The Guru Report: La Salle Rallies on Penn While Temple Wins at the Finish at Georgetown and Drexel Cruises at Home

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

PHILADELPHIA - With a combined 43 turnovers Tuesday night, it seemed La Salle and Penn were trying to put more emphasis into making their Big Five meeting here at The Palestra into a Giving Day special considering the 24 donations by the host Quakers and 19 by the visiting Explorers.

But in the end, particularly the 26-6 fourth quarter by the winners, it became an affair of who grabs last grabs best which is what La Salle did to rally to a 63-49 victory to go 4-3 overall and march Temple’s City Series 1-0 start to be the only two teams left in the local mix who can win bragging rights with a perfect 4-0 record.

The two will meet Dec. 29 but others who must face either or both will be looking to be spoilers and possibly force themselves into a Big Five tie when the 10-game round robin is completed.

Penn coach Mike McLaughlin, like he did against Villanova, chose to sit star junior Kayla Padilla, one of the complement of juniors and seniors on the roster who were all hit with four-game suspensions over eight games for violating a university rule, and just after she had poured 36 points in an overtime loss to Memphis out in a tournament in Los Angeles.

But he almost got away with it. 

After most of the way was more like rugby besides a slew of blown shots from both sides, Penn (4-3, 2-2 Big Five) forged to a nine-point lead on Jordan Obi’s second-chance score with 19-seconds left in the third period.

But La Salle’s Jordon Lewis countered on an old-fashioned three-point play with a driving layup and free throw with four seconds left to leave the Quakers clinging to a six-point differential.

The building surge by the visitors began transforming into a tsunami as Molly Masciantonio fired a three-ball to tie it 45-45 and then  freshman Kenya Cote-Lysius mined a Quakers turnover into a layup and two-point lead and the differential kept widening in La Salle’s favor the rest of the game.

“To struggle seven games offensively and be 4-3 I’m proud of them,” La Salle coach Mountain MacGillivray said  afterwards. “The ball hasn’t been going in very well for us, but we found a way in the fourth quarter to make a bunch of shots and we’ve made our free throws all season.”

Kayla Spruill had 17 points, the only Explorer scoring in double figures, while Masciantonio scored nine with six assists, Cote-Lysius also scored nine and Jordon Lewis had eight off the bench.

Penn’s Jordan had 14 points and nine rebounds while Mia Lakstigala scored 18 with 10 rebounds, and Kennedy Suttle had 10 rebounds in a lopsided 48-32 total rebounding effort.

“We made some changes in the fourth quarter and the kids responded. Jordon’s And-One gave us some life when we were a little lifeless,” MacGillivray said.

“There weren’t a lot of people here, but when Kenya got that bucket you could feel the energy. 

“We’ve been outrebounded five out of six times, you can’t count playing against Kentucky and those athletes and today we got crushed. (Tonight) we showed we could win on the road.

“Listen,” the Explorers coach said. “They were shorthanded tonight. You can’t make no mistake about that. We took advantage of that. But the rest of the players who were out there, were really talented, and that coach is one of the best in the country. So for our kids to win on the road when it wasn’t going well most of the game, that’s got to be huge.”

As for Penn, coach Mike McLaughlin said, “I thought even when we had the lead, we just didn’t play well at all, When we didn’t play our starters, our offense really struggled.”

Penn next visits Bucknell at 6 p.m. Friday night and then returns home Sunday at 1 p.m. hosting Duke in a monster non-conference matchup. La Salle on Saturday goes to St. Francis (Pa.) at 4 p.m.

Temple Prevails at Finish for Second Straight Win: The Owls trailed by 11 going into the final quarter but thrived off four long balls to fuel a comeback to a 49-47 victory at Georgetown in the nation’s capital at McDonough Arena.

Caranda Perea had nine points in the rally off three shots from deep while for the game Mi Davis had 14 points and 11 rebounds. Aniya Gourdine, one of the stars in Saturday’s win at Villanova, had eight points and seven rebounds against the Hoyas (3-3), the second straight Big East foe for the Owls (4-3).

Temple trailed most of the night but in the fourth quarter the Owls used an 11-4 run and an 8-3 run to move within a point of the home team. Gourdine then scored on a driving layup for Temple’s lead. Alexa Williams added another point from the foul line and the defense got a couple of stops to secure the triumph.

The Owls stay on the road Sunday going to meet a former foe from. Atlantic 10 days visiting Duquesne at 1 p.m. in Pittsburgh with the game to air on ESPN+

Drexel Wire to Wire: The Dragons may not be seeing their neighborhood rival this season in Penn, but several Ivy teams are filling the non-league slate. The first was Dartmouth and Drexel led from start to finish in a 67-44 rout at home in the Daskalakis Athletic Center in West Philadelphia.

The Big Green (0-5) remained winless on the season while Drexel moved to 5-2.

Keishana Washington had 13 of her game-high 18 points in the third period and hit four from deep overall, while Tessa Brugler scored 12 and Hannah Nihill scored 10 and moved into fifth all-time on the assist list in the program passing Hollie Mershon to reach 390 with four helpers. She also grabbed six rebounds.

Drexel again showed its depth with 19 points and limited the Big Green to 26.9 from the floor.

“Very happy with this team win tonight,” second-year head coach Amy Mallon said. “I think the stats that stick out are 23 assists on 28 shots made, our ability to move the ball, and the 24 points in the paint.

“Those are two things we focused on doing in this game tonight, so just very happy with the overall performance.”

Added Washington, “I definitely felt more comfortable as the game went on looking for my shot and letting things come to me versus trying to make something happen.”

Drexel next goes on the road Saturday, visiting Maine at noon.

Looking Ahead: There was nothing else in advance of Tuesday night though to note in the only game with a ranked team, No. 5 Baylor overwhelmed Morehead Morehead state, and Vanderbilt, which visits Saint Joseph’s later this month, beat Tennessee in-state rival Chattanooga 91-61.

On Wednesday’s local scene, Lehigh of the Patriot League comes down from upstate in Bethlehem to visit at Villanova at 7 p.m., Princeton travels to No. 21 Florida Gulf Coast in Fort Meyers at 7 p.m., Rider, still looking for a first win hosts NJIT at 7 p.m. in Alumni Gym in Lawrenceville, N.J., and Rutgers, trying to snap a three-game losing streak visits Pittsburgh at 6 p.m. ads part of the Big Ten/ACC Challenge.

The ACC, incidentally, Tuesday announced its network games will soon air in the Philadelphia area as part of a new deal with Comcast and its XFinity network.

Also on Wednesday in the D-2 crowd, Jefferson in East Falls just before its 6 p.m. tip will note longtime coach Tom Shirley’s recent. 800th win and at halftime will honor yours truly for receiving the Gow Media Award - Print from the Basketball Hall of Fame last September.

On Thursday, Delaware is at Columbia at 7 p.m., while Penn State as part of the Big Ten/ACC Challenge is at Boston College at 6 p.m.

On Friday at 6 p.m., as mentioned, Penn is at Bucknell at 6 p.m. while Villanova launches its Big East slate at. Providence at 7 p.m. on the Flohoops Network.

Other challenge games Wednesday in the Big 10/ACC competition, No. 18 Ohio State is at Syracuse at 8 p.m.; North Carolina is at Minnesota at 9 p.m.; Georgia Tech is at Purdue at 7 p.m.; Nebraska is at Wake Forest at 7 p.m.; and Virginia Tech is at Wisconsin at 7:30 p.m.

Ranked teams not involved in the challenge has No. 17 Texas A&M hosting Little Rock at noon; No. 22 Oregon State, coming to Villanova later this month, hosts Pacfic at 2 p.m.; No. 11 Tennessee hosting Tennessee Tech at 6:30 p.m.; No. 18 Oregon hosting. UC Davis at 6:30 p.m.; No. 16 Kentucky hosting previously ranked West Virginia at 7 p.m.; and No. 15 Texas hosting Jackson State at 8 p.m.

No. 9 Iowa, which withdrew from participating in a tournament last weekend, at this hour Thursday is slated to be at Duke.

And that’s the report.