The Guru Report: Narrow Outcomes Dot the Local and National Scene Ending Week One of the New Season

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

Two of the five games local teams were involved with Sunday reflected the way things also went at the national level.

Rider in overtime rode heroics from Makayla Firebaugh to get the Broncs’ first win of the season following two losses as she nailed her sixth shot from deep against host Saint Francis Brooklyn with 10.2 seconds remaining in the extra period and then stopped the Terriers the other way securing a 71-70 triumph.

It was even wilder in the Midwest where Lehigh paid a visit to Minnesota of the Big Ten and appeared to grab a stunning victory for a Patriot League member when Mackenzie Kramer put the Mountain Hawks ahead with 1.7 seconds remaining in overtime in Williams Arena.

But that was time enough for Hall of Famer Lindsay Whalen’s Golden Gophers squad to prevail when Mara Braun nailed a three as time expired for a high-scoring 101-99 victory.

Elsewhere, Penn was respectable, losing at Northwestern, another school, in Evanston, Ill., near Chicago 63-55. At home in Jersey Mike’s Arena in Piscataway, N.J., on a day Rutgers honored one of its past legends Sue Wicks, the Scarlet Knights recovered from its recent loss to Seton Hall and downed nearby NJIT 87-71, while in the other game with a local team, Lafayette fell at home in Easton, Pa., to East Tennessee State University 65-45.

Nationally, No. 4 Iowa in a major state rivalry affair on the road avoided an upset winning in overtime 92-86 at Drake, while No. 7 Louisville topped Missouri Valley favorite Belmont 75-70.

Down in College Park, No. 17 Maryland edged Fordham 83-76, but the other nationally ranked teams on the day’s card coasted.

The highlight in that group making its host of top-ranked and defending NCAA champion South Carolina not far in the future more anticipatory is No. 2 Stanford, who concluded a busy start by visiting West Coast Conference contender Portland in Oregon for an 87-47 victory.

The Cardinal are 4-0 and have knocked out all opponents sporting the WCC brand since Gonzaga got them in 2018. This is the first time Stanford has scored 86 or more points in the first four games at the outset of a season and first time has shot 50 percent or more from the field in four straight games since the 2014 season.

Haley Jones scored 17 points and Camron Brink scored scored 12.

Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer’s record all-time women’s total victories reached 1,162, ahead of UConn’s Geno Auriemma, who is at 1,150 and whose sixth-ranked Huskies host No. 3 Texas Monday night at 6:30 p.m. on FS1.

“We’re playing with a lot of energy out there,” Jones said. 

Portland (2-1) got 13 points from Liana Kaitu’u.

The Cardinal host Cal Poly on Wednesday.

Back to the locals first, beginning with the Lehigh outcome.

“It feels like a gut-punch because you’re there and you want it so bad for all of the players cause each and every one of them worked their tails off, and they made big play after big play,” said new Mountain Hawks coach Addie Micir. “But when you take a step back and are just a basketball fan, what an awesome game and what an awesome game for Minnesota basketball.”

Whalen, a recent inductee with the class of 22 to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass., was named Friday night as one of 12 finalists to the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in Knoxville, Tenn. She starred with the WNBA Minnesota Lynx besides picking up Olympic gold medals and leading the Golden Gophers to the NCAA Final Four her senior season.

In Sunday’s game, Lehigh’s Kramer had a double double 26 points and 11 assists, a combo stat with the latter being the first for a player in the program since Erica Prosser had 19 points and 10 assists against Holy Cross on Feb. 26, 2011. She played the entire 40 minutes against Minnesota (2-0), shooting 10-for-15 from the field, including 4 of 5 three-pointers.

“She was great,” Micir said. “When we needed her to step up and be big, she did. It wasn’t just her scoring, too. She loves playing on this floor, and it was awesome for her to put on a show like that.”

Frannie Hottinger added 25 points and 12 rebounds for the visitors, while Kaylee Van Eps and Meghan O’Brien each scored 14, the latter gaining a career high.

“What’s going to stand out for me is how unfazed and unafraid we were,” Micir, a native of Bucks County said.

Braun led four other Minnesota players in double figures, scoring 34 points. The Gophers capitalized on the boards with a 51-40 rebounding advantage and picked up 27 points off 22 Lehigh turnovers.

The Mountain Hawks (1-2) next are back home in Stabler Arena in Bethlehem, Pa., Friday night hosting Bloomsburg at 7 p.m. on ESPN+.

In Rider’s win, Firebaugh grabbed the missed layup as time ran out on the Terriers (1-2) of the Northeast Conference from Alyssa Fisher.

Prior to Sunday Rider had lost its home opener to NJIT and then got routed last Thursday at Drexel.

It was a day of career highs for the visitors with Firebaugh’s half-dozen three-pointers matching a previous effort, Victoria Toomey tied a personal best with five assists, and Amanda Mobley reached a high with five steals.

Firebaugh had 21 points on the day, Jessika Schiffer scored Toomey scored 12, and Raphaela Toussaint scored 11.

“This is the first game we saw our resilience really show up,” said Rider veteran coach Lynn Milligan. “We saw what we could become. We weren’t perfect by any stretch, but when you get down the way we got down, and fight back on the road, it’s a testament to that resilience. An overtime road win is tough to get, so I’m really proud of our effort today.”

Said Firebaugh of her game winner, “Raphie set me a great screen to come off of and I had a little bit of space and knew I could get the shot off.”

After recent seasons drawing players from overseas to the program, Rider will be going the other way across the Atlantic for its next games, playing Friday first at 1:30 p.m. in the MAAC/ASUN Challenge in Dublin, Ireland.

In Penn’s game at Northwestern, in which the loss dropped the Quakers to 1-1 following their opening win at Marist, a fourth quarter rally by the visitors moved them within three of the Wildcats (1-1), who recovered for their win after losing at No. 20 Oregon on the road at their season opener last Monday.

The Quakers’ Kayla Padilla had another big game, scoring 20 points, while Mandy McGurk scored 15.

Courtney Shaw scored 12 for Northwestern and grabbed eight rebounds, while Kaylah Rainey had 11 points, and Calleigh Walsh had nine points and 10 rebounds for the squad coached by Father Judge grad Joe McKeown.

Next up is a major hometown phase the two games this week as Penn is at Saint Joseph’s Tuesday at at 7 on ESPN+ and then on the same network hosts Villanova in The Palestra at 7 p.m. When the Wildcats come calling, they could be owning an Associated Press ranking following their upset of No. 24 Princeton Friday in Jadwin Gym. The new poll and first of the in-season votes from the media will be released early Monday afternoon.

Rutgers used balance to bounce back from Friday’s home loss to Seton Hall and post an 87-71 victory in the same venue to go up 2-1 on the season and drop the opposition to 1-2.

The Scarlet Knights owned the offensive and defenive stats in this one, outrebounding the Highlanders 50-30 and shooting 53 percent from the field. NJIT was held to 34 percent, while on the line coach Coquese Washington’s bunch was 20-of-21, including a perfect 8-for-8 from Kassondra Brown, who overall scored 18 points. 

“We knew we had a height advantage, so we wanted to pound the ball inside,” she said. “Chyna Cornwell, Kassondra Brown and Awa Sidibe have done a great job our first three games getting buckets down there efficiently. That’s something we needed to take advantage of today in the paint.”

Sidle, Lafayette, and freshman Kaylene Smikle each scored 13, while Cornwell scored 12, shooting 6-for-8 and grabbing nine rebounds.

Wicks, who was honored and is still the all-time scorer in the history of the program with 2,655 points, went on to star with the New York Liberty as an all-pro in the WNBA.

Continuing on the season-opening home stand, the Scarlet Knights on Wednesday host North Carolina Central at 7 p.m. before next weekend heading to the Battle4Atlantis in the Bahamas opening with No. 5 Tennessee.

In Lafayette’s home-opening loss, Makayla Andrews scored 13 points for the Leopards, while Jiselle Thomas scored 22 and Jakhyia scored 16 for ETSU.

On Wednesday, Lafayette heads to Cornell in Ithaca, N.Y., the game will air on ESPN+.

The National Scene: It took overtime but Iowa (3-0), which was the visiting team in this one at Drake (1-1), has won 19 of the last 20 in the series.

The Hawkeyes, picked to win the Big Ten, had the last possession in regulation but couldn’t pull off a winning play.

Iowa center Monika Czinano had 36 points, shooting 14-for-21 from the field, while Caitlin Clark scored 28, though on a bad shooting afternoon.

“This was like an NCAA Tournament environment,” said Iowa coach Lisa Bluder. “To come in here and win on the road, I’m extremely happy with that.”

Diamond Miller snapped a tie for Maryland with a shot from deep to end the third quarter hosting Fordham playing just two nights after losing at home to South Carolina Friday night.

The outcome left both programs at 2-1, the Rams’ first loss.

Miller was sidelined Friday with an injury missing the visit from the top-ranked Gamecocks but went on to score 22 points and grab 13 rebounds while connecting on 13-of-14 foul shots.

Princeton transfer Abby Meyers scored 11 and grabbed seven rebounds for the Terrapins, while Shyanne Sellers scored 15 points and Brinae Alexander scored 14.

Elisa Pinzan dealt six assists.

In terms of the effort from Fordham, Maryland coach Brenda Frese said, “Three of those kids are grad seniors — an entire starting five of seniors. They showed.

“Sometimes, you got to have an ugly win and we were able to keep our poise and our composure in that fourth quarter. Overall, we know we can play better, a lot of lessons we can learn.”

Meyers, with 947 career points at Princeton is now within two of 1,000, while South Florida transfer Pinzan has 926, of which the first 916 came at her previous school.

Maryland hosts Davidson, another A-10 team Wednesday at 11 a.m. on the B1G+ subscription network.

In Louisville’s trip to Belmont, which previously was in the Ohio Valley Conference, the Cardinals barely survived to go to 3-0 while the home team is now even at 1-1.

Hailey Van Lith had 25 points for the visiting Cardinals, Olivia Cochrane had a double double of 13 each in points and rebounds, while Chrislyn Carter scored 11.

Destinee Wells had 20 points for Belmont, and Tuti Jones and Sydni Harvey each scored 15.

Louisville opens with Gonzaga in the Battle4Atlantis Saturday at 7:30 p.m. in the Bahamas.

No. 14 Ohio State followed up its opening night upset of No. 5 Tennessee, wining at Boston College 82-64 on the strength of forcing 35 turnovers in the game in Chestnut Hill, Mass.

Rebeka Mikulasikova had a career-high 23 points with 10 rebounds for the Buckeyes, while Jacy Sheldon had 11 steals, the visitors tying a program record with 20 overall.

Taylor Mikesell scored 16, Shelon had 14, and Taylor Thierry scored 10.

Maria Gakdeng had 13, leading three other BC players scoring in double figures dropping the hosts to 1-2.

In New York, Columbia, which had its best season a year ago, seemed poised to beat Vanderbilt but died in the final period, losing 74-63.

“Fourth quarter, we just got shell shocked,” said Meghan Griffith after her team suffered its first overall loss of the season following two road wins.

“This team is playing and thinking like they are the team they were in March last year. We’re not that team yet. We have to work to get back to that level.”

Kaitlyn Davis had a career high 24 points for Columbia, while Hannah Pratt scored 15.

Columbia is at Seton Hall Thursday at 7 p.m. on Flohoops.

Other results off the games listed on the Guru’s daily radar alert saw UCLA at home top Troy 95-83, N.C. State beat Mount St. Mary’s at home in Raleigh 86-38, Miami beat visiting Patriot League favorite Boston University 81-46, and Washington State at home beat Prairie View A&M 89-61 as Charlisse Leger-Walker scored her 1,000th point in one of the PAC-12/SWAC legacy games the two leagues have put together in their non-conference schedules.

She finished with 24 points, tying the program record for fastest to that total.

Notable: Floor Named for Foley

Little Rock coach Joe Foley became the sixth women’s coach to have an arena floor named and second active alongside DePaul’s women’s hall of famer Doug Bruno. The others are retired Rutgers coach C. Vivian Stringer, the formal ceremony will be Dec. 4; the late Tennessee legend Pat Summitt; the late N.C. State great Kay Yow; and newly retired Texas A&M coach Gary Blair.

Foley has 834 wins, third among active head coaches.

Looking Ahead: It’s a double test Monday night when No. 3 Texas visits No. 6 UConn on the Huskies’ Storrs campus at 6:30 p.m. on FS1. Another key matchup has Indiana at Tennessee at 6 on ESPN2, while Maine, the America East favorite, visits defending A-10 champion UMass at 7 p.m. on ESPN+, Mississippi State is at South Dakota State at 7 p.m., and Samford is at Tennessee Tech at 6 p.m. on ESPN+

Princeton, coming out of its upset loss to Villanova, visits Seton Hall at 7 p.m. in Walsh Gym on Flohoops in the continuing intra battle among New Jersey Division I squads.

On Tuesday, besides the local city games — Drexel at La Salle at noon on ESPN+ and Penn in a Big Five tilt at Saint Joseph’s at 7 p.m. on ESPN+, Delaware hosts VCU at 7 p.m. on Flohoops, and Penn State hosts Youngstown State at 7 on the B1G+ subscription network.

And that’s the report.