The Guru Local Report: A Mixed Day and Night for Area Women’s Division I Teams as the 2022-23 Collegiate Season Gets Under Way

By Mel Greenberg @womhoops guru

PRINCETON, N.J. — There was a time when even the best of the Ivy League got out of their own element they served as doormats most times to non-conference opponents locally as well as nationally.

That’s no longer case, since former Princeton coach Courtney Banghart built the Tigers into a competitive powerhouse that has continued after the former Dartmouth star headed for Power 5 country at North Carolina and Carla Berube, a former star in the days UConn evolved into a national terror, picked up the mantle along the sidelines here in Jadwin Gym.

That was evident Monday night when the home team, sporting the first Associated Press preseason ranking for an Ivy member, ruined the formal debut of new Temple coach Diane Richardson, who has taken over the Owls following a successful construction at Towson in suburban Baltimore.

The No. 24 Tigers jumped to an early 20-9 lead in the first quarter and went on to throttle several Temple rallies and emerge with a 67-49 victory.

Berube knew what she was facing ahead of the first of two Big Five visits this week with Villanova scheduled to come here Friday night on the heels of an opening 60-38 win Monday night up at Marist in Poughkeepsie, N.Y.

Elsewhere, the glut of local schools in action saw Saint Joseph’s with an impressive 66-49 home win over Bucknell, a fourth place pick by the Patriot League coaches, in Hagan Arena, while Lehigh at home in Stabler Arena in Bethlehem, Pa., gained a 60-43 win over Stonehill for a successful debut of new coach and former Princeton star Addie Micir.

Up north not far from here earlier in the day, Rutgers began the coaching era of former Penn State mentor and Notre Dame star Coquese Washington, edging Hofstra 73-68 in Jersey Mikes Arena, while Delaware was a first time, new coach, success story on the road as the Blue Hens at Longwood gave Sarah Jenkins an 82-62 win.

On the minus side, just down the road from here where we stopped later in Alumni Gym in Lawrenceville, N.J., the joy over the retirement of the number of former star Stella Johnson was tempered as NJT held off Rider 68-60.

La Salle, picked second in the Atlantic 10, fell on the road to MEAC first place pick Howard 62-57 in the nation’s capital, while Lafayette also tripped up away from home, falling to VCU, 65-41 in Richmond.

“I don’t know if it was our first game, we’re feeling better, we’re getting ranked, there’s a lot of excitement around this day,” Berube said afterwards. “That’s a scrappy, tough, Temple team.

“We got ready by watching Towson and Temple. Coach Richardson has done a phenomenal job with Towson, now with Temple. But we hung in there and it’s not getting any easier with Villanova coming here Friday and we know what kind of program coach (Denise) Dillon has.”

Kaitlyn Chen for Princeton scored 14 points with a career high nine rebounds. Julia Cunningham had had 13 points and nine rebounds, while while Ellie Mitchell had 12 points and 15 rebounds.

Paige Morton for the Tigers gained a personal best as she had 13 points shooting 4-of-6 from the field.

Princeton dominated the boards 51-28.

On Temple’s side, Jasha Clinton clinton had a team high 15 points while Tiarra East had 11 points and 11 rebounds for her first career double double.

The Owls contended into the fourth quarter until the Tigers had enough, closing the game on a 16-9 run.

Earlier in the day the school announced a live radio deal, a first in the program’s history.

The games, which began being aired here, will be carried on the Varsity Network App, accesible through the owlsports.com site and recent grad Ray Dunne will handle play by play as well as host half hour pregame and postgame shows. 

Richardson will be part of the pregame appearing in one of four segments, one other includes interviews with an assistant coach.

Three Temple players fouled out in the contest.

“We had some drop off defensively and then all of our bigs fouled out,” Richardson said of the opening setback. “We had a lot of fouls called on us. We have to watch that as little bit and defend without fouling out.”

The differential might have been worse in that the Tigers went to the line 31 times but only connected in 18 of them.

Neither team was able to hit from deep, the Owls making just one shot in 20 attempts, while Princeton only equaled that effort with one of 13 from outside.

Temple returns home Saturday, leaving McGonigle Hall to return to the larger Liacouras Center, which is the home of the men’s program.

The Owls host Georgetown of the Big East, at 4 p.m. on ESPN+.

Princeton has some challenging non-conference games the next several weeks including a return visit to Texas, which visited here last season, and to Berube’s alma mater to play UConn before getting into the Ivy schedule, which includes home and home games with Penn.

Jadwin will also be the home of the Ivy men’s and women’s tourney in March, which follows the first two at The Palestra, then Yale, then after the cancellation at the outset of the Covid pandemic and entire ensuing Ivy season, at Harvard, which also marked the farewell retirement of longtime Crimson coach Kathy Delaney Smith.

‘Nova Thumps Marist: McCann Arena, normallly a hostile court to Red Foxes opponents, particularly in MAAC games, was neutralized as Villanova, which enjoyed the the first Big East win over UConn last season in quite a long time, brought Big East reigning player of the year and 2023 preseason player of the year Maddy Siegrist home for the start of her senior season.

The former star of Our Lady of Lourdes High down the road in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., and on course to become the Wildcats all-time leading scorer, poured a game-high 21 points to the delight of over 200 fans cheering for the visitors in a 60-38 win.

Marist was competitive through the first quarter, leading by a bucket 17-15 at the end of the 10-minute opening stanza.

Siegrist had 11 of her points at the break but the Wildcats may have seen the rise of a new star as Christina Dalce had her first double double in the game by the half with 10 points and 10 rebounds.

The ‘Cats showed a tenacious defense over the final two quarters of 20 combined minutes, holding Marist to just nine points off 3-of-24 from the field.

Siegrist also had 13 rebounds, while Dalce had career highs 13 points and of 17 rebounds. She also blocked five shots.

 Brooke Mullin had seven points and six rebounds, four steals, and three assists. Lucy Olsen scored eight points, grabbed nine rebounds, and dealt six assists.

Zaria Shazer scored 18 for Marist and grabbed eight rebounds, while Kiera Fisher added 11 points.The Red Foxes were held to 13 of 52 from the floor for 25 percent.

Siegrist improved her 20-points or more games count to 52 along with 38 career double doubles. The Wildcats also had a lopsided advantage with 15 second chance points and 14 on fast breaks while the home team was blanked in both categories.

Villanova will be looking to avenge last season’s home loss to Princeton when visiting Jadwin Friday with tip time set for 7 p.m.

Rider Falls to NJIT: A festive night involving the retirement of former star Stella Johnson’s uniform number and large crowd in Alumni Gym could not carry Rider over NJIT, the Broncs in their season and home opener falling 68-60.

Amanda Mobley scored 17 points and dealt five assists for Rider in its defeat.

The Broncs fell behind early when the Highlanders reeled off a 12-1 run in the opening period.

A 13-2 run in the second by NJIT blew open the advantage with a 37-21 lead that was only reduced by one at the half.

Rider trailed 56-41 after three periods before exciting the place with a stirring rally that began with a 12-0 start of the fourth quarter moving within six points with 4:20 left in regulation before the visitors quashed the comeback.

“We didn’t hold up our end of the bargain,” veteran coach Lynn Milligan said of the way the evening went. “We didn’t want to lose and we don’t want to lose in front of our home fans. We wanted to win for Stella tonight.

“We were off in the first half. We were a little slow and we didn’t quite have our rhythm in that first half. Obviously we got ourselves in a situation down early, but push comes to shove, we just made too many mistakes tonight,” Milligan noted. “We’re never going to stop until the last horn goes off. We gave ourselves a chance to win the game and just didn’t get it done.

Of her performance, as well as the team, Mobley said, “We didn’t start off as strong as we should have. We got pushed around.

“We’re a strong team, we really are, but we didn’t show that tonight and we need to show that in our future games.”

Calling herself  “a pass-first point guard,” Mobley said, “I think today my shots were just open and going down.”

Said Johnson of her honor with the retirement of her No. 4 prior to the opening tip, Johnson said, “It’s just an honor to be up there with the other great players that came before me, and it’s just amazing to be here. I don’t think I really processed it until I actually walked out. I was very emotional seeing everybody in the stands.”

Johnson is only the second female athlete in Rider history to have her number retired and first in women’s basketball.

Besides Mobley, Victoria Toomey scored 14, and Makayla Firebaugh scored 11.

Rider rejected nine shots

The Broncs next hit the road Thursday, helping CAA favorite Drexel open its home season in the renovated Daskalakis Athletic Center at 6 p.m.

Saint Joseph’s Dominates Bucknell: A strong opening 15-8 quarter and a 19-11 finish in the fourth helped carry the Hawks over visiting Bucknell 66-49 in Hagan Arena.

Mackenzie Smith scored 19 points for the hosts while Laura Zigler, a freshman, had a dynamic debut with 16 points, seven rebounds and three steals, besides dealing two assists.

Julia Nystrom from Sweden contributed 10 points while Katie Jekot had six points, five assists and four rebounds.

Defensively, the Hawks had a lopsided 17-6 advantage on points off turnovers and dominated in the paint 34-22.

Next up Yale visits on Friday at 7 p.m.

La Salle Rally Falls Short at Howard: Down 15 in the second quarter, the Explorers moved within one of the home team with just over two minutes left in regulation before falling to the MEAC favorites in the nation’s capital in Washington, D.C., 62-57 in the season opener for both teams.

Charity Shears was another rookie on the local front with a nice debut, scoring 14 points for La Salle, while veterans Amy Jacobs and Gabby Crawford scored 12 points and 10 points, respectively.

The Explorers will stay on the road in the next two games, visiting Sacred Heart Thursday at 7 p.m. up in Connecticut and then Niagara on Saturday at 5 p.m.

Lehigh Downs Stonehill: Frannie Hottinger had 21 points and a career-high 18 rebounds in addition to four steals helping to propel the Mountain Hawks at home in Stabler Arena in Bethlehem to a 60-43 triumph, making now-head coach Addie Micir successful in her promotion.

MacKenzie Kramer scored 13 for Lehigh in the season debut for both teams.

“My teammates were really awesome with helping me get post touches,” Hottinger said. “I think they were a little undersized, so that’s always helpful when I’m able to play with other great posts like Meg and Jamie. They can kind of take some of the bigger players, and the smaller players are who I’m guarding, so it makes it easier, so I appreciate that.”

“I’m feeling great,” said Micir of a win her first time in her new role. “We talk a lot about the we here, and I’m just so excited that I got to have this moment with this whole team.

“There’s no group of people and staff that I would rather be here with.

“We competed hard, and that’s why our entire staff has asked the whole way, so couldn’t be more thrilled and excited.”

Micir, a native of Bucks County, is a former Princeton star and assistant when former Tigers coach Courtney Banghart was building the program into a force. Her father Pancho was a Penn quarterback.

Lehigh was able to score half its points inside.

“That’s something we knew we had the advantage there, and it would be a really great way to start the season inside and out, and Frannie was a beast. She was an absolute beast and our other post players held it down, too.”

The Mountain Hawks, paced by Meghan O’Brien with three, blocked eight shots.

The Skyhawks, making their Division I debut, got 11 points each from Emily Bramanti and Mia Kelly, while Maddie Loder scored 10.

The former Division II program is competing in the Northeast Conference.

Lehigh now heads to the upper Midwest, visiting No. 23 South Dakota State on Friday at 8 p.m. and continuing to Minnesota Sunday at 4, making the venture a homecoming for six players who are from the area.

Rutgers Edges Hofstra in Home Opener: Emerging from a dicey affair most of the way, the Scarlet Knights prevailed over The Pride at the finish in a 73-68 home opener at Jersey Mikes Arena making new coach Coquese Washington’s debut a success.

The former Penn State mentor, Notre Dame star and assistant, follows the retirement of C. Vivian Stringer, though the Hall of Famer stepped aside for last season, leaving the effort with her staff as she was cautious involving health concerns with the pandemic.

Awa Sidibe had 16 points for Rutgers with nine rebounds, while Kai Carter scored16 points and 11 points each came from Erica Lafayette, Chyna Cornwell, and Abby Streeter.

The game was still undecided after three quarters, the home team ahead by just a point, 52-51.

With 1:29 left in regulation it still was a one-point affair but the Knights were able to prevail and hold on the rest of the way.

Rutgers is 4-0 in the series with the school from Long Island in N.Y.

On Friday, Seton Hall of the Big East comes down from its nearby campus for a 7 p.m. tipoff followed Sunday by NJIT, which just bested Rider, at 2 p.m.

Delaware Romps at Longwood: With Natasha Adair moved on the Arizona State, the defending CAA conference playoff champions made the debut of former associate head coach Sarah Jenkins a success with an 82-62 victory at Farmville, Va.

Coming off the staff of Penn State to return where she helped Adair rebuild the Blue Hens fortunes, Jenkins said of the opener: “I was preaching to our team that we have to play our basketball. We want to play fast, we want to get up and down the floor. When we came back from halftime, we had 15 transition points and we told them that we get this up to 30 points — let’s just run.

“I am very proud of our efforts they put fourth tonight.”

A 12-3 run in the third quarter turned the tide.

Jewel Smalls had 23 points, shooting 8-11 from the field. She also had five rebounds and three steals. Klarke Sconiers, a newcomer, scored 16 points and blocked four shots. Makayla Pippin scored 14 and grabbed eight rebounds with three blocks, and rookie Mays-Prince off the bench scored 13 with five steals and five assists.

Michelle Ojo grabbed nine boards while collecting three steals.

Longwood’s Janay Turner scored 17 and Anne-Hamilton LeRoy and Adriana Shipp-Davis scored 11 as a substitute.

On Thursday, the Blue Hens will help host Ivy contender Columbia.

In the only other of the 10 teams from the 13 locals, Lafayette fell at Virginia.