Guru’s Report: La Salle Yields Big Lead But Recovers in Overtime to Top Rider While Fordham takes Road Game at Seton Hall

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

PHILADELPHIA — For the second time in two season starts, La Salle almost let another home game get away Saturday afternoon at the Tom Gola Arena.

But after a miserable second half shooting effort that saw an 18-point lead vanish helped by a Rider 16-0 surge eventually leading to an overtime when regulation ended in a 50-50 tie, the Explorers whipped out three straight connects from beyond the arc by Jordan Lewis, Amy Jacobs, and Jay Haynes and La Salle stayed ahead the rest of the way for a 67-58 victory.

Haynes, a sophomore grad from Germantown Academy whose father Jonathan played hoops at Villanova, finished with a career-best 19 points, shooting 6-of-10 from the field, while reliable Kayla Spruill, one of the top stars in the Atlantic 10, got her second double double with 16 points and 14 rebounds.

Molly Masciantonio dealt six assists and grabbed three steals and in a combined messy game in terms of turnovers, the Explorers (1-1) had two less then the Broncs, 22-20, mining the opposition miscues into 23 points. 

Lasalle also had a 45-39 on the backboards in snapping a three-game losing streak to Rider (0-2) in the series.

The two Guru locals were the only ones of the 11 playing on Saturday’s schedule, which was overall light on the season tracker.

“We really came out well, I thought we were firing on all cylinders,” La Salle coach Mountain MacGillivray said about the outset of the contest. “”I thought, defensively, the whole game we did a really nice job. I thought (Rider) made some adjustments later in the second half.

“We’re learning the play through some offensive struggles right now. And I was really happy how we bounced back in overtime. We, really easily, could have folded up the tents, shooting as purely in the second half as we did. “These two had a really great game, Kayla with another great rebound total, and Jay, really efficient, so real pleased with these two.”

MacGillivray said the reason Haynes was recruited was “to be a two-way player. I love what she did last year, and this is just a natural progression in year two.”

If La Salle, which outscored the Broncs in overtime 15-2, was having trouble holding leads in the early going, Rider, in a start against Penn State on the road Thursday in the season opener and here on Saturday is dealing with slow starts before transforming into a competitive finish.

“We battled too late,” said Rider veteran coach Lynn Milligan. “We pick up the energy that we needed, but it was too late.”

Lenaejha Evans from Conway, South Carolina, had a career-high 20 points, 18 in the second half, including the overtime. Raphaela Toussaint, who had a career-high scoring in the game at Penn State, this time set a career mark with 15 rebounds, while Anna Ekerstedt contributed a career best four rebounds as a substitute.

“I know we have enough fight to come back, but we need to see that fight earlier,” Milligan said. “Every game we’ve had this season, and you can throw in the exhibition in there as well, (Lenaejha) comes in and does what she does and gives us that energy.

“She’s worked really hard during the the offseason and is now a true scoring threat. We’ve got a week before our next game to figure out what we can do to start the first half the way we play in the second half.”

Rider in the Broncs’ home opener Saturday at Alumni Gym in Lawrenceville, N.J., will host Saint Francis of Brooklyn at 2 p.m.

La Salle enters the Philly 6 battles on Wednesday heading into West Philadelphia to play at Drexel (1-1), which dominated Saint Joseph’s Friday night before the Hawks limited the differential down the stretch for the final score.

Nationally, on the Guru’s season-long tracker, there were three games of note, the first being Fordham, a contender in the Atlantic 10, traveling from the Bronx over to North Jersey to visit Seton Hall, among a group that will battle in the Big East for the also-ran slot behind what is expected to be another conference crown for No. 2 ranked UConn.

Fordham (2-0), which took down Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference favorite Quinnipiac in overtime in the season opener at Rose Hill Gym, opened the game with Seton Hall early in the fourth quarter for an 82-63 victory over the Pirates (1-1), which had rallied in their renovated Walsh Gym in South Orange, N.J.

Kendell Heremaia, playing a graduate season, nailed eight three-balls in 11 attempts, the seventh of which led to her 1,000th career point, and just missing by one the Rams mark of nine set by Denise Hammersley in 1994. She matched her career high of 29 points.

Senior transfer Asiah Dingle had a double double with 18 points and 13 rebounds, while Anna DeWolfe scored 16 points.

“This is a special team,” said veteran head coach Stephanie Gaitley, a former star at Villanova. “Someone different can step up every game. This schedule really presents many challenges and we’re going to attack it one game at a time.”

Fordham will next be heading to Notre Dame Thursday in South Bend, Ind.

Seton Hall transfer Sydney Hooks had 21 points and nine rebounds in a game in which the Pirates trailed by 14 points, cut the deficit to a basket before the Rams regained control.

Andra Espinioza-Hunter added 20 points to the Seton Hall total.

The Pirates are off for a week before hosting Lehigh, the Patriot League defending champion and favorite, on Tuesday at 7 p.m.

In two night games, West Coast Conference pick BYU decisively beat Mountain West contender Fresno State 80-64 at home in Provo, Utah, at the Marriott Center, while in the other game being tracked, ASun contender Liberty survived a comeback attempt from Mid-American favorite Ohio U., beating the visiting Bobcats 66-63 at home 

In the win out West by the Cougars, sophomore Shaylee Gonzales and senior Paisley Harding each scored 22 points, and Lauren Gustin had a double double of 16 points and 13 rebounds.

Fresno State’s Hannah Cavinder scored 14 points, sister Haley had a near triple triple with nine points, eight rebounds, and 10 assists, while Amiee Book scored 13.

Meanwhile, Ohio U had a chance to tie the game in the closing stretch, but missed the second of two shots.

The host Flames going the other way went to the line off an intentional foul and then on the next possession knocked down two shots in what became the final points when Ohio U. missed an attempted game-tying three-pointer in the Liberty Arena in Lynchburg, Va.

Cece Hooks had 221 points for Ohio U., while the Liberty’s Mya Berkman scored 24.

Looking Ahead

On Sunday, Penn finally gets to play for the first time since 2020, among three Guru locals in action, visiting Hartford at 2 p.m., while the Quakers’ Ivy rival, favored Princeton with a 2-0 start, hosts its home opener against Patriot League contender Boston U. at Jadwin Gym at 1 p.m.

Up the road, Rutgers, off to a 2-0 start, hosts MAAC contender Fairfield at 2 p.m. The Scarlet Knights’ contest will air on the auxiliary B1G+ conference network while the other two games will be ESPN+ productions.

Nationally, No. 2 UConn gets under way at at 1 p.m. in Hartford, hosting the Arkansas squad that dealt the Huskies their loan loss of the regular season. 

In two battles of nationally-ranked squads, defending NCAA champion, No. 3 Stanford, hosts Texas at 3 p.m., while Kentucky of the Southeastern Conference visits Indiana of the Big Ten at 5 p.m., both produced on ESPN.

The earliest conference match of the season, occurs in the Atlantic Coast, where Notre Dame visits Syracuse at noon on the ACCN main network.

No. 4 Maryland, off its home win Friday over Villanova, heads to James Madison, now smarting with the knowledge the Dukes will have to build an impressive resume to get picked to the NCAA tourney as an at-large team off the banishment from the CAA tourney, including the removal of their new arena as the site of the championship, a punishment dealt by the league presidents for the announced jumping to the Sun Belt Conference.

And that’s the report for Saturday.