The Guru Report: Record Penn State Second Half Rally Carries Lady Lions Past Syracuse; UCLA Takes Battle4Atlantis Title In Overtime on Marquette

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

Back on Big Ten Media Day Penn State was proclaiming this is the year the Lady Lions begin moving back to the prominence they once held in the conference.

League games are still a bit away but Monday night they passed what can be considered the first test of the season.

In a game at the Bryce Jordan Center in State College that both Syracuse and Penn State could consider a measuring stick from playing each other, the Lady Lions had the last word, rallying from a 21-point deficit early in the second half with a record comeback to top the Orange 82-69 and stay unbeaten at 5-0 while handing new coach Felicia Legette-Jack’s their first setback following four wins.

 

In the final quarter the home team had a 37-14 advantage to complete the reversal. Ir’s the third most in a quarter for the team behind 

The Lady Lions’ depth showed big with a 20-0 advantage over the Syracuse reserves.

In conference history the only one other team had a greater rally with Nebraska beating state rival Creighton onDec. 6, 2015. And the previous school mark was a rally from 17 down against Wisconsin, winning 58-56 in overtime on Jan. 22, 2009, after trailing 41-24 with 10:21 left in the second half well before the NCAA women began playing quarters.

In this one, they were behind 45-24 with under seven minutes left in the third quarter.  They sliced the differential to 10 at the end of the period and wiped out all but one point in a span of 2 minutes, 22 seconds.

There were several ensuing lead changes until Penn State used a closing 21-6 burst over the final 5:33 left in regulation.

In that final period, Makenna Marissa, who was to finish with 22, and freshman Shay Ciezki each scored 13, the newcomer had 18 overall of which 16 came after the break.

Johnasia Cash had nine points and 12 rebounds, while Chanaya Pinto had 12 points and seven rebounds.

Dyaisha Fair, who followed Legette-Jack from Buffalo which she built in a mid-major power, scored 20 points and Teisha Hyman scored 19.

“Can’t say enough about our heart, and our resiliency, I’m super proud of this team,” said Penn State coach Carolyn Kieger. “That was not a great first half. The trust and composure in that second half was huge. I said this in the locker room, my favorite part about the game was people had each other’s backs. It was a huge game.

“Syracuse is a good team. They’re going to win a lot of games. Fair is one of the best guards in the country. That was a fun one. It’s one of the best halves I’ve been associated with.”

Penn State, which comes to Drexel next month, will participate this weekend in the Daytona Beach Invitational in Florida, playing Mid-America Conference favorite Toledo on Friday at :15 p.m. on Flohoops, and Fresno State at 11 a.m. on Saturday.

Delaware is also in that tourney, playing Fresno State at 11 a.m. on Friday and Illinois on Saturday at 3:30 p.m.

Freshman Shines in Penn Loss: Newcomer Simone Sawyer had her best day with a career-high 18 points, shooting 6-for-9 from deep, tying Kayla Padilla’s record for three-pointers in a game when she was a freshman, but a second-half comeback out in the Bay Area gave San Francisco a 73-65 victory.

Padilla scored 14 against the Dons (3-2) with six rebounds while Mandy McGurk dealt five assists for the Quakers (1-4).

The threes were negated by San Francisco star Joanna Krimili, who scored 35 points and set a career mark for threes shooting 8-for-13 from beyond the arc. Kennedy Dickie scored 10 and grabbed19 rebounds.

The Quakers head down the coast to Los Angeles, playing Southern Cal on Wednesday at 5 p.m. Eastern time.

The game can be seen on the live stream link at Southern Cal’s web site.

Rutgers Finishes Last, Felled by No. 19 Texas in Battle4Atlantis: The Scarlet Knights ran into a No. 19 Texas squad that had suffered one of the biggest poll drops in the history of the AP women’s rankings, falling from third to 19 following an early in the week loss at then-No. 5 UConn, followed by unranked Marquette and in a semifinal loser semifinal, No. 6 Louisville Sunday prior to the vote for this week’s poll.

The Cardinals, who dropped to tenth, had lost to unranked Gonzaga on Saturday and earlier Monday fell to South Dakota State, 65-55, for fifth place.

The Longhorns salvaged their last contest at Rutgers’ expense 82-44, leaving first-year coach Coquese Washington’s squad with a three-game losing streak and eighth place in the eight-team field.

No one scored in double digits, freshman Kaylene Smikle with a team-high 9 points, while Chyan Cornwell had eight rebounds for the Scarlet Knights (3-4).

Texas (2-3) got 14 points from freshman Amina Muhammed, while Aaliyah Moore, Sonya Morris, and Shay Holle each scored 13 while the team had a 50-24 advantage for the second half.

Rutgers is off until Sunday, hosting Cornell, while Texas next hosts Princeton the same day at 2 p.m. Eastern time.

Marquette got to the title game beating Gonzaga in the second round, but losing Monday to UCLA, which off its upset of Tennessee in the semifinals, jumped into this week’s poll at No. 20.

That sent the Lady Vols reeling from 11th this week to a tie with Villanova for 23rd. They then lost to Gonzaga 73-72 in the fifth place game.

In the championship, decided in overtime by the Bruins (6-0), freshman Kiki Rice scored 18 points in a game featuring 10 lead changes and 11 ties.

Rice and Gina Conti, who had 16 points, combined with a perfect 4-for-4 from the line to seal the victory.

Charima Osbourne was named the tournament MVP.

Jackson State, the SWAC favorite, visits the Bruins in Pauley Pavilion on Friday in Westwood, Calif., as part of the legacy series being held by the PAC-12.

Nationally Noted: Washington State claimed the North Shore title in Laie, Hawaii, beating Troy 87-72 to improve to 4-1. The three times that participated, the other BYU, were all 1-1, but the Cougars prevailed with the largest margin of victory.

In the opening round of the Baha Mar, Pink Flamingo Tourney in Nassau, the Bahamas, No. 11 Virginia Tech beat Kentucky, 82-74; Missouri beat Wake Forest 69-47; No. 17 Utah beat Alabama, 93-86; and Mississippi beat Dayton 63-50.

The opener in the Hoops Community Classic in Savannah, Georgia, saw Fairleigh Dickinson top UIC, 63-51; Marshall over UT Martin, 70-57; Davidson over Austin Peay, 62-41; and Norfolk State over Purdue Fort Wayne 62-48.

In a single contest with no tournament attachment, Florida topped visiting Furman 77-50.

Looking Ahead:  Drexel (2-1) hosts Lehigh (2-2) at 6 p.m. in the Daskalakis Athletic Center, the two teams meeting for the first time since 2006 when the Dragons topped the Mountain Hawks 62-55.

Lehigh set a program record last week with two 90-plus point games back-to-back, a tough 99-101 contest at Minnesota and then a win Friday at home over Bloomsburg.

The Mountain Hawks are under first-year coach Addie Micir, a former Princeton star who later was an assistant at her alma mater before moving as an aide at Lehigh prior to her promotion in the offseason.

In the other game involving locals, La Salle on the heels of its 1-1 trip to the Great Alaska Shootout in Anchorage last weekend visits Lafayette at 6 p.m. in Easton, Pa.

Flohoops will carry the Drexel game while ESPN+ has the Lafayette game.

Elsewhere, Tuesday’s Hoops Community Classic matchups in Savannah have Austin Peay meeting Fairleigh Dickinson at 11:30 a.m.; UIC and Davidson play at 2 p.m.; Marshall and Purdue Fort Wayne play at 4:30 p.m.; and Norfolk State meets UT Martin at 7 p.m.

National Tidbits: No. 1 South Carolina off Sunday’s overtime win at No. 2 Stanford has moved into a three-way fourth place tie with Baylor and Texas with 47 first place rankings behind runaway UConn leader at 250, Tennessee at 112, and Louisiana Tech at 83.

Maryland is now sixth currently one behind unranked Georgia with 554 appearances, while Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer is now one behind the late, legendary Pat Summitt with 617 poll appearances.

And that is the report.