The Guru Report: Stony Brook Tops Columbia in Battle of Unbeaten’s For Record Start

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

Stony Brook now owns the best start in program history at 6-0 after ending Columbia’s perfect start Wednesday with another impressive road win, sn explosive 91-81 victory over the host Lions (5-1) at Levien Gym on New York’s Upper West Side.

The points are the second best in the defending America East champions’ NCAA Division l era and most since 96 scored against Vermont 17 seasons ago on February 24, 2007.

The record st the moment off the national calendar brings Stony Brook among three other schools at the top of the list with the name record: second ranked Maryland, Rhode Island, and top-ranked South Carolina.

The Seawolves in that collection own previous road wins at St. John’s and an upset at Rutgers. 

Depending on the success of those opponents, the victories could help the cause as an at-large pick in the expanded NCAA 68-team field should Stony Brook fall short of repeating last year’s conference tournament triumph.

In Wednesday’s battle with the Lions, picked third in the Ivy hunt behind Princeton and Penn, five Seawolves scored in double figures for the second time, leading with Gigi Gonzalez, who claimed a career best 21 points, helped by 14-of-16foul shots connected. 

For three quarters it was a tight battle concluding with a 59-59 tie until the visitors erupted for 32 points across the final 10 minutes, Gonzales collecting 13 in the period. Her total foul shots attempted and made were both personal bests.

“I was really pleased with our performance today,” said first-year coach Ashley Langford, succeeding Caroline McCombs, who left for George Washington in the off-season.

“We found a way, our whole thing has been defense, but today, we didn’t really defend as well as I would have liked to,” Langford said, but we still found a way to get a ‘W.’

“To me, that’s resiliency, that’s figuring it out … l’m proud of them for doing that. 

“Columbia is a great team, a really good defensive team, and hard to guard. We got when we needed to, and people stepped up. 

“We are a collective team and that’s what makes us good and that’s what makes us challenging. I’ve been on them about the glass and today we got 16 offensive rebounds so l’m happy about that,” Langford noted in her postgame remarks, posted on the Seawolves’ website.

India Pagan was 8-for-9 from the field, adding 16 points with six rebounds to the visitors’ attack, while Leighah-Amori Wool was 4-for-7 for 11 points, matched by reserve McKenzie Bushee, who was 5-for-8, and Nairimar Vargas-Reyes was 4-for-5 for 10 points and eight rebounds.

Stony Brook is back home Sunday in Island Federal Arena to host St. Francis Brooklyn at 2 p.m.

Abbey Hsu scored 22 points, of which 13 came during the third quarter when Columbia tied. Kaitlyn Davis, the Ivy player of the week, had a game-high 23 points, a personal best. She also had six rebounds, four assists, two steals, and a block.

 Sienna Durr scored 11, while Carly Rivera and Jaida Patrick each scored 10 

“Stony Brook is a really good team with a lot of experienced players that do what they do well, said Columbia coach Megan Griffith. “I think we have a ton to learn. This is going to be some really good game film for us to go back and review.’

Columbia heads to Lehigh’s Christmas City Tournament in Bethlehem, Pa., at the Mountain Hawks’ Stabler Arena to play Missouri at 3:30 p.m. Saturday following the Lehigh-Rider game in front. The winners and losers meet Sunday to play for 3rd and first place.

 Nationally Noted: Other games played Wednesday specifically on the Guru’s tracker had host Georgia Tech whip Hofstra 65-32, host Alabama beat Mercer 55-48, and host Clemson topped North Florida 84-72, while visiting Yale beat host Boston U. 57-52.

The tracker includes all 11 local D-1 schools and their entire season schedules, key games of the ranked squads and major powers. and the broadcast and significant streaming viewing schedules and schools in mid-majors picked high in their conferences olaying each other or likes in other conferences, or big powers.

At the end of December an update going into conference action will grab rising program, though those that didn't fare  well to date will be held to see how they perform in early league play.

Looking Ahead: Turkey Day Feasts A ton of tourneys will be taking place through the weekend in either normal formats or predetermined opponents each round. Check school websites or those networks airing in case of schedules changed since the compilation for Guru tracking.

On Thursday, Rutgers is the only local playing, appearing against Big East power DePaul at 1 p.m. in the Paradise Jam in the Virgin Islands in St. Thomas. This is an event with predetermined opponents all rounds. The other Thursday games have no. 9 Arizona playing Vanderbilt at 3:15 p.m., Northwestern playing South Dakota at 5:45 o.m. and No. 24 Texas A&M playing Pittsburgh at 8 p.m. 

All those games will be aired on ESPN3 or ESPN+.

Rutgers on Friday meets Vanderbilt at 1 p.m. and on Saturday meets Arizona at 3:15 p.m.

Other Thursday games have in the Pink Flamingo Competition in Nassau, all airing on Flohoops, No. 2 Maryland back to old ACC rivals days playing No. 5 NC State at 11 a.m.; No.4 Indiana and Stanford meeting at 1:30 p.m., and Miami meeting Washington State at 4 p.m.

In the Cancun Challenge in Mexico also airing on Flohoops, Fordham meets No. 6 Baylor at 11a.m., Arizona State meeting Houston at 1:30 p.m., Southern Cal meeting Seton Hall at 4 p.m, and ldaho State meeting Toledo at 6;30 p.m. Re-scheduling has been done across the three days after No. 8 Iowa withdrew Friday due to positive COVID-19 tests. 

In other events, Washington meets VCU for Game 1 in the three-team Goombay Splash at 5 p.m. in Bimini. Bahamas.

Mississippi State meets Dayton at noon in the Daytona Beach Invitational in Florida.

In the St. Petersburg Showcase in Florida, BYU plays No. 17 Florida State at 7 p.m., after Purdue and No.22 West Virginia meet at 5 p.m., both on Flohoops while Seattle and SMU meet at 9 p.m. in the South Point Shootout in Las Vegas, Nevada. 

Local HolidayTravels: Here is just the local itinerary for everyone else through Sunday with the rest of the national slate coming day-by-day.

Temple is at Villanova at 2 p.m. Saturday on Flohoops for the visiting Owls’ first Big Five game while the host Wildcats are going for 3-0 with just La Salle left. Those Explorers are at No. 20 Kentucky at 8:30 p.m. Saturday night airing on the SEC Network plus package.

Princeton hosts America East contender Maine Sunday at 1 p.m. on the ESPN+ package.

Saint Joseph’s is down in the Houston suburb of Katy, Texas, Friday through Sunday playing three predetermined opponents in the Van Chancellor tournament beginning with Old Dominion at noon, followed Saturday playing Stetson also at noon, snd finishing playing Ball State at 2 o.m. Sunday.

Delaware is in Miami for FIU’s tourney playing Eastern Michigan at 2 p.m., on Friday and Chicago State at noon Saturday.

The Rider-Lehigh game is at 1 p.m. on ESPN+ in the tourney on Saturday and the Broncs’ Sunday game, either opponent, will also air on ESPN+.

The Lehigh event is in true tourney format.

That also goes for Penn State down in Florida and Drexel out West but not Penn also out West.

Penn State will open Friday in the Gulf Coast Showcase at 7:30 p.m., playing St. John’s in Estero, and all games will air on Flohoops.

The tourney begins with unbeaten UMass playing South Dakota State at 11 a.m. followed by Kent State meeting No.19 UCLA meeting at 1:30 p.m., and No. 13 Iowa State and Charlotte meeting at 5 p.m.

On Saturday the Penn State and Iowa State pairs are on one side of the winners and consolation brackets with UCLA and UMass in the other. On Sunday the teams will play foe 7th, 5th, 3rd,and the championship.

Drexel on Friday will play Nebraska at 7 p.m. in the Dana on Mission Tourney at the University of San Diego after the host team, whose game is on the WCC Network, will meet Fresno State.

On Saturday the winners and losers meet, times to be determined.

Finally, for the locals, Penn is in Los Angeles. On Friday the Quakers play UC San Diego in Loyola Marymount’s tourney at 6:30 p.m., and on Saturday meet Memphis at 6:30 p.m.

And that’s the report.