The Guru Report: La Salle Takes a Big 5 Thriller While Penn Throttled by Princeton; Out West UConn Woes Continue With a Thumping at Oregon

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

PHILADELPHIA — Four locals were in action Monday afternoon in two games on Martin Luther King Day part of rivalry specials set across the board by the Atlantic 10 and Ivy League.

The Atlantic 10, which had the game here as part of its CBSSN national slate had Saint Joseph’s host La Salle in Hagan Arena in the first of two the schools will play, though this one also counted on the Big Five slate.

Down at The Palestra the Ivy League preseason 1-2 picks went at it for the first go-round with favored Princeton visiting Penn.

A year ago, when the Explorers and Hawks met back-to-back over 48 hours each team won by a wide margin in its own arena.

This one was tighter and though the host team got the early advantage, La Salle fought back and erased a nine-point deficit before holding off a closing rally by Saint Joseph’s for a 69-65 victory.

Steadily, the Explorers (9-6, 2-1 A-10, 2-1 Big Five) are starting to experience daylight in the rebuilding that has been constructed by Mountain MacGillivray.

“Nice to pick up a road win, you don’t have to travel too far, against a rival school, you know everybody on the other team you know really well, against a staff you know really well, a team I grew up watching, execute down the stretch, make our free throws and beat a Saint Joe’s team that’s playing at its best,” MacGillivray said.

Senior Kayla Spruill was hot again, in this one shooting 6-of-7 from the field, including a perfect 3-for-3 from deep, and also a perfect 4-for-4 from the line for 19 points.

While the Hawks (5-10, 1-2, 2-2 Big Five) were up 17-10 at the end of the first quarter, the Explorers roared back in the next period 25-13 before the rest of the way was tight in both periods.

Spruill was responsible for 10 of the 25 points in the second stanza, and the key stat for the game was a perfect 18-for-18 from the line by the visitors compared to 8-for-13 from the Hawks.

Overall, there were 11 lead changes and five ties, which is the stats language that speaks to a typical game in the City Series round robin.

Claire Jacobs for La Salle had 10 points while Gabby Crawford had 15, including 9-for-9 from the line.

This is Crawford’s third stop for the Memphis (Tenn.) native, who began at Southeastern Conference member Ole Miss, then moved to Morehead State of the Ohio Valley Conference, and then transferred to La Salle, though here eligibility status was undetermined until she finally put on an Explorers uniform last month resulting from a positive ruling.

“Just coming here was a blessing for coach Mountain and his staff just giving me another chance to play this game,” Crawford said at the postgame press conference. “Coming in, it was hard for me, not knowing if I was going to be able to play, but Coach Mountain, he just let me know whatever happens that it’s not even about basketball, they’re here to be my support and that’s what really they’re there to be my support and that’s what really mattered to me - just having the coaches I can confide in and trust, because I never had that before.

“My teammates, I say this all the time, jokingly, but this is probably the most I ever spoke to any of my teammates because I don’t really speak a lot. I just really felt loved just coming here and I never really had that experience before. It was really a blessing.”

A 10-0 run in the final three minutes of the third period accented by Amy Jacobs’ three-ball made it a 53-47 lead for La Salle but Saint Joseph’s wasn’t through making a stand.

The Hawks moved within two in the final minute but Crawford nailed two free throws in the closing seconds to finish it.

“I think it shows you the level of trust we have in her,” MacGillivray said. “…at the end of the game, we’re able to put the ball in her hands to take the fouls, get to the free-throw line and make free throws.”

Talya Brugler had another outstanding game for Saint Joseph’s with 16 points and seven rebounds. Katie Jekot, whose sister Julie is now a La Salle reserve, dealt 12 assists, and Mackenzie Smith scored 17, while Kailah Henderson scored 10. Jekot’s assist total was a personal best as were the six helpers from freshman Julia Nystrom.

Earlier in the day, Brugler also picked up another Atlantic 10 weekly rookie award.

“It was a well-played game,” Hawks coach Cindy Griffin said afterwards. “We certainly missed a lot of layups and free throws that we, unfortunately can’t get back. But I told our guys that the fact is that we worked hard enough to get ‘em, I think we’re good enough to make them. And that’s the next step for this team in these types of games.”

The Hawks had 20 assists on 25 makes, showing offensive efficiency.

The roster is becoming enhanced with the return of Laila Fair, having missed four games, while Alayna Gribble, who’s been sidelined with an injury is expected back soon.

“We obviously want to be winning games right now,” Griffin said, but we’re working toward playing our best basketball at the end of the year.”

The two teams meet again on Feb. 2 at 6 p.m. at La Salle’s Tom Gola Arena.

Both teams are on the road Friday night — La Salle at George Mason while Saint Joseph’s will be going to St. Bonaventure.

Meanwhile, were it not for COVID and postponed games, the Big Five would have wrapped Monday afternoon. But two games got postponed involving protocols — La Salle at Temple on Dec. 29 and Temple at Penn on Jan. 11.

The standings are as follows:

Villanova 3-1 clinched tie

La Salle 2-1 Temple game makeup undetermined

Saint Joseph’s 2-2

Temple 1-1 La Salle and Penn games makeup undetermined.

Penn 0-3 Temple game undetermined.

An inquiry with an NCAA source informed noting strange, there is nothing illegal playing after conference tournaments but before the start of the WNIT or NCAA first rounds.

Also, the Owls could take a forfeit that would only apply to the standings, allowing a tie for the title.

Stay tuned.

Princeton Booms Penn Quest: Traditionally the Ivy opener either at Penn or Princeton, the Palestra affair Monday afternoon became the league home opener Monday afternoon and the preseason pick and defending last champion Tigers from central New Jersey made sure this would be over quickly.

By the way, this was Princeton’s third trip to the area, having won games at Villanova and Temple the first overall week of the season.

So considering the unknown fate of what will be the final standings until we get there, perhaps at 3-0 the Tigers have a claim on the Big Five title, though they are not part of the Big Five.

But they are the big Ivy team until proven otherwise and if it’s not going to be Penn doing the proving, Columbia is looking like it has grown up and ready to step into the fray.

The Quakers, who had claimed road wins at Brown and Dartmouth seemed ready for a competitive game got a 70-50 wipeout instead.

But with a league tournament in recent seasons except last when the presidents took the Ancient Eight out of competition getting to be the surviving four is the goal and then take it from there.

Former coach Courtney Banghart kept telling those of us on the local set here and national set elsewhere that she left Princeton loaded, which they proved ripping through everyone in Carla Berube’s first season that was short-circuited by the COVID arrival and subsequent first-to-cancel a conference tourney at the end of the 2020 competitive calendar.

And so they have been.

Where it once was Niveen Rasheed and later the WNBA’s Blake Dietrick followed by Bella Alarie, the current flavor is senior Abby Meyers, though the scoring show Monday afternoon belong to Julia Cunningham, who scored 22 points, while Meyers finished with 11, Ellie Mitchell scored 10, and Kaitlyn Chen collected nine.

So was it the defense from Princeton (12-4, 4-0 Ivy) or Penn’s inept offense devoid of a consistent second scoring option.

Perhaps a little of both and though one could focus on the last game of the regular season when Penn (7-8, 2-1) visits Jadwin Gym before potentially heading to Harvard for the two-day quest to determine the league’s automatic qualifier to the NCAA tourney, Columbia is showing all the signs of earning discussion among the mix of echelon conference squads.

Kayla Padilla had 16 points, while Mia Lakstigala scored 12 and had seven rebounds, and Jordan Obi collected 11 points and grabbed eight.

And Columbia could keep Princeton under control until Penn finds its way.

That’s what happened when the Quakers won their first crown under McLaughlin before the coming of the tournament when every regular season game was a must-win.

The Tigers delivered a lopsided outcome but Harvard was able to harness Princeton and the championship came down to the last game and Penn prevailed at Jadwin.

“We’ll get there,” he told the City of Basketball Love sportswriter at The Palestra. “I’m confident, but it’s going to take some struggles.

“We have a tough stretch going forward,”McLaughlin said. “We’re going to be playing some really good teams in our league over the next two weeks. I expect us to struggle at times, and hopefully find some success because this team is going to get better.

“We’ve had, like every team, a lot of inconsistency. They’re going to grow together, we’re just not all there yet.”

On Saturday, Penn heads to Yale at the Lee Amphitheater at 2 p.m. in New Haven, Conn., on ESPN+

There are makeup games at Cornell and Columbia to be announced, and it remains to be seen the status non-conference meeting with Temple that has a Big Five label on it.

The National Notes: Oregon Routs UConn: Once upon a time this was going to be a vintage season among past vintages for the UConn Huskies, with sophomore Paige Bueckers following up her national player of the year accolades; the arrival of Number One prospect this time around in Azzi Fudd, and lots more.

Instead, the rabid fan base are seeing nightmare events —- multiple injuries, especially the knee suffered by Bueckers though she looks like her late February return is on target.

On Sunday, it was learned that Christyn Williams was being left behind the trip to Eugene off positive test results from the virus.

Then came the Knight-mare as in Matthew Knight Arena killer delivered in the form of a 72-59 mercy-killing that might have been worse by Oregon (10-5), which has had its own injury loaded problems.

Only 48 hours earlier Oregon in a PAC-12 game took down then-No. 7 Arizona, which had dropped three slots from a narrow loss to Southern Cal.

“This was an enormous weekend,” said Oregon coach Kelly Graves. “This hopefully puts us back in the national discussion as a team to be reckoned with”

For the while until more players return, including Bueckers, the local fanbase back East are seeing things that many of them hadn’t seen in their lifetime, like this being the second time this season since 2004 that the Huskies lost to an un-ranked team — the other being Georgia Tech.

And Connecticut (9-4) now has four losses in the regular season.

At the half, Oregon hit the locker room with a 39-24.

“We’re playing for each other,” Sedona Prince said. “Great job.”

“It’s so simple,” added Maddie Scherr. “We’re getting stops.”

Still, it was UConn, the name of the opponent enough for Nyara Sabally to warn, “They’re talented enough to come back.”

But instead of a rally it got worse or better depending where one’s loyalties in the arena lie as the Ducks went up 62-39 late in the third quarter.

A closing run in the fourth enabled UConn to finish a little less disastrous then it appeared the Huskies were headed.

Te-Hina Paopao scored 22 for the Ducks, two less than her career high she had against Arizona. Prince had 14, 12 of which were in the second quarter when Oregon bolted for the lead.

“I thought we were really, really good, at both ends of the floor,” Graves said. “That’s about as good of defense as we’ve played. For a good portion of this game, and then add the last game, we’ve really shown we can be a defensive team as well.”

Connecticut used just six players, freshman Caroline Ducharme being the one positive hope and breakthrough star with 22 points.

Olivia Nelson-Ododa scored 17 while Evina Westbrook, in returning to her home state, scored eight.

Quipped one recently retired coach, “Now Geno (Auriemma) is finding out what it’s like for the rest of us.”

This was the first game of all the losses Connecticut for the most part trailed from deep.

“That’s not an excuse for us,” Nelson-Ododa said of all the injuries and Williams’ absence. “We just have to get tougher mentally to be able to deal with things like this.”

Oregon forced Connecticut to have to win by making outside shots, of which the Huskies made just six of 33.

“We can’t shoot,” Auriemma said. “And when you’re playing a team that’s going to play 40 minutes of zone, you’ve got to make outside shots. I just want them to make some outside shots, Christ almighty. It’s like somebody just threw them a hand grenade and they can’t wait to throw it back into the trenches.”

Of his guards,playing in place of the injured stars, Auriemma laid blame “to crappy coaching, by far the worst it’s ever been.”

UConn committed 19 turnovers.

“Games are won or lost by your guards,” Auriemma observed. “And last year, we had the best guard in the country (Bueckers), and it was easy to win games. This year, we don’t and it’s hard to win games.

“Sometimes basketball is not that complicated.”

Auriemma praised Nelson-Ododa but noted, “We needed more help (inside).”

Next up is back in the Big East where together with previous membership in the AAC the Huskies have won 165 straight conference games.

On Friday night, they play Seton Hall and then finish the weekend Sunday playing St. John’s.

Elsewhere in limited games on the Guru’s tracking games assembled prior to the season, in a PAC-12 game, Oregon State in overtime beat visiting No. 22 Colorado 69-66 in overtime.

“One team made shots and the other one didn’t,” said Colorado coach JR Payne, whose team fell to 13-2 overall after being the last unbeaten Division I team in the nation before losing to visiting No. 2 Stanford Friday night. The Buffs are now 2-2 in conference play.

Quay Miller scored 18 points for the visitors, while Mya Hollingshed and Frida Formann each scored 13. Hollingshed also had 11 rebounds.

Ellie Mack’s shot with seven seconds left in regulation forced overtime and she finished with 16 points, one less then teammate Talia von Oelhoffen, who hit the differential three and scored 17.

In another key Atlantic 10 rivalry game and one between teams at the high end of the standings Rhode Island beat visiting Massachusetts 66-58.

In the Mid-American Conference, Buffalo beat visiting Kent State 65-62.

In the Southeastern Conference No. 17 Georgia won at Missouri 72-62.

Looking Ahead: Two big showdown games on the local front which are makeups from opening weekend this month, Towson visits Drexel, off to the best start in program history, at 7 p.m. Tuesday night in the Daskalakis Athletic Center while Delaware hosts James Madison at the same time in the Bob Carpenter Center in Newark.

Rider hosts Niagara in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference in the Broncs’ Alumni Gym in Lawrenceville, N.J., less three days after trouncing the Purple Eagles on the road.

On Wednesday night, Temple visits East Carolina in the AAC. Graduate star Mia Davis is within 112 points of the Owls’ all-time record of 2,134 set in 1984 by Marilyn Stephens.

And that’s the report back to a combined local/national mix for Tuesday AMs.