. on ESPN+ streaming apps.

On Sunday, tied 55-55 with 2:28 left in regulation, the Billikens (6-3, 4-3 A-10) went up four on  a field goal from Ciaja Harbison and two foul shots from Rachel Kent.

The Hawks (5-4, 3-4) got right back within two but Saint Louis hit four more free throws and Saint Joseph’s could not score until Alayna Gribble’s three-ball with three seconds left that became the game’s final points.

Team-wise, the Billikens were 22-for-33 at the line compared to a mere 1-for-1 from the Hawks. 

Just as bad, though for the game while Saint Joseph’s  hit eight more field goals, they missed 36 shots compared to 23 from the opposition.

Kent scored 21 for Saint Louis, while Harbison had 20, and Myriama Traore Smith had 10 points and 10 rebounds.

Saint Joseph’s got 12 each from Gribble and Kaliah Henderson.

“”It was a great game, I just think we went cold and couldn’t score and gave it away,” said Hawks veteran coach Cindy Griffin. “Saint Louis is a very good team but we gave it away with our fouling. 

“I did think we showed some very good team offense and team defense.”

Rider Comes Up Just Short at Marist:  With a blossoming three-game win streak that started with an upset of Quinnipiac, a true test against Marist, one of the heavyweight teams in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, loomed Sunday and Monday in the Red Foxes McCann Arena in Poughkeepsie, N.Y.  could become a guide as to the development of the young roster.

Game one Sunday showed progress is  occurring but the Broncs couldn’t close it out and fell just short 47-46 in the defensive battle.

Just 49.6 seconds remained in regulation and Rider down by a point forced a turnover but Victoria Toomey got tied up by the swarming defense of Marist.

The Red Foxes (11-2, 9-2 MAAC)  however, couldn’t score and Toomey got the ball, and the Broncs  (5-15, 4-11) called time with 30.2 seconds left.

The clock got down to 19 seconds, but Maya Hyacienth’s shot got blocked. Rider though got one more chance but Daija Moses’ shot hit off the back of the rim and the score stood.

Makayla Firebaugh and Moses each scored 13 points for Rider. 

A year ago in the landmark season, Rider and Marist split the series and tied for first but the Broncs got the top seed in the conference tourney that was cancelled after the quarterfinals in Atlantic City as the pandemic began to spread.

The two teams meet again Monday at 5 p.m. on ESPN3.

The National Section

Upsets and Near Upsets: When No. 4 North Carolina State upset No. 1 Louisville last Monday, while the Wolfpack side of the postgame media began questions in the manner that grandiose things might be thought of ahead, coach Wes Moore tried to tamp down the excitement a bit.

The squad had been off nearly a month in pause mode, came back, had to rally at home on unranked Virginia Tech and then got upset by the Hokies four days later in their place, disrupting what would have been a 1 vs 2 label on the Louisville game. 

But he did concede perhaps they got their mojo back.

Well that didn’t age well. 

Facing another unranked squad but one with upside, N.C. State lost 76-69 Sunday at North Carolina, coached by Courtney Banghart who was hired from Princeton a year ago to revive the Tar Heels.

Freshman Alyssa Usby had 20 points and 12 rebounds for UNC (9-8, 4-8 ACC). The Tar Heels blew a 12-point lead but also fired 11 from deep.

“I just challenged them from the beginning that ghese rivalry games are a sacred part of sports,’ said Banghart, whose Ivy wars with Penn became must attend events. “You have to honor that with your energy and they did that.’

Elisa Cunane had 14 points for the Wolfpack (12-2, u-2). 

“We knew it would be a dangerous game. We just didnt have an answer,” Moore said.

Meanwhile No. 16 Arkansas recently handled Connecticut has been losing close ones to ranked teams in the Southeastern Conference.

The Razorbacks (14-7, 4-6 SEC) lost again on a game-winning shot by Jordan Nixon, giving a 69-67 victory to No. 7 Texas A&M (18-1, 9-1) and a chance to move into the top five of the AP Poll.

No. 6 Stanford may be headed there too following a 83-41 victory over Utah in a PAC-12 game completing the return to home court Maples Pavilion weekend as Kianna Williams scored 13 in a balanced attack with the Cardinal (17-2, 14-2 PAC-12).

Coach Tara VanDerveer of the Cardinal upped her Division I women’s winning record total to 1,111 ahead of uConn’s Geno Auriemma who is at 1,103 heading into Monday night’s game with South Carolina.

The late Tennessee legend Pat Summitt was at 1,098, now third, but the rrcord when she retired at the end of 2,012.

In Syracuse’s ACC win at Pittsburgh, freshman Kamilla Cardoso who had 22 points and eight rebounds, while Kiara Lewis scored 22, and Tiara Mangakahia who dealt 11 assists.

Deja Church had a career-high 24 points and Sonya Morris scored 23 for No. 20 DePaul (10-4, 7-2 Big East) in the  Blue Demons, 87-82 win  over  Marquette.

And that’s the report.

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