The Guru Report: Drexel Makes History While Delaware Wins, ‘Nova Fades, and Stanford Gets Revenge Downing the Last Unbeaten

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

PHILADELPHIA — In a gritty battle here Friday night, Drexel emerged at home in the Daskalakis Athletic Center with a 63-50 win over Northeastern in a Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) contest resulting in an 11-2 overall record on the season and best start in the Dragons’ history.

“It means a lot,” said fifth-year player Hannah Nihill, considering there have been some noteworthy Drexel contingents who’s season starts are now behind the current group. “We work really hard all season and now conference play starting up, we all know what we need to do going forward.”

Prior to the opening tip, Nihill was honored for gaining her 1,0000th career point, which came on the road.

Tessa Brugler had another outstanding game, collecting her 8th double double of the season with 19 points and 10 rebounds.

“It feels good to know I am a part of something and helping this team make history,” she said. “I wanted to make an impact on the team coming in here and I that’s what I’m doing.

They are helping me and I am helping them, so I’m glad to be part of it.” 

Drexel finally started its CAA schedule on the road last weekend and gained a 2-0 sweep, both narrow outcomes claimed in overtime. This one didn’t need a fifth period but it was undecided entertaining the stretch drive of the 40-minute affair.

No problem, said Nihill, citing experience gained in playing in a slew of these types of games.

“I feel like we’ve been here before after the years, and set the tone for the end of the game,” Nihill said.

She hit a critically three-pointer from deep to provide the home team some breathing room towards the finish. 

Drexel continued to execute the defensive stance from second-year coach Amy Mallon that carried the Dragons to their second CAA tournament crown last season when she was promoted following longtime coach Denise Dillon returning to her alma mater at Villanova.

“She finds ways for your team to win,” Mallon said of Nihill.

Nihill finished with 17 points in the first of a three-game home stand, returning to the DAC Sunday at 2 p.m. to host Hofstra and then on Tuesday night at 7 hosting one of the CAA heavyweights in Towson in a game re-scheduled from New Year’s Eve because of positive tests in the COVID pandemic.

Keishana Washington was in foul trouble but still scored 14 points and the Dragons got strong defense from Kate Connolly, who had a season-high four steals.

Claudia Soriano scored 20 for the Huskies (8-5, 2-1) of Boston while Katie May, an Archbishop Wood graduate, scored 11. Her appearance caused a bit of turncoat action from a section of fans at the DAC, who spent four years energetically supporting Wood alum Bailey Greenberg, when she played for the Dragons.

“Tonight’s game is indicative of what it’s like in CAA play every night,” said Mallon. “Every team that comes in here and every team we go to play, there is a target on our back.

“They are going to give us their best shot. Northeastern came in and gave it a great shot. We got knocked down a couple of times, but we came back. That goes to show the leadership on our team being able to sustain, keep our composure, and do the things we need to do to make sure that we were successful.”

Northeastern out of Boston is under new coach Bridgette Mitchell, a former Duke star.

Meanwhile, Delaware down in Newark at home in the Bob Carpenter Center was caught by Hofstra in a tight game early before the Blue Hens blew the action apart and thundered to a 73-38 outcome.

It was the 13th straight over the Pride (3-7, 0-2 CAA) in the series and came when the home team played before its fans for the first time in 54 days because of the Christmas break and additional postponements because of positive tests results showing either on the opposition or on Delaware (8-4, 2-0).

Tara Cousins had a career-high 17 points, while Jasmine Dickey scored 13 points and grabbed 11 boards. Ty Skinner scored 12 points and Makayla Pippin had nine points and 10 rebounds.

“Tara cousins, we had a talk with her saying this is your moment and she stepped up beautifully,” Delaware coach Natasha Adair said. “The beauty of our team is the depth of our team. It was a team effort and when it’s conference time it is 0-0, we don’t care about anyone’s record because everyone has something to play for.

“I am just proud of our group because each time we step out, we are getting better, it’s next woman up, but we want to make sure we are ready.”

Sorelle Ineza scored 12 points for Hofstra, while Jaylen Hines had eight points and seven rebounds.

Delaware will host Northeastern at 1 p.m. on Sunday and then also a makeup, the Blue Hens on Tuesday will host James Madison at 7 p.m.

DePaul Downs Villanova With a Second-Half Rally:  In their first meeting since the Wildcats upset the Blue Demons last March in the quarterfinals of the Big East tournament, DePaul issued payback in the second half in Chicago at the Wintrust Arena and took a 75-63 victory.

Sonya Morris had 25 points for the home team in the Midwest while freshman sensation Aneesah Morrow had her ninth straight double double with 18 points and 11 rebounds.

Lexi Held was 6-for-8 from the field for 14 points and the Blue Demons (13-4, 5-1 Big East) shot a deadly 66.7 percent in the third period and 61.5 percent in the fourth.

The five-game win streak for the Wildcats (8-6, 2-3 Big East) ended on a night that junior Maddy Siegrist had another explosive scoring performance, scoring 31 points and grabbing 14 rebounds.

Lior Garzon had her first double double with 12 points and a personal best of 10 rebounds.

Villanova only had nine players dressed, three sidelined, including Brianna Herlihy, due to Covid related health and safety protocols, the school said on the website report of the game.

On Sunday, the Wildcats travel to Marquette while the Blue Demons will host Georgetown.

Stanford Gets Revenge on Colorado: The defending NCAA champs got even with the Cardinal in a PAC-12 game played in Boulder, where the visitors got a 60-52 victory over Colorado (13-1, 2-1 PAC-12).

The Cardinal (12-3, 3-0) won despite committing 22 turnovers and not leading until the third quarter.

Haley Jones scored 11 points and Ashten Prechtel and Cameron Brink each scored 10.

“I won’t tell you the game was pretty,” Hall of Fame Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer said. “But it was a gritty, gritty win. We didn’t take care of the ball very well. But we found a way to win. And that’s what I’m really proud of.”

VanDerveer extended her NCAA Division I women’s victory record to 1,137, which is ten more than UConn coach Geno Auriemma, who has 1,127.

She next plays host Utah Sunday, while he hosts Xavier Saturday afternoon and visits Oregon on Monday.

On the other side, Quay Miller had 16 points and Jayly Sherrod grabbed five steals.

It was here a year ago that Colorado upset Stanford, becoming the ninth unranked team to beat the No. 1 team in that week’s poll.

“I am not one for moral victories,” said Buffs coach JR Payne. “I am always looking for things we did well, and there will be a slew of things we did well.

“There also will be a lot of things that we need to learn from and grow.”

In two other PAC-12 games played, Washington State beat host Southern Cal 71-63, while UCLA beat Washington 63-48.

Looking Ahead: On Saturday Temple is home in McGonigle Hall host Houston at noon in an American Athletic Conference game; in the Ivy League Penn is at Dartmouth at 2 p.m. while Princeton is at Brown; Rider in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference is at Niagara; while on Monday in two rivalry games for Martin Luther King Day, La Salle is at Saint Joseph’s at noon for a combo A-10/Big-5 game and in theIvies, Princeton visits Penn at The Palestra. The Tigers and Quakers were the top two preseason picks.

In the ranked teams department, on Saturday, No. 9 Iowa State is at Oklahoma State; West Virginia is at No. 13 Texas; TCU is at No. 23 Oklahoma; No. 25 Kansas State is at Texas Tech; No. 7 Arizona is at Oregon. 

No. 10 UConn hosts Xavier; No. 18 BYU is at Loyola Marymount.

And that’s the report for now.