The Guru Report: Rider Eliminated in MAAC; No. 21 UNLV Wins 2nd Mountain West
By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru
Top seeds were still getting dinged in conference postseason tournaments that were played Wednesday as the calendar continued to tick off the final days until the arrival of Selection Sunday night and the 8 p.m. broadcast on ESPN in which the 68-team field and draw of the NCAA women’s tournament is revealed.
In the Big Sky championship, No. 1 seed Northern Arizona fell behind early to Sacramento State and lost to second seeded Sacramento State, who claimed a 76-63 triumph and the automatic bid in Boise, Idaho.
Technically, it was no major upset in that the Hornets were part of a three-way tie for first with Wednesday’s opponent and Montana State.
Still, the outcome is Sacramento’s first as the Big Sky tourney champ and the win total is also a program first, the season-ending win streak increased to nine to go on the NCAA board with a 25-7 record.
Khalaijah Dean earned most valuable player honors and was joined on the all-tournament team by sister Hornet Isnelle Natabou, making It the first time Sacramento State placed two on the honor citation group besides one gaining the MVP award.
Jordan Olivares had a career-high 26 points, shooting 9-of-15 from the field, while Kaylin Randhawa had a career-best 20 points, including four from deep.
Dean had 16 points and nine rebounds, her 23rd straight game in double figures and the 31st time out of the last 32.
By halftime the die was cast against the Lumberjacks, who trailed the Hornets 37-22.
That deficit would grow to 20, though it was shrunk to 10 points early in the fourth before Sacramento State rebuilt the margin to 167 points.
Northern Arizona (21-13), who had a similar 13-5 mark in Big Sky play in the regular season, got 18 points from Emily Rodabaugh, while Regan Schenck scored 12, and Olivia Moran scored 10.
Rider Falls Short of Niagara
The 10th-seeded Broncs’ season came to an end off a narrow 67-64 loss to second-seeded Niagara in a quarterfinals game in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference tournament at Jim Whelan Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City.
Rider (10-21) went down fighting, however, after trailing by 10 with six minutes left in regulation.
That advantage by the Purple Eagles (18-11) fell to just a basket off a run featuring nine straight points from Mikayla Firebaugh and a layup from grad player Amanda Mobley.
It was a one-point Niagara lead at 63-62 with 1:08 to play but turnovers disrupted multiple Rider opportunities to tie the game, the last hurrah ended with an offensive foul.
“…we didn’t get it done today,” said longtime Rider coach Lynn Milligan. It wasn’t for a lack of heart, lack of soul, effort, want, desire, connectedness, togetherness, all of what goes into who we are. We just came up short.
“It’s no secret, you know hos Niagara plays, but it’s only frustrating if you let it get to you. Bottom line is we lost by three, and we had the ball in our hands with a chance to win it. We put ourselves in a position to win the ballgame.”
Niagara swept all three games with the Broncs this season.
Firebaugh scored 27 points to enter next season as a senior with 1,048 points.
Victoria Toomey scored 13.
Aaliyah Parker scored 18 for Niagara, while Angel Parker scored 17.
The Purple Eagles, coached by Jada Pierce, a West Chester graduate and former assistant at Delaware and Saint Joseph’s, as well as head coach at Cheyney, in Friday’s semifinals will meet Thursday’s quarterfinals winner between third-seeded Quinnipiac and sixth-seeded Manhattan at 1:30 p.m.
In the other quarterfinal game top-seeded Iona, in a low-scoring affair, barely edged eighth-seeded and MAAC newcomer Mount St. Mary’s 39-37 to advance to Friday’s other semifinal at 11 a.m. against Thursday’s winner between fourth-seeded Siena and fifth-seeded Fairfield.
The winning Gaels (24-6) got 14 points from Kate Mager, while Juana Camilion got 10 points, 13 rebounds and six assists, and Ketsia Athias 10 points, 14 rebounds and six assists.
Natalie Villaflor had 13 points for Mount St. Mary’s (12-19) and Isabella Hunt had 12 rebounds.
Iona went ahead 38-37 with 24 seconds left on a layup from Camilion, the MAAC player of the year.
Failing to extend that total with two missed free throws, the Gaels afforded the Mountaineers a chance to win it at the final buzzer, but they were unable to launch a shot.
No. 21 UNLV Claims Second Straight Mountain West Title
The Lady Rebels (31-2) won their 22nd straight game and repeated as Mountain West champions with a 71-60 triumph over second-seeded Wyoming in Las Vegas.
Desi-Rae Young scored 28 points for UNLV with 17 rebounds, while Essence Booker had 19 points, and A. Durazo-Frescas was 4-of-6 from the field for all 12 of her points.
Wyoming (22-10) got 13 points from Tess Barnes, and substitute Emily Mellema and Grace Ellis each scored 10.
Nationally Noting Elsewhere: Toledo Edges Buffalo in Overtime in MAC Tourney
After being taken down a year ago as a top seed in the Mid-American Conference tourney, it was almost over before getting started this time around for Toledo, which edged Buffalo 75-74 in overtime in a quarterfinal game at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse in Cleveland.
Quinesha Locxkett scored 19 for the Rockets (26-4) with a key defensive stop to down their eighth-seeded opponent.
Jayda Jansen’s two foul shots with 14.5 seconds left put Toledo up and then Locket tied up Re Shawna Stone on an attempted game winner for Buffalo (12-16).
They retained possession but the ensuing shot attempt did not drop, enabling Toledo to win their 14th-straight, fourth best in program history and three short of setting a record.
“That’s March,” said Toledo coach Tricia Cullop. “Everybody’s playing for their life right now. We did not give up. We were relentless. They’ve been my Cardiac kids the last three games, trying to give me a heart attack.”
Lockett was five-of-seven from deep and matched a personal best with seven assists.
Nan Garcia, shooting 8-of-10 from the field, scored 17, while Sammi Mikonowicz scored 12 with a game-high nine rebounds.
The Bulls had eight threes in the first half before the Toledo defense stopped them from deep the rest of the way.
Buffalo’s Zakiyah Winfield scored 22 while stone scored 18.
Toledo will play Kent State (21-9) in Friday’s 10 a.m. semifinal before Ball State (25-7) and Bowling Green (26-5) meet at 12:30 p.m.
The Golden Flashes advanced beating Northern Illinois 87-46.
The other semi has Ball State (25-7) facing Bowling Green (26-5).
Top-seed UC Irvine fell to ninth-seed Cal State Bakersfield 61-59 in a Big West quarterfinal game in double overtime at the Dollar Loan Center in Henderson, Nevada.
Taylor Caldwell’s jumper with 22 seconds left in the second overtime for CSUB (8-22) gave them the lead.
On the ensuing possession, Diaba Konate missed a layup for UC Irvine (24-6) and Hennie van Schaik grabbed a game-clinching rebound with six seconds left for the winner.
Kayla Morris tied it for Bakersfield 50-50 in regulation with 18 seconds left 50-50 but was unable to score before time ran out when the ball came back.
Irvine’s Nyagoa Gony made a jumper to tie it 55-55 for Irvine as time ran out in the first overtime.
Caldwell had 19 points for Bakersfield, Morris scored 18, and van Schaik had 14 rebounds.
The Anteaters’ Deja Lee off the bench scored 18, while Gony grabbed 10 rebounds, Nevaeh Parkinson grabbed 12 rebounds.
Looking Ahead: Delaware gets started in Colonial Athletic Association second-round play meeting new member Hampton at noon at Towson’s SECU Arena Thursday in suburban Baltimore.
Drexel has two byes in the tourney as the second seed, waiting till Friday’s quarterfinals to play Thursday’s winner between Charleston and Monmouth.
The Ivy Madness weekend at Princeton begins Thursday with preview press conferences for the four women’s teams, the men’s teams don’t begin their previews until Friday.
In Friday’s semifinals fourth-seeded Penn (17-10) plays top-seeded Princeton (21-5) at 4:30 p.m. followed by second-seeded Columbia (23-4), which tied the Tigers for the regular season crown, playing third-seeded Harvard (16-10), which was tied for third by Penn.
The winners on the women’s side meet Saturday.
No. 25 Middle Tennessee (25-4), one of the few ranked teams playing this week, the others done in the first wave of tourneys now completed, opens C-USA quarterfinal play meeting Charlotte (12-18), Thursday.
The Southland Thursday gets decided when Lamar (20-11) meets SE Louisiana (20-9) at 5 p.m.
Top-seed Boston U. hosts Army at 6 p.m. in a Patriot League semifinals Thursday before Lehigh, the third seed, is hosted by second-seeded Holy Cross at 7 p.m.
The American Athletic Conference crown gets determined Thursday at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas, when Houston (15-15) and East Carolina (22-9) meet at 9 p.m. on ESPNU.
In the America East, the championship gets decided Friday night when top-seed Vermont (24-6) hosts Albany (22-10) at 5 p.m. on ESPNU.
The remaining conferences will settle either Saturday or a few, like the CAA, Sunday afternoon several hours before the NCAA show begins.
And that’s the report.
posted by Mel Greenberg | 3:22 AM
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