The Guru Report: Drexel Loses CAA Game at Charleston; Narrow Stanford PAC-12 Win at Utah Brings Tara VanDerveer Within One of Tying the All-Time College Win Total

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopshguru

 

In the only local action on an overall limited slate Friday night, Drexel on the road took its first loss of the season in the Coastal Athletic Association, falling 60-48 to Charleston, a team looking to become one of top contenders for a top seed in the league tourney in Washington when March Madness arrives on the calendar.

 

Out West, Stanford’s Tara VanDerveer guided her No. 8 Cardinal in the PAC-12 to a very narrow 66-64 outcome at No. 19 Utah in Salt Lake City, moving within a game of tying retired Duke men’s coach Mike Krzyzewski for the all-time collegiate leader in coaching victories at 1,202.

 

Meanwhile, to go over Drexel (7-7, 2-1 CAA) first, three Dragons did score in double figures, but just not quite the size that was reached before league play began last weekend, and certainly far below a year ago when now graduated Keishana Washington was among the top three scorers in the nation with Villanova’s Maddy Siegrist and Iowa’s Caitlin Clark.

 

Jasmine Valentine had a career-high 11 points, while Amaris Baker and Chloe Hodges each scored 10. Villanova transfer Brooke Mullin was held to five points on a 2-12 shooting night from the field, although she did dish five assists.

 

Momo LeClair grabbed eight rebounds.

 

Drexel’s defense did do its job on what had become one of the league’s high-powered offenses, trailing 14-11 after one quarter and 29-22 at the half.

 

But Charleston (11-3, 3-0) added six more to the differential in the third period.

 

Alexis Andrews had 18 points for the host Cougars, while Taryn Barbot scored 12, and reserve Jada Logan scored 10.

 

This is a road weekend that has had its potholes for the Dragons in the past, though they have usually survived to be in good shape at the outset of CAA tourneys.

 

But Charleston is now a team rising among the leaders, replacing such daunting foes of yesteryear as longtime local rival Delaware, which will at some point be moving to Conference USA, and former members James Madison and Old Dominion, to name a few.

 

Drexel finishes the weekend journey Sunday at UNC Wilmington at noon on FloHoops, the same day Delaware comes off its Friday night bye to host Stony Brook at 2 p.m. on FloHoops in the Bob Carpenter Center in Newark.

 

Stony Brook (13-1, 3-0), which joined the conference last year and is tied with Charleston for the lead in the CAA for the moment, stayed hot Friday night winning 77-65 at Towson (8-5, 1-2) in suburban Baltimore.

 

The winning Seawolves got 30 points from Gigi Gonzalez, while Khari Clark had a double double 10 points and 10 rebounds, Sherese Pittman scored 14, and Zaida Gonzalez scored 10.

 

The Tigers, under second-year coach Laura Harper, a former Maryland star and graduate of Cheltenham High, got 17 points and eight rebounds from Kylie Kornegay-Lucas.

 

The National Scene:  The rest of the night, as every Friday till March, belonged to the PAC-12 and back at Utah, VanDerveer’s total, which is the women’s record once held by the late Tennessee legend Pat Summitt, is now at 1201.

 

That’s eight ahead of No. 13 UConn coach Geno Auriemma, whose Huskies will be at St. John’s for a Big East game Saturday at 2 p.m.

 

VanDerveer could tie the combined gender record Sunday when the Cardinal (15-1, 4-0) have an engagement at No. 5 Colorado (14-1, 4-0) in Boulder at 2 p.m.

 

The conference has another big game Sunday, No. 2 UCLA, one of two unbeaten Division I teams left with top-ranked South Carolina, goes across town in Los Angeles to play No. 9 Southern Cal in the Galen Center after having beaten the then unbeaten Trojans and ranked No. 6 two weeks ago at home before a first-ever regular season sellout at Pauley Pavilion.

 

In the win by Stanford, Kiki Iriafen had 25 points and 16 rebounds, while Hannah Jump scored 12, and Cameron Brink scored nine.

 

“It was a battle for 40 minutes,” Iriafen said. “It was a grind and at the end I just said, ‘Thank you God, the game is over.’”

 

“Kiki really stepped up and made big baskets,”. VanDerveer said. “This win was huge in this environment.”

 

Talana Lepolo extended the lead to two with a free throw with two seconds left and then Utah’s Alissa Pili missed an attempted game-winning three-pointer as time expired.

 

She had 16 points for the Utes (11-5, 1-3) but was 5-for-18 from the field. Jenna Johnson added 15 points for the home team, which Sunday hosts California.

 

Elsewhere Friday night in the PAC-12, Colorado easily beat California 76-61 as Aaronette Vonleh scored 19 for the Buffs, who upset then-No. 1 LSU, the reigning NCAA champion, in Las Vegas on opening day but later suffered its sole loss at Baylor.

 

Quay Miller had 12 points and 12 rebounds for Colorado. Frida Formann scored all 14 of her points in the second half.

 

California (12-4, 2-2), picked 11^th in the league’s preseason polls, got 14 points from Marta Suarez and 11 from Ioanna Krimili.

 

In two other league games, Oregon beat visiting Arizona State 65-53 and Oregon State beat visiting Arizona 73-70 in double overtime.

 

Looking Ahead: On Saturday, locally, Rider hosts Canisius at Alumni Gym in Lawrenceville, N.J., for a MAAC game at 2 p.m. on ESPN+, in the Atlantic 10, Saint Joseph’s host Duquesne at noon, while La Salle no earlier than 3 p.m. after the men’s game, hosts Massschusetts, both on ESPN+; Villanova has a Big East visit to Butler in Indianapolis at 7:30 p.m. on FloHoops; in the Ivy League, Penn is at Dartmouth, 1 p.m,. in Hanover, N.H. while a showdown game features Princeton at Harvard in Cambridge, Mass., at 2 p.m., both on ESPN+; and in the Patriot League Lehigh visits Holy Cross at 2 p.m. in Worcester, Mass., while Lafayette visits Navy at 1 p.m. in Annapolis, Md., both on ESPN+.

 

 On Sunday, locally, besides Penn State at Rutgers at 2 p.m., at Jersey Mike’s Arena in Piscataway, N.J., Temple hosts Memphis at 2 p.m. for an American Athletic Conference game in the Liacouras Center on ESPN+; Drexel and Delaware in the CAA were mentioned above.

 

Nationally at 8 p.m. Saturday on FOX, the Big Ten battle of unbeaten leaders has No. 14 Indiana at No. 3 Iowa.

 

No. 13 UConn is at St. John’s at 2 p.m. in Queens, N.Y. on SNY.

 

ON Sunday in the Atlantic 10 Rhode Island is at Richmond at noon on CBSSN.

 

And that’s the report.