The Guru Report: Drexel Tops Lehigh and La Salle Beats Lafayette

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

PHILADELPHIA — Though there are about to be a slew of holiday tournaments through the weekend off Thanksgiving no one put a Philadelphia vs. The Patriot League Challenge on the books Tuesday night.

 However, it inherently occurred anyway and it was a 2-0 sweep for the city folks with Drexel handling Lehigh here 84-61 in the Dragons’ Daskalakis Athletic Center while up north in Easton, Pa., La Salle shook off last weekend’s title game loss in the Great Alaskan Shootout in Anchorage and down ed Lafayette 71-54.

The win by Drexel (3-1) was again highlighted by what has become an explosive something old, something new attack in which grad senior and Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) preseason player of the year Keishana Washington embraced another 30s night, her third in four games, scoring 33 points and dishing 10 assists, shooting 11-for-26 from the field, 3of-7 from deep, and 8-for-9 from the line.

The newbie role was again served by 6-2 freshman forward Kylie Lavelle, from upstate in Moosic, near Scranton, scoring 20 points, shooting 9-for-11 from the field.

Additionally, 5-year player Maura Hendrixson was 4-for-8 from deep to account for all 12 of her points, dealt eight assists, and grabbed seven rebounds., while senior Hetta Saatman scored 11 points.

Lavelle has already earned two CAA rookie of the week citations on a team picked to win the conference while on Monday the Dragons made it an awards sweep with Washington earning player of the week honors.

The Mountain Hawks (2-3), under first-year coach and former Princeton star Addie Micir, came visiting from Bethlehem, Pa., as a high-scoring machine posting more than 90 points in two previous games, a 101-99 loss at Minnesota of the Big Ten and then a win at home 97-54 over Division II Bloomsburg.

The Drexel defense, however, did its job limiting Lehigh’s offense, though Mackenzie Kramer scored 20 points, Lily Fandre scored 13, and Frannie Hottinger had 9 points and 11 rebounds.

“When you’re looking at the numbers on this page, my favorite one is 24 assists we had to 33 shots,” said third-year coach Amy Mallon. “That’s impressive. That’s team basketball and that’s really what our program is about. You saw that tonight against a really good team.”

Lavelle, a bit shy appearing at the first postgame press conference of her career, in terms of her early success, said, “It’s fun. I couldn’t do it without the seniors and upperclassmen. They talk me through everything I need to know on the court. It’s just a lot of fun to be out there.”

This is the last time Drexel will be here, embarking on a five-game road trip, until returning Dec. 18 to host Penn State (5-0), which made a statement Monday night with a 37-14 fourth quarter and a record program erasure of a 21-point deficit in the second half to down visiting Syracuse.

There will still be one area appearance during the swing after Sunday’s game at Buffalo at noon and a stop next Wednesday at Longwood in Virginia, when Drexel visits Hawk Hill on Dec. 4 at 2 p.m. to play Saint Joseph’s. Then it’s off to the northern tier of the Ivy League visiting Yale on Dec. 11 at noon and Dartmouth on Dec. 13 at 1 p.m.

Lehigh this weekend will be hosting its annual Christmas City Classic beginning Saturday hosting Southern Illinois at noon on ESPN+ while Quinnipiac, the MAAC favorite, will meet Kent State at 2:30 p.m.

The winners and losers will meet Sunday for third place and the championship at 12 p.m. and 2:30 p.m.

La Salle (5-2), meanwhile, which has played all but one game on the road — last week’s closing seconds win over Drexel — got 16 points from Kayla Spruill and eight rebounds, while reserve teammate Gabby Crawford matched the 16-point total in the win over the Leopards (1-5).

Freshman Mia Jacobs from Perth, Washington, scored 7 and grabbed 11 rebounds, while freshman Julie Jekot scored eight points and Jaye Haynes scored nine.

Abby Antognoli scored 19 for Lafayette, while Jessica Booth and Sauda Ntaconayigize each scored 11 points.

The Explorers are now off until Tuesday when they take their first dip of the season in Big Five action hosting Penn at 6:30 p.m. Lafayette is off until Sunday, traveling to Marist in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., for a 2 p.m. tip.

Nationally noting: The schedule was lite compared to what’s ahead but the Hoops Community Classic in Savannah, Ga., held its next round, all opponents predetermined each round, and Austin Peay beat Fairleigh Dickinson 53-46; UIC beat Davidson 63-55; in a low-scoring affair Marshall made it 45-39 over Purdue Fort Wayne; and Norfolk State beat UT Martin 70-55.

In a single game that was placed on the preseason composite because of the status of each team in their respective conferences, SMU of the American at home in Dallas beat Louisiana Tech 63-59.

Not listed for obvious reasons but since just saw the score, top-ranked South Carolina following its overtime thriller Sunday beating No. 2 Stanford completed its trip west easily wining at Cal Poly 79-36.

Looking Ahead: Just two locals will be playing on the run-up to Thanksgiving on Wednesday, the first another Big Five special as Temple, off its narrowly-missed upset of then-No. 24 Villanova at home on Sunday, visits Saint Joseph’s at 5 p.m. The game airs on ESPN+.

The Hawks are 1-0 with now No. 23 ‘Nova and one of the La Salle A-10 games still to happen besides the game with the Owls.

Temple still has Penn and La Salle to play after Wednesday.

Out west Penn completes it’s road trip with a homecoming of sorts for senior Kayla Padilla as the Quakers visit Southern Cal at 5 p.m. on the Trojans’ website live streaming link.

As for the rest of the week in terms of locals: on Friday, Villanova begins play at 1:30 p.m. in the Gulf Coast Showcase in Naples, Fla., meeting Belmont, the Mississippi Valley Conference favorite. Flohoops, the streaming service that carries the bulk of Big East and CAA games among others is carrying the entire tourney.

In Saturday’s next round pending outcomes, the Wildcats will see No. 21 Baylor or Saint Louis, who meet at 11 a.m. On the other side of the bracket, No. 22 Michigan, who beat Villanova at home in the second round of the NCAAs in Ann Arbor last spring, plays Air Force at 5 p.m. The other game in what is a true tourney format through Sunday has Georgia Tech meeting South Florida, a former old Big East Wildcats rival at 7:30 p.m.

In the two-day Daytona Beach invitational in Florida on Friday, Flohoops handling all the coverage, on Friday Delaware plays Fresno State at 11 a.m. and Penn State meets Toledo, the Mid-American Conference favorite, at 1:15 p.m. On Saturday, the Lady Lions play Fresno at 11 a.m. and Delaware meets Illinois at 3:30 p.m.

Other teams in the field are Cincinnati, UT Arlington and Charlotte.

Saturday’s and Sunday’s tournaments involving locals have all been discussed but in terms of single games Sunday, not listing those mentioned in terms of teams in the report, Temple goes to Patriot League contender Bucknell in Lewisburg, Pa., at 4 p.m. on ESPN +; Saint Joseph’s visits North Florida in Jacksonville at 2 p.m. on ESPN+; Rutgers, trying to regain momentum after losing all three Battle4Atlantis games in the Bahamas, hosts Cornell at 2 p.m. in Piscataway, N.J., at home in Jersey Mike’s Arena on the Big Ten subscription network; and Princeton, which got snowed out of Saturday’s trip to Buffalo, visits No. 19 Texas in Austin at 1 p.m. on the Longhorn Network.

Nationally, on the weekend, on Thursday, in the Phil Knight Invitational on Thursday on ESPNU, No. 5 Iowa State meets Michigan State at 7:30 p.m.; and No. 8 North Carolina, the first Top 10 appearance for the Tar Heels since Courtney Banghart left Princeton for Tobacco Road, meets No. 18 Oregon at 5 p.m. 

Pending outcomes, teams on Sunday will meet either at 1 p.m. or 7:30 p.m. 

Also in the Northwest, in the Phil Knight Legacy tourney, in Portland, Ore., as the preceding mentioned; on Friday No. 3 UConn meets Duke at 6 p.m.. on ESPNU, while No. 9 Iowa meets Oregon State at 8:30 p.m. Pending the winners, ABC will carry one game Sunday at 1 p.m. and ESPN2 will carry the other game at 10 p.m.

Single games Friday have No. 23 Tennessee, which is tied in the rankings with Villanova, hosting Colorado at 7 p.m. on the SEC Network while No. 20 UCLA on its livestream hosts SWAC favorite Jackson State in one of the PAC-12 arranged legacy games.

In the Fort Myers Tipoff Friday at 11 a.m. No. 14 Maryland meets DePaul on FS1; The Terrapins also meet Towson at 11:30 a.m. on Saturday, and Pittsburgh at 11:30 a.m. on Sunday, while DePaul plays Pittsburgh at 2 p.m. on Saturday; and Towson at 2 p.m. on Sunday.

No. 12 LSU and No. 7 Notre Dame are in the Goombay Splash in Bimini, Bahamas, but based on the setup and the info obtained here in the fall putting the massive composite together, the two won’t meet no matter how they mutually perform in wins and losses, but if there’s been a change, corrections will be made.