The Guru Report - Local: LaSalle Snaps Slide And Spruill Sets Program Record; Drexel Holds First Despite Upset Loss

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

PHILADELPHIA - For the last several weeks while many of the locals were picking up wins La Salle was struggling to score and went into a three-game slide.

On Sunday afternoon here at Tom Gola Arena the Explorers were at the high end of a flipped script with shots dropping and like the Maddy Siegrist show Saturday at Villanova with her 50-point explosion, they even had a career program record broken.

With a big team third quarter La Salle pulled away to a 72-56 victory on Duquesne in the Atlantic 10 paced by 13 points from graduate student Kayla Spruill, who became the program’s new career holder for three-pointers.

Spruill, who hadn’t had much sink from beyond the arc in recent games, tied the record set by Jamie Walsh in 2010 early in the second quarter with her 208th three-pointer and then took over the top of list in the third and later in the period extended the mark for the moment to 210.

‘’She just wants to help us win,” said La Salle coach Mountain MacGillivray. “I’m super proud, but Kayla’s like, ‘I’m just doing my job.’ “She probably doesn’t even know who held it.”

MacGillivray, in a rush to get away from the arena and settled into watching the Super Bowl, wore a sweat shirt, as did his staff, with signage saying “It’s a Philly thing.”

He noted how though not many of his players are locally oriented “first with the World Series and now with the Eagles in the Super Bowl,” they’ve all gotten into the hometown spirit off La Salle’s campus at 20th St. & Olney Ave.

“I think for me being a local Philadelphian it has been really special seeing many of these kids who don’t have an interest on football, don’t have a particular team they root for or baseball. 

‘You get the Phillies in the World Series and everybody’s fired up for the Phillies. You get the Eagles into the Super Bowl, and everybody’s geeked up as I am.

“They didn’t know about the Eagles a couple of months ago. So the bandwagon is loaded up. They are a part of the city. Now, that’s so exciting for me as a Philadelphian to see kids from Australia and everywhere to have that.”

As for how the game went, “It’s been a while since we’ve seen the ball go in the basket for us,” he said. ‘The shots we took today are the same shots we’ve been taking, but today they went in. Everything else is the same things we’ve been doing.

“We were averaging 68 points in the non-conference,” he said. “The wheels went one went left, one right, one was flat. That’s part of the season. But they didn’t waiver. They brought energy and laughter and life into every practice, and it’s been a lot of fun.”

As Villanova’s Siegrist leads the nation in scoring, the Explorers (15-11, 6-5 Atlantic 10) have their own category leader in Molly Masciantonio involving assist-to-turnover ratio.

One of the local products on the squad, she scored 12 points, with seven rebounds, and six assists, committing just one turnover.

Mia Jacobs also scored 12 while grabbing eight caroms.

“When the ball goes in, I feel like everyone takes a breather,” Masciantonio said. “Today I was telling the team, ‘Defense leads to offense.’ keep up our defensive parts, because we’ll see the ball go in.”

Despite all that, this could have been a give-away sending Duquesne (15-10, 5-7) to the line 18 times in the first half but they just made eight an on the game were 17-for-30.

La Salle will be right back here Thursday morning for Education Day hosting Fordham at 11 a.m. on ESPN+.

Drexel Ambushed at Monmouth

On Friday night after the Dragons thrashed Charleston, coach Amy Mallon noted this is the moment in the season when it’s time to show separation from the rest in league races.

Then it was off to the races at Monmouth, a former MAAC team new to the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) this season.

The host Hawks, however, were the ones dashing away at the opening tip, and while Drexel mounted several rallies they came up short 70-66 in the game in West Long Branch, N.J.

The defeat in OceanFirst Bank Center prevented Drexel (18-6, 10-3 CAA) from opening a two-game lead with the season’s stretch drive under way, but William & Mary’s win over North Carolina A&T, another new member, prevented a fall back to a tie.

Keishana Washington, third in the nation in scoring, collected 32 points on the Hawks (12-12, 7-6), while Maura Hendrixson dealt eight assists.

It was Washington’s ninth of the season and 14th of her career scoting 30 or more points.

Hendrixson is now the sixth in Drexel history with 400 or more helpers.

The tightened race now has four teams just one game behind Drexel in the loss column.

Things didn’t go well either for the other local CAA squad in Delaware, which got routed by Charleston 90-56 at home in the Bob Carpenter Center in Newark.

Makayla Pippin had 18 points and seven rebounds for the Blue Hens (13-10, 6-6 CAA), while Tara Cousins scored 11 with six boards, four assists, and three steals; and Jewel Smalls had 10 points and five rebounds.

The damage from Charleston (10-13, 5-8), which had been on a similar wrong end of a lopsided game at Drexel, Friday, came from Anika McGarity, whose 10 shots from deep propelled her to 32 points, while Jada Logan had 29 points and 10 rebounds.

This weekend on Friday night at 6 p.m. Drexel will host Northeastern on FloHoops looking for a sweep while on the same network Delaware will be at Hofstra at 7 p.m. inside the David S. Mack Sports and  Exhibition Complex in Hempstead, N.Y.

Then on Sunday Drexel goes for another sweep traveling to Delaware at 2 p.m.

Rutgers Scorched at No. 5 Iowa While Penn State Downed at Michigan State in Overtime

So without telling you the score if you heard Iowa’s Caitlin Clark, the nation’s second leading scorer, not playing a full game scored 15 points with 10 assists and the visitors’ Kaylene Smikle scored 28 you might feel good on the outcome for the Scarlet Knights in their Big Ten matchup.

That assumption would be vastly off the mark.

Rutgers (10-16, 4-10 Big Ten)  landed in the wrong place at the wrong time facing an Iowa team that had just lost a first place showdown at Indiana and got plundered 111-57 by the Hawkeyes (20-5, 12-2).

This outcome was safe by the half allowing Lisa Bluder to go deep in her bench from which Molly Davis scored 17 points. Starter Monika Czinano collected 14 points, while reserves Taylor McCabe scored 12 and Hannah Stuelke scored 10.

“It’s not really that we won the game, it’s how we won the game,” said Bluder. “You can come out here and plsy, be sloppy and still win, but we didn’t do that.”

The Hawkeyes’ total was their best ever in a Big Ten game and just behind the 115 the nation’s scoring leaders dealt to Evansville earlier in the season.

“We bounced back pretty well after the Indiana disappointment, and that’s what you want from your team, right?” Bluder said.

Rutgers next hosts Northwestern Wednesday at 7 p.m. in Jersey Mike’s Arena in Piscataway, N.J.

If the Scarlet Knights were doomed early, Penn State suffered the opposite way to get hit by a loss, falling at Michigan State 81-75 in overtime at the Breslin Center in East Lansing.

Makenna Marisa scored 22 for the Lady Lions (13-12, 4-10 Big Ten), who were outscored 10-3 down the close of the extra period. Leilani Kapinus had 10 points and 11 rebounds while Shay Ciezki scored 12 and Temple transfer Alexa Williamson scored 11, shooting 5-of-6 from the field.

Michigan State (13-12, 5-9) got 21 points from Matilda Ekh, while DeeDee Hagemann scored 16, and Taiyier Parks scored 15.

Penn State next hosts No. 13 Ohio State Thursday at 7 p.m. in the Bryce Jordan Center in State College, the game airing on the main B1G.

Rider Taken by Manhattan

Coming out of last week’s win at Marist the Broncs were unable to sustain another in the MAAC despite a career-high 24 points from Ralphaela Toussaint and a Rider Division I era record 13 assists from Amanda Mobley, falling 71-56 to Manhattan at home in Alumni Gym in Lawrenceville, N.J.

Victoria Toomey had 18 points for the Broncs (6-18, 3-12 MAAC).

Dee Dee Davis scored 22 for the Jaspers (10-14, 7-8) while Bella Nascimento had 15 and Brazil Harvey- Carr scored 13.

“It was a weird game,” said Rider coach Lynn Milligan. “I felt the score was closer than it looks. They just hit a couple big shots. 

“I’m happy with our effort. To have our two post players score the way they did against one of the biggest teams is something l’m excited about.”

Mobley passed Michele Warriner and the former star Stella Johnson, who dealt 12 each. 

Prior to becoming a Division l school, the Rider all time record for assists of 15 was set by Mary Ellen Banes and Lisa Federici both during the 1981-82 season.

Rider continues the second of a four-game home stand Thursday when Saint Peter’s visits Thursday at 7 p.m. on ESPN3.

Looking Ahead

Nobody on the local scene is playing Monday or Valentine’s Day Tuesday and the six of 13 who played Sunday have their games later this week mentioned.

As for the others, on Wednesday Villanova’s Maddy Siegrist is on the cusp of another record just 11 points from the Philly Six mark set by Drexel’s Gabriela Marginean.

The No. 15 Wildcats head to St. John’s in Carneseca Arena in Queens, N.Y. at 7 p.m. on FloHoops, the Red Storm seeking revenge for the fourth quarter rally last month that carried Villanova to victory. 

On Saturday, the ‘Cats, who nearly upset No. 4 UConn again last month in Hartford host the Huskies at 2:30 p.m. on the main FOX network in Finneran Pavilion.

Saint Joseph’s on Wednesday completes a two-game road trip in the Atlantic 10 visiting Davidson at 7 p.m. on ESPN+ and then on Sunday hosts Rhode Island, currently unbeaten in league play, at 2 p.m. on ESPN+. Last month the Hawks fell to the Rams in Kingston in overtime.

In the Patriot League on Wednesday Lehigh is at Navy at 7 p.m. in Annapolis, Md., on ESPN+ while on the same network Lafayette hosts Loyola, Md., at 6 p.m. in the Kirby Sports Arena.

Coming up this weekend from the Ivy local duo, Penn and Princeton can virtually lock up two of the four conference tournament berths for next month at Princeton’s Jadwin Gym by winning at Yale. 

The Quakers get first crack Friday night at 6 p.m. in the John Lee Amphitheater in New Haven, Conn., before moving up to Providence, R.I., Saturday for a 5 p.m. tip at Brown.

Princeton starts at Brown, Friday, at 7 p.m., before heading south to play the Bulldogs at 5 p.m. All four games will air on ESPN+.

Temple is off all week until Saturday when Houston, which just upset No. 25 and American Athletic Conference leader South Florida, visits the Liacouras Center at 2 p.m. as the Owls try to snap a three-game losing streak.

And that’s the local report.