The Guru Report: Saint Joseph’s Sends North Florida South; Temple Rally Just Short; Sunday National Slate Loaded; Princeton Visits Rhode Island

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

 

PHILADELPHIA — In what has begun as a four-game stretch over the next eight days that gets more challenging each step of the way got off on the right claws for the unbeaten Saint Joseph’s Hawks Saturday afternoon in an 84-65 win over North Florida of the ASun Conference in a home contest at Hagan Arena that was even further apart than the final score suggests.

 

The versatility that has shown itself in the Saint Joseph’s attack continued to stand out, in this one with Davidison transfer Chloe Welch scoring 19 points, Julia Nystrom on fire with 16 off 5-for-6 from the field, including 4-for-5 from beyond the arc, Mackenzie Smith with 13, off 4-for-5 from the field and a perfect 3-for-3 from deep while freshman Gabby Casey scored 10 off the bench.

 

Tayla Brugler just missed double digits with nine points and Laura Ziegler grabbed six rebounds.

 

North Florida (2-7) had three players in double figures led by Lyric Swann’s 16 points, Kaila Rougier scored 15 and Emma Broerman scored 14.

 

The Hawks took the lead from the opening tip, went up by 11 off a sizzling 10-13 for 76 percent from the field, including 5-of-6 shots from beyond the arc, in the first period and went on to lead 50-31 at the half.

 

Though the offense flattened out during the third period, the defense safeguarded the lead and then right at the end Nystrom sent a three-point laser from 15 feet beyond mid-court, firing up the squad to lead by as much as 32 early in the final period.

 

“We came out shooting the ball today, got a lot of production from a lot of different players, really happy with our guard play today and our production,” said veteran coach Cindy Griffin.

 

“I thought from a defensive standpoint and an offensive standpoint, we came out punching and I thought the post players did a great job getting the ball, and we had 16 assists and I think that’s terrific, and everybody got an assist today, if they didn’t have one, they had two,” she observed.

 

As to the flow, Griffin explained, “when you’re trying to get different looks (for a shot) from different people and you’re still working through your offense, we want to take the best shot possible, and we want to hit open shots.

 

“That’s the name of the game. You want to get open shots and make them and during that stretch (3^rd quarter) we didn’t make a lot of open shots and then Julia came in at the end and hit that buzzer-beater, I thought that was phenomenal.”

 

Griffin had effusive praise for Nystrom’s performance, numbers that were second best in her career.

 

“She was due,” Griffin said. “She had been distributing the ball really well over the first six games and when given the opportunity, she was making shots for us, it was just nice to see she was a little more aggressive hunting shots today and they were going in.

 

“Julia’s spent a lot of time shooting the ball after practice, and I’m just glad all that hard work is paying off for her.”

 

The Hawks now get a chance to raise the bar the rest of the week, first heading to Boston U. of the Patriot League on Tuesday at 6 p.m. (ESPN+).

 

On Thursday No. 12 Utah, last season’s regular-season co-champs, in what is now the lame duck PAC-12 will visit at 7 p.m. on ESPN+.

 

The Utes, who a year ago picked up Southern Cal star Alissa Pili and advanced to the Elite Eight against LSU, were fourth in the Associated Press preseason women’s poll, besides being made the league favorites by the PAC-12 coaches.

 

An upset loss at nationally ranked Baylor dropped them to a tie for 10^th, and then movement elsewhere caused Utah to fall to 12^th with one more vote coming Monday at noon.

 

But perhaps that number will be a little higher in Monday’s poll after Utah closed the Saturday and its week’s slate beating state rival BYU, now a Big 12 member 87-68 at home in Salt Lake City.

 

Pili scored 23 for the winners (7-1), who a year from now will also be in the Big 12, while Lauren Gustin scored 17 for the Cougars (6-2).

 

Following the Utah game, the Hawks will host Villanova at 7 p.m. with a chance to clinch a tie for the Big Five women’s crown, the La Salle game still to be played on Jan. 15.

 

On the other side, if the Wildcats get past visiting Penn on Tuesday, they, too, would be 2-0 heading into the Saturday showdown.

 

Rider Routed by Monmouth: Though they still may be Central New Jersey rivals, Rider and Monmouth are now in in different worlds after these Hawks left the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference a year ago and ended up winning the then-named Colonial Athletic Association tournament and trip to the NCAA tournament.

 

Monmouth certainly looked like champs on Saturday afternoon riding the host Broncs to a 62-42 win at Alumni Gym in Lawrenceville, N.J.

 

The Hawks jumped to a 19-6 lead after one period and went on to improve to 3-4 overall while Rider fell to 2-5.

 

Kaci Donovan scored 23 points for Monmouth, going 7-for-14 from deep, while Taisha Exanor scored 15 points.

 

Rider had just one player scoring in double figures, Taylor Langan collecting 14 points.

 

On Wednesday the Broncs will visit ACC representative Virginia in Charlottesville at 7 p.m. on ACCNX just three days after the Cavaliers come up here to play at La Salle Sunday at 1 p.m. (ESPN+) at Tom Gola Arena.

 

Temple Falls Just Short of Pacific: In the second day of the Briann Classic at Arizona State, the Owls came almost all the way back from a 16-point deficit but just not far enough when Aleah Nelson’s second foul shot with seven seconds remaining in regulation did not drop, which would have tied it.

 

Still, Temple had another chance after getting the rebound, but Nelson missed the potential game-winner with four seconds remaining, allowing Pacific a narrow 79-78 victory.

 

Temple (3-5) finished with a split in the event, each round consisting of predetermined opponents, after having routed Xavier on Friday afternoon in suburban Phoenix.

 

The event is named in honor of former Sun Devils and WNBA star Briann January.

 

Though they did not oppose each other on the court, Arizona State coach Natsha Adair and second-year Temple coach Diane Richardson coached against each other in the formerly named Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) when Richardson coached at Towson in suburban Baltimore and Adair coached at Delaware.

 

Nelson finished with 17 points and eight assists, while Ines Piper had 10 points, Rayne Tucker had 10 points and eight rebounds, Tiarra East scored 13, Demi Washington scored 12 with six rebounds, and Tarriyonna Gary off the bench scored 11 points.

 

Pacific (5-3) got 21 points from Liz Smith, Elizabeth Elliott had a double-double 19 points and 15 rebounds, Kadie Deaton scored 12, while while Anaya James had six points and nine rebounds as the Tigers evened their event record having lost to Arizona State in the opener.

 

The scheduled final game between Xavier (0-7) and Arizona State (7-2) was cancelled when the visiting Musketeers were unable to provide enough players.

 

It’s the second time in recent weeks that Temple suffered a narrow loss, having fallen short at home in the Liacouras Center in overtime to Saint Joseph’s in a Big Five game on the eve of Thanksgiving.

 

The Owls are now off until next Sunday when they’ll host Penn in a Big Five game at 2 p.m. on ESPN+.

 

The National Scene: There was a sprinkling of overtime games and another Top 25 upset down in the lower area of this week’s Associated Press women’s poll, but in the penthouse district, No. 4 Iowa and senior Caitlin Clark continued to roll, beating visiting Bowling Green 99-65.

 

Clark, the reigning national player of the year had 24 points and 11 assists, her 47^th career double-double, while grabbing seven rebounds.

 

The Hawkeyes (8-1) shot 66.7 percent from the field, scoring 72 points inside the paint when Bowling Green (5-2) tried to bottle up Clark.

 

First-year Bowling Green coach Fred Chmiel, a previous assistant to Dawn Staley at South Carolina and also on her past Temple staff besides serving on Penn State, said of the strategy, “She’s the engine that makes them go.

 

“She’s got every award in her closet. It’s imperative you make sure you take care of her and let the chips fall where they may. We weren’t going to allow her to expose us early and get clean looks and get her wheels rolling, because then all aspects of her game take place.”

 

Iowa outrebounded the Falcons 44-27.

 

“Their size is overwhelming in the post,” Chmiel said.

 

Kate Martin scored 17 for the home team.

 

“Seventy-two paint points — those are high percentage shots,” Iowa Lisa Bluder said when becoming aware of the total. “In that diamond-and-one, we got layups. You’re going to take layups.

 

“If they’re going to take away Caitlin, we’ll take the layup. It’s no big deal.”

 

Iowa’s Sydney Affolter matched a personal best with 14 points, a perfect 7-for-7 from the field, while Sharon Goodman had 12 points and 11 rebounds. Addison O’Grady had 10 points.

 

The AP reported former UConn and WNBA great Sue Bird and actor Jason Sudeikis were seated together at the game.

 

Iowa next has an in-state rivalry game Wednesday visiting Iowa State.

 

This weekend’s upset to date saw Southern Miss, now in the Sun Belt Conference, edge No. 19 Ole Miss 61-59 at home in Hattiesburg as Dominique Davis scored 25 points. 

 

Nyla Jean deprived the Rebels (6-3) of a play with a steal, getting the ball away from Kennedy Todd-Williams to seal the win moving the Golden Eagles to a 7-0 start, their best start since 2003-04 while the win over a ranked team is the first since the 1999-2000 season. 

 

Davis gave the Golden Eagles a 60-57 lead then left having been injured on the play.

 

The Rebels’ Marquesha Davis closed it to a point with 5.6 seconds left, then Jean scored her lone point on a foul shot before the game-saving steal.

 

Minnesota beat visiting Drake 94-88 at home in double overtime, Mara Braun scoring 33 for the Golden Gophers (7-1), while Drake (5-3) got 30 from Katie Dinnebeier.

 

Michigan beat host Harvard 80-66 in Cambridge, Mass., as Lauren Hansen (16) and Laila Phelia (15) combined for 31 points.

 

CAA contender Stony Brook at home beat MAC aspirant Buffalo 83-52, Zaida Gonzalez scoring 26 and Gigi Gonzalez 22 for the winning Seawolves (6-1) while the visitors (5-2) got 17 from Chellia Wilson.

 

Defending Mountain West Conference champion UNLV dominated visiting Arizona 72-53 as Desi-Rae Young scored 21 points and grabbed nine rebounds for the Lady Rebels (8-0) while Arizona (6-2) got 21 from Kailyn Gilbert and Esmery Martinez had 14 points and 11 rebounds.

 

Looking Ahead: Locally, Villanova begins its schedule gauntlet Sunday with the best of the Ivies besides next Saturday’s showdown at Saint Joseph’s, visiting Columbia off Broadway in New York’s Upper West Side at 2 p.m. on ESPN+, while La Salle hosts Virginia at 1 p.m. at Tom Gola Arena, also on ESPN+.

 

Penn visits No. 23 Marquette at 2 p.m. in Milwaukee on FloHoops, while Delaware at 2 p.m. travels to Pittsburgh to play Atlantic 10 contender Duquesne on ESPN+.

 

No. 25 Princeton, the defending and favored Ivy champs, who visit Villanova a week from Monday, travels to Atlantic 10 favorite Rhode Island at 1 p.m. in Kingston on ESPN+, while Lehigh off its narrow win over Drexel travels to Hofstra at 2 p.m. in Hempstead, L.I., on ESPN+.

 

Nationally, there’s a lot of major dustups, highlighted by the Jimmy V triple-header, the first two on ABC followed by the third on ESPN.

 

Top-ranked South Carolina is at Duke at 1 p.m., then No. 11 UConn is at No. 11 Texas at 3 p.m.

 

At 5 p.m. No. 20 Tennessee hosts No. 16 Ohio State in Knoxville.

 

Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer is now nine wins away from passing retired Duke men’s coach Mike Krzyzewski for the combined men’s and women’s career coaching record which he holds at 1,202.

 

VanDerveer goes into Sunday’s 4 p.m. visit at Gonzaga on ESPN+ with the women’s extended mark of 1,194, 10 ahead of UConn’s Geno Auriemma.

 

On Monday, the only local has Penn State visiting West Virginia at 6 p.m. on ESPN+ prior to taking a crack next Sunday at 1 p.m. opening the Big Ten slate at No. 16 Ohio State.

 

That’s the report.