The Guru Report: Jekot Reaches 1000 as Saint Joseph’s Stays Unbeaten; Penn Handles Stony Brook; Key Wins by Maryland, Indiana and N.C. State in Challenge

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

PHILADELPHIA — Saint Joseph’s ground its way Thursday night and managed to prevail in the closing minute at home in Hagan Arena to edged Patriot League favorite Boston University 65-61 and stay unbeaten at 7-0 as grad senior Katie Jekot out of a personal family of women’s hoops talent reached her 1,000th point.

It’s a tie for the program’s second best start in history and longest season-starting win streak since a 7-0 start in 2006. 

The Terriers (4-3), who jumped to an early 7-2 lead, came down from Beantown on a four-game win streak with a homecoming celebration for senior Maggie Pina out of West Chester.

But the Hawks fought back and went ahead by as much as 13 points, though foul trouble allowed the visitors to climb back and threaten the Hawks streak in the closing minutes.

However, off the Saint Joseph’s defense and finding a way to answer the visitors’ the home team kept clinging to narrow leads until Pina, who had 22 points, shooting 7-for-11 from the field, tied it at 61-61 on a pair of foul shots with less than a minute in regulation.

Unlike this time a year ago when they were a very young group, these Hawks so far refuse to be denied as the Pride Night crowd saw for themselves.

Reigning Atlantic 10 freshman of the year Talya Brugler, who tied a career high with 23 points and also grabbed six rebounds, got to the line to can two shots and regain the lead for the Hawks.

Jaden Walker had a chance to lock up the win after the a defensive stop but missed both shots at the line.

Laura Ziegler, however, slammed back an attempt from the opposition and after Boston U. regained possession on its miss, Walker atoned for her missed free throws by forcing Pina into a turnover,

Julia Nystrom then got to the line for the Hawks to make it a four-point lead with less than two seconds and the unbeaten string remained good for another day.

“We’ve made a lot of growth,” said veteran Saint Joseph’s coach Cindy Griffin, “there’s still a lot, we missed a lot of (easy shots), fortunately it didn’t cost too much.”

Jekot became the 26th member of the storied Hawks program to reach 1,000 points.

“I was aware I neeeded eight points but I wasn’t focused on that,” she said.

Griffin lauded Jekot as a point guard who can score besides delivering the ball to others to complete a play.

For the night, Jekot scored 13, dealt six assists and grabbed five rebounds. Jekot is now 18 assists from reaching the top 10 in the program’s history.

Ziegler grabbed 12 rebounds besides her big defensive play never the end of the regulation.

Olivia Mullins again matched her previous high with 11 points, which she has achieved twice previously.

The slate is about to get a bit more challenging with Drexel coming here Sunday at 2 p.m. for a Philly Six match on ESPN+.  Next Wednesday is a trip to the north to play at Rider in Lawrenceville, N.J., followed by a key Big Five clash a week from Saturday at 2 p.m. at No. 25 Villanova.

Penn Routs Stony Brooks: The Quakers’ payback tour continued at the start of a 10-game slate of home games in The Palestra with a lopsided 73-53 win over the Seawolves, who took last year’s contest at their place on Long Island in New York.

Mandy McGurk had a career-high 18 points, propelled by four shots from deep, also a personal best. In all, the Quakers (3-5) had 12 points go down fired from beyond the arc. Jordan Obi scored 16 points, while freshman Simone Sawyer scored 12, three scores from beyond the perimeter, while it was a near triple double for Kayla Padilla with seven points, seven assists and nine rebounds.

Stony Brook (4-3) got 19 points and seven rebounds from Nairimar Vargas-Reyes, while Sherese Pittman had 13 points and nine rebounds.

“Great team effort, super proud,” Penn coach Mike McLaughlin exclaimed on his twitter account afterwards.

Next up is a visit from Bucknell of the Patriot League Tuesday at 7 p.m. on ESPN+ followed by St. Francis Brooklyn of the Northeast Conference next Thursday at 7 p.m. on the same channel.

Temple visits a week from Sunday for a Big Five clash at noon, also on ESPN+.

Nationally Notables: The two-night farewell ACC/Big Ten challenge concluded with the ACC taking the 14-game set of matchups 8-6, though Both conferences had impressive wins Thursday night after the conferences split Wednesday’s set 3-3, the highlight No. 4 Ohio State winning at No. 18 Louisville.

It was a gem of a finish from Maryland’s Diamond Miller, hitting a shot as time expired to give the No. 20 Terrapins a buzzer-beating 74-72 road win at No. 7 Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind.

As impressive a powerhouse as Maryland has been in its history under previous coach Chris Weller and current coach Brenda Frese, though this was 26th win over a Top 10 opponent in the Frese era begun in 2002-03, it was the first road win in six seasons over a Top 10 team since triumphing at then-No. 7 Louisville on Dec. 1, 2016.

Miller turned in a throw-back style performance for Maryland (7-2) in scoring 31 points, grabbing 12 rebounds, and dealing five assists, the first in a game since now WNBA Connecticut Sun star Alyssa Thomas did similar damage to Wake Forest on March 8, 2013.

In handing the Irish (6-1) their first loss of the year, the Terrapins kept combing back down the stretch every time Notre Dame tried to take command.

After the Irish tied it and hoping to get to overtime, the visitors held for the last shot and Miller made good on the play.

Frese is now one short of 600 career wins, the opportunity to reach the milestone Sunday when the Terrapins host Nebraska in a Big Ten season-opener at the XFINITY Center at 1 p.m.

“Hats off to Maryland,” said Notre Dame coach and former Irish Niele Ivey. “I thought they played a tough game and Diamond Miller had an incredible shot.”

Miller’s 30 points were the first all year allowed by the Irish.

Sonia Citron had 24 points and 10 rebounds for the home team, also connecting on 4-of-5 from deep.

“When my shots are hitting, especially from three like they were today, it definitely gives me energy and helps me play my best game.”

Olivia Miles was 6-for-9 from the field, scoring 14 points, but had to go to the bench early in foul trouble. Kylee Watson scored 10.

Notre Dame has another key game Sunday, host No. 3 Connecticut at 3 p.m. on ABC, part of the women’s section of Jimmy V tribute games.

After ESPN women’s bracket expert Charlie Creme anointed No. 5 Indiana with a No. 1 seed in his season-long simulation of the eventual NCAA tournament bracket the Hoosiers made good on the honor crushing No. 6 North Carolina 87-63 at home in Bloomington, despite the absence of Grace Berger, who suffered a recent injury on Nov. 25th against Auburn.

It was a battle of unbeatens which left Indiana improved to 80 and the No. 6 Tar Heels dropped to 6-1.

“I don’t think it was exactly a statement, Oregon transfer Sydney Parrish gushed afterwards. “I think we just played how we play, and we come out every game really prepared from our coaching staff. We just came out and played hard. It’s not really a statement for us. We should play like that every night.

Mackenzie Holmes had 26 points for Indiana, while Parrish was just off a personal best with 24 points.

Indiana had a personal high 12 shots go down from beyond the arc on the season.

“This group is special because of the firepower we do have,” Indiana coach Teri Moren said.

Kennedy Todd-Williams had 20 points for the Tar Heels, Deja Kelly scored 11, and Teonni Keys scored 10.

The ACC got its marquee win, No. 14 North Carolina State beating No. 10 Iowa 94-81 despite the host Hawkeyes in Iowa City getting 45 points from Caitlin Clark.

The winning Wolfpack are now 7-1 while Iowa fell to 5-3.

N.C. State’s Diamond Johnson scored 22 points.

The ACC benefitted from several narrow wins in Thursday’s games.

Florida State won at Wisconsin 92-87; Georgia Tech won at Michigan State 66-63; and additionally host Duke put down Northwestern 66-50; No. 9 Virginia Tech romped over visiting Nebraska 85-54 to give the ACC an overall five triumphs while the Big Ten picked up the remaining game off No. 17 Michigan winning 76-64 at Miami.

A recent announcement with ESPN announced a new challenge series will begin next season with ACC schools meeting those from the Southeastern Conference.

Elsewhere Thursday night, Columbia greeted Marist from nearby Poughkeepsie, N.Y., and at home on Schiller Court at Levien Gymnasium slammed the Red Foxes 103-54, the Lions improving to 6-2 as Paige Lauder and Abbey Hsu each scored 24 points.

“One thing that was a lot of fun about tonight was that we got to kind of restart our home season,” said Columbia coach Megan Griffith. “That was something we talked a lot about … I kind of feel like a proud mom at this point. It’s just exciting to see them put it together.”

The Columbia total is only exceeded in the record books by a 114-111 win over Penn in quadruple overtime in 1988.

Six of the Lions’ seven first games have been on the road but they’ll stay put for a Saturday visit from Lafayette on ESPN+.

Kiara Fisher had 16 points for Marist (3-4), while Julianna Bonilla scored 12, and Zaria Shazer scored 10.

Rhode Island topped visiting Buffalo 71-56, while No. 23 Gonzaga, the favorite in the West Coast Conference, beat Western Athletic Conference choice Stephen F. Austin 71-59 on the road in Nacogdoches, Texas.

Looking Ahead - Villanova/Creighton Top 25 Clash Highlights Big East Openers: Only two local teams are in action Friday, Princeton is up at America East favorite Maine, at 7 p.m. on ESPN3 but the other is a marquee one as Big East games get under way with No. 25 Villanova hosting No. 13 Creighton at 7 p.m. on Flohoops.

It’s the first time, believe it or not, that the Wildcats are home in Finneran Pavilion this season and the first since star senior Maddy Siegrist became the first in ‘Nova women’s history to join the 2000 point club.

In other games of note, South Florida will be at No. 22 Texas at 7 p.m. on the Longhorn network, while UMass visits Arizona State at 8 p.m. in the first of the three-team ASU Classic round robin.

Other Saturday games not already mentioned in this report on the local front has Rider at Navy at 11 a.m. on ESPN+ in Annapolis, Md.; Lehigh at La Salle at 2 p.m. in Tom Gola Arena on ESPN+; UMBC at Temple in the nightcap of a men’s/women’s doubleheader in the Liacouras Center. The men host VCU at 1 p.m., the women slated for 40 minutes after the men’s game ends. 

In the ASU Classic, UMass meets Missouri at 6 p.m., while the USD round-robin Winter Classic has Idaho meeting Nevada at 7 p.m.

Penn State in a Big Ten weekend tipoff game has the Lady Lions at 8:30 p.m. on the Big Ten Network.

That’s your report.