The Guru Report - Local: Saint Joseph’s and Princeton Gain Big Wins at the Mid-Major Level But Tough Night for La Salle and Lehigh

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

PHILADELPHIA —  An energetic wire-to-wire effort from Saint Joseph’s here on Hawk Hill at Hagan Arena Wednesday night carried the home team to a 74-54 win over Richmond in the Atlantic Ten while a little to the North in a thrown-together last non-conference matchup, Ivy favorite Princeton broke open a tight game at home in Jadwin Gym in the fourth quarter, the Tigers pulling away with a 27-14 attack to defeat Colonial Athletic Association Towson 68-54.

  In the game here, Talya Brugler, the reigning conference rookie of the week, had a career night with her first double double, scoring 17 points and setting personal bests with 13 rebounds and three blocked shots. Meanwhile, Elizabeth Marsicano shot 7-of-12 from the field, including 2-of-4 from beyond the arc, scoring 18 points to top her teammates the second straight game, while freshman Mackenzie Smith scored 14, and rookie Julia Nystrom, a previous A-10 honoree, shot 5-of-8 and scored 12 points.

Katie Jekot, at the graduate level, dealt a career-best 10 assists, committing just one turnover, while scoring 5 points, grabbing four steals, three rebounds, and blocking a shot for the Hawks (5-9, 1-1 A-10), who shot season bests 30-of-60 for 50 percent from the field, and 43.8 percent from beyond the arc (7-of-16), and 7-of-13 from the line.

Defensively, in dealing Richmond (11-5, 2-1) their first conference loss in three outings, the Spiders were held to 33.9 percent (21-of-62) from the field, and 3-0f-16 for 18.8 percent from deep, second lowest totals on the season, topped only by the season opener.

Grace Townsend and Kate Klimkiewicz each scored 11 points for the visitors.

“We came in with a chip on our shoulder, we knew how important it was the protect home court,” said Brugler.

Off the ongoing postponed/shuffling drill everyone has been going thru off the omicron phase the covid-19 pandemic, the Hawks had not played since Dec. 28, hosting Harvard, and then having three straight conference games at St. Bonaventure, at Davidson, and hosting George Mason postponed, and then getting a move-up date that sent them to Richmond Sunday to meet defending conference champion VCU, which resulted in a 72-64 setback.

“We’ve been seeing pieces, but today we put together a 40-minute game,” said veteran Saint Joseph’s coach Cindy Griffin. “We spent a lot of time on defense, and sometimes that helps bring along another part of your game. I think playing a game against a team like VCU helped get us ready for this one.”

Saint Joseph’s next hosts La Salle Monday at noon in a Martin Luther King Day rivalry game on the CBS Sports Network..

As it turns out, because there was no formal Big Five competition last season because of the Ivy presidents cancelling the entire schedules of its eight members, including Penn and Princeton, there was no official City Series round robin, so this first of two with the Explorers will also count in the Big Five standings.

Thus, a Hawks victory will bring them to 3-1 and a tie for the title with Villanova, who beat Saint Joseph’s here in the City Series overall opener.

Temple could make it a three-way tie if the Owls win makeup games, still to be scheduled, with La Salle and Penn.

The Explorers could make it a two-way tie beating the Hawks and taking the makeup game with the Owls.

“This is important to us, besides being the Atlantic 10, cause the Big Five was a goal for this team,” Griffin said.

Princeton Thrives on Fourth Quarter Finish: In a game between two ranked mid-major squads making strong overall runs, Kaitlyn Chen scored 12 of her 14 points in the fourth quarter to carry Princeton to a 68-54 win over Towson, a team like the home folks who use a Tiger as its mascot.

Abby Meyers continued her outstanding season scoring 18 points while Julie Cunningham scored 15, and defensively Parker Hill grabbed six rebounds and blocked three shots for Princeton (10-4), which got off to a 2-0 start prior to Wednesday in the conference.

For the rest of the month, the home Tigers are under Covid-19 protocols for fans in Jadwin limited to students, faculty, and staff.

Allie Kubek scored 19 for Towson, 11-2, 2-0 CAA), which will be back in the area next Tuesday to visit Drexel in a CAA makeup game from New Year’s Eve. Aleah Nelson scored 13, and Rayne Tucker grabbed 11 rebounds.

It was Towson’s first loss since the season’s second week on Nov. 15, a period of  58 days.

The visiting Tigers will meet travel partner James Madison at home in Maryland on Sunday before traveling to Drexel.

Princeton will return to Ivy competition visiting Brown on Saturday at 4 p.m. in Providence, R.I., and then in a Martin Luther King rivalry attraction is scheduled to visit Penn in The Palestra at 2 p.m. Monday on NBC Sports-Philadelphia.

However, the Quakers have been on a pause, two Ivy visits to Cornell and Columbia delayed along with a Big Five hosting of Temple on Tuesday. They are slated to visit Dartmouth on Saturday in the league before the Princeton matchup on Monday.

La Salle Falls to Dayton: Having pulled an upset Sunday in the A-10 in a move-up game with a strong second half at Fordham, the Explorers made a couple of rallies but were unable to down visiting Dayton, losing to the league-favorite Flyers 65-57 at Tom Gola Arena at TruMark Center.

It was tight throughout with Dayton nailing five from the line in the final 44 seconds to leave town with a 65-57 victory.

The Flyers were able to succeed in spite of La Salle (8-6, 1-1 A-10) edging them in less turnovers 18-16, and also prevailing in second-chance points 2012, and bench points 20-4.

However, Dayton (11-3, 2-0) dominated inside the paint 42-20 and held the home folks to 29.2 percent from the field and 20.7 percent from beyond the arc.

Amy Jacobs was the sole Explorer scoring in double figures with 10 points and Gabby Crawford grabbed nine rebounds.

“We’re starting to figure it out,” La Salle coach Mountain MacGillivray said of the closer differential this year then last season between the two teams. “It comes down to competitiveness and fight. We’re going in the right direction now.”

Kyla Whitehead and Tenin Magassa each scored 18 for Dayton while Jenna Giacone scored 12.

As mentioned, the Explorers next head over to Hawk Hill and Saint Joseph’s, having split the two games a year ago.

Lehigh Dominated by Bucknell:  The Mountain Hawks struggled to score most of the night, finishing with its lowest total since 2018, four seasons ago, in a 64-53 setback to visiting Bucknell in a Patriot League game at home at Stabler Arena in Bethlehem, Pa.

“They’re one of the better defensive teams in the league and things weren’t going to be easy against them,” said Lehigh coach Sue Troyan. “I didn’t think we showed a lot of toughness, we came out in the first half, flat in a big game.

“We didn’t have an answer for what they were doing on the offensive end tonight. I thought our defense kept us in the game in the first half when we weren’t making shots and they weren’t making a lot of shots, either. We were a little better in the second half but we just need to find our way,” she continued.

“With Frannie (Hottinger) out (lower body injury), we have a lot of people adjusting to different roles. We definitely miss her offensive presence on the floor.”

Mackenzie Kramer scored 16 for the Mountain Hawks (10-5, 2-2 Patriot) and Megan Walker had nine points and 10 rebounds, while Emma Grothaus had 13 rebounds and six points.

Taylor O’Brien scored 19 and grabbed 16 reboundsfor Bucknell, while Cecilia Collins scored 16, and Carly Krsul scored 15.

“I think it’s been a little of all three as of late, confidence, attitude and execution,” Troyan said of the offensive struggles. “We’ve played some pretty good teams and the offense has been potent so we need to stay confident in what we’re doing and how we’re doing it.”

Next up barring any postponements is a Saturday league trip to Baltimore to play Loyola, Md., at 2 p.m. on ESPN+.

Looking Ahead: Among the local teams, not mentioned above, on Thursday night, Penn State hosts No. 11 Michigan at 7 p.m. in the Lady Lions’ Bryce Jordan Center in State College on the Big Ten network while Rider visits Canisius at 7 in upstate New York in Buffalo on ESPN3 in a Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference game followed by a MAAC visit Saturday at 2 p.m. to Niagara in Niagara Falls.

On Friday, Villanova comes off a long break caused by postponements and visits DePaul at 6:30 p.m. on FS2 in Chicago and then visits Marquette in Milwaukee 2 p.m. on the CBS Sports Network.

Drexel opens its home schedule in the CAA, hosting Northeastern at 7 on Flohoops in the Daskalakis Athletic Center in West Philadelphia and then on Sunday hosts Hofstra at 2 p.m.

Delaware, meanwhile, in reverse of Drexel, hosts Hofstra Friday night in a CAA game at 7 in the Bob Carpenter Center in Newark, followed by hosting Northeastern on Sunday at 2 p.m.

Temple, on Saturday, hosts Houston at 2 p.m. in an American Athletic Conference game in McGonigle Hall on ESPN+.

In the Big Ten locally on Sunday, Penn State hosts Illinois on the Big Ten plus network at 2 p.m. while Rutgers hosts Illinois on the Big Ten plus network at 2 p.m.

And that’s the local report.