The Guru Report: Princeton Beats Quinnipiac While Drexel Downs Marist; Clark Reaches 3,000-Point Milestone in No. 4 Iowa Win; Tennessee Upset by Middle Tennessee; Unbeaten Saint Joseph’s Hosting No. 11 Utah

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

 

PRINCETON, N.J. — Riding the shoulders of Madison St. Rose and Parker Hill, Princeton bounced back from its tough loss at Rhode Island Sunday by beating Quinnipiac 79-70 at home here in Jadwin Gym Wednesday night.

 

St. Rose, who a year ago this time was still a few weeks away from breaking out to become Ivy freshman of the year, was 7-for-10 from the field for 17 points, while in her second start following Sunday, junior Parker Hill had a career-high 14 points, shooting 7-for-9 for the Tigers (6-3).

 

Ivy player of the year Kaitlyn Chen dealt 10 assists, a career-high matching a past Princeton Ivy player of the year Blake Dietrich who dished 10 helpers against Delaware on December 16^th, 2014.

 

As a unit, the Tigers sizzled shooting 58 percent from the floor.

 

The Bobcats (2-5) got 20 from Grace LaBarge, who was a perfect 6-for-6 from the field, including all 3-pointer attempts, while Anna Foley at 6-for-11 scored 13, and Jackie Grisdale scored 12.

 

 Meanwhile, Drexel came out of a long layoff to get a 51-36 win at Marist in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., while Lafayette in its first meeting and also a makeup from last season fell at No. 14 Notre Dame 96-42 and Rider lost 78-51 at Virginia at John Paul Jones Arena in Charlottesville.

 

“Came out with a lot of energy,” said Princeton coach Carla Berube. “Offensive was pretty good, we got defensive stops, we got pretty good scoring opportunities.

 

“I thought Quinnipiac did a pretty good job of keeping it close, they made some shots, boy did they make some shots.”

 

The effort was good enough to cut a Tigers’ 14-point lead to eight twice in the third quarter, but Princeton wouldn’t yield beyond and rebuilt the advantage to 17 in the fourth, good enough to withstand a closing 11-3 run.

 

Looking at the outcome from the other side, veteran Bobcats coach Tricia Fabbri said, “We had opportunities, but we just couldn’t take advantage.”

 

Quinnipiac will be back in the area down the road later this month, playing at Rider’s Alumni Gym in a Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference game in Lawrenceville.

 

Princeton on Monday heads down to Villanova at 7 p.m. on FloHoops at the Wildcats’ Finneran Pavilion before returning here Wednesday night to host Rutgers.

 

“We’ve got to do some work this weekend defensively to play against Lucy Olsen,” Berube said of Villanova’s leading scorer.

 

There will also be some revenge seeking from a year ago when the Wildcats came here the first week of the season and knocked the Tigers out of the rankings after they had become the first Ivy team to get listed in the preseason poll of the Associated Press.

 

On the play of Maddy Siegrist, Villanova replaced Princeton, fell out a few weeks later, and then jumped back in and made it all the way to 10^th place, a program-best besides advancing to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament.

 

Princeton has been in NCAA postseason simulation mode, pulling a near upset at then-No. 3 UCLA, knocking Oklahoma out of the poll, and then losing competitively to Indiana.

 

That earned the Tigers, the only Ivy team ever to appear in the AP poll, a ranking a week ago at No. 25 before being upset 60-58 at A-10 favorite Rhode Island that dropped them back out, though considering the rest of the schedule, they certainly could find their way back.

 

Drexel Tops Marist: Chloe Hodges had a career-high 18 points for the Dragons (3-3), shooting 9-for-11 from the field and grabbing seven rebounds.

 

Momo LaClair had 11 points, shooting 5-for-7, with five rebounds and two steals.

 

Drexel made it a two-way affair defensively holding the Red Foxes (2-6) to 28.6 percent from the field on the night.

 

With an 18-10 attack in the third period Marist made it briefly interesting but the Dragons led this one end-to-end and surged to the finish.

 

Now it’s home for two, the first on Saturday, playing Buffalo at 2 p.m. on FloHoops at the Daskalakis Athletic Center followed 11 days later by hosting No. 17 Florida State at 2 p.m., also on FloHoops.

 

Rider (2-6) made it interesting in ACC country in the first quarter, leading the Cavaliers 15-11 before Virginia (7-2), fresh off a winning visit to La Salle, took over 67-36 the rest of the way.

 

Makayla Firebaugh and Taylor Langan each scored 12 points, while Kaylan Deveney scored nine.

 

Camryn Taylor had a double-double 18 points and 13 rebounds for Virginia, while Alexia Smith scored 11 points.

 

Out in the Midwest, the No. 14 Irish (7-1) in South Bend, Ind., easily handled Lafayette (4-5), Haddonfield’s Hannah Hidalgo, perhaps the nation’s best freshman not named JuJu Watkins at Southern Cal, scoring 26 points, including a trio of 3-pointers, while Maddy Westbeld collected 17, Kylee Watson had 14, Nat Marshall with 12, and Anna DeWolfe with 10.

 

Lafayette’s Halee Smith scored 10.

 

The Irish turned the paint into a no woman’s land for the Leopards outscoring them 52-12 and registering 12 blocked shots.

 

The next Notre Dame game is Dec. 17 when Purdue visits the same night when pre-game ceremonies will be the unveiling of a statue of retired coach Muffet McGraw, a Big Five Hall of Famer having played at Saint Joseph’s.

 

Lafayette next hosts Monmouth Monday at 6 p.m. (ESPN+) in the Kirby Sports Center in Easton, Pa.

 

The National Scene: Caitlin Clark joined the 3,000-point club and spun more records but the night came to a happy ending for her and No. 4 Iowa courtesy of a pair of assists to Kate Martin after the Hawkeyes fell a point behind to pull away to a 67-58 victory at local rival Iowa State 67-58 in Ames.

 

“As long as we win,” the reigning national player of the year said after attaining 3,013 points, the 15^th NCAA women’s player to reach the milestone. “I probably wouldn’t be happy with scoring 3,000 points in a loss.”

 

Martin finished with 16 points for Iowa (9-1) behind 35 from Clark, who needed 22 to get to 3,000.

 

The Cyclones (4-4) got 15 points and 10 rebounds from Audi Crooks in a game with 12 lead changes and eight ties.

 

“I think coming into this, there were not a whole lot of people who thought we could genuinely win this game,” Crooks said. “I think a lot of people thought we were going to roll over and die and let them do what they wanted to do.”

 

“We know Caitlin gets all the attention, as far as defensive attention,” Iowa coach Lisa Bluder said. “People don't understand how good (Martin) is and how hard she is to guard.”

 

Iowa begins play in the Big Ten Sunday at Wisconsin and this week its game Jan. 5 at Rutgers became the seventh advance sellout in program history, the previous six all games with UConn in the old Big East era.

 

A three-pointer in the third quarter got Clark to the magic number, the second fastest to do so at 110 games behind Patricia Hoskins of Mississippi Valley State in the pre-NCAA era under the AIAW.

 

She’s the fastest woman to do so in the last 25 years and the first of either gender to gain 3,000 points, 750 rebounds and 750 assists.

 

Minnesota’s Rachel Banham (3,093) eight seasons ago and Ohio State’s Kelsey Mitchell (3,402) preceded her to the 3,000-point club playing in the Big Ten.

 

With her 41^st time scoring 30 or more points extends her mark as the most of any Division I player in the last quarter century.

 

Former Washington player Kelsey Plum, a member of the two-time WNBA Las Vegas Aces, holds the Division I record at 3,527 points set in 2017, a total topped in 1979 by Francis Marion’s Pearl Moore at 3,884, and Kansas’ Lynette Woodard at 3,649 in 1981, the season before the NCAA began sponsoring women’s competition.

 

Meanwhile after falling to 17^th place in the AP Poll earlier this week, the lowest ranking in its last 30 years after Sunday’s loss at Texas, UConn back home in Storrs beat Ball State 90-63. 

 

The Huskies (5-3) began the season No. 2 and then started getting hit with more injuries, first losing at then-unranked NC State, then to UCLA in the Caribbean and then to the Longhorns, all now in the Top 5, and the latter duo beating them for the first time in respective series, while the Wolfpack’s only other triumph came in 1998.

 

The game featured opposing sisters — Nika Muhl from Croatia on UConn who scored 4 points, and her younger sibling Hana, who scored 9 for Ball State (6-2).

 

UConn’s Aaliyah Edwards had 18 points and 12 rebounds, freshman Ashlynn Shade scored 17, and Paige Bueckers scored 15.

 

On Sunday Connecticut will play No. 24 North Carolina at the Mohegan Sun nearby in Uncasville as part of the Hall of Fame Women’s Showcase triple-header.

 

The Tar Heels (6-3) played an in-state game Wednesday night struggling until beating UNC Greensboro 81-66 at home in Chapel Hill.

After falling out of the AP Poll on Monday, Tennessee got upset losing to Middle Tennessee 73-62 in Huntsville, Ala., the first time the Lady Vols (4-5) lost in the 23-game series to the Blue Raiders (7-3)  who got 22 points from Jalynn Gregory and 12 points and 10 rebounds from Savannah Wheeler.

Karoline Striplin had a career-high 29 point for Tennessee, which lost for the first time in 18 games against in-state rivals since Kellie Harper became coach.

 

Benching Raven Johnson and Kamilla Cardoso from starting for breaking an undisclosed team rule, coach Dawn Staley’s top-ranked South Carolina (8-0) squad still cruised in beating visiting Morgan State 104-38 as Tessa Johnson scored 16 points in her first start and MiLaysia Fulwiley had 14 against the Bears (3-6).

 

Elsewhere Atlantic 10 favorite Rhode Island keeps losing at-large safety valve status if the Rams don’t win the automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.

 

Prior to Sunday’s upset of Princeton, knocking the Tigers from a brief return to the AP Poll, Rhode lsland lost at home to Quinnipiac and Wednesday night up the road in a local game, the Rams (6-4) let one get away at the end losing 51-50 at Providence (4-5).

 

Columbia (6-4) struggled at home before beating Memphis 76-66 as Abbey Hsu scored 21 points and grabbed 10 rebounds.

 

Playing in a first-ever national channel game in program history, Toledo Toledo slammed Michigan 69-46 as Quinesha Lockett scored 20 for the winning Rockets (4-2) and Laila Phelia had 16 for the Wolverines (7-2).

 

Maine beat Harvard 79-61 dropping the Crimson to 5-4 and improving to 6-4 while Stony Brook got to 7-1 with an 81-66 win over Yale (2-8).

 

Looking Ahead: Arriving at the highlight pair of games on the non-conference schedule unbeaten Saint Joseph’s (8-0) hosts PAC-12 favorite and No. 11 Utah (7-1) Thursday night at 7 p.m. (ESPN+) at Hagan Arena before hosting Villanova same time Saturday night in a Big 5 showdown.

 

La Salle Thursday night at 7 p.m. visits Lehigh (7-1) in Stabler Arena in Bethlehem, Pa., while unbeaten Old Dominion visits Delaware at 7 p.m. in the Bob Carpenter Center in Newark (FloHoops).

 

On Friday Penn visits Merrimack at 7 p.m. in North Andover, Mass., streamed on NEC Front Row.

 

And that’s the report.