The Guru Report - National Edition: Upsets, Near-Upsets, and Overtimes Highlight Games Across the Country

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

For the most part Super Bowl Sunday was focused in one place — Los Angeles — the game, the winning team, the halftime show.

Not so, when it came to the action in NCAA Division I women’s basketball, which had great games everywhere throughout the day.

In placing a headline in this post, it was near impossible to zero down on one or two teams.

So, the Guru went generic and now he’ll just go through the results via conference. The local report, again the nature of so much called for two, is already up and now it’s time to dig into the rest of it.

SEC - South Carolina Keeps Rolling: Perhaps, Mississippi State beating Ole Miss, but there were no upsets, however, the No. 1 team in the nation in South Carolina is located here, so  here we start. Besides, it ‘s the one place in the conference where two ranked teams met.

The Gamecocks visited No. 17 Georgia and left Stegemen Coliseum in Athens with a 72-54 triumph. 

Unlike the previous game at Kentucky, there was no need to get nervous as Dawn Staley’s squad (23-1, 1-11 SEC) owned this one early in going 10-0 against ranked teams. Aliyah Boston had 18 points and 12 rebounds, her 18th double double in 24 games, while Destanni Henderson scored 15 for the visitors, who led by as many as 30 in the first half.

The Bulldogs (17-7, 6–6), however, have now lost three straight despite Jenna Staiti scoring 15 and grabbing 10 rebounds in this one.

South Carolina was without two top substitutes in forwards Laeticia Amihere and Kamilla Cordoso, who were competing on their national teams of Canada and Brazil, respectively, in the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup 2022 Qualifying tournament.

The Gamecocks have beaten Georgia 15 straight times, with six of seven wins all time in Athens occurring in the Dawn Staley era.

South Carolina will finish its home schedule at the Colonial Life Arena in Columbia  this week with two games, hosting Auburn Thursday and then it what will likely decide the regular season SEC title, No. 13 Tennessee visits Sunday, which has been spruced up with ESPN’s College Game Day and the time switched to 1 p.m. and airing nationally on ABC-TV.

The Gamecocks have won 11 straight since its upset loss to unranked Missouri, though SC stayed number one in the Associated Press Women’s Poll after the upset.

Tennessee kept pace with an in-state rivalry 66-52 win over Vanderbilt at home in Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville. 

Jordan Horston had 16 points and 13 rebounds for the Lady Vols (21-4, 10-2 SEC), while Rae Burrell off the bench had 15 points, leaving her one short of 1,000 for her career.

Tennessee outrebounded the Commodores 48-29.

“I thought we hung tough against a very gritty Vanderbilt team,” said Tennessee coach Kellie Harper. “And, you know, they don’t make things easy, that’s for sure. But overall, I’m really proud of our team. (We had) 19 assists. We held them to 52 points. I think we did some good things.

The Lady Vols next go to Alabama Thursday night, the game streamed on the SEC+ network.

In another in-state rivalry game in the conference, Mississippi State at home in Starkville beat Ole Miss, 70-59. The visiting Rebels were recently ranked in The Associated Press women’s poll a week and are No. 25 in the coachs’ poll.

Anastasia Hayes had 21 points for the Bulldogs (15-8, 6-5 SEC), while Jerkaila Jordan scored 20, and Myah Taylor had 17.

Angel Baker had 21 for Ole Miss (18-6, 6-5), while Shakira Austin scored 20 and grabbed 14 rebounds.

No. 14 LSU on the road beat host Texas A&M 74-58 behind a strong second half in Reed Arena in College Station, Texas.

Alexis Morris and Khayla Pointer each scored 25 points for the visiting Tigers (21-4, 9-3 SEC) while Autumn Newby grabbed 13 rebounds.

Kayla Wells had 23 points for Texas A&M (14-10, 4-8), while Aaliyah Patty had 11 points and 10 rebounds.

“The story that needs to be told is 21,” said LSU Hall of Fame coach Kim Mulkey. “This is the first time that these seniors have won 21 ballgames in their career at LSU. We’re not a team that was supposed to do anything.”

ACC - Virginia Tech Upsets No. 23 UNC: For the first time in the Hokies history, they have beaten two ranked teams consecutively, having followed Thursday’s upset of No. 11 Georgia Tech with a 66-61 home court win over No. 23 North Carolina in Blacksburg, Va.

Coach Kenny Brooks’ team (19-6, 11-3 ACC) has also won 11 Atlantic Coast Conference games for the first time in the program’s history.

Georgia Amoore scored 17 points against the Tar Heels (19-5, 9-5), who beat Virginia Tech by 25 last month in Chapel Hill. 

The Hokies had to rally from a 21-9 deficit after one quarter.

Elizabeth Kitley had 15 points and blocked five shots for Virginia Tech, while Aisha Sheppard had 14 points and was 4-for-8 from deep.

North Carolina’s Deja Kelly scored 17, while Alyssa Ustby had 12 points and 12 rebounds, and Carlie Littlefield scored 10.

Elsewhere in the conference, No. 3 Louisville routed visiting No. 18 Notre Dame, 73-47, at the KFC Yum! Center in Kentucky.

The Irish (19-6, 10-4) suffered from poor shooting though freshman Sonia Citron had 13 points and freshman Olivia Miles tallied 11.

Maddy Westbeld had 10 points and eight rebounds. 

During the game Irish star Sam Brunelle suffered a shoulder injury.

Kianna Smith had 17 for Louisville (22-2, 12-1 ACC), while Hailey Van Lith scored 16 for the Cardinals, Chelsie Hall scored 13, and Emily Engstler grabbed 12 rebounds.

No. 11 Georgia Tech beast visiting Clemson inMcCamish Pavilion in Atlanta 92-84 in overtime as Lorela Cubaj scored 11 of the 15 points in the extra period for the Yellowjackets (19-6, 10-4 ACC). 

In all, she had 22 points, while teammatre Eylia Love had 26 points, and Nerea Hermosa scored 19 points, while Sarah Bates scored 17 points. 

Clemson (9-17, 3-12) got 40 points feom Delicia Washington and Daisha Bradford scored 18.

In Durham, N.C., No. 5 NC State topped host Duke 77-62 in Cameron Indoor Stadium as the Wolfpack (23-3, 14-1 ACC) used a 12-0 run late in the game against the Blue Devils (15-9, 6-8).

The visitors’ Jakia Brown scored 19 points, while Lexi Gordon scored 13 and freshman Shayeann Day-Wilson scored 12 for the Blue Devils.

Big Ten - Northwestern Upsets No. 4 Michigan in Double Overtime: The Wildcats came up with their first Top 5 win in six seasons, beating the Wolverines 71-69 in double overtime as three players had career days for Northwestern (14-9, 6-6 Big Ten). It’s also the highest ranked team victimized since 1982.

The Wildcats’ Jillian Brown had 18 points and three steals,Veronica Burton had 13 points and a career-high 13 assists, while Courtney Shaw joined the other two with personal bests with 16 points and nine rebounds, and Laya Hartman scored 10 in the game in Welsh-Ryan Arena in Evanston, Ill., along the north shore of Lake Michigan.

“When we play like this, we can beat anybody. We just showed it,” Brown said.

A week ago Michigan (20-4, 11-3) seemed poised to win the regular season conference crown having won eight straight Big Ten games.

They were then upset by Michigan State, while Northwestern was coming off a loss at Minnesota Friday afternoon.

“It takes a lot of heart to beat a team like that, to go into two overtimes,” Burton said. “Everyone’s exhausted. Everyone’s right there on the brink of giving up. But I think we really dug in. I’ll never forget this one.”

Burton hit the two foul shots that decided the outcome.

The win was the 100th in the Big Ten for coach Joe McKeown, a Father Judge grad who grew up in Northeast Philadelphia. 

Michigan’s  Danielle Rauch scored five straight at the end of regulation to force the extra period. Naz Hillmon is now the fourth member of the Wolverines’ 2,000-point club. She finished with 16 points ands 15 rebounds, while Emily Kiser scored 13, the same as Rauch.

Three big contests are Monday night in the conference race with Maryland at Iowa at 8 p.m. on ESPN2, Ohio State at Illinois at 9 p.m., and Indiana at Nebraska at 7 p.m., the latter two on the B1G network.

PAC-12  - Revenge for Oregon State andArizona: In a pair of border in-state series in the Pac-12 this weekend, Oregon State avenged Friday’s loss to No. 24 Oregon on the road in the Ducks’ Matthew Knight Arena in Eugene, while No. 6 Arizona paid back Arizona State at home in the McKale Center in Tucson.

In the game involving the Oregons, Oregon State prevailed 68-62.

“We coached a poor game tonight, and our team didn’t play a great game,” Oregon coach Kelly Graves said. “And it’s unfortunate because we spoiled a good crowd at home here. I really thought we were starting to build some momentum after the Washington State game and then Friday night.”

Te-Hina Paopao scored 17 for Oregon (16-8, 8-4 PAC-12) while Endyia Rogers scored 16, and Nyara Sabally scored 13.

Talia von Oelhoffen scored 23 and grabbed 12 rebounds for Oregon State (12-9, 5-6), while Ellie Mack scored 14, and Jelena Mitrovic scored 10.

In Tempe, No. 6 Arizona avenged the earlier loss with a 62-58 win over Arizona State at homer in Tucson as Cate Reese scored 17 points and Madison Conner had a career-high 16 while Koi Love scored 11 in front of a crowd of 8,480, third total over 8,000 this season and seventh largest in program history.

Arizona (18-4, 8-4) forced 20 turnovers.

Jaddan Simmons had 16 points while Mael Gilles scored 15 for the Sun Devils (12-9, 4-4).

No. 2 Stanford stayed perfect atop the league standings with a 63-46 win over visiting Colorado (16-7, 5-7) as the Cardinal (21-3, 12-0) got 14 points from Lexi Hull and six steals, while Cameron Brink had 11 points and 11 rebounds. Anna Wilson scored 10 points, and Haley Jones scored 10 for the reigning NCAA Division I champions.

Speaking of the completed three games in five days, “Our depth has allowed us to handle it well,” said Hall of Fame Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer who leads the nation with an NCAA Division I women’s career record of 1,146 wins.

That’s ten more than UConn’s Hall of Fame master Geno Auriemma, who has 1,136 triumphs.

“I don’t think anyone looked exhausted. They can play hard and know that they’ve got great teammates that can come in and give them a blow. Our depth is our key to keeping people fresh.”

Leslia Finau had 11 points for Colorado.

Atlantic 10 - Rhode Island Last Unbeaten: The combination of defending Atlantic 10 tournament champion VCU beating preseason favorite Dayton 60-58 in the Flyers’ Dayton Arena in Ohio and Rhode Island’s 58-43 win over visiting Fordham left coach Tammy Reiss’ squad the sole unbeaten one all alone atop the Atlantic 10 standings.

Madison Hattix-Covington hit a three-pointer with 24 seconds left to carry VCU (12-8, 7-3 A-10) over Dayton (19-4, 10-1). 

Sarah Te-Biasu had 17 points and five assists for the visitors, while Chloe Bloom and Keowa Walters each scored 10 points. 

Tenin Magassa scored 14 and had 12 rebounds for Dayton.

Meanwhile at home Rhode Island (20-3, 10-0) routed visiting Fordham (16-6, 7-3) for the Rams’ first win in the series since the 2014-15 season.

Their 13 straight on the current season is now the longest and the 20 wins are only the third time in program history URI has reached that total and first since 1996.

Dez Elmore scored 16 points and and grabbed nine rebounds for the Rams, while Emmanuelle Tahane had 15 points and 16 rebounds, while Chanelle Williams scored nine and grabbed five steals.

Rhode Island gets to a showdown game with Dayton on Wednesdsay.

Big East — DePaul and UConn Wins Tighten League Race: Playing one of the tougher teams in the conference after a long series win streak snapping with Villanova and handling DePaul, the No. 8 Huskies used the fourth quarter to pull away and thump Marquette 72-58 in Milwaukee.

But with Olivia Nelson-Ododa and Caroline Ducharme still out along with the long rehab of Paige Buckers it looked like more trouble down two at the end of three periods.

Then, boom, a 27-11 finish kept the Huskies (17-5, 11-1 Big East) firmly ahead of the rest of the league.

Freshman Azzi Fudd had 24 points, including an 8-0 spurt in the fourth quarter, while Evina Westbrook scored 15 points, and Christyn Williams scored 10.

“It’s not easy getting easy shots against Marquette,” UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. “But lately, we’ve played some terrific fourth quarters and because our defense has been really good, it’s led to really good offense.”

Dorka Juhasz scored 21.

“When you start scoring and you go up six, eight, it puts a lot of pressure on the other team in a close game like this, where now they have to make shots,” Auriemma said. “They’re not a team in a rush, so if you make them speed up a little bit, it’s a little bit to your advantage.”

The Marquette loss dropped the Golden Eagles to fifth just behind Villanova, which lost at Seton Hall to end a nine-game winning streak.

DePaul held third behind Creighton with a tantalizing 105-104 double overtime victory at Georgetown in the Hoyas’ McDonough Arena in the nation’s capital.

Lexi Held hit a pair of free throws with 4.3 seconds left in the second overtime to withstand Milan Bolden-Morris’ three-ball at the buzzer.

Freshman sensation Aneesah Morrow had 28 points and 18 rebounds, with four steals for the visiting Blue Demons. Deja Church and Darrione Rogers each scored 17 points, while Kierra Collier scored 11, and Held scored 10.

Morrow’s game-breaker with one second left in regulation forced the first overtime at 85-85.

Georgetown (7-5, 2-12) continued to keep the pressure on the Blue Demons, who doesn’t have it easy next game, hosting longtime rival Marquette at 8 p.m. in Wintrust Arena in Chicago.

American Athletic Conference - UCF Bests South Florida: The two teams in front of Temple at the top of the conference standings met Sunday afternoon at USF’s Yuengling Center in Tampa and first place UCF, which visits Temple Saturday, crushed the Bulls 54-33, stymying the home squad to a 12-point second half.

The Knights (18-3, 10-1 AAC) held South Florida (17-7, 7-3) to its lowest total in the all-time series besides being the lowest since 1996.

Brittney Smith had 17 points for the Knights, while Masseny Kaba scored 14 points.

South Florida’s Elena Tsineke had 10, the only Bull in double figures while Shae Leverett grabbed 11 rebounds.

And that is your national roundup.