The Guru Report - National: No. 8 Indiana gets first-ever win on No. 6 Maryland; No. 2 Louisville wins at the finish; No. 10 Baylor upset at Kansas State

Guru note: This post drawn on wire, school email and website reports

By Mel Greenberg @womhopsguru

Sunday was one of those days and night in the aftermath of the arrival of New Year’s on the weekend, there was plenty of court fireworks to go around even as a large number of teams continued to have schedules thrown into disarray at the start of conference competition by the coronavirus pandemic.

In a Top 10 clash in the Big Ten, No. 8 Indiana at home in Bloomington at Assembly Hall took No. 6 Maryland into overtime and came out of it with a 70-63 triumph that was the program’s first over the Terrapins.

Kansas State at home in the other Manhattan in the Big 12 tripped No. 10 Baylor 68-59.

There were two narrow escapes among ranked teams playing each other in the Atlantic Coast Conference, with No. 2 Louisville edging No. 16 Georgia Tech at home in the Yum! Center 50-48 in Kentucky while No. 15 Duke at home in Cameron Indoor Arena in Durham, N.C., edged No. 17 Notre Dame 72-70.

It went somewhat easier for the ranked teams that played.

Elsewhere, No. 1 South Carolina at home in Colonial Life Arena bounced from its stunning opening loss at unranked Missouri in overtime just before the buzzer to take a Southeastern Conference win over Mississippi State 80-68, a replacement reshuffled contest replacing the postponed visit from Ole Miss; No. 7 Tennessee made it 70-63 in the SEC over host Arkansas; while No. 19 LSU under new coach Kim Mulkey beat No. 23 Texas A&M in the SEC 75-66; No. 13 Georgia in the SEC beat host Florida 73-69.

Another SEC outcome between unranked but likely NCAA at-large contenders had Alabama at home in Tuscaloosa edge Auburn 56-53. 

In the ACC beyond Louisville, No. 24 North Carolina at home in Chapel Hill easily toppled Clemson 81-62;  Formerly ranked Virginia Tech beat host Wake Forest 66-53.

In the Big 12 No. 12 Texas took a 62-51 road win at Oklahoma State, while No. 14 Iowa State rolled over visiting West Virginia 88-72

In the PAC-12 in the one surviving conference game, defending champion and No. 2 Stanford had little problem winning at Washington State 82-44 extending Hall of Fame coach Tara VanDerveer’s all-time Division I women’s win total to 1,134. 

That’s nine in front of No. 11 UConn Hall of Famer Geno Auriemma’s mark of 1,125 with the Huskies idled by postponed Big East games since the non-conference loss to Louisville in the Hall of Fame Showcase doubleheader at the Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, Conn., two weeks ago.

Hoosiers Make Program History on Terrapins: It took 12 games since No. 6 Maryland joined the Big 10, but No. 8 Indiana survived an 8-0 Terrapins run that contributed to erasing Indiana’s nine-point lead with three minutes left in regulation for the first win over the Terrapins in the program’s history.

The loss snapped Maryland’s 15-game win streak in Big Ten competition dating to late last January, including three in the conference tournament. Additionally, the Terrapins, who won their sole NCAA title in 2006 in overtime in Boston, had not played an extra period in 287 straight games after meeting Wake Forest on March 8, 2013.

The visitors’ Ashley Oswusu put down a reverse layup with 58 seconds left before the Hoosiers’ Nicole Cardano-Hillary’s 1-for-2 gave the hosts a slim 61-59 advantage with 58 seconds left.

Owusu scored to tie it all up 61-61 with 19.4 remaining.

Grace Berger went for the win from the foul line with her attempted field goal but it was off the rim and so it was on to overtime.

In the extra period, Indiana (11-3, 3-0 Big 10) missed two foul shots with 41.6 seconds left but Maryland went cold on two attempted shots from deep.

Ali Patberg pushed the advantage one more point on 1-2 from the line, Indiana’s erratic foul shooting failed to self-destroy since Maryland was 0-for-7 from the field.

Patberg scored 18 for the Hoosiers, while Aleksa Gulbe had 17 points and 10 rebounds, while Mackenzie Holmes had 15 points and 14 rebounds.

“Well, Happy New Year to you guys,” said Indiana head coach Teri Moren, who has revived the Hoosier program. “This is a great week for us obviously to start 2022.

“I’m just so happy for our kids,” she said, explaining the limited roster due to COVID-19. “They had to play a lot of minutes today, especially those vets out there. I thought we were terrific, defensively, se got the lead before the overtime, had a couple of miscues turning the ball over. 

“But I thought we had an opportunity to come out in the overtime and get the win. Give our kids credit, we controlled the pace, we wanted the game to be in the 60s, for them, for Maryland, we wanted to limit their shot opportunities.” 

Maryland (10-4, 2-1 Big 10), which early had been touted as an NCAA title contender off its offensive output and may yet still be, got 22 points and 12 rebounds, while Diamond Miller, who had missed 10 of the Terrapins’ 13 first games, scored 17, and Oswusu had 10 points and was 4-for-13 from the field.

Covid-19 has played havoc with Indiana and Marylands,. The Hoosiers, who had a 10-day break with the visit to Rutgers postponed because of protocols within the Scarlet Knights programs, are still set to visit Wisconsin Wednesday.

Maryland, idle the past 12 days with Illinois on a forced break, hosts Penn State Thursday night.

Kansas State Upends Baylor: The Wildcats (11-2, 1-0 Big 12) until Sunday had not beaten an Associated Press-ranked team in the Top 10 since a road win at Texas Tech, then 10th, on January 14th, 2012.

The losing streak against Baylor (10-3, 0-1), who fell 68-59, is even longer, 36 games, last beating the Bears at home Jan. 27, 2004.

“I think it’s a big one,” said Kansas State coach Jeff Mittie. “Baylor has had such a hold on the league that you can do that stat with a lot. It’s kind of been that way. 

“They’ve dominated the league, right? So this is a huge win against a program that has dominated this league over the last decade. So from that perspective, Yeah, it’s a big one for us.”

Ayoka Lee had 28 of her 32 points for Kansas State in the second half, and overall grabbed 10 rebounds, while Serena Sundell scored 10. Lee’s performance for the second half was one-point less than the program record.

Ja’Mee Asberry and Jordan Lewis each scored 14 for Baylor, while NaLyssa Smith scored 12.

Baylor was missing several players out for testing positive but Mittie didn’t think the way the Bears play affected their rotation much.

No. 2 Louisville Avoids Road Loss at No. 16 Georgia Tech: The Yellowjackets (10-3, 2-0 ACC) had already been a danger, beating then-Top 5 Connecticut to become the first unranked team in 240 games to beat the Huskies. On Sunday in Atlanta, the No. 2 Cardinals (12-3, 2-0 ACC) loomed as another victim until Emily Engstler scored her 13th and 14th points on a layup with three seconds remaining to rescue the visitors with a 50-48 victory. 

Georgia Tech’s Lotta-Maj Lahtinen then heaved the ball from half-court but it fell short to end the contest.

The Cardinals’ Olivia Cochran grabbed 13 points.

The Yellowjackets had led 33 minutes, 33 seconds of the contest and Engstler’s shot gave Louisville just its third lead of the game.

The home team just had seven healthy players due to protocols that have been sidelining individual players or enough on a side to cause game postponements.

Lorela Cubaj scored 12 for Georgia Tech, which was led by Digna Strautmane with 13 points, while Lahtinen scored 10.

And that is the national report as we split it the overall into two sections.