The Guru Report: Temple Stays Perfect in The American While Lehigh Torpedoes Navy

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

Temple continued its current run of looking like the team coach Tonya Cardoza saw this summer during workouts compared to early in the season with a 56-41 win Wednesday night at East Carolina in an American Conference game played in Greenville, N.C.

The Owls (8-6, 3-0 American) in winning their third straight were paced by graduate star Mia Davis, who had 15 points and 5 rebounds.

Davis now has 2098 career points, just 99 more needed to surpass the all-time program career mark of 2,196 set by Gratz High alum Marilyn Stephens her senior year of 1984 when she was also named a Kodak All-American.

Alexa Williamson was 5-for-9 and collected 14, while Jasha Clinton ealt 10 assists.

The Pirates (8-10, 1-4) were led by Taniyah Thompson, who scored 12, and Tylar Bennett, who had a double double 10 points and 11 rebounds.

Now comes a big test Saturday when the Owls travel to Tampa to play defending AAC champion and preseason favorite South Florida, which just got bounced from The Associated Press women’s poll it had stayed all season.

The game with the Bulls will tipoff at 3 p.m. and air on ESPN+

Temple outscored the Pirates the first three quarters building a 21-point lead and in the final period got outscored by just a bucket 11-9.

“Taking care of the basketball,” Cardoza said was the key to the win but noted, “We still turned the ball over 23 times. We have to do a better job.”

Emani Mayo was praised for her defensive work.

“Just keeping her team calm and composed, there’s a lot of stuff going on out there,” Cardoza said of Davis’ play, even if she did not enjoy a stellar shooting night. “Just doing the little things. I thought she played within herself all the way.

“I like the mix of it all. We still don’t have the leadership at the point guard position. I feel good. I like the way we’re approaching practices, I like the way we’re approaching games.”

Lehigh Blasts Navy 99-65: The Mountain Hawks was the team with the weapons even if the other one was from one of the nation’s military academies in a Patriot League game at Lehigh’s Stabler Arena in Bethlehem, Pa.

The 99 points scored on the winning side were the second most in program history, the most since 1977, some 45 years ago, as well as most by a women’s team at Stabler Arena and the most by the Mountain Hawks in a Patriot League game.

Megan Walker scored 22 for Lehigh (12-5, 4-2 Patriot), one short of her personal best, while also getting seven rebounds and a pair of assists. Emma Grothaus had 17 points and seven boards, while Ella Stemmer reached a career-high with 15 points, the same as her previous game, and Meghan O’Brien also reached a career mark with 13 points.

Claire Steele and Mackenzie Kramer each dealt 6 assists.

Lehigh was also a perfect 6-for-6 from the line.

“I thought tonight was one of our most complete offensive games we’ve played all year,” Lehigh coach Sue Troyan said. “We talked before the game that we needed to put together a complete effort on both ends of the floor in order to win this one.

“We took what Navy gave us on the offensive end tonight. We had 54 points in the paint and our posts and guards did a really great job of driving and finishing. We also did a really great job of finding our open players on the perimeter.”

Lehigh shot 60 percent from the field in the first half. 

By the end of the third quarter the Mountain Hawks were up 83-52, 31 points.

That has been their best period all season and the Mountain Hawks showed why with a 34-16 advantage over the Midshipwomen (5-12, 2-5).

Navy wasn’t entirely without weapons. Jennifer Coleman scored 26 points and grabbed 11 rebounds. Sydne Watts scored 15.

On Saturday, Lehigh will host Boston University at 2 p.m. on ESPN+

Nationally Noted: No. 6 Indiana’s game in the Big 10 at Michigan State was postponed because of Covid issues, but in theBig 12, No. 14 Oklahoma won at West Virginia 88-76; No. 15 Texas upset host No. 7 Iowa State 66-48; and No.15 Baylor beat visiting Oklahoma State 67-49; No. 24 Florida Gulf Coast easily beat host Stetson 78-41.

In the Big East, host Seton Hall beat St, John’s 84-79; and Creighton beat host Butler 95-44.

Fordham won over visiting George Washington 61-53 while Rhode Island beat host Duquesne 67-57; and Dayton beat host UMass 69-60 in the Atlantic Ten.

Looking ahead to Thursday, locally, Rutgers visit to Nebraska was postponed in the Big Ten due to COVID protocol issues with the host Huskers but Penn State will be at Northwestern 8 p.m..

Rider in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference will be looking to come back from its meltdown to Niagara when the Broncs host Siena, going for a series sweep at 7 p.m. at Alumni Gym in Lawrenceville, N.J.

The key national game of the night takes place in the Atlantic Coast Conference where No. 3 Louisville visits No. 4 NC State at 7 p.m. at Reynolds Coliseum in Raleigh.

In a makeup game in the PAC-12 USC travels across town to visit UCLA at the Bruins’ Pauley Pavilion at 9:30 p.m.

No. 17 BYU’s West Coast Conference game at Pepperdine is postponed due to COVID-19 protocol issues.

Friday, Saint Joseph’s goes to St. Bonaventure for a makeup game in the Atlantic 10 at 4 p.m. on ESPN+; La Salle is at George Mason at 7 p.m., also in the Atlantic 10; In the Big East Villanova hosts Providence at 7 at the Finneran Pavilion on the Flohoops network; No. 9 Connecticut hosts Seton Hall at 7 p.m.

And that’s the report.