The Guru Report: Princeton 36-point Turnaround in Second Half Overcomes Rutgers

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

It is unknown to the general populace what Princeton coach Carla Berube said at halftime Thursday night, her Tigers squad trailing host Rutgers 32-22 at the Scarlet Knights’ Jersey Mike’s Arena in Piscataway, N.J.

But if a wakeup call was the intent, the nationally respected Ivy squad got the message loud and clear with an overpowering 55-24 response across the next two quarters to win the battle of nearby Central Jersey schools 77-56 in the only scheduled local game of the night as the finals period continues across the NCAA.

Its even worse from the viewpoint of Rutgers (5-8), the Big Ten member, which tacked on five more points out of the break and a further extension for a 39-24 advantage, making the total rally a 53-17 differential.

The trip lever was a 17-0 eruption in the third quarter and Princeton (7-3) never trailed again.

From the standpoint of the actual differential and go-ahead measurement, the 15-point erasure is the largest since Berube became coach four seasons ago, eclipsing the previous 12-point comeback at Yale in February of 2020.

“I think their dribble penetration hurt us on the defensive end,” said Rutgers first-year coach Coquese Washington of her team’s collapse. “Got in a little bit of foul trouble. And they were able to get to the free throw line. 

“They made three threes in a row early in the third quarter that really changed the momentum of the game, so it was dribble penetration, we turned the ball over in the third and fourth quarter and in the forth quarter, we just didn’t have an offensive flow. It was really tough. I don’t think we got many assists in the fourth quarter and that’s something that we talk about,” she continued.

“We’ve got to get some consistency in terms of who’s going to show up every night and at this point of the season we’re searching for that consistency from at least five. We’ve got a level of consistency and that will help us.”

Off the start to the break, Washington said, “We did a good job of rebounding and going in transition. I thought we had some speed in our cuts in the half-court and I thought we made the extra pass very well in the first two quarters.”

Julie Cunningham scored 24 for the Tigers, shooting 8-for-13 from the field, including 4-of-5 from deep, and a perfect 4-for-4 at the line. Kaitlyn Chen scored 17, including 7-of-10 at the line, while Grace Stone, fueled making 4-9 from deep, scored 16, and Madison St. Rose was also in double figures, scoring 10 points. Ellie Mitchell grabbed 11 rebounds. Stone was 5-for-5 in the second half.

Princeton in the first two quarters was 4-for-15 from the field for 26.67 percent in the first and then 3-for-15 for 20 percent before exploding for 9-for-16 for 56.24 percent in the third and 9-for-15 for 60 percent in the fourth.

The hot second half also featured a 70 percent 7-for-10 from beyond the arc.

The ongoing short-handed eight-player roster on Rutgers side saw a wasted dynamite night from freshman reserve Kaylene Smikle who scored a career-high 26 points with eight rebounds. Awa Sidibe also scored in double figures, collecting 12 points, while Kassondra Brown scored nine points and grabbed 12 rebounds.

Smikle is the only Rutgers player to get to 20+ this season and has done so in four previous games, scoring 22 at Illinois, collecting 22 against South Dakota State, tallying 23 against Cornell, and 21 against Ohio State.

A key on the Tigers defense was outscoring the Scarlet Knights 22-10 on points off turnovers.

Princeton goes on a break until its next non-conference game on Dec. 28 with Atlantic 10 contender Rhode Island visits on Dec. 28 at 2 p.m. on ESPN+.

Rutgers completes its three-game non-conference home stand on Sunday when New Orleans visits at 2 p.m. on the subscription B1G+ network.

Nationally Noted - No. 10 UCLA Edges Southern Cal: In games involving one of two teams in the poll that the Guru had placed on his giant season daily composite schedule, a closely fought Power 5 matchup, one of the ones launching Pac-12 play among local Los Angeles rivals, unranked and previously unbeaten Southern Cal at home in the Galen Center in Los Angeles fought No. 10 UCLA to the very end before falling to the Bruins 59-56.

With 12 seconds left in regulation, Camryn Brown, whose layup with 1:50 left gave UCLA a 59-54 lead, missed a jumper that would have sealed it for the Bruins (10-1) and Destiny Littleton grabbed a rebound for USC (9-1), which called time, trailing by three.

But with two seconds on the clock, Gina Conti stole the ball from Alyson Miura putting the win in the Bruins hands.

Emily Bessoir scored 16 points for the winners, while Kiki Rice had 14 points, as did Charisma Osborne, part of her double-double that also included 13 rebounds. Conti dealt six assists.

Kadi Sissoko, born in Paris, France, scored 20 and grabbed eight rebounds for the Trojans, while Rayah Marshall had 15 points and 10 rebounds, and Littleton scored 10 and dealt seven assists.

The win came on a day UCLA learned Billie Moore, a past legendary and hall of fame coach when the program was in its formative years, passed away Wednesday at age 79 at home being treated for cancer.

Moore won a title coaching Cal-State Fullerton and then won the AIAW national title in 1978 when the tournament structure changed to its first Final Four format from a previous total finals field of 16 teams. 

She also coached the first USA Women’s Olympic squad in 1976 inMontreal  that won a silver medal and was one of the Guru’s charter voting board coaching members when the Associated Press women’s poll was activated the ensuing winter.

In the other noteworthy game on the radar, top-ranked and unbeaten South Carolina (9-0) won at South Dakota State 62-44 at the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls as Zia Cooke scored 13 of her 18 In the other noteworthy game on the radar points in the second half.

Hall of Fame coach Dawn Staley’s squad was held to a season-low 34.3 percent from the field, well off its 48.2 percent average. It’s just the third time South Carolina did not reach its 83 points-per-game  average. 

Reigning national player of the year Aliyah Boston had 12 points, eight in the second half in which she grabbed 7 of her 9 rebounds.

Syracuse transfer Kamilla Cardoso, who is in her second season with the Gamecocks, pulled down a career-high 15 rebounds, tying a personal best.

Myah Selland scored 12 for the Jackrabbits (7-5) whose record is a bit misleading in that they are one of the better mid major teams and have played a challenging non-conference schedule. Brooklyn Meyers was also in double digits with 10 points.

Though South Dakota State came within six points midway in the third period, the Gamecocks answered the thrust and in the final stanza closed the game out on an 11-0 run.

The other ranked teams that played won easily, No. 18 Baylor at home 93-27 over Tennessee State in Waco, Texas; No. 8 NC State, a lopsided 81-47 win over Davidson in Raleigh; and No. 16 Oregon, an 88-38 win over Eastern Washington in Eugene.

Unranked Alabama at home in Tuscaloosa won its sixth straight, defeating Little Rock 69-44, while Middle Tennessee State transfer Anastasia Hayes got her 500th career assists for Mississippi State in a 72-47 win at home over Florida A&M.

Looking Ahead — Temple Hosts Duquesne: Just one Friday local game, the Owls, trying to bounce back from Sunday’s tough closing seconds loss to Penn across town in The Palestra, host Duquesne, a one-time on-going in-state rival, when they were also in the Atlantic 10. Tip time is 7 p.m. in the Liacouras Center on ESPN+

Nationally, Albany, an America East contender, is visiting No. 3 Ohio State of the Big Ten at 6 p.m., while Beach Classic hosted by Long Beach in Southern California, hosts the first of two nights of predetermined matchups, the 49ers meeting Dartmouth at 6:30 p.m. on ESPN+, and UC Irvine plays Southern Miss. at 4 p.m.

On Saturday, two local road games have La Salle traveling to American Athletic Conference favorite South Florida in Tampa at 2 p.m. on ESPN+ while Rider at 1 p.m. launches its Mertro Atlantic Athletic Conference slate at 1 p.m. on the first of two Western New York stops, meeting Canisius on ESPN3.

Nationally, No. 21 Arkansas is at No. 16 Creighton at 2 p.m. on Flohoops; Seton Hall is at Fordham at 2 p.m. on ESPN+; Belmont is at Georgia at 2 p.m.; while Day 2 of the Beach Classic has Dartmouth meeting UC Irvine at 4 p.m.; while Southern Miss meets Long Beach State at 6:30 p.m. on ESPN+.

The top two West Coast Conference favorites launch the conference slate, BYU at No. 23 Gonzaga, 5 p.m. on the WCC Network.

In the Maui Classic in Hawaii, Oregon State plays Nevada at 9 p.m. followed by No. 11 LSU meeting Montana State at 11 p.m.

On Sunday as teams emerge from the finals downtime to begin a final burst of activity before the Christmas break, locally, Drexel will host Penn State here at 2 p.m. on Flohoops, the same time as previously mentioned Rutgers hosts New Orleans. Delaware at 2 p.m. will be at Lehigh in Stabler Arena in Bethlehem.

And No. 25 Villanova will meet No. 14 Iowa State at 3:30 p.m., now listed on ESPN, the second of the two-game Hall of Fame Women’s Showcase at the Mohegan Sun Arena that begins with No. 9 UConn meeting Florida State at at 1 p.m. on ESPN.

The national highlight is No. 2 Stanford hosting Tennessee at 3 p.m. on ABC.

Other Sunday games of note, Maine, the America East favorite, is at Harvard at 3 p.m. on ESPN+; Southern Cal is at Texas in Dallas as part of the PAC-12 Coast to Coast Challenge at 3:30 p.m. on ESPN2, the other women’s game in the two-gender day of events featuring No. 20 Arizona meeting No. 18 Baylor at 7:30 p.m. on ESPN2, a matchup consisting of two teams on opposite sides in the 2021 Elite Eight in Dallas.

The Maui Classic concludes with Nevada playing Montana State in Hawaii at 10 p.m. followed by No. 11 LSU playing Oregon State.

And that’s the report.