The Guru Report: Siegrist and Washington Help Keep Villanova and Drexel Win Streaks In Tact; Stanford Turns Arizona Aside in Sole NCAA Title Reunion Game

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

VILLANOVA, Pa. — It was over quickly here Sunday afternoon at the Finneran Pavilion in a Big East game won by Villanova 82-57 over Xavier but watching the Wildcats’ Maddy Siegrist and Lior Garzon fire away, especially from deep, was enough to entertain the crowd besides the annual celebration of the school mascot’s birthday.

Garzon popped for 23 points, 15 coming from 5-for-10 beyond the arc while Siegrist reached 30 again, also helped by a deep connection of 4-for-8 for ‘Nova (13-6, 7-3 Big East) besides grabbing nine rebounds and dealing three assists.

Siegrist’s total brought the junior from Poughkeepsie (NY) to a career mark of 1,450, passing Alex Louin (1,432) into ninth place not far behind the program’s all-time 3-point sniper Adrianna Hahn, who is 53 points in front in eighth at 1,503.

Unlike Temple’s Mia Davis, who can bust the Owls’ long-standing career mark set by all-American Marilyn Stephens in 1984 as early as Monday night at UCF — she needs 25 — but certainly perhaps on the three-game home stand that begins Wednesday when Wichita State visits, Siegrist’s shot at Shelly Pennefather’s Wildcats mark of 2,408 will have to wait until next season.

But when she catches Hahn, she could potentially get to No. 3 Trish Juhline (1,659) with nine regular-season games remaining, plus at least one Big East tourney game, and one postseason tourney game averaging 19.0 and she currently is averaging 24.1 while missing six earlier games with a hand injury.

Meanwhile, when the Big East and Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) play the same day with the locals playing the same time, Villanova coach Denise Dillon still seeks a quick report of the news of her former longtime working affiliation at Drexel, which has been rolling since late November.

At the moment of Sunday’s inquiry, the Dragons’ win-loss status on the second part of the Southern weekend road trip was in doubt at William & Mary, heading for overtime at the Tribe’s Kaplan Arena in Williamsburg, Va.

Not to worry.

After missing closing chances to win in regulation, Keishana Washington, the MVP of last season’s CAA tourney won by Drexel, took care of business in double overtime reaching a total of 40 points for the game in a 75-67 triumph that was the 13th straight victory, three short of all-time total of 16.

Washington, who was 14-for-26, including five from deep, is the first Drexel (16-2, 8-0 CAA)  player to reach 40 since the region’s all-time scorer Gabriella Marginean got 40, she also has a 42 in her resume, on Old Dominion on February 12, 2009.

The CAA says Washington is the only conference player with a minimum of 10 games this season who has scored in double figures in all of hers, and the 40 are the second highest behind Jasmine Dickey’s 48.

Back at Villanova (13-6, 7-3 Big East), which has won 11 of 12, eight straight here, to finish that conversation, Dillon was able to work on building depth with six of seven reserves playing at least eight minutes.

Bella Runyon got the lion’s share with 30, while freshman Kaitlyn Orihel played 13, freshman Anahi-Lee Cauley played 12, freshman Zanai Jones played 11, and junior Kenzie Gardler and freshman Christina Dalce each played eight.

“The threes are opening the game up,” Dillon said. “I’m surprised (Xavier) stayed in the zone as long as they did.

“Understand that you can shoot them out of the zone, but we can shoot ourselves out if we're missing those shots and settling.

“It gave us a cushion enough to mix it up and get a lot of players in there, which is always the best.”

Nia Clark with 11 points, was the only player in double figures for Xavier (7-12, 2-8).

“Maddy has proven herself to be a consistent scorer,” Dillon said. “We need all of our players to be a threat, be an option. They’re understanding you are an impact player when you’re playing defendse.

“If we’re connected there, you’re making a difference in what happens on the offensive end.”

Dillon said, those that show themselves in practice are going to get rewarded with playing time.

On the game count, Villanova’s postponed game at Georgetown has been re-scheduled, No. 10 UConn’s visit here has yet to be.

On Friday, the Wildcats go to St. John’s at Lou Carneseca Arena in Queens at 7 p.m. and host Georgetown here next Sunday at 2 p.m.

 

Sitting in fifth in the Big East in a tight race behind UConn, which after the last-second win at DePaul, is perfect and 167-0 against American Athletic and Big East opponents beginning in 2013, the Wildcats have a loss to DePaul but a split with second-place Creighton and 1-0 in the two-game series with Marquette.

The first UConn game is in Hartford on Feb. 9.

Though the goal of the roundups, pending the day’s local and national news, is to highlight the locals first.

But since we’re here, elsewhere in the Big East, Marquette edged host St. John’s 70-65.

In a surprisingly somewhat close game, No. 10 UConn in a game moved to later and to Providence’s Alumni Hall because of the snow that hit New England, the Huskies won 69-61 before a sellout crowd of 1,500.

Christyn Williams, recently returned from COVID protocol absence, had 19 points and seven rebounds for the winning Huskies (13-4, 8-0) as Hall of Fame coach Geno Auriemma picked up his 1,132nd victory, nine behind Hall of Fame Stanford coach, whose NCAA Division I women’s record moved to 1,141 earlier in the day with the defending NCAA champions’ title reunion game in the PAC-12 hosting No. 8 Arizona, 75-69.

Reserve Evina Westbrook scored 13, Olivia Nelson-Ododa had 10 points and six rebounds, while freshman Carolina Ducharme, who scored the buzzer-beating game-winner at DePaul Wednesday night to keep the long-running conference win streak alive, scored 12.

Janai Croms shot 8-for-11, 3-of-4 beyond the arc, for 27 for the Friars (9-11, 4-7).

DePaul won at Seton Hall 85-65 at Walsh Gym in South Orange, N.J.

The Blue Demons (18-5, 10-2) had to fly Sunday because of weather-related cancellation of Saturday’s flight.

Sonya Morris had 26 points while freshman sensation Aneesah Morrow had 22 points and a career-high 27 rebounds, breaking the Big East record of 25 by UConn’s Peggy Walsh in 1986.

Deja Church had 20 points and Lexi Held had nine points and seven assists.

The Pirates (8-10, 3-7) had 32 points and 10 rebounds from Sydney Cooks. Lauren Park Lane scored 12.

Finishing up the Drexel part of this long-lead to the report, besides Washington’s monumental effort, Hannah Nihill had 12 points for the Dragons, while Mariah Leonard had 10 points and 11 rebounds.

William & Mary (6-12, 1-6) got 24 points from Riley Casey and 20 from Sydney Wagner.

In the second overtime, Washington had 13 of Drexel’s 17 points in the period.

Back in regulation, Drexel had a five-point lead after three quarters, but the Tribe came blasting out with a 10-4 run to go ahead.

Tessa Brugler got the lead back with two foul shots with 55 seconds left but William & Mary tied it with neither team being able to score in their last possessions.

Drexel is back home at the Daskalakis Athletic Center this weekend, hosting UNCW at 7 and Charleston on Sunday at 2, both carried on the Flohoops streaming service.

Delaware Completes a Road Sweep: Following last Sunday’s CAA loss at Drexel that left the Dragons the remaining conference unbeaten, the Blue Hens hit the road this past week with a makeup game won at UNCW on Wednesday, a triumph at William & Mary on Friday and on Sunday an 87-65 win at Elon (10-7, 2-5 CAA) in the Schar Center in North Carolina.

The triple wins came over a period of five days for Delaware (13-5, 7-1) to stay in the regular-season hunt, which the Blue Hens won last year before falling to the Dragons in the championship.

“The word on the board today was finish and they did it beautifully,” Delaware coach Natasha Adair said. “We have been talking about getting off to great starts and today was impressive.

“Everybody was on board, locked in and it was energy, effort, and defensive discipline the whole way,” she said, going on to praise everyone on the roster.

A 21-8 run in the second quarter got Delaware into safe harbor. The Blue Hens had a season-high 59 rebounds.

When Jasmine Dickey scored her 24th point, she moved into Delaware’s fifth place with 1,600 on the career scoring list headed by the legendary Elena Delle Donne, now with the WNBA Washington Mystics.

Dickey finished with 27 points and also grabbed 10 rebounds, while Ty Battle had 12 points and 15 rebounds, Jewel Smalls had 14 points, while Mikayla Pippin had her first double double with 11 points and 14 rebounds.

Reversing Drexel’s hosting this weekend, the Blue Hens will welcome Charleston to the Bob Carpenter Center in Newark on Friday at 7 p.m. and then UNCW on Sunday at 1 p.m.

In a big win in the CAA of note, Northeastern, which is showing major improvement, downed perennial but now lame duck power James Madison 62-50 for the Huskies’ (12-6, 6-3 CAA) first road win in conference play this season.

The Dukes (9-10, 5-3) are headed for the Sun Belt after this season, and as happened to Old Dominion when the Monarchs departed for C-USA, JMU is banned by the school presidents from all tournaments and additionally, their hosting rights for this season were given to Drexel.

Claudia Soriano had 19 points and five rebounds along with four assists and two steals. Katie May, an Archbishop Wood alum with ties to the La Salle Greenbergs family, had eight points, as did Gemima Motema.

“We’ve experienced a lot of things this season … to come out victorious in this setting was really awesome to see,” said first-year coach Bridgette Mitchell, a former Duke assistant and alum. “I’m really proud of the effort from my team.”

Towson stayed in the upper half of the standings fight, beating Hofstra 86-45 at home in SECU Arena, where the Tigers (15-4, 6-2 CAA) are unbeaten. This is the fastest the team in the NCAA era has reached 15 wins.

Aleah Nelson had 19 points and five assists, while Anissa Rivera had 11 points and 10 rebounds. Skye Williams and Allie Kubek each scored 10 points.

La Salle Falls at Duquesne: The Explorers trailed early and couldn’t overcome the home team, losing an Atlantic 10 contest to Duquesne 67-48 in Pittsburgh.

The visitors (11-8, 4-3 A-10) made a late run to move within 12 of the Dukes (9-11, 4-4), which answered with an 11-4 spurt in the final minutes to claim the win.

Gabby Crawford with 21 points off  9-of-11 from the field was the lone La Salle player in double figures. Molly Masciantonio dealt four assists.

La Salle is home Wednesday at 6 p.m. in the Tom Gola Arena to host Saint Joseph’s looking for a sweep of the Hawks after winning the first contest across town recently that also counted in the Big 5 giving the Explorers a 2-1 record behind Villanova’s tie-clinching 3-1.

La Salle and Temple could get to the same record by playing each other making up a postponed game from Dec. 29 though if the Owls won, they would also need to make up the Jan. 11th game against Penn at The Palestra.

Big Ten Blues Continuing for Rutgers and Penn State: So it was on Sunday, the latest twin tale of despair saw the Lady Lions up at their Bryce Jordan Center in State College fall to No. 17 Maryland 82-71, which, considering the roster of the Terrapins (15-6, 7-3 Big Ten), was at least respectful.

Makenna Marisa had 19 points for the home team (9-11, 3-7), while Kelly Jekot, who previously played at Villanova, scored 16. She was 6-of-11 from the field, and nailed four from deep.

Leilani Kapinus had 14 points and Penn State outscored the visitors 42-34 in the second half.

Credit hot shooting for the game, 59.2 percent from the field, best in a Big Ten game dating nine seasons to Feb. 20, 2013, shooting 61.1 percent at Illinois.

Going deeper into the details, the devil was in the turnovers, 24, gifting 23 points to Maryland.

Diamond Miller had 19 points for the Terrapins, while Chloe Bibby had 17 points and 10 rebounds, while Angel Reese had 16 points, and Mimi Collins subbing with 14.

Penn State heads next to Nebraska on Thursday at 8 on the Big Ten Network at the Huskers’ Pinacle Bank Arena. The Lady Lions are back Sunday, playing their Play4Kay Game at 2 p.m. against Northwestern.

Rutgers, meanwhile, is still looking for its first Big Ten triumph, losing at home in the Jersey Mike’s Arena in Piscataway, N.J., to Michigan State 61-45.

The skid looked like it might be broken early, the Scarlet Knights (7-15, 0-10 Big Ten) storming to a 12-point lead in the first quarter.

But the Spartans (12-8, 6-3) struck back in the next stanza 16-5 and stayed ahead, leaving Rutgers what’s left the rest of the season to build for next year since getting to .500 might be nil.

Of course stranger things have happened in the history of women’s collegiate basketball and, technically, until knocked out of the conference tourney in Indianapolis, they are still in play.

Ask retired Notre Dame coach and Hall of Famer Muffet McGraw about the time she led the Irish to a title in the old Midwestern Conference and a spot in the NCAA tourney with a losing record.

“This is payback when they should have taken us,” she quipped at the time referring to a season everyone but the committee liked the Irish as an at-large team.

As for the stats, Sunday, Rutgers’ Lasha Petree scored 15 and Shug Dickson scored 13 while Osh Brown scored 10.

Rutgers coach Tim Eatman noted the early foul trouble of Brown, who was a key part to the opening play before having to go to the bench.

“She’s a vital part of our game,” he said.

Rutgers is at Nebraska Tuesday at 8 p.m. in Lincon on the B1G+ network.

Saturday Sadness: Since there was no posting here on the overnight for a variety of small reasons, all four locals who played lost: Rider got blasted at home by Iona 63-40 in a Metro Atlantic Athletic Contest in Alumni Gym in Lawrenceville, N.J.; likewise Saint Joseph’s by one of the Atlantic 10 frontrunners in UMass, 74-48; and two real tough ones, Temple fell at Memphis 64-61 in the American Athletic Conference; and at a game we made it by staying overnight in Center City and the weather had eased before tipoff, at The Palestra, Penn fell in the fourth quarter to Harvard 70-63 in the Ivy League.

Of the ranked teams who played, in the Big 12, No. 13 Iowa State rolled at Texas Tech, 86-65; No. 11 Baylor likewise 87-54 at West Virginia; No. 25 Kansas State got past visiting TCU 63-54; but No. 18 Oklahoma knocked off visiting No.; 9 Texas 65-63, the second time the Longhorns found their way back into the Top 10 and then upset; and in the West Coast Conference, No. 16 BYU beat visiting San Francisco 99-58.

In two games in mid-majors of note, in the MAAC, visiting Quinnipiac rallied from a 25-point deficit to beat host Niagara 85-79, while Toledo continued to stay in the Mid-American regular season hunt, beating host Bowling Green 71-67.

Columbia heading for a showdown of unbeaten Ivy teams pending Friday night’s action, but still a showdown, topped host Dartmouth 65-46.

In the Rider game, which got moved to a nighttime start due to the weather, the losing streak reach four games for the Broncs (5-14, 3-7 MAAC), though the Gaels (5-10, 3-7) are not much better record-wise.

Raphaela Toussaint had 13 points and nine rebounds as the lone Rider player scoring in double figures.

“We didn’t get enough stops and we didn’t make any shots,” said veteran coach Lynn Milligan. “Communication on the offensive end was off and that’s what the result was.

“It’s not a lack of effort, it’s not a lack of preparation, we just need to make shots.”

Rider is off until Saturday when the Broncs travel to Marist, a past perennial power in the MAAC out of Poughkeepsie that has had its own struggles, though the squad did open the season on the road giving Drexel the first of the Dragons’ only two setbacks to date on the season.

Meanwhile, over at Saint Joseph’s,  the Hawks (6-12, 2-4 A-10) ran into a first-time, longtime, squad doing well in the conference in UMass (16-5, 4-3).

Gabby Smalls and Talya Brugler each scored 11 points for Saint Joseph’s, which next heads to La Salle, Wednesday. Katie Mayock had five rebounds.

Down South, if you were wishing for certain combinations to witness a longtime career-scoring record in person in the history of the Temple women’s program, they happened in reverse against Memphis in an American Athletic Conference game in Tennessee.

Needing 49 points to break Marilyn Stephens’ longtime mark set in 1984, Mia Stephens got a lot of them, 24 points to be exact, with 11 rebounds, but they went to waste because the Owls (9-8, 4-2 AAC) after taking a late lead in the fourth period were ruined by a pair of three-pointers from the Tigers (12-6, 3-4).

Aniya Gourdine scored 10 points, dealt six assists, and grabbed four rebounds for the Owls.

So in what will be the only local game Monday, at 3 p.m. Temple will be at conference leader UCF in Tampa on ESPN+

Unless the Owls have a comfortable lead or a large deficit late in the game, Davis is 25 points away so if she has a lot of them and it’s close … we’ll just have to see at that point if decisions have to be made.

At this stage, a chance to beat UCF must be played through, more so to compensate for the loss to Memphis.

That brings us down to Penn, which has had early struggles in the Ivies.

Until the game got inside the five minute mark, the Quakers (7-11, 2-4 Ivy), seemed capable of beating the Crimson (10-9, 4-3) in a game that with Yale appear in a three-way battle for the third and fourth slots in the conference tournament playoff field at Harvard in March.

In the short history of the event the top two slots have been a Princeton and Penn world. The Tigers are very much still there but the new sheriff in town right now is Columbia.

In Saturday’s game, Kayla Padilla scored the first 11 overall and went on to finish with 20, five assists, and four rebounds. Jordan Obi had 17, Kennedy Suttle had 13 and nine rebounds, while Mia Lakstigala also scored 13.

“I didn’t recognize, which team I had out there in the first half,” said longtime Harvard coach Kathy Delaney-Smith, who will retire at the end of the season. “What you saw out there were two very young teams battling.

“A lot of our (Ivy) games were on the road early so we’ll be helped or should be being home a lot the rest of the way.”

Harvard’s McKenzie Forbes scored 18, Annie Stritzel scored 12, Maggie McCarthy and Lola Mullaney each scored 11, Tess Sussman had nine points and 10 rebounds, and Harmoni Turner had nine points and 11 rebounds.

To hear Penn coach Mike McLaughlin afterwards, his comments recalled a loss at the end of his very first Quakers season on a road trip to Harvard and Dartmouth, then the rulers of the Ivies.

True, there have been tough losses in what became a great success story in the McLaughlin era but most of those were in equal head-to-head battles with well-armed rosters on both sides.

“They didn’t deserve this, they practiced so hard this week, we had great practices,” he said, glumly. “I blame myself, I have to find ways to rest them, they were fatigued in the fourth quarter, though maybe it was other things.”

The night after that long-ago trip on the very last day, Penn pulled an upset and it’s been uphill to high ground since.

So it comes down to a big game in a string of them Friday at 6 p.m. when Columbia visits, maybe Penn catches the Lions in a trap game heading to the first Princeton showdown Saturday.

But nothing is trapping Columbia so far.

On Saturday, the Lions (15-3, 6-0 Ivy)  used a 27-point third quarter to put away the Big Green (1-17, 0-6). 

Columbia has now won seven straight, tying the longest since joining Division I in 1986.

“I’m just really proud of the team,” said Columbia coach Megan Griffith, a native of King of Prussia, and an alum who previously spent a long stint on the staff of former Princeton coach Courtney Banghart. “We’re doing something we’ve never done before here and that’s really hard.

“We’re just learning as we go and I think we’re going to be ready to go for the second half of the league.”

Kaitlyn Davis got things going with a 7-for-7 start on the way to 20 points along with seven rebounds, two steals, two blocks, and an assist.

“Kaitlyn has been absolutely phenomenal, just a terror on both ends and wrapping up possessions for us,” Griffin said.

Abbey Hsu had 17 points and Jada Patrick scored 13 while Carly Rivera dealt six assists and grabbed six rebounds.

“We’re not satisfied,” Hsu said. “We’re just staying hungry for the next game. We want to play a complete game and we’re still striving to get there. We need to keep working on the small things.”

D2 Chestnut Hill Still Rolling: It may be a shorter trip to play Nyack College from the Southern Division of the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC) since the school located by the Tappan Zee Bridge in suburban New York City now plays its games in Jersey City at the John J. Moore Athletics and Fitness Center.

But the ride from suburban Philadelphia was still longer then the time it took for Chestnut Hill to rack up another conference win, defeating Nyack 82-64 for the Griffins’ 11th straight win.

Cassie Sebold had 15 points for the Griffins (17-3, 10-0 CACC), while Kaitlyn Carter scored 14. Bri Hewlett had 12 points and 16 rebounds for her second straight double double.

Lindsey Lane came close with 12 points and nine rebounds and Emily Chmiel off the bench in 17 minutes had 11 points and 13 rebounds for her eighth double double, tops in the CACC.

Lauren Crim scored 10, while Abbey Spratt had eight points and six rebounds. 

Chestnut Hill dominated the boards with 62 rebounds, 21 on the offensive glass.

Nyack (5-7, 4-3) got 22 points from Amani Levitan, while Carly Bolivar scored 14.

The Griffins stay on the road Wednesday heading to Goldey-Beacom in Wilmington, Del., at 6 p.m.

Nationally Noted: Except where ranked teams met each other, it was a clean sweep Sunday, but one of those head-to-heads brought together No. 8 Arizona and the team it lost to at the finish, No. 2 Stanford in the Cardinal’s Maples Pavilion 75-69.

Hall of Fame Stanford coach called Cameron Brink’s 25-point, 15-rebound effort with 3-blocked shots “a great game …Her best game is yet to come. You haven’t seen it yet.”

Reserve Jana Van Gytenbeek fired down six shots from deep for 18 points, helping to keep Stanford (16-3, 7-0 PAC-12) unbeaten in the conference.

The Cardinal has won eight straight since its non-conference 65-61 loss at No. 1 South Carolina (20-1, 8-1 SEC), which beat Florida 62-50 on the road in Gainesville, Sunday, as Alliyah Boston had 13 points and 19 rebounds.

Zia Cooke had 11 points in the 14th straight win in the series with the Gators (15-6, 6-3).

Back to an 18-league schedule in the PAC-12, Sunday’s game was the only regular season meeting of the two Western powerhouses in Stanford and Arizona on a night in which bobbleheads of VanDerveer were distributed.

Cate Reese scored 17 for the Wildcats (15-3, 5-3).

“Cameron did a really good job of asserting herself and just kind of bulldozing us,” said Arizona coach Adia Barnes. “I thought we had to be a lot more physical with her.

“Jana and Cameron killed us, together over 40 points. That can’t happen.”

Another showdown weekend lies ahead as on Friday Arizona is hosting No. 19  Oregon, which beat the Wildcats 68-66 in overtime earlier this month. Stanford on Thursday night will be at UCLA.

Oregon on Sunday at home in Matthew Knight Arena in Eugene beat Southern Cal 80-48.

The Trojans (9-9, 2-6) were playing with a shortened roster and without first-year coach Lindsay Gottlieb due to COVID protocols.

Nyara Sabally had 23 points and Endiya Rogers scored 17 for the Ducks (13-5, 5-1), who will make up a game  hosting Arizona State Tuesday afternoon at 5 p.m. EST on the Oregon livestream before playing at Arizona and Arizona State this weekend.

“I feel really good,” said Oregon coach Kelly Graves. “I thought we put together a great performance today, at both ends of the floor and in every phase, really … We shot it well from the perimeter, got points in the paint (and) I thought this was one of our best defensive efforts for 40 minutes.”

In the SEC, Mississippi State beat visiting Texas A&M 78-58 in a game between two unranked SEC teams that used to be in the Top 10. The visiting Aggies have been crashing and burning in recent weeks not that much more could be said for the home team.

Looking Ahead: As noted, locally, Monday, Temple is at UCF at 3 p.m., while nationally, No. 22 Ohio State hosts No. 23 Iowa and No. 7 Michigan hosts No. 6 Indiana in the Big Ten, the former at 9 p.m. on the Big Ten network, the latter at 7 on ESPN2. No. 4 Tennessee, coming off the upset loss at Auburn will host Arkansas at 7 on the SEC network.

On Tuesday, Rutgers is at Nebraska at 8 p.m., while No. 3 NC State visits No. 20 Notre Dame, No. 5 Louisville is at Miami, and No. 14 Georgia Tech is at No. 21 Duke all at 7 p.m. in the ACC on the ACCNX telecasts.

   

The Guru Report: Villanova, Drexel, Delaware, Princeton, and Lehigh Sweep to Wins Ahead of the Snow

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

VILLANOVA —Starting here on the Main Line Friday afternoon and continuing down south, just to the north in New Jersey, and up state in Bethlehem a few hours later, the five Guru D-1 squads competing on the local and national card collectively made it a great time to sweep the opposition before any need to sweep the fallen flakes predicted to arrive on the overnight.

Though Maddy Siegrist continued to do her thing for Villanova here in the Wildcats’ Finneran Pavilion, the overall talk focused on the contribution of depth and playing defense in a 59-44 Big East victory over Butler (1-16, 0-8 Big East).

The opponents’ points were a season low allowed by coach Denise Dillon’s squad (6-3) and the 28.8 percent from the field was a low allotted in conference play.

“Every game we set a defensive goal,” said Lucy Olsen, a 5-9 guard out of Spring-Ford High and Royersford, Pa., in the Western suburbs, who is one of the Wildcats freshmen. “They’re a good team. We had to work hard to keep them off the boards and get stops on defense. At first we were struggling a little bit, but once we started communicating ad playing as a team, we were able to get those stops.”

The leading scorer for Butler is Celena Taborn, who arrived with her teammates averaging 13.4 points per game, leading the nation in field goal percentage. With the Wildcats closing off the inside, she scored just 8 points and shot 3-for-8 from the field.

Trinity White, scoring 10, led the Bulldogs.

“We did a better job in the second quarter of being disruptive,” Dillon said. “Brianna (Herlihy) stepped up to being more active.

“Our guards did a real nice job of being disruptive on their guards. Our length eliminated those easy passes into the post. It’s a team effort on the defense end.”

The Wildcats (12-6, 6-3) forced Butler into a season-high 23 turnovers resulting in a lopsided transition comparison of 28-9.

Siegrist’s thing Friday was 23 points, her ninth 20 plus scoring points game of the season. Climbing the all-time Villanova scoring column here as Temple’s Mia Davis is on the verge of breaking the career mark with the Owls, Siegrist’s career total is 1,420 Friday becoming the 10th player in the program’s history to pass the 1,400 milestone mark.

Olsen had 10 points off 4-for-8 shooting.

Figuring how to get everyone more time has been a pleasant challenge for Dillon, in her second season back at her alma mater following a long and successful stint at Drexel.

“You want to reward players with time on the floor, but they know their time will come even if it isn’t in each contest this season,” Dillon said.

Villanova is on a four-game win streak and nine of its last ten, the loss being at DePaul in Chicago. The home string is now seven straight as the team has recovered from a long span of missing players to injuries or COVID protocols, which now are involving coaches missing games.

Earlier in the day, Southern Cal announced that new coach Lindsay Gottlieb would not be with the squad this weekend observing the pandemic rules of the road.

And Dillon agreed the squad is moving closer to being mentioned initially as a bubble team and perhaps more if the winning continues.

“It puts us in a position of conversation,” she said. “We won a number of games without our roster. It’s just a recogition of when we are together, we look pretty good.”

Dillion’s predecessor, longtime coach Harry Perretta, who is now doing analyst work on Big East women’s telecasts was in the house.

Villanova will be back in the arena Sunday for a 2 p.m. tip against Xavier.

Drexel Still Streaking With Win at Elon: Down 10 during the second quarter and 35-27 at the half, Elon may have the Phoenix as its mascot but it was the Dragons who roared back with a double up 28-14 attack in the third and on to a 72-60 victory in a Colonial Athletic Association game played in North Carolina.

The win streak for Drexel (!5-2, 7-0 CAA) is now at 12, closing in the all-time run of 16 with the next stop Sunday at William & Mary at 2 p.m. in Kaplan Arena in Williamsburg, Va.

Tessa Brugler, the talented transfer from Bucknell, racked up another double double with a personal best as a Dragon with 20 points and pulled 13 boards. Hannah Nihill stayed hot with 21 points.

Foul shooting helped the Dragons, connecting on 18-for-23 from the line while also committing just three turnovers in the second half.

Elon (10-6, 2-4) got 22 points from Brie Perpipgnan but no one else scored in double figures and the Phoenix were outrebounded by the visitors 38-26.

Delaware Keeps Pace: Though Drexel back home won the battle of the two remaining CAA unbeaten teams on Sunday, Delaware (12-5, 6-1 CAA) is showing the Blue Hens are not going to fall away.

After a makeup game win at UNC Wilmington on Wednesday, Delaware knocked off William & Mary 70-56 moving into a weekend road trip in reverse order with Drexel.

“Today was an example of being road tough, second of three,” said Delaware coach Natasha Adair. “We had big moments from people but we know (the Tribe), I know (William and Mary coach) Ed (Swanson), there is so much respect for his program and how prepared they are going to be.

“Sydney Wagner is a veteran in this league, she is a scorer and we knew that. Riley Casey same thing, we knew that those two make them go. This league is so competitive and every night you’ve got to be ready to compete,” Adair said. “Ty Skinner, 19 points, 5-of-10 from three, that is a career-high for her because she is fearless. I thought Ty Battle and Lizzie Oleary had some big moments down the stretch.

“When it was winning time, we made the winning plays and we kept stressing defense. I thought we were the tougher, most gritty team. You have to find ways to win and our team did, I am very proud of them.”

While it was close near the end, Delaware closed out with an 8-0 run to turn aside any late threat from William & Mary (6-11, 1-5).

Jasmine Dickey added to the Blue Hens scoring pile with 15 points and seven rebounds. Battle had 13 points, five boards and three steals. 

Wagner had 29 points for the host Tribe and Kate Sramac grabbed 10 rebounds.

On Sunday while Drexel heads to William & Mary, the Blue Hens dip down to Elon for a 2 p.m. tip. Both games will air on the Flohoops streaming service.

Princeton Rallys Over Yale: The Tigers may have missed several beats the last two years with the cancelled conference and ncaa tournaments in 2020 and a total season in 2021 because of the coronavirus but the program powerhouse that Courtney Banghart built before heading off to North Carolina has missed nothing on the hardwood.

A road trip to Yale at the Bulldogs’ John J. Lee Amphitheater in New Haven, Conn., needed a rally, and Princeton delivered as Carla Berube’s group pocketed a 61-49 Ivy League win over host Yale.

Two of Banghart’s achievements were her Tigers being the only Ivy team to earn a ranking in the Associated Press women’s poll and also the only of the Ancient Eight to gain an at-large slot to the NCAA tournament.

Berube did the former two seasons ago before the cancellations and in the latest Charlie Creme mock bracket projections for ESPN he listed Princeton (14-4, 7-0 Ivy) with an at-large slot.

So it’s nice to know a potential safety valve exists because the Tigers are actually the preseason favorites, though certainly until they meet each other, Columbia is a new threat and possibly Penn makes a late run for the four-team tourney to be held at Harvard and becomes a darkhorse.

As usual there was no horsing-around in crunch time when Yale (12-5, 5-2) held a 40-36 lead with 8:44 remaining in regulation.

The visitors struck back with a 14-2 explosion and were on their way to their 32nd straight league victory, trailing just No. 10 UConn’s massive 167 dating to 2013 competition beginning in the American Athletic Conference and the current Big East. 

Abby Meyers had 22 points for Princeton, while Julie Cunningham had 19 points and a career-high 10 rebounds. Elie Mitchell had 10 rebounds, four steals, and three assists.

Friday’s game was moved up off Saturday because of a heavy snow forecast in New England.

Princeton for next weekend with Penn goes back to former traditional Ivy two-day pace with the Tigers hosting Cornell at 7 p.m. back home at Jadwin Gym while Penn will host Columbia at 7 in The Palestra. The two hosts will then switch opponents on Saturday.

Lehigh Upsets Holy Cross: Completing a day and night of perfection from the locals Lehigh recovered from its loss at Army to beat what had been Patriot League-leading Holy Cross 67-61 at home in Stabler Arena in Bethelehem.

The contest, like the Princeton game ,was a one day move-up to avoid getting caught in a snow cancellation.

In this one, the Mountain Hawks (14-6, 6-3 Patriot League), filled the air with deep shots, completing 15 of 35 attempts from beyond the arc, including 12 in the first half, which is one short of both the Lehigh and League records.

Mackenzie Kramer scored 18 points for the home team, fueled by 5-of-9 from deep, while Emma Grothaus scored 14 points, and Clair Steele got seven of her 11 points in the second half.

The win snapped a five-game win streak by the Crusaders (13-7, 7-2).

“It felt good to get this one,” said Lehigh coach Sue Troyan. “I thought a lot of people stepped up. We did a really good job of setting the tone early in the first half. We got a lot of clean looks at the basket and the kids knocked their shots down.”

Four Holy Cross players scored in double digits, led by Bronagh Power-Cassidy with 15 points.

“We were better tonight,” Troyan said. “I really challenged our players coming out to match their toughness, which we struggled with on Wednesday. We were strong on both ends of the floor tonight, showing a lot of grit and toughness.”

Troyan credited Steele’s defense on Avery LaBarbera, who scored just five after bombing Lehigh for 30 in their previous meeting.

WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert was at the game, being a 1986 alum from South Jersey who played for then-coach Muffet McGraw. Speaking at halftime, the WNBA leader appearing on National Girls and Women in Sports Day, told the younger women in the crowd to stay in sports and the life lessons it can teach them.

Lehigh’s next game is at Patriot League contender Boston U. On Saturday a week away at 2 p.m. on ESPN+

Nationally Noting: The bulk of games on a light-schedule Friday came out of the Big East, CAA, and PAC-12.

The key game in the Big East was a high-scoring affair at the Wintrust Arena in Chicago in which DePaul bounced back from its tough loss to No. 10 UConn on Wednesday to beat St. John’s 94-88 and sweep the season series, the game airing on FS1.

Lexi Held scored 24 points, dealt eight assists, and grabbed five steals for the winning Blue Demons (17-5, 9-2 Big East). Sonya Morris scored 22 and dealt seven assists, and freshman sensation Aneesah Morrow had another double double with 22 points and 18 rebounds. Deejah Church scored 13.

St. John’s (6-13, 2-7) got 24 points and nine rebounds from Kaja Bailey, while Danielle Patterson scored 20, and Unique Drake scored 16. Leilani Correa scored 10.

DePaul Sunday goes to Seton Hall in South Orange, N.J., at Walsh Gym, also on FS1.

In a close one in the Big Ten, No. 23 Iowa edged host Northwestern, 72-67, in overtime in Evanston, Ill., as Caitlin Clark scored 28 and grabbed 11 boards for the Hawkeyes, and Monika Czinno scored 24 points with 16 rebounds.

Veronica Burton had 19 for the host Wildcats.

It was a wild night out West in the PAC-12 with three games going into overtime.

The easy win went to defending NCAA and No. 2 ranked Stanford, which at home in Maples Pavilion beat Arizona State 78-50 as Haley Jones double doubled with 12 points and 10 rebounds, Cameron Brink scored 11, and reserves Kiki Iriafen and Francesca Belibi each scored 12.

In the three overtime games, Colorado beat host Utah 66-62; host Washington State beat Washington 60-56; and Oregon State edged Southern Cal 63-61. No. 9 Oregon at home beat visiting UCLA 2-0 on a forfeit while the No. 8 Arizona game at Cal was postponed.

Looking Ahead: On Saturday, winter weather precluding for the locals, Harvard plays Penn in an Ivy contest at The Palestra at 2 p.m. on ESPN+, both teams trying to squeeze into what will be the fourth and final berth for the two-day event at Harvard in Cambridge, Mass. In the MAAC, Iona is at Rider at Alumni Gyn at 5 p.m. on ESPN+. In the Atlantic 10, Saint Joseph’s will be hosting one of the new power hitters in the conference in UMass at 2 p.m. on ESPN+. 

Temple at 3 p.m . in the American Athletic Conference is at Memphis on ESPN+.

Earlier Friday the Owls held a zoom interview with grad star Mia Davis, who needs 49 points to break Marilyn Stephens’ career record, the Gratz High alum set in 1984.

The native of Baltimore said she didn’t know of her approaching the record until she heard it mentioned on TV in a tape of the game.

Of the local games not mentioned here who are playing Sunday, Michigan State is at Rutgers at 2 p.m., as are all the other local games; No. 17 Maryland is at Penn State, both on B1G+. 

La Salle is at Duquesne in Pittsburgh at 2 p.m. on ESPN+

And that’s the report.

The Guru Report: Tennessee Shocked by Auburn While Locals Rutgers, Penn State and Rider Swept in Continuing Struggles

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

Early Thursday night, Tennessee had reclaimed the pinnacle of success and the glory years of the late Pat Summitt, being named a No. 1 seed in the first of the three NCAA women’s basketball tournament committee promotional reveals of the top 16 of selection day was at the moment as opposed following the conclusion of all the conference tournaments.

Less than a few hours later it all fell apart in a shocking 71-61loss at unranked Auburn, (9-10, 1-7 SEC)  whose triumph was the first in the Southeastern Conference this season, and first under new coach Johnnie Harris.

The big moment for the Auburn women came just after the men’s team on Monday earned its first-ever No. 1 ranking in the Associated Press poll.

The Vols (18-2, 7-1) arrived at Auburn Arena with a No. 4 ranking, only recently returned to Top Five status in the AP women’s poll.

When time came to head back to Knoxville, perhaps the real winner of the night for the moment was South Carolina coach Dawn Staley, whose No. 1 Gamecocks just before the Tennessee game beat No. 24 Ole Miss 69-40 at home in Colonial Life Arena in Columbia.

Huh?, you say.

Follow the disruptive COVID protocol ball.

Earlier this month on Jan. 2 due to positive tests the Ole Miss/South Carolina game was postponed due to individuals who came up with positive tests.

That date came just after the Gamecocks suffered a rarity, a No. 1 team falling to an unranked team in the AP women’s poll, when on Dec. 30 Missouri clipped the visitors 70-69 in overtime.

Saddled with an SEC loss, since then as Tennessee kept winning, South Carolina was in catch-up mode one game down in the conference standings.

Originally Thursday night, the Gamecocks were to step out of conference and host No. 10 UConn, though by chance of a common appearance in the Battle for Atlantis in the tropics in November, they met in the title game and Staley’s bunch gave Geno Auriemma’s then No. 2 squad quite the whipping, 73-57 off play in the fourth quarter.

Cut to the present where Ole Miss, who this week returned to the AP Poll for the first time in 15 years, made Staley aware the Rebels had Thursday available to knock out their postponed affair onto the log of completed games.

The Hall of Fame coach then parlayed Auriemma, also a Hall of Famer, about putting this one off for a future year, to which he agreed.

That move actually then enabled the Big East to do its own postpone makeup Wednesday night when UConn zipped to DePaul in Chicago, playing a thriller in which the host Blue Demons were deprived in the closing seconds of handing the Huskies their first loss in a conference game since 2013.

So now with her win and Tennessee’s loss the Gamecocks are on equal footing on a course that leads to their season matchup on Feb. 20.

With the implication story out of the way, back to the game details of the War Eagles’ upset as well as South Carolina’s win.

Auburn’s Aicha Coulibaly had a game-high 26 points, while Sania Wells scored 13, Jala Jordan scored 11, and Annie Hughes scored 10 points.

Tennessee’s Jordan Horston had 21 points and eight rebounds, and graduate Jordan Walker scored 17, tying her personal best of the season.

In the opening quarter Tennessee had runs of 8-0 and 7-0 but the Tigers launched a 9-0 run ending the period down a point 17-16.

A free throw tied it for Auburn in the first minute of the second period. 

The Tigers then took advantage of Lady Vols shooting that was as cold as the outdoor temperatures can be this time of year and the half ended with a 39-28 home team lead.

In the third a 12-0 Tennessee run regained the lead which was then exchanged twice and the game stayed close until the score had the visitors up 51-50 heading into the final ten minutes.

Auburn off closing near in the third kept going in the fourth to build a five-point lead of which Tennessee then shaved off four.

However, points by Coulibaly and a three-ball from Annie Hughes made it a six-point Auburn lead with 2:27 left in regulation. The Tigers then went into lockdown mode, completing an 11-0 run to the finish before Tennessee scored a meaningless basket just before time expired.

Auburn won despite being out-rebounded 43-30.

“Obviously, I’m disappointed in the outcome of the game,” said Tennessee coach Kellie Harper, who played for the Lady Vols under the late legendary Summitt. “Our players got a lesson, you got to see everyone’s best effort. They’ve (Auburn) been knocking at the door, here, recently in some games but just hadn’t been able to close it out. The teaching moment  is you got to play every night and you got to play well every night. Winning’s hard.”

This was Auburn’s third game in five days.

“We’ve been right there in so many ballgames and we’ve been talking to them about finishing,” said Harris, who previously was with Vic Schaefer at Texas and Mississippi State. “Once we got in that locker room tonight, I asked them if they were tired. No, nobody was tired.

“We talked about, you need to bust through that wall, you need to finish.”

Until that last meaningly basketball, Tennessee went six minutes without a field goal in that final quarter.

“(Auburn) played with great aggressiveness all night,” Harper said.

The Tigers’ Precious Johnson did not play.

“We came out kind of complacent,” Tennessee’s Horston said, “which I feel like we’ve never done before. They played harder than us tonight. I feel like they played their best game tonight.”

Tennessee’s last loss was back on Dec. 18 to defending NCAA champion Stanford in Knoxville.

Auburn’s triumph was the first over an AP Top 5 team opponent since 1997 when the school beat No. 4 Georgia. Joe Ciampi was then the long-time coach and on Thursday night he was the analyst for the SEC Network telecasting the game.

Meanwhile, the details of note from South Carolina’s (19-1, 7-1 SEC) win, Aliyah Boston had 22 points and 12 rebounds for her 13th straight double double.

“I think the crowd is double double watching,” Staley quipped in her postgame zoom press conference.

The double double streak is the longest in the program’s history, bringing admiration from past super star and WNBA MVP A’ja Wilson.

“She’s just killing it in her own fashion,” Wilson said.

Shakira Austin had 15 points for Ole Miss (17-3, 5-2).

The win was the Gamecock’s ninth over a ranked opponent, best in the nation.

“We’re moving with our bench and it’s a pleasure to see,” Staley said.

The Tennessee-Auburn game wasn’t the only upset out of the SEC with unranked Arkansas at home in the Bud Walton Arena surprising No. 12 LSU 90-76.

The upset was the first over a ranked squad for the Razorbacks (14-6, 4-3 SEC) since a year ago in February.

Coach Mike Neighbors also beat opposing LSU coach Kim Mulkey a year ago in an upset when she was handling the then No. 4 Baylor squad.

Amber Ramirez had 25 points for Arkansas, while the backcourt duo of Makayla Daniels and Samara Spencer each scored 20.

“I just thought we didn’t shoot the ball well,” said LSU coach Kim Mulkey. “They were sagging in the paint.

“It wasn’t like Florida were they were up in us and really guarding us hard. We had some really easy, good looks that we normally make and we just didn’t make them.”

Alexis Morris got all 22 of her points in the second half for LSU (17-4, 5-3).

The NCAA Reveal

As to the NCAA Reveal referenced at the top of this report, first the top 16 in order.

1. South Carolina, 2. Stanford, 3. NC State, 4. Tennessee

5. Louisville, 6. Indiana, 7. Texas, 8. Arizona

9. Michigan, 10. Iowa State, 11. UConn, 12. LSU, 

13. Baylor, 14. Oregon, 15. Georgia, 16. Kansas

Here they are by region:

Bridgeport, Conn.: 1. NC State 2. Indiana 3. LSU 4. Baylor

Greensboro, N.C.: 1. South Carolina 2. Arizona 3. Michigan 4. Kansas State

Spokane, Wash.: 1. Stanford 2. Texas 3. UConn 4. Georgia

Wichita, Kansas.: 1. Tennessee 2. Louisville 3. Iowa State 4. Oregon

Not going to make a lot of comment on this go-round because the next one on Feb. 10 will be far different. Tennessee’s loss is not factored here but will next time. UConn will be healthier next time. A year ago doing the actual bracket in terms of principals and procedures was a piece of cake because a lot of the differentiation rules from the men didn’t have to be followed because of the one-site bubble for the entire tournament.

Thus, a pure 1-64 seed distribution was laid into the bracket without regard to travel, home courts, were put aside for the event in San Antonio, Texas.

Also this for the first time will be a 68-team field because of the expansion of the first four like the men’s tourney.

That all said, back to the nightly roundup.

The Locals: More Big Ten Losses for Penn State and Rutgers While MAAC Woes Continue for Rider: With just three teams on tap it seemed easier to just bundle the whole night for them together.

If Rutgers had won its first Big Ten game of the season at No. 17 Maryland Thursday night, it would have been a major shock under any scenario, even with the host Terrapins falling from potential No. 1 seed material to 17 and not even listed among the NCAA’s first Top 16 reveal. 

Had it been playing someone in the low-rent district of the league standings that would have been greeted with “finally.”

And so it was that bobblehead night at the XFINITY Center in College Park was about likeness tribute and not performance, which was outstanding for Australian Chloe Bibby in front of her parents as she scored a game-high 22 points to lead Maryland to a 72-55 win over the Scarlet Knights (7-14, 0-9 Big Ten).

A year ago the pandemic had Rutgers sidelined over a month between testing on the team or opponents causing postponements. When the team returned, they roared to the regular season finish though once in the NCAA field, they got upset in the first round.

This season, the only missing member is Hall of Fame coach C. Vivian Stringer, who had justifiable fears of catching the disease and for the season handed the team over to associate head coach Timothy Eatman who is on the record for wins and losses.

In this one Destiny Marshall had 10 points as did Osh Brown, who got another double double with 12 rebounds.

On the side of Maryland (14-6, 6-3), which still must be feared, ranking notwithstanding, behind Bibbly’s numbers, Angel Reese had 14 points and 12 rebounds for a double double, while Ashley Owusu had 17 points.

Rutgers said close to the half, trailing 30-26 but the Terps controlled the rest of the game on the high end of scoring each quarter to a 42-29 second half.

Maryland coach Brenda Frese noted after her team’s opening burst, “I don’t know if we relaxed and obviously, Rutgers was going to compete and fight for 40 minutes.

“You see that in conference now, whether you’re the top of the league or the bottom of the league, these teams are going to compete and come after you for 40 minutes.

“(Rutgers) is a team that hasn’t won a game in conference but I thought battled really, really hard, but loved our response coming out in the third quarter, second half, we started playing Maryland basketball,” she continued. “Moving the ball being really, really unselfish.”

Maryland goes to Penn State Sunday at the Bryce Jordan Center in State College on the B1G+ network.

The Lady Lions lost Thursday night, falling at home to Michigan State, 79-58.

Makena Marisa had 19 points, Ali Brigham scored 11, and Leilani Kapinus had 10 points for PSU (9-10, 3-6 Big Ten).

Five players for Michigan State (1-8, 4-4) scored in double figures, Nia Clouden had 16, Matilda Ekh and Taiyier each scored 15, DeeDee Hagemann scored 13, and Alisia Smith scored 12.

Rider, meanwhile, dropped a game 63-53 at nearby Monmouth in central New Jersey in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC).

Holding a slim 31-26 lead at the half, the Broncs (5-13, 3-6 MAAC) were outscored in the third and fourth quarters for a combined 37-22 second half at OceanFirst Arena.

Just one player scored in double figures for Rider. Jessika Schiffer had 11 points.

Monmouth (10-6, 5-2) got 18 points from Stella Clark, 12 from Belle Kranbuhl, and 11 from Ariana Vanderhoop.

“I thought we did some good things, both offensively and defensively tonight, but we just didn’t sustain it,” said Rider coach Lynn Milligan.

“It really came down to them making some big plays.

“It’s a game of details, and I think we had each had our breakdown individually, and if each person breaks down one time, that’s ten points and that was the difference today.

Rider departed with a seven-game win streak in the series.

The Broncs on Saturday in a MAAC game will host Iona at 5 p.m. in Alumni Gym in Lawrenceville, N.J.

D2 Chestnut Hill College Still Winning: Accidentally omitting their game from Wednesday night, Chestnut Hill was back in conference play in the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC) where the Griffins in the Southern Division topped Northeast Philadelphia’s Holy Family 68-62.

The Griffins (16-3, 9-0 CACC)  in the game at home in Sorgenti Arena won their ninth straight.

Bri Hewlett had 23 points and 12 rebounds, while Cassie Sebold and Lindsey Lane had 12 points each. Sebold also dealt nine assists.

Ava Morrow had 12 points for Holy Family (10-10, 5-6) while Jenn Kokolus had 10 rebounds.

Chestnut Hill’s 22-7 second quarter made the difference for the Griffins in a tough fight from the visitors.

Holy Family will travel north Saturday at 1 p.m. to play Felician University while the Griffins, who have won 10 straight, will travel to Nyack Sunday at 6 p.m.

Battle of Research Triangle To North Carolina: Having been bounced from the AP Women’s Poll this week, North Carolina made a bid for a quick return, upsetting No. 21 Duke 78-62 in nearby Durham  at Cameron Indoor Stadium in an Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) game.

Alyssa Ustby had 20 points for the visiting Tar Heels (16-3, 6-3 ACC), while Kennedy Todd-Williams scored 15, and Carlie Littlefield, who played under UNC Coach Courtney Banghart at Princeton, had nine points.

Elizabeth Balagon and Miela Goodchild each scored 14 for the Blue Devils (113-5, 4-4), while freshman Shayeann Day-Wilson scored 10.

Second-year coach Kara Lawson was away from the squad due to Duke’s health and safety protocols.

Goodchild had missed the previous game for the same reason.

Duke assistant Winston Gandy said the team learned in the morning Lawson would not be on the sidelines but added she was with the team “from a virtual standpoint. She was with us every step of the way and as we game planned through the week, she was present.

“Obviously, she wasn’t here, but she did have an impact.”

Noting the loss to Georgia Tech previously, Banghart said, “We really worked on offense over the last two days, and I couldn’t be prouder for them. It’s really fun to be their coach and I was just enjoying them.”

The No. 14 Yellowjackets won an ACC game 68-49 at home in Atlanta against Boston College, while No. 20 Notre Dame home in South Bend, Ind., defeated Syracuse 83-62. Pittsburgh in overtime won at Clemson 78-73 in overtime, while No. 5 Louisville, which hosts Duke Sunday, beat Florida State 75-62.

In the Big Ten No. 7 Michigan won at No. 22 Ohio State 77-58, and No. 6 hosting  Indiana was postponed.

And that’s the report.

The Guru Report: Temple Comeback Shines on a Dismal Night for the Locals While UConn’s Buzzer-Beater Saves Long-Running Conference Streak

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

PHILADELPHIA — In political parlance the daily score tracking aps Wednesday evening was already indicating a landslide blowout defeat for the Guru’s local D-I squads on the night’s card.

And with a 15-point deficit in the first half, star player Mia Davis on the bench in foul trouble, Temple seemed well on the way to joining all but Delaware in the loser’s room.

But off the NCAA karma following last March’s tournament controversy of more equality between the genders, the female Owls replicated the men’s Tuesday night comeback on Cincinnati by handling the Bobcats 68-64 in the American Athletic Conference.

“There was a feeling and we knew there was no way we were going to lose this game,” said Caranda Perea, a forward and transfer from George Washington. “At no point did I think we were going to lose. At halftime everybody was in it and saying, ‘we got it, we got it.’ It was just the way we stayed together. There was no way we were going to lose.”

Just a month ago, veteran Temple coach Tonya Cardoza was wondering what happened to the team she saw that excited her during the summer workouts. Now she agreed that she’s seeing a group that excited her when the outside temperature was much warmer. Depth is the big X factor at the moment.

Temple (9-7, 4-1 American) with the win takes the two-game series with Cincinnati (9-10, 2-5) and has now won 4 of 5 — the lone loss being last Saturday in overtime at South Florida at Tampa, the defending conference champions and preseason picks.

Just ahead things heat up even more as the Owls head to Memphis on Saturday and then to UCF, the other heavy hitter with the Bulls who are a half-game ahead.

And when they return home next Wednesday to host Wichita State here in McGonigle Hall, unless it happens on the trip which would temper celebratory plans, the Guru radar among that of others now indicates early in that contest Davis will become the new all-time career scoring leader, eclipsing the mark set in 1984 by All-American and Gratz High alum Marilyn Stephens 2,194 points.

The Baltimore native scored 22 against Cincinnati, though in this one the bulk came on the line, shooting 12 of 14. That leaves her with 49 needed to rise above Stephens.

Cardoza lavished more praise on Davis for Wednesday’s action.

“The way they were playing, they were not going to let Mia get touches where she wanted to get touches,” Cardoza said. “But she found a way to be aggressive and put the ball on the floor. 

“And they they were fouling her. She kept moving, didn’t frustrated, and trusted her teammates, making extra passes. She was the one who kept them together,” Cardoza continued.

“And made sure those younger guys know exactly what we needed to get done. She kept communicating. That’s what great players do.”

Jasha Clinton scored 14 for Temple, while Perea had 10 and Aniya Gourdine dealt seven assists and grabbed seven rebounds.

Cincinnati’s Jillian Hayes double doubled her way to 16 points and 10 boards, while Caitlyn Wilson and Arame Niang each scored 12 points.

Cardoza spoke of the defense that turned things back in her team’s direction, especially late in the game when there was an ongoing exchange of points in the fourth quarter until Temple broke out just enough with a small cushion to grab the win.

“We had to get shots at the basket, but more importantly we had to defend,” she said. “We had to make sure we were getting stops, boxing out and not giving them second chance opportunities.

“We did that … we defended them. We held them to 13 points in that fourth quarter. That was their lowest output. We bared down when we had to and we were able to capitalize on the other side, too.”

Meanwhile two of the four games postponed because of COVID protocols — the conference ones — are back on the books — the UCF game down South on Monday originally scheduled Jan. 2 and instead of originally a home game hosting SMU Jan. 5, the Owls will play the Bulls in Texas Feb. 28 ahead of the regularly scheduled SMU visit in Dallas, March 2.

Still being discussed are the Big 5 hosting game of La Salle on Dec. 29 and visit to Penn Jan. 11. Villanova has clinched a tie at 3-1, La Salle could join the tie beating Temple, but the Owls could join the tie beating the Explorers and Penn.

Delaware Bounces Back: In the wake of Sunday’s loss at Drexel in the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) that snapped a tie at the top in what were the two remaining teams with unbeaten conference records, the Blue Hens struck back with a win in a COVID protocol makeup game in the conference, beating host N.C.-Wilmington 78-69 in Trask Coliseum.  The event was the first of three over the next five days.

As traveling partners with Drexel, the two will be down South this weekend, the Dragons at Elon and Delaware (11-5, 5-1 CAA) at William & Mary at 7 on Friday night, both on Flohoops, and then switching opponents Sunday — Delaware at Elon, Drexel at William & Mary, both at 2 p.m.

In this one against UNCW (3-12, 0-5), Jasmine Dickey, the reigning and preseason CAA player of the year, scored 23 points with nine rebounds, three assists, a blocked shot and a steal. She moved into Delaware’s top five section of all-time scorers with ,562 points.

Ty Skinner had 20 points and seven assists, while Ty Battle had 16 points and 13th rebounds for her 11th double double of the season.

Sierra Dacosta had 23 points for the home team, while Micah Hoggatt had 14 points and Dazia Powell scored 10.

“We challenged our team — coming out of our last game, I wanted us to play harder, I wanted us to play Delaware basketball, with energy and effort,” coach Natasha Adair said. “I think from start to finish we saw that today. I love the fact that we are sharing the ball and got everyone involved.”

Penn Fades in Columbia Rally: If you’re a fan of the Quakers, as Nicki Minaj might sing, Sound the Alarm, but if Columbia drives your spectator passion, drop some money in the nearest jukebox playing songs of yesterday and push the button to start playing At Last.

That’s the story of Wednesday night’s COVID Protocol make up Ivy League contest in New York City’s Upper West Side, where the host Lions topped Penn 61-56, coming back in the second half, particular grabbing the lead for good in the fourth quarter at Schiller Court at Levien Gymnasium off Broadway.

It was the first win for Columbia (14-3, 5-0 Ivy) over the Quakers (7-10, 2-3) since 2011, snapping an 18-game losing streak in the series.

For the home team, as one of two remaining groups with Princeton unbeaten, the Lions are upper echelon for the moment. In Penn’s case it’s the third straight loss in the Ancient Eight, making this Saturday afternoon’s game at The Palestra at 2 p.m. hosting Harvard a must, to at least get into upper hand territory for the fourth spot in the league tourney in March at Harvard.

Schedule-wise there is time to right the ship but can they?

Columbia has certainly become a reborn or feel free to call it a first-born since former Lion star Megan Griffith of King of Prussia in the Philly Western Burbs returned to her alma mater from then-Princeton coach Courtney Banghart’s championship pedigree Tigers to send the program in a rocket projection.

“This was a big game for our program,” Griffith said. “Since I’ve been here, we had not beaten Penn.

“That’s no secret and it’s something we talked about pretty openly … It was good to get that first one.

“Defensively, it was really great to see us respond and get stops that we need. That was a huge run that we made in the fourth quarter and a huge credit to (Jaida Patrick) … People make plays on good teams. It was a great day and I’m excited that we can build off this one and keep going.”

At halftime, it was like old times for Penn, leading 24-16. Ten minutes later the Quakers were clinging to a two-point lead and then quickly fell behind the rest of the way.

Mia Lakstigala had 18 points and 6 boards for the visitors. Kayla Padilla scored 14, and Jordan Obi scored 10, while Kennedy Suttle off the bench grabbed 13 rebounds.

The Lions exploded twice in the second half 20-6 out of two 9-0 runs.

Jaida Patrick, who had been at Duke, scored 13 points for Columbia in the final 11 minutes and 12 seconds.

Abbey Hsu had 22 points for the Lions and dealt a career-high six assists.

Saint Joseph’s Pounded and La Salle Edged in Atlantic 10 Setbacks: On the road in league action in the Bronx section of New York City and upstate in Western New York did not go well for either the Hawks in the former or Explorers in the Latter.

It was close in the first period, Saint Joseph’s behind 11-8. But Fordham pulled away from there leading 22-10 at the half and ultimately 55-35 at the finish.

Tayla Bruger had 11 points, and six rebounds for the Hawks (6-11, 2-3 Atlantic 10) and Laila Fair scored seven.

Fordham (14-5, 5-2), which is in the upper portion of the conference standings, got 22 points from Anna DeWolfe, the only Ram in double figures at home in Rose Hill Gym. Asiah Dingle was next high with nine points, while Kaitlyn Downey scored eight.

Next is a home game Saturday on Hawk Hill at Hagan Arena for Saint Joseph’s is a visit from UMass, which Wednesday night got routed at home by Rhode Island 60-46 as the Rams of Kingston (16-3, 6-0 A-10) completed a sweep of the Minutewomen (15-5, 3-3) staying unbeaten in conference play as is Dayton.

La Salle, meanwhile, in three separate moments pulled ahead by six points completing rallies and then fell 61-57 off a closing 6-0 finish by host St. Bonaventure..

Kayla Spruill had 22 points for the visiting Explorers (11-7, 4-2 A-10), while Molly Masciantonio scored 11, and Gabby Crawford grabbed 10 rebounds.

The Bonnies (10-8, 2-5) got 21 points from Asianae Johnson, while Tori Harris and Taylor Napper each scored 13 points and Harris also had 11 rebounds for a double double.

La Salle stays on the road Sunday visiting Duquesne in Pittsburgh.

Fourth Quarter Deluge Dooms Lehigh to Army: Down a point after three periods, the Mountain Hawks then got overwhelmed 21-9 over the final 10 points for a 70-57 loss to the Black Knights (9-8, 4-4 Patriot League), which swept the series after Wednesday night’s second game, played at Christl Arena in West Point, N.Y.

Lehigh (13-6, 5-3) got 21 points from Mackenzie Kramer while Megan Walker scored 15.

Kate Murray scored 22 for Army and Sabria Hunter scored 16, and Alisa Fallon scored 15 and grabbed 11 rebounds for a double double.

“We were not able to get a lot of defensive stops in the fourth quarter tonight, which limited our transition game greatly,” said Lehigh coach Sue Troyan. “Give credit to Army’s defense in the fourth quarter. They played with a toughness that we did not match on either end.”

Lehigh is back home in Stabler Arena in Bethlehem, Pa., Saturday at 2 p.m. hosting Holy Cross.

WNBA commissioner Cathy Englebert, a native of South Jersey who played for the host Mountain Hawks when now retired Notre Dame coach Muffet McGraw led the program, will speak at halftime.

National Report: UConn Ruins Upset Bid by DePaul: Facing the end of a long combined three-conference win streak of  now 167 games in the old Big East, American Athletic Conference and current Big East, the No. 10 Huskies’ run dating to 2013 is still alive, saved by freshman Caroline Ducharme’s inside layup with 1.5 seconds left in regulation for an 80-78 win over DePaul at the Blue Demons’ Wintrust Arena in Chicago in a game that was made up from its original postponement on New Year’s Eve.

The date was made possible when Thursday night’s second meeting of the season and original scheduled contest at No. 1 South Carolina in Columbia was called off so coach Dawn Staley got play a replacement Southeastern Conference date with Ole Miss, which this week moved back into the AP Women’s Poll for the first time in 15 years.

“You can come up with all the plays you want, but you’ve got to get the ball into people’s hands that you trust, who can make a bucket under pressure and there’s nobody better at going to the basket than Caroline,” said Hall of Fame coach Geno Auriemma.

That was a different tone struck by Auriemma than at halftime when after his squad was pounded on a 21-2 run by DePaul (16-5, 8-2 Big East), remarked to the sideline interviewer on the telecast, “We suck.”

Auriemma recorded career win number 1131, within eight of the Division I record for women held by Stanford’s Hall of Famer Tara VanDerveer, who is at 1139. Her defending NCAA champion Cardinal is set to host Arizona State Friday in a PAC-12 game.

“DePaul came at us in the second quarter, gave us a punch and we took a step back,” he said. “Our players were surprised they were going to fight back.”

UConn is scheduled to visit Providence in the Big East at Rhode Island at 11 a.m. on Sunday.

Durcharme, who has been the mainstay on keeping UConn’s (12-4, 7-0) overall record from being worse during the Huskies’ slew of either COVID protocol-caused absences or injuries, including consensus national player of the year, sophomore Paige Bueckers, who has now missed 10 games rehabbing a knee injury and ensuing surgery, had 19 points to up the visitors to 20 straight wins over DePaul.

Two of the absentees returned here Wednesday in Christyn Williamson (COVID), who scored 17 points, and freshman standout Azzi Fudd,who hadn’t played since a right foot injury on Nov. 22, but scored 15 points.

“Caroline got in some foul trouble, so if those two didn’t play, there’s no way that we could have won this game today,” Auriemma said.

Williams shot 7-for-12 from the field in her 32 plus minutes.

“I tried to hide it well, but I was a little winded today,” she said. “But it felt good really good to be back.”

The loss wasted another outstanding performance by DePaul freshman Aneesah Morrow, who had 30 points and 14 rebounds, but also had deal with some pain in her right knee that caused her to head to the dressing room during the third quarter.

“Aneesah Morrow is incredibly good at everything,” Auriemma observed. “I don’t know if there’s another player in our league who is playing any better right now.”

Sonya Morris scored 19 points for the Blue Demons, while Lexi Held and Darrione Rogers each scored 12 points.

“Just knowing that my teammates would need me, I had to push through,” said Morrow. “And then I’ll just have to be in recovery later.”

Said Morris of the loss, “We had them. We really missed the opportunity. So I think we’re really just going to learn from it and grow from it individually and as a team.

“We didn’t get stops at the end of the game. That’s a really tall and talented team, so it came down to heart over height. We all know we had this game and let it get away.”

DePaul was the more physical and aggressive team for 40 minutes, Auriemma noted.

“We’re in a place where we have a chance to be a very good team,” said DePaul coach Doug Bruno, who recently was announced as a finalist for the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame inductions this June in Knoxville, Tenn. “But to win games against really good teams, you have to make stops in crunch time.

“The best part of tonight was we came back twice when in the past, we might have walked away.”

DePaul hosts St. John’s Friday night at home in Chicago at Wintrust Arena on FSI.

Texas Tops Kansas State in Big 12 Battle of Ranked Teams: The No. 9 Longhorns at home in the Frank Erwin Center beat No. 25 Kansas State 66-48 with Lauren Ebo holding the visitors’ Ayoka Lee to 20 points after she set an NCAA record 61 against nationally-ranked Oklahoma Sunday, both in Big 12 games.

Texas (15-3, 5-2 Big 12) got 18 points from Aliyah Matharu in the Longhorns’ fourth straight win.  Kansas State (15-5, 5-3) had just gotten back into the AP Poll for the second time this season.

And that’s the report.

The Guru Report: Chestnut Hill Extends Win Streak While South Carolina and Michigan Prevail on the National Scene

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

PHILADELPHIA — Division Two Chestnut Hill College on Monday evening took a break from competition in the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC), from which the Griffins hold a perfect record high atop the standings but didn’t rest on any laurels to date rolling over new region member College of Staten 68-34 at home in Sorgenti Arena in the northwest corner of the city.

The winning streak reach a program best nine straight for the home team (15-3).

The squad showed its depth by the size of victory considering coach Jim Connolly afforded his regulars some rest but each participant got in at least 10 minutes of action.

Bri Hewlett had 13 points for the winners, while Morgan Sterner had a career-high 10 points, while a personal best nine points were picked up by Emily Sekerak. Emily Chmiel only played 11 minutes, but picked up seven points.

The Griffins’ Lindsay Lane grabbed seven boards, while Abbey Spratt dealt five assists. In the third period overall the team tossed a shutout while moving the differential to 55-20.

Two players on the Dolphins (3-12) scored in double figures, Gia Esposito collecting 14 points and Jenalyse Alarcon scored 12.

On Wednesday, it’s back to conference competition when Northeast Philadelphia’s Holy Family comes across the top of the city for a 6 p.m. tip for the game between a pair of South Division rivals.

South Carolina Blasts Vanderbilt: Top-rated South Carolina and No. 8 Michigan upheld their ranking status in the most recent Associated Press women’s poll released Monday afternoon.

The host Gamecocks in CAA action won under 2022 gold medal USA Olympic coach for the 14th time this season, beating Vanderbilt 85-35 at home in Colonial Life Arena in Columbia in a Southeastern Conference victory in Columbia.

Needing a substitute for Zia Cooke, sidelined with an injury, Staley went to Lele Grissett, who responded with a burst of energy with seven of her season-high 14 points in the first period over the visiting Commodores (10-10, 1-5 SEC), who are under first-year coach and former UConn star and assistant Shea Ralph.

“It’s going to be a long ride home,” the Commodores coach said of the wipeout that included SC’s 48-19 domination on the board.

Playing against a former Huskies star would be as close as South Carolina (18-1, 6-1) would get at home this week opposed to making it a two-game sweep on UConn after Staley and Geno Auriemma announced Sunday they would forego the originally scheduled meeting in Columbia so the Gamecocks could make up a postponed SEC contest on Ole Miss (17-2), which landed in Monday’s Associated Press women’s poll at No. 24 for the Rebels’ first ranking in 15 seasons.

With Staley needing that game to help win an SEC title, UConn similarly off the COVID protocol-caused postponements that have occurred nationwide is heading to Chicago Wednesday for a makeup Big East game against powerful DePaul in Wintrust Arena.

As for Grissett, a fifth-year graduate who is normally a prized burst of energy for Staley as a substitute, the Hall of Fame coach tapped her for just her seventh start.

“She’s moving a lot better,” Staley said of her veteran who missed the first nine games still recovering from a lower right-leg injury suffered last March in the SEC tournament. “Knowing that she’s healed up and knowing the things she can do out there for us.”

Grissett helped get the home team off to an 11-3 lead and putting the opposition far behind in the rear-view mirror the rest of the way.

“It just felt really easy,” Grissett said of her performance from the outset. “We’d been working so hard and the work actually paid off.

Aliyah Boston scored 11 and grabbed 12 boards for her school-record 12th straight double double while also dealing four assists, four steals and two blocks.

The compassionate Staley when her squad quickly had the game under control made a tough decision to keep Boston on the court, considering her double double didn’t get fulfilled until later in the game, but Staley related the when Boston was finally substituted, she told her coach “thank you” as she returned to the bench.

It was the Gamecocks’ first game since beating Arkansas a week ago Sunday but no rust appeared to accumulate during the long, idle, nine-day stretch.

Brinae Alexander scored 10 points for Vanderbilt, whose overall 30 were the lowest ever yielded in an SEC contest by South Carolina and lowest overall in five seasons dating to 30 by Savannah State scored 30 on Dec. 21, 2016.

Cooke was sidelined in this one due to an injury suffered in that win over Arkansas and it broke a streak of 82 consecutive starts, tied for second with Boston behind Tiffany Mitchell’s school mark of 103 straight games being announced ahead of opening tipoffs.

Boston is now tied with Texas A&M’s N’dea Jones and Auburn’s Unique Thompson for second most consecutive double doubles by an SEC player over the last 20 seasons.

Thursday’s game with Ole Miss, which has been revived under coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin, will air at 6 p.m. on ESPN. The Rebels recently upset Kentucky, knocking the Wildcats out of the poll after 65 straight appearances over the last three seasons.

South Carolina will face another hot team Sunday, traveling to Florida in Gainesville. The Gators (15-5) upset then-No. 11 LSU, under new coach Hall of Famer Kim Mulkey, who previously headed the Baylor powerhouse she built in Waco, Texas.

Hilmon Carries Michigan Over Purdue: Having moved up a spot to seventh earlier in the day in the latest AP Women’s Poll, Michigan was carried by Naz Hillmon’s double double of 32 points and 12 rebounds to a 79-66 victory over visiting Purdue in a Big Ten game at home in the Crisler Center in Ann Arbor.

Emily Kiser came close to a triple double with 12 points, 12 rebounds and a career-high seven assists for the Wolverines (17-2, 8-1 Big Ten) over the Boilermakers (12-7, 3-5).

Leigha Brown had 13 points and six assists as Michigan never got its first double digit lead until late in the third quarter, though was back under it at the end of the period.

The home team finally darted away in the closing ten minutes.

Brooke Moore, off the bench, scored 16 for Purdue, while Madison Layden scored 13, and Rickie Woltman scored 11.

Michigan has a tough one, Thursday, traveling to Ohio State at the Schottenstein Center in Columbus at 7 p.m. on Thursday. On Monday, the Buckeyes (15-3, 7-2 Big Ten) returned to the AP Women’s Poll at 22, having been ranked earlier in the season, riding a six-game win streak including recent triumphs over preseason favorite Maryland and Sunday at Rutgers.

Norfolk State Stays Perfect in MEAC: In the only other game Monday on the Guru’s national tracker and that was because of the preseason picks in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, host Norfolk State topped Morgan State 64-52 in an afternoon contest in Echols Hall in the Tidewater area in Virginia.

Deja Francis scored 24 points, Camille Downs had 20, and Mahoganie Williams had 11 for the home team (7-7, 3-0 MEAC), while Morgan State (7-6, 1-2) got 15 points from Dahnye Redd and 12 from Ashia McCalla.

The Spartans forced the visitors into 30 turnovers and mined 25 points off the miscues.

The Lady Bears are back home Saturday in Baltimore hosting Delaware State (0-11, 0-2) in Hill Field House at 2 p.m. while the Spartans go to South Carolina State Saturday for a 2 p.m. contest.

Looking Ahead:  On Tuesday, locally, in a makeup game, Penn State will host No. 23 Iowa at 6 p.m. in the Bryce Jordan Center in State College, with the game carried on the B1G network, the prime Big Ten broadcast channel.

Five locals will play Wednesday, with Atlantic 10 action has Saint Joseph’s at Fordham in the Bronx at 7 p.m. while La Salle with a three-game win streak will be at St. Bonaventure at 5 p.m. in Olean, N.Y., both games airing on ESPN+.

Temple will try to get back on the winning track, hosting Cincinnati and going for a sweep of the Bobcats when they meet in an American Athletic Conference game at 7 p.m. in McGonigle Hall on ESPN+.

Owls graduate star Mia Davis is 71 points from the all-time career scoring record set in 1984 by all-American Marilyn Stephens and likely to break it during a three-game home stand early next month after a two-game road trip this weekend to Memphis Saturday and UCF Monday.

Delaware is at UNCW on Flohoops at 7 p.m. in a Colonial Athletic Association before the second place Blue Hens and first-place Drexel head south together this weekend playing Elon and William & Mary.

In a key Ivy contest that is a makeup from an earlier postponement Penn is at Columbia at 6 p.m. on ESPN+. 

The Quakers, picked second behind Princeton, is on a two-game losing streak and will face a Lions squad unbeaten so far in the league as is the Tigers, who routed Penn last Monday at The Palestra.

Penn will be back home Saturday at 2 p.m. hosting Harvard in another key game in the Ivies.

Some national games of note has Ohio U. hosting Toledo at 7 p.m. in the Mid-American Conference on ESPN3, while Kansas State, returned again to the AP Poll at 25, will visit No. 9 Texas in Austin in a Big 12 game at 8 p.m. on the Longhorn network. 

It will be the first game for the visiting Wildcats since Ayoka Lee broke the NCAA women’s scoring record with 61 points Sunday against nationally-ranked Oklahoma.

Two PAC-12 makeup games from postponements has at 2 p.m. Utah at Oregon, which returned to the rankings Monday, while No. 7 Arizona will be at UCLA at 8 p.m., both games on the PAC-12 network.

As mentioned earlier above No. 10 UConn will be visiting DePaul in Wintrust Arena in Chicago to make up a postponed Big East game. Other game details such as tip time and broadcast carrier will come in Wednesday’s Guru report.

But for now, that’s it for the Tuesday edition.

The Guru Report - National: Kansas State’s Ayoka Lee Sets NCAA Record With 61 Points; Florida’s Fifth Straight Win Upsets No. 11 LSU

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

Kansas State junior Ayoka Lee almost single-handedly handled the Wildcats’ upset of visiting No. 14 Oklahoma, setting an NCAA scoring record of 61 points Sunday afternoon in Bramlage Coliseum in a Big 12 game in Manhattan.

It was the fifth win for the home team in the last seven games in the series.

Lee, who has already had several Big 12 weekly honors and one from the United States Basketball Writers Association (USBWA) this season, besides previous one since her freshman season, had an extra impressive performance in her 35 minutes by also grabbing 12 rebounds for her 13th double double this season as well as four blocks and a steal.

She already had 32 at the half and for the game she was 23 of 30 from the field and 15 of 17 at the line.

Two people held the previous NCAA mark of 60 — Long Beach State’s Cindy Brown in 1986-87 and Minnesota’s scoring demon Rachel Banham in 2015-16. When Lee reached her 51st point, she busted the Big 12 record of 50 set by Baylor’s Brittney Griner in 2012-13 and point number 44 broke her own school mark of 43 set in this season’s opener against Central Arkansas.

“Coming into this game, I wasn’t like, and I don’t think anyone is like, ‘oh yeah, we’re just going to set a record today,’” Lee said afterwards. “But I think it just goes back to our preparation. This wasn’t any easy scout. You knew it wasn’t going to be easy but we just executed so well, and it started with our defense.”

Lee, a native of Byron, Minn., also set Kansas State records for points in a half, the first player to score 30 or more points, and also points in a quarter with the 20 she poured down in the second.

Head coach Jeff Mittie cited her play at both ends of the floor during her record-setting performance.

“I think it says a lot about the type of player that she is when she is trying to take charge in a 20-point game late in the game, and still doing the right things, defensively and talking and not taking plays off,” Mittie said. “This is a complete player. We focus sometimes on the offensive end, but she was tasked with defending guards today at the three-point line. Ayoka is the same person, good, bad, everyday.”

Other school marks in the contest were for points in a conference game, field goals (23), field goals in a half (12 in the first 20 minutes). She also tied the Wildcats achievement for foul shots made in a conference game and tied for second in program history for foul shots in a game with 15.

First-year Oklahoma coach Jennie Baranczyk, asked if she had ever seen anything like Lee’s feat, answered, “Well, obviously, she just set an NCAA record. So from that standpoint, no. I don’t know, maybe, I need another word.

“What’s another word for incredible? Outstanding, amazing, spectacular, All American? Yes, all of those things. She was great.”

Serena Sundell added 11 points to set a Kansas State mark for a duo at 72, while Jaelyn Glenn, with eight points, set a three-player mark of 80 for the Wildcats.

Kansas State in holding Oklahoma (16-3, 5-2 Big 12) to its lowest scoring output at 65 did it against the No. 1 scoring team in the nation. The Wildcats (15-4, 5-2)  also outrebounded the Sooners 44-26 and forced them into 17 turnovers, grabbing 12 steals.

Elsewhere in the Big !2, which might have otherwise been the top story in the conference, No. 15 Baylor took down visiting No. 7 Iowa State 87-61 at home in Ferrell Center in Waco, Texas.

The win by the Bears (13-4, 3-2) over the Cyclones (16-3, 5-2) was the first ranked one under first-year coach Nicki Collen.

Jordan Lewis had 24 points for Baylor, while Sarah Andrews had 18 points, Queen Egbo had 14 points and 21 rebounds, and NaLyssa Smith scored 17.

Iowa State’s Lexi Donarski scored 19 points, Maggie Espenmiller-McGraw scored 11, and Ashley Joens scored 10.

Gators Chomp No. 11 LSU: Collens, who previously coached WNBA Atlanta, replaced Hall of Famer Kim Mulkey, who is now coaching LSU in the Southeastern (SEC) Confeence in her home state of Louisiana.

On Sunday, her No. 11 Tigers were upset by Florida, which took down its second straight Top 25 opponent in its fifth straight triumph in getting the victory by a point 73-72 in Exactech Arena in Gainesville.

“It was a game where they started out tougher, more physical guarding us,” Mulkey said. “”We hung in there. We battled. I thought Khayla Pointer almost single handedly won the game for us.”

Pointer had a career high with 35 points for LSU (17-3, 5-2 SEC) while Autumn Newberry grabbed 11 rebounds.

The Gators (15-5, 5-2) got 23 points from Kiara Smith, while Jordyn Merritt scored 16, and Zipporah Broughton scored 14.

Elsewhere in the SEC, fifth-ranked Tennessee, with a chance to perhaps move up one more step higher, stayed perfect, winning at No. 13 Georgia 63-55.

The win in Stegeman Coliseum was the fifth Top 25 for the Lady Vols (18-1, 7-0 SEC), off to their best start since 2007-08 when they started 22-1 and claimed both the conference and last NCAA of eight national titles.

Jordan Horston had her ninth double doubles for Tennessee with 19 points and 11 rebounds. Rae Burrell scored 13.

Georgia (15-4, 4-3) got 16 points from Jenna Staiti and 14 from Que Morrison.

Visiting Ole Miss with a 63-54 win at No. 23 Kentucky in Lexington may have sent the Wildcats on the way to their first ouster in four seasons from the weekly Associated Press women’s poll, whose new rankings will be released early Monday afternoon.

All-American Rhyne Howard had 24 points and 10 rebounds, in a losing cause for Kentucky (8-7, 1-4 SEC) in a losing cause at Rupp Arena. 

Ole Miss (17-2, 5-1), which could replace Kentucky in the rankings, got 24 points and eight rebounds from Shakira Austin, while Snudda Collins scored 12.

The Rebels will play No. 1 South Carolina Thursday night, in a makeup game in the conference and replacing No. 9 Connecticut, whose coach Geno Auriemma, announced with Gamecocks coach Dawn Staley that this year’s regularly scheduled game in the series in Columbia was cancelled.

The two teams met back in November in a Thanksgiving tourney won big by Staley’s squad.

UConn will now go to Chicago Wednesday to make up a Big East game at DePaul in Wintrust Arena.

On Sunday, the Huskies won 75-57 at St. Johns in a Big East game in Queens, N.Y.

Huskies freshman Caroline Duchame had a career-high 28 points for UConn (11-4, 6-0), which won 76-57, their 167th straight win in conference games.

Hall of Fame coach Geno Auriemma racked up his 1,130th career win, second to Hall of Famer Tara VanDerveer, who reached 1,139 last week as the NCAA Division I women’s record holder but whose NCAA defending champions did not play their PAC-12 game Sunday because of COVID protocol issues with their conference traveling partner across the San Francisco Bay in Cal-Berkeley.

Ohio State transfer Dorka Juhasz had 16 points, while Olivia Nelson-Ododa had 18 rebounds, and Evina Westbrook scorerd 11.

Kadaja Bailey had 21 for St. John’s (5-12, 1-6), and Leilani Correa scored 19.

DePaul in its game in Cincinnati in the Big East with Xavier at the Cintas Center defeated the Musketeers 94-74 as freshman Aneesah Morrow got her 12th double double for the Blue Demons with 32 points and 15 rebounds. Sonya Morris scored 27 for DePaul (16-4, 8-1 Big East).

Back in the SEC, other scores had host Arkansas beating Mississippi State 74-54, and host Missouri beating Texas A&M 78-69.

In the ACC, it was No. 21 Duke 57-48 over visiting Virginia; No. 18 Georgia Tech in Atlanta over visiting No. 20 North Carolina 55-38; No. 19 Notre Dame over host Pittsburgh, 77-63; No. 3 Louisville 72-60 at home over Wake Forest; and No. 4 N.C. State at home over Virginia Tech, 51-45 in Raleigh.

No. 12 Maryland at home in the Big Ten topped Northwestern 87-59, while No. 25 Iowa beat Illinois 82-56 as Monika Czinano scored 21 and Caitlin Clark scored 18. The Hawkeyes next head to Penn State Tuesday for a makeup game.

In the PAC-12, it was Oregon and Washington State postponed, but No. 10 Arizona at home in Tempe beating Colorado 75-56.

In a game between conference-leading Dayton at home against visiting Fordham 52-48 before the Rams return home to face Saint Joseph’s at Rose Hill Gym in the Bronx Wednesday night.

And that’s the Guru’s national report for Monday AMs just before sunrise getting posted.