The Guru Report: Aleah Nelson’s Hot Night Leads Temple Over Delaware For Second Straight and Reaching .500

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

 

PHILADELPHIA — Following a game for achieving a milestone for the dish with her 500^th assist, Temple grad guard Aleah Nelson was all about the swish Thursday night at home in the Liacouras Center, scoring 22 points as the Owls defeated nearby Delaware 72-65 to get to .500 with their first set of consecutive wins since a three-game streak crossing over from the end of January into February last season.

 

Of her standout night, Nelson said, “I felt confident against the zone they were playing. You just have to take advantage of what the defense gives you and they gave me open threes and I decided to shoot them, and they were falling today.”

 

Nelson connected on 5-of-6 from the beyond the arc.

 

Picking up the theme from Sunday’s Big Five win over Penn here, the theme was defense, a necessity since every time Temple (5-5) seemed ready to run away with the game, the Blue Hens (4-6) would move within striking distance only to have the Owls answer the threat.

 

“I believe they are buying in that defense really wins games,” Temple second-year coach Diane Richardson said. “We spent some time on that last week, and they really see it now where they understand that we can’t trade baskets, we have to get stops.”

 

The key moment came at the outset of the fourth quarter when the Delaware went on an 8-2 run to move within a point at 57-56 only to have Tiarra East nail a shot from deep with 5:23 left in regulation and turn it into a four-point play when she was sent to the line being fouled on the successful attempt.

 

The Blue Hens were still not ready to surrender, an exchange of runs seeing them move within three 63-60 with less than four minutes to play.

 

But the Owls outscored the opposition 6-3 to make it 69-63 with 1:11 left and the cushion was enough to prevail at the finish.

 

“We just had to stay composed and relaxed every time they got the lead down to two or three,” Nelson said. “We are a good team, and we just have to trust our mechanics and what the coaches say and make sure we stay calm.”

 

The loss for Delaware was its third straight.

 

The game was a reunion of sorts between the two second-year coaches at their current programs because the Blue Hens’ Sarah Jenkins’ first season as a player before transferring to Georgetown was spent at Maryland when Richardson was on the staff.

 

“I’ve been a mentor to her and she’s a sponge,” Richardson said in terms of not letting Jenkins know too much to take advantage of the Owls.

 

The year 2015 was involved twice in the contest, being the last time, the two teams met, but Thursday’s win snapped an 11-11 series tie in the Owls’ favor.

 

Temple’s nifty 8-for-14 from deep, Nelson a huge factor, for 57.1 percent was the team’s best since Valentine’s Day of that year when the Owls went 58.3 percent against Houston.

 

Besides drawing even on the season, the number 500 was repeated from Sunday’s game, in this instance, during the contest Denise Solis grabbed her 500^th career rebound, the 25^th player in program history to do so.

 

Nelson also had five rebounds, three steals, and five assists, while East scored 15, and Rayne Tucker doubled with 10 points and 10 rebounds.

 

Delaware’s Sydney Boone scored 16 points, Nakiyah Mays-Prince scored 13, and Chloe Wilson scored 11 with 11 rebounds.

 

The Blue Hens are off until Dec. 21 traveling to in-state rival Delaware State.

 

If Temple is finally rounding into shape, finishing up the non-conference schedule before beginning play in the American Athletic Conference can create momentum.

 

The Owls travel to La Salle at 1 p.m. Sunday at Tom Gola Arena (ESPN+) attempting to finish up 2-2 in the Big Five while a win for the young Explorers (0-1) keeps them mathematically alive for a tie in City Series play.

 

Then Thursday, Northwestern, coached by Father Judge grad Joe McKeown, who had a long stint at George Washington previously, visits at 11 a.m. before the holiday break.

 

Both programs have been struggling, and news out of AAC favorite South Florida earlier on Thursday might impact the race to becoming a bit open with word that reigning newcomer of the year Sammie Puisis will be lost the rest of the season with a knee injury.

 

“The goal is to play some tough teams before conference play to get prepared,” Richardson said. “Like we did the last couple of games we just fought defensively so we are prepared for conference.

 

“As long as we continue to have that uptick in defense, we will be ready for conference play.”

 

The National Scene: As has been noted, it’s finals period, impacting the number of nightly games being.

 

Only two were placed on the radar tracker for Thursday – Chattanooga, a team considered a contender in the Southern Conference, rang up a 72-62 win at Lipscomb, a team picked high in the ASUN.

 

Jada Guinn scored 24 points and grabbed nine rebounds for the winning Mocs (10-1), who were 12-for26 from deep. Addie Porter’s 12 points, all by way of 4-of-8 from beyond the arc, and freshman Caia Elisaldez’s 11 points helped support the attack.

 

Four of five starters for Lipscomb (6-4) scored in double figures: Molly Heard with 15 points and five boards; Bella Vinson with 14 points; Blythe Pearson with 13; and Aleah Sorrentino with 11 points and 10 rebounds.

 

Mississippi State (10-2) of the SEC beat SWAC contender Jackson State 82-72 as Debreasha Powell scored 21 points, Jerkaila Jordan had 19 points and 12 rebounds, Jessika Carter had 17 points and 18 rebounds, and Erynn Barnum also had 17 points.

 

Angel Jackson had 20 points and 12 rebounds for the Tigers (5-4) and reserve Hayleigh Breland scored 15 points.

 

Looking Ahead: No locals are playing Friday, while No. 25 North Carolina (6-4) will try to avoid falling out of the rankings hosting Western Carolina in Chapel Hill.

 

No. 9 Stanford (8-1) plays its first game since being routed at then-unranked Gonzaga hosting Portland (6-5) on the PAC-12 Network.

 

On day one of the Beach Classic, Colorado State visits Long Beach State.

 

Saturday will see Villanova visiting St. John’s at 6 p.m. in Madison Square Garden in New York City (FloHoops), the start of Big East play for both teams, and Rider travels to Manhattan at 2 p.m. in Riverdale outside the city as both begin play in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) (ESPN+).

 

On Sunday, Rutgers will host No. 16 Virginia Tech at 5:30 p.m. on FS1, while Penn State will host St. Francis (Pa.) in the Bryce Jordan Center at 1 p.m. Drexel will host No. 22 Florida State at 2 p.m. in the Daskalakis Athletic Center (FloHoops).

 

Games of note on the national schedule Saturday has No. 18 Louisville playing No. 17 Connecticut at noon in the XL Center in Hartford at noon.

 

No. 23 UNLV is at Seton Hall at 1 p.m.; Liberty is at Richmond at 2 p.m.; No. 24 Miami is playing No. 10 Baylor in San Antonio, Texas, at 5 p.m., part of the Hall of Fame series; No. 3 NC State is at South Florida at 7 p.m.; Cleveland State is at No. 4 Iowa at 7 p.m. on the Big Ten network.

 

The Beach Classic on the second day has Long Beach State hosting Pacific while Colorado State plays UC Irvine.

 

On Sunday, Purdue is at No. 14 Notre Dame at noon on the ACC Network, James Madison is at Maine at 1 p.m. on ESPN+, Arizona kicks off its PAC-12 schedule visiting Arizona State at 7 p.m. on the league network, and No. 20 Creighton is at Drake at 3 p.m. on ESPN+.

 

And that’s the report.