The Guru Report: Delaware Demolishes host Maine While No. 16 Tennessee Edges No. 21 South Florida and No. 24 Texas A&M Takes DePaul

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

It was back to a lite night Monday locally and nationally, which worked out well considering a last-minute invite had the Guru heading up to New York City for a fundraiser involving longtime friend and colleague Claire Smith, whose name will be placed upon the planned sports media center at Temple University, both the alma mater of Claire and yours truly.

Meanwhile, just one game was played involving the Guru’s 11 D-1 locals and in that one Delaware, the defending regular season champion and co-favorite with reigning conference tournament champion Drexel, bounced back from Saturday’s home loss to Ivy favorite Princeton to win decisively 83-60 at Maine (0-3) , an America East contender, in the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor.

“There were a lot of things we wanted to talk about in reference to Delaware basketball,” said Blue Hens coach Natasha Adair. “Everything for us starts on the defensive end — that was the conversation today. 

“It was just challenging them from start to finish to play defense, let our defense dictate the offense, let our defense get us out in transition,” Adair explained. “Every timeout and even at halftime, we checked in with where were we defensively and you can just see the energy and that’s how we play,” she continued.

“We defend, we rebound, we run and we score — in that order. We just had to get back to the basics and do the things that got us to this point.”

Though we called it a blowout in the headline, the heavy lifting got done in the final period in which Delaware (2-1) scored 28 points and opened up a 25-point lead.

Reigning and CAA preseason player of the year Jasmine Dickey blasted her way to 32 points for the visitors, while she also grabbed eight rebounds, two blocks, and a pair of assists. Ty Battle had a double double with 16 points and 10 rebounds. Ty Skinner had 11 points and also dealt seven assists.

Maine’s Maeve Carroll had 18 points, eight rebounds, and four assists.

Anne Simon had 13 points, and Alba Orois dealt nine assists.

Delaware next returns home, state wise, but not  at the Bob Carpenter Center in Newark, heading instead to Dover to play MEAC member Delaware State in Memorial Hall on Friday at 7 p.m.

Nationally Noted: On what was a limited night on national tracking, the two games of headlines saw No. 16 Tennessee rally at home in Knoxville to beat No. 23 South Florida 52-49 while in College Station, Texas, No. 24 host Texas A&M beat Big East power DePaul 95-75.

In the Tennessee game with the Bulls, the defending conference champions and preseason favorites in the American, Jordan Horston scored 12 of 14 of Tennessee (3-0) points and tied a career mark with 24 points, while Tamari Key grabbed 10 rebounds and scored 10 while blocking six shots.

South Florida (2-1) had a huge second quarter but a late nine-point lead in the fourth quarter was vanquished by the Tennessee defense.

Elena Tsineke had had 13 points for South Florida, while Elisa Pinzan scored 11, and Bethy Mununga grabbed 13 rebounds.

“This was a tough win to get,” said Tennessee alum and third-year coach Kellie Harper. “It’s a really good win. 

“Of the rally, Harper noted, “ I think it’s Jordan in the fourth quarter, being aggressive and determined offensively, and then us holding them to five points.”

On the other bench, coach Jose Fernandez, complimented the home squad, saying, “You have to give it to Tennessee, they just kept fighting. It was an ugly basketball game for both teams offensively as both teams shot 28 percent and 30 percent from the floor.”

In the Texas A&M game, the Aggies (3-0) got 25 points, shooting 50 percent from the field from Jordan Nixon. The Aggies offense got 21 points from Kayla Wells, 12 from Qadashah Hoppie, and 12 from Destiny Pitts

In giving DePaul (2-1) its first season loss, A&M coach Gary Blair, heading for retirement at the end of the season, now is 841-333 overall and 433-170 with the Aggies.

“I’m really pleased how we came out of this game and I thought we were prepared,” Blair said. “Coach (Kelly) Bond-White, it was her scout.

“Of course, because she’s from Chicago (the home of DePaul), she was very intense during the whole ball game, trying to get the right matchups. I thought when we made our run in the second quarter we hot a couple of key shots and Jordan was Jordan.”

Lexi Held scored 19 points for DePaul, while Darrione Rogers had 14 points and a career-high 14 rebounds, while Sonya Morris scored 16, and Deja Church went 10-of-11 from the line on the way to 14 points, while Aneesah Morrow scored 12.

DePaul next on Sunday hosts area rival Northwestern of the Big Ten at Wintrust Arena.

Texas A&M on Thursday meets Stephen F. Austin, where Blair once coached.

“I’ve got a lot of my former players from Stephen F. that will all be here,” Blair said. “They will all be hollering for the Lady Jacks.”

In the re-vamped preseason WNIT in the third round of predetermined matches at host Kansas State in Manhattan and host NC State in Raleigh, saw Florida beat Wofford as Kiara Smith scored 13 points, while Lavendar Briggs scored 12. Western Kentucky fell to visiting Tennessee-Martin 63-47, and host Kansas State topped North Carolina A&T 

In a crossover match between two highly thought squads in their respective conferences host Mercer beat Troy 75-66, while Middle Tennessee beat Vanderbilt 55-46. In two other equivalent crossovers, South Dakota beat host Drake 61-46, while 14th-ranked Iowa State topped South Dakota State 73-56.

Looking Ahead

Locally, on Tuesday, coming out of  a big season-opening win, Penn at 4 at The Palestra hosts Division 3 King’College, while Stony Brooks is at Rutgers with an 11 a.m., tip. Penn State is tiping on Delaware State at 7 p.m.

On Wednesday involving the women, La Salle is at Drexel, Saint Joseph’s is at Monmouth,  and St. Johjn’s is at Temple/.

And thart’s the report.

\