The Guru Report: Washington Takes Drexel Back to First; South Carolina Edges UConn While Stanford Stunned By U Washington

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

Every point by Keishana Washington was necessary Sunday afternoon including the 40th and game-winning score giving Drexel a 66-65 win at new member Stony Brook on Long Island for sweeps of the weekend road trip, the season series, and back into first in the Colonial Athletic Association it was picked to win.

Recently dropped a scoring spot in third nationally, the fifth-year star of the Dragons scored 40 points for her 56th straight game in double figures, while once she passed 30th for her 13th career game with that stat, she passed Drexel great Gabriela Marginean, the all-time women’s scorer in Philly Six history whose mark is close to being topped by Villanova’s Maddy Siegrist.

Rescuing the Dragons (15-5, 9-2 CAA), who trailed 49-44 heading into the fourth quarter after an earlier easy meeting in Philadelphia, Washington collected 16 points in the period, shooting 7-for-9 from the field.

Maura Hendrixson dished nine assists to move into a sixth-place career deadlock at 387 with Hollie Mershon and past Maureen Michaels.

Jasmine Valentine had six of her eight points in the final 10.01 of play while grabbing all five rebounds, one less than the six for the game from Kylie Lavelle.

Washington scored the first six of the final period sending the visitors on to a five-point advantage but Stony Brook rallied back to regain the lead by a point at 63-62 with 2:11 left in regulation.

The Drexel scoring star flipped it back only to see the home team go up with two free throws until Washington got to 40 on a fadeaway at the right baseline.

Stony Brook (13-8, 7-3) had a chance to break Drexel hearts at the finish missed potential game winners.

Sherese Pittman led the home folks with 19 points and nine rebounds while Daishai Almond scored 14, and Shamarla King scored 11.

Drexel is back home Friday at 6 p.m., hosting the College of Charleston at the Daskalakis Athletic Center on Flohoops.

Meanwhile, Delaware picked up its CAA win at home in the Bob Carpenter Center in Newark, beating Northeastern 77-66 as six scored in double figures for the Blue Hens (12-9, 5-5).

Northeastern (10-11, 5-5) erased Delaware’s 20-12 start with a 25-14 second period and a 37-33 halftime lead but the Blue Hens bounced back out of the break with a 29-17 third period to take control the rest of the way.

Tara Cousins and Nakiyah Mays-Prince each scored 14 points for the winners while reserve Michele Ojo scored 13, Demi Burdick scored 12, and Jewel Smalls and reserve Rebecca Demeke each scored 10.

Northeastern, which fell at home Friday night to Drexel in Boston, got 18 points each from Derin Erdogan and Gemima Motema.

Delaware will host UNCW, coached by longtime Blue Hens mentor Tina Martin, at 7 p.m. Friday night on Flohoops.

Iowa’s Clark Triple Doubles Penn State While Rutgers Beats Wisconsin

The two other local Sunday games were out of the Big Ten where No. 6 Iowa blitzed host Penn State 95-51 in the Bryce Jordan Center in State College as Caitlin Clark, currently second in the NCAA scoring race behind Maddy Siegrist and ahead of Keishana Washington, followed up her recent 42-point performance against No. 8 Maryland by moving into a second place career tie in NCAA history with her ninth triple-double.n the 

Clark had 23 points, 14 assists, and 10 rebounds for the Hawkeyes (19-4, 11-1 Big Ten), on an eight-game win streak. She leads the NCAA with with 75 straight games scoring in double figures. 

Monica Czinano added 14 points for Iowa while scored 11 in a game Penn State (13-11, 4-9) was pounded on the boards 51-24.

The Lady Lions’ Taniyah Thompson scored 11, Leilani Kapinus scored 10, while Shay Ciezki and Marisa Mackenna each scored nine.

Iowa heads for a first place showdown at No. 4 Indiana Thursday at 6:30 p.m. on the B1G in Bloomington.

Penn State goes to Michigan State at 3 p.m. 

Rutgers in its 73-67 win over Wisconsin (7-17, 2-10 B1G) at home in Jersey Mikes’ Arena in Piscataway, N.J., overcame a tight game with 13 lead changes as Chyna Cornwell had 16 points on 6-of-8 from the field with 11 rebounds, Awa Sidibe had 15 points, six rebounds, and a career-high eight assists, Kassondra Brown scored 14, and Kaylene Smikle had 13 for the Scarlet Knights (10-14, 4-8).

First-year coach Coquese Washington praised Cornwell, saying, “That kind of consistency is remarkable for somebody that hasn’t played a ton in her first two years.”

Rutgers remains home Thursday Thursday at 7 p.m. to host Purdue on the B1G+ network.

National Look: South Carolina and LSU Stay Unbeaten Amid More Upsets

Top-ranked South Carolina added to its recent achievements in the high-powered series with No. 5 UConn, this time taking a first-year win in Huskies home arena, winning 81-77 at the XL Center in Hartford in the first meeting between the two since Dawn Staley’s squad dealt coach Geno Auriemma his first loss in an NCAA title game last April in Minneapolis.

The game was the first sellout in Hartford since 2017.

“This was a national championship-like game,” said Staley, who wore an Eagles jersey saluting the NFC Champs from her city heading to the Super Bowl this weekend in Arizona. “I wanted us to feel what it takes to do this.’

Reigning national player Of the year Aliyah Boston had a strong second half for the unbeaten Gamecocks (23-0) getting 23 of her 26 points, including 14 in the fourth period, when the differential narrowed. She completed her 76th double double with 11 rebounds.  Kamila Cardoso in her second year with Staley after transferring from Syracuse had 17 points and 11 rebounds. 

Auriemma, complaining about the officiating, got charged with a technical for spiking a water bottle on the floor. He blamed himself for a “Dumb mistake by me. Bad decision.

With the Huskies (21-3) continuing to be short-handed due to injuries, Auriemma said, “l now know more about by team than I did at noon and I feel better about my team.”

Aliyah Edwards had 25 points for UConn.”

No. 3 LSU edged Texas A&M 72-66 on the road in a Southeastern Conference game to stay unbeaten (23-0, 11-0 SEC). Angel Reese had 26 points and 22 rebounds while Aggies transfer Alexis Morris had 22 points.

Over in the PAC-12 No. 2 Stanford suffered another shocker, losing 72-67 to unranked Washington (13-9, 5-7 PAC-12) in Seattle. Elle Landine had 21 points for Washington, while Dalayah Daniels had two foul shots with eight seconds left to close the door.

“We knew if we kept putting in the work, eventually we were going to work what we deserve,” Daniels said.

 

Haley Jones had 18 points for the Cardinal (22-3, 10-2) while Brooke Demetre scored 15, and Cameron Brink had 14 points and six rebounds.

No. 22 Arizona got 33 points from Cate Reese, including four foul shots in the last 7.5 seconds of the second overtime to outlast Southern Cal 81-75 in Los Angeles. Shay Pellington and Jade Loville each had 17 points for the Wildcats (18-5, 8-4 PAC-12) who beat No. 14 UCLA in overtime Friday night for a weekend road sweep.

Destiny Littleton scored 21for the Trojans (17-6, 7-5).

In the Atlantic Coast Conference, unranked Louisville at home beat No. 11 North Carolina while No. 16 Duke triggered an upset winning at No. 9 Notre Dame 57-52 in South Bend, Ind.

Back in the Big Ten, No. 4 Indiana had no trouble handling he sellout crowd at Purdue beating the Boilermakers 69-46. No. 8 Maryland hit No. 10 Ohio State with another loss, 90-54, the Terrapins getting the job done at home in College Park.

Looking Ahead: There are no local games played till Wednesday but on the national docket Tennessee is at Mississippi State Monday night in an SEC game at 7 p.m. on the SECN while on Tuesday in the Big East Creighton is at Seton Hall 7 p.m., and No. 20 Oklahoma iis at Baylor at 8 p.m.

And that’s the report.