The Guru Report: Rough Night For City Teams Unless Named Drexel While Ranked Squads All Produce Lopsided Finishes

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

PHILADELPHIA -  It was not a great Wednesday for three of the four Philly Six who played, though since La Salle traveled to Drexel for a head to head matchup one was always going to be in the loss column.

But it could have been better.

Here at Temple’s McGonigle Hall, the Owls seemed to be on the way to a nice win over visiting Big East power St. John’s until the Red Storm lived up their nickname rallying for an eventual 76-67 victory.

Over at the Daskalakis Athletic Center Drexel had a lead over La Salle get away but recovered in time to make it two straight Philly Six victories, this one 71-65, following last Friday’s lopsided win over Saint Joseph’s.

Things did not go well in terms of a bounce-back where in a battle of Hawks up north Monmouth of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference led most of the night defeating Saint Joseph’s 57-45.

Outside the ranked teams winning, there were other interesting results on the national scene but let’s first talk about the locals.

At Temple, with Covid-19 less of a distraction and the addition of players to provide depth, the start of the Owls women’s season was expected to be a bit brighter than a year ago.

So far, the conditions are cloudy and considering what’s ahead on the schedule, following Wednesday night’s sniping from St. John’s 76-67, a turnaround needs to be done quickly.

A week ago coach Tonya Cardoza’s squad got off to a great start in its home opener against St. Francis (Pa.) of the Northeast Conference and then fell to mid-major power Florida Gulf Coast of the ASun Conference Friday on the road in Fort Meyers and then returned home to be victimized by the Red Storm (2-1), which had just lost to America East reigning champion Stony Brook.

The opening went fine, Temple (1-2) jumping to an 11-0 lead and eventually increasing the differential to as high as 11.

But while grad star Mia Davis, back giving the Owls an extra year of her talents, was putting in the points, an 11-4 run in the second quarter cut the Temple advantage to five at the break.

The Owls were to get it back to double digits in the lead department in the third, only to get in dire trouble by the end of the period, leading by a mere three points heading into the final 10 minutes.

St. John’s then started firing successfully from the perimeter and eventually forging a 10-0 run to return to Queens with a victory.

Davis finished with 25 points, 17 in the first two quarters, and completing a double double with 15 rebounds, while Alexa Williamson scored 19. Jiselle Thomas scored 11 and dealt five assists.

On the opposition side Kadaja Bailey had a career-high 24 points, zipping four of those team three-balls along the way.

But for the first time in two seasons, a cast of five, including Bailey, connected in double digits for Joe Tartamella’s squad, which will be back in the area later this season as part of the Big East home-and-home series with Villanova.

Unique Drake and Danielle Patterson each scored 12 points, while Leilani Correa and Danielle Cosgrove each scored 10.

“I thought St. John’s came in here with a great game plan,” Cardoza said. “They blocked the lane and forced us to make open shots from the perimeter and obviously judging from the stats, 5-for-29 is not going to win many basketball games.

“But I preach all the time there are going to be many games when we’re not making shots … but in the last two games on the defensive side, it’s really evident that we don’t focus enough and don’t pay attention enough and giving up 26 points on the free throw line, it’s hard to win games like that,” Cardoza said.

“But being at home and allowing them to come in here and steal one, if we don’t work on this and work on this fast, this is something that we can’t allow to carry over.  We can’t continue to play defense the way we’re playing defense.”

Temple has two more on the current home stand, hosting Patriot League power Bucknell Saturday at 2 p.m. on ESPN+ sand then Tuesday hosting Ivy favorite Princeton at 7 p.m., also on ESPN+.

Then it will be a visit on Thanksgiving weekend on Nov. 27 at Villanova for the first Big Five game of the season, currently listed by Temple at 2 p.m., but subject to change pending the Wildcats football squad’s performance in a playoff situation.

The road continues in the nation’s capital at Georgetown on Nov. 27 and then to Duquesne in Pittsburgh on Sunday, Dec. 5, before coming back home to host Saint Joseph’s in a Big Five noon game on ESPN+.

The pre-Christmas break ends with a trip to Big Ten contender Northwestern on Dec. 17 and follows with a Dec. 22nd visit from C-USA favorite Old Dominion.

Drexel Makes it 2-0 in the Philly Six: The outcome isn’t unexpected by the Dragons made it adventurous before coming together down the stretch to top La Salle 71-65.

Tessa Brugler had another standout game, this time with a second straight double double of 17 points and 11 rebounds, also collecting six blocked shots, dealing two assists, and grabbing three steals.

Her rejection total is the most by a Drexel player since Brooke Cornish had a matching total on January 22, 2009, which is 13 seasons ago.

Down the stretch Drexel (2-1) was carried by Keishana Washington and Kate Connolly, who just missed a double double with 10 points and eight rebounds. All but two of Connolly’s points came in the final nine minutes.

Mariah Leonard had 11 points and seven rebounds, while Washington scored 10 and dealt seven rebounds.

All of Tori Hyduke’s eight points came in the second period in what was her season debut.

La Salle battled back from an early 16-3 deficit, a reversal of recent games in which leads got away from the Explorers (1-2) in an opening loss to Coppin State and come-back overtime win against Rider, both at home in the Tom Gola Arena.

Battling back and forth La Salle led 65-64 with 1:59 left in the game.

Then Drexel kept its offense in play with two offensive rebounds leading to graduate star Hannah Nihill scoring to put the Dragons back in front to stay as Brugler’s sixth block resulted in a Washington score followed by 3-of-4 free throws.

“I think any time two city teams play, this is the kind of game you’re going to see,” said second-year coach Amy Mallon. “We saw tonight with the action of the scoring, the battle with a rival, I’m really pleased with our team coming up with the win.”

Washington, who was the star of the comeback over Delaware in the Colonial Athletic Association championship, said, “I’ve been in these situations in a bunch of games in the last four years, so I don’t think it’s anything new to me and I know that my teammates, they trust me, so that helps a lot.”

Drexel heads south for the Dragons’ next game, visiting Maryland-Eastern Shore on Saturday at 2 p.m. in Princess Anne, Md. at 2 p.m.

La Salle coach Mountain MacGillivray bemoaned his team letting a great win get away.

“You’ve got to win games when you have a chance to win,” he said. “We struggled a lot of the game, but we ended up leading for six minutes. It was probably all in the forest and we got to find a way to finish that off.

“You know Drexel is veteran and they’re tough. We had to respond to how tough and physical they were. Pleased with the effort, disappointed with the result.”

La Salle point guard Molly Masciantonio scored nine and again dealt six assists while not committing any turnovers.

“I really wanted to try to not turn the ball over because Hannah’s really a great defender,” she said to colleague Glenn Papazian, who was covering for his Philly College Sports site from which some of this information was drawn. “She got the defensive player of the year last year, so I was really trying to make sure that I wasn’t dribbling too high and not make dumb passes.”

Said Brugler of her six blocks: “Defense has been a big thing for me. It’s something I’ve tried to develop over the last four years, five years now. The stops are important. We need those when things aren’t going our way on offense. I’ve got to use that defense to get those stops we need.”

Kayla Spruill had a double double of 13 points and 10 rebounds for the Explorers. Jaye Hanes scored 12, while Amy Jacobs scored nine, joining the total from Masciantonio.

La Salle next hosts Niagara Saturday at 1 p.m. on ESPN+

Saint Joseph’s Falls to Monmouth: It was anything but off to the races at Monmouth for the visiting Hawks, and not the nearby famous venue.

Saint Joseph’s (1-2) was playing catch-up but scoring problems are evident by the final 57-45 total to the home team (2-1) in the game played in West Long Branch, N.J.

The one bright spot was Kaliah Henderson’s double double with 16 points and 10 rebounds in a game in which overall the Hawks were 33.9 percent from the field and 0-for-9 from beyond the arc.

The visitors did dominate the paint 36-20 though most of it went for naught.

Katie Mayock had nine rebounds while grad student Alayna Gribble had a career-high eight off the boards.

Monmouth got 11 points from Stella Clark, the only home Hawks player scoring in double figures.

Saint Joseph’s hosts Villanova at 3 p.m. on Saturday in Hagan Arena on ESPN+, the event the overall Big Five debut game for the season. 

The rest of the week involving the Guru’s 11 local D-1 teams beyond those already mentioned sees in the long game Thursday, Penn visits St. Francis of Brooklyn, while on Friday, Rutgers looking to bounce back from Tuesday’s home loss to Stony Brook, hosts Harvard at 7; in a battle of two conference favorites, Lehigh of the Patriot League hosts Mount St. Mary’s of the Northeast Conference at 5, while Delaware visits Delaware State at 7y p.m.

On Saturday, a key game of interest has Ivy favorite Princeton visiting rising Atlantic 10 power Rhode Island at 1 p.m., Rider hosting St. Francis of Brooklyn at 2 p.m., while on Sunday, Delaware hosts UNC-Charlotte at 1 p.m., Penn State visits Clemson.

Nationally Noticed: The scores out of  the Associated Press ranked women’s teams who played say all that’s needed so here they are: Top-ranked South Carolina beat neighboring Clemson at home 85-32; No. 8 Iowa over visiting Southern U., 87-67; No. 10 Louisville roasted visiting Tenn.-Martin 62-30; No. 12 Texas over SE Missouri State, 88-47; in a game that was somewhat competitive into the third quarter No. 15 Oregon State at home beat Cal Baptist 80-72; No. 18 Georgia Tech on the road over East Tennessee State 65-42; No. 21 Ohio State at home over Mid-American reigning champion and contender Bowling Green, 94-63; and No. 25 Virginia Tech over visiting Coppin State, 85-32.

However, outside the current poll, West Coast Conference favorite BYU beat visiting Arizona State, 55-44; Patriot contender Boston U. Took down Beantown rival Boston College at home, 69-65; Rhode Island trailed early in a state rivalry game and then beat host Providence 66-53; Tulane of the American in double overtime at home beat upper Big 12 TCU 88-78; Another American team UCF beat host Virginia 59-38, and for the second straight game Penn transfer Eleah Parker played low minutes and no foul trouble indicated in this one; and Texas-Arlington in overtime edged Houston 69-66.

Nationally, Thursday night, two days ahead of the big Battle for Atlantis in the Bahamas that has No. 1 South Carolina, No. 2 Connecticut, and Oregon, Buffalo, and South Florida in the field, Fordham is at Notre Dame at 7 p.m.; Iowa State is at Drake; Mercer is at Georgia; and Stephen F. Austin is at Texas A&M.

And that’s the report.