The Guru Report: Drexel Rallies Over Northeastern While Delaware Wins To go 2-0 in the CAA; VCU Shocks NC State at the Finish; Stanford’s Tara VanDerveer Earns 1,200th Victory

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

 

PHILADELPHIA — Drexel did not lead much Sunday afternoon at home in the Daskalakis Athletic Center in its Coastal (formerly Colonial) Athletic Association (CAA) contest with Northeastern from Boston.

 

But after falling behind by as many as 14 points early in the second quarter, the Dragons, who had still trailed by nine at the half, began to breathe fire in the third quarter and roared back for a two-point lead at the end of the period, setting up a tight battle the rest of the way and prevailing 67-65.

 

“When you’re playing a team like that, you really have to rely on your defense,” said Drexel coach Amy Mallon of halftime adjustments. “We were about to limit a lot what (Deja Bristol) was doing with the basket.”

 

Ten of Bristol’s points came in the first half on 5-for-7 shooting from the field, but she only scored two the rest of the way.  

 

Villanova transfer Brooke Mullin, whose three-pointer shot Drexel (7-6, 2-0 CAA) in front near the end of the third quarter, tied it 65-65 with 1:50 left in regulation.

 

“You’re looking at Brooke Mullin at key moments, in those crucial situations, you want the ball in her hands,” Mallon said. “Whether she’s taking it out of bounds, whether she’s getting it back after taking it out of bounds, because I think she’s going to make a good decision for us.

 

“That’s what your best players do on the floor. She’s certainly carrying that in a lot of ways. I keep reminding her, just be Brooke Mullin and do those things you do for us because those things are really helping us.”

 

The Dragons got a break 11 seconds later when Jaelyn Batts on the ensuing possession missed both foul shots for the Huskies (4-8, 0-2).

 

Australian Chloe Hodges, who had 17 of her team-high 21 points in the second half, scored inside with 1:01 left with what became the game-winner, though enough time remained to give Northeastern to either win the game or force overtime.

 

But Derin Erdogan, a native of Turkey and previous enrollee at Arizona, who had a game-high 27 points, including making 5-7 three-point attempts and also dealing five assists, missed a layup with 44 seconds left and Hodges grabbed the rebound.

 

Amaris Baker, who had 19 points, missed the shot for Drexel, but Grace O’Neill grabbed the offensive rebound, feeding Mullin who missed from deep with nine seconds on the clock.

 

Erdogan tried to go inside in a crowd to tie as the final seconds ticked down, but her attempt was off, sending Drexel on the road next weekend following the opening home sweep of Hampton Friday and the Huskies.

 

“I just looked around the locker room and it was a never-say-die attitude,” Hodges said of the Drexel mood at the half. “Just looking at what was open, you knew a lot of our shots weren’t falling in the first half, especially from distance, so I kind of looked more inside and get more paint touches.”

 

Mullin finished with 17 points, following her Friday performance in the win over Hampton, in which she scored 22.

 

Hodges spoke of the benefits of the non-conference schedule feeding into the start of league play, even if Drexel, in a rebuild, had a record not as well as recent seasons.

 

“It’s huge. It’s something we spoke about at the end of non-conference, it was a really tough schedule, we played a lot of tough opponents we don’t normally play at that time of of year,” Hodges explained.

 

“It’s really crucial that we had those tough moments, if we hadn’t had those opportunities, we probably wouldn’t have been able to close it out today.”

 

Drexel was able to overcome Northeastern completing nine more attempts on 3-pointers than the Dragons, who made up most of the 27-point advantage by the visitors on shooting from deep, by outscoring the Huskies by 10 off turnovers, four off inside the paint, and eight on second-chance opportunities.

 

Northeastern drew support in the crowd of friends and family of starting senior guard Maddie Vizza, a graduate of Germantown Academy from Southampton, who scored six points in 33 minutes of playing time.

 

Drexel is on the road next weekend playing at Charleston on Friday at at 7 p.m. and then at UNCW at noon on Sunday, both games streamed on FloHoops.

 

Delaware, the only other local squad in action Sunday, is also 2-0 in the CAA, the Blue Hens playing the same opponents as the Dragons, though on Friday they started in Boston at Northeastern and then were home in the Bob Carpenter Center in Newark, where they completed their sweep with a 76-61 triumph over Hampton (0-12, 0-2).

 

The Blue Hens (6-8, 2-0), who snapped a five-game losing streak Friday night, got 16 points from Chloe Wilson, Sydney Boone scored 14, and off the bench Rebecca Demeke had 12 points and Nakiyah Mays-Prince scored 11.

 

Hampton’s Camryn Hill, who tied Saint Joseph’s Talya Brugler, with a season-best 26 points by an opponent on Drexel, scored 25 on the Blue Hens.

 

Delaware has just one game this weekend, on Sunday hosting Stony Brook, which has an overall best 12-1 mark in the league. Opening tip is at 2 p.m., also streamed on FloHoops.

 

The National Scene: The list of unbeaten schools, which had six teams heading into Friday, is now sliced in half to just three after No. 13 Virginia Tech, one of last season’s Women’s Final Four, stunned visiting No. 3 NC State 63-62 in the Atlantic Coast Conference on Elizabeth Kitley’s layup from a crosscourt pass with less than a second left in regulation.

 

Earlier, Oregon State fell at No. 2 UCLA on Friday night in the PAC-12 and No. 24 West Virginia lost to No. 10 Texas in the Big 12 at home on Saturday.

 

Kitley, the reigning and preseason ACC player of the year, helped rally the Hokies (12-2, 3-0), who trailed the Wolfpack (14-1, 2-1) by 13 in the second half. 

 

She shot 12-of-24 from the field and scored 27 points, while the Georgia Amoore scored 21 points.

 

A Kitley score completed the rally with a go-ahead basket, the Hokies’ first lead, 61-60 with 1:28 left in regulation.

 

Then Saniya Rivers got it back with just under three seconds left.

 

The Wolfpack nearly got disrupted earlier in the week, being forced into overtime before beating Florida State.

 

Following Rivers’ basket, each team took a timeout, and then Cayla King tossed the lob pass inbounding cross-court to Kitley, who caught the pass and plopped it through the hoop for the game-winner.

 

“Cayla has great vision and great accuracy with that pass, and I knew that it’s worked before. So I was very, very confident,” Amoore said.

 

“We needed it,” said VT coach Kenny Brook, whose team’s two losses were to then-No. 3 Iowa and No. 7 LSU, the reigning NCAA champion who beat the Hokies in the national semifinals.

 

“We just kind of dug in and said, `Hey, we’re not trying to prove anybody wrong. We’re just going to continue to prove ourselves right,’ and that worked for us last yeark, and it continues to work for us.”

 

NC State, which got 21 points from Madison Hayes, was in a similar situation at the outset of this season, following losses through graduation, being unranked and picked low in the ACC.

 

Then the Wolfpack upset then-No. 2 Connecticut and continued to win until Kitley’s shot.

 

“I think the heartbreaking thing is we have a lot of respect for their program, and you’re two seconds away from beating them on the road,” said Wolfpack coach Wes Moore. “That’s heartbreaking. As a coach, you think I could have done something different, and we’d have won that game.”

 

The crowd of 8,925 was a sellout, the first regular season arena filler in the Hokies’ history.

 

The outcome was one of two key upsets in the ACC Sunday.

 

After being bounced from last week’s Associated Press women’s poll, North Carolina should be blasting its way back in when the new ranking is released Monday at noon following upsets of two ranked squads.

 

After beating No. 25 Syracuse, which replaced them, on Thursday, the Tar Heels won at No. 16 Notre Dame 61-57 in South Bend, Ind.

 

Reserve Indya Nivar had 16 points for UNC (11-4, 3-0 ACC), while Lexi Donarski scored 13, and Alyssa Ustby had 11 rebounds.

 

Notre Dame (10-3, 1-2) got18 points from Sonia Citron, while freshman Hannah Hidalgo from Haddonfield, N.J., continued her blistering pace with 17 points and 11 rebounds, and KK Bransford scored 12.

 

Out West in the PAC-12, the stage is set for the second showdown within two weeks between No. 2 UCLA and No. 9 Southern Cal this Sunday at 5 p.m., this time with USC doing the hosting honors.

 

The No. 2 Bruins, one of the remaining unbeaten teams in the nation, beat Oregon State 65-54 at home in Pauley Pavilion in Los Angeles, while the Trojans topped Oregon 68-54 at the Galen Center.

 

On Dec. 30 before UCLA’s first-ever regular season sellout, the Bruins won 71-64 when the Trojans were ranked sixth and also unbeaten before suffering their only loss to date.

 

In the win against Oregon State, which was knocked off the unbeaten list Friday night at USC, UCLA’s Chrisma Osborne had 15 points and eight rebounds, while Kiki Rice scored 13 for the Bruins (14-0, 3-0).

 

Londynn Jones had 12 points, including her 500^th, while Raegan Beers had 21 points for the visiting Beavers (12-2, 0-2).

 

“Oregon State is a really good team and I think they’ve proven that over and over again,” UCLA coach Cori Close said. “Credit to them. I said to our team, ‘Look, when you play in the best conference in the country, you’re going to have things exposed. You’re going to have bad habits exposed.”

 

Meanwhile at Southern Cal, freshman JuJu Watkins scoring below her average didn’t hurt the Trojans (12-1, 2-1) one bit with eight of her 17 points coming in the fourth quarter.

 

Rayah Marshall and Harvard transfer MvcKenzie Forbes each scored 16 points to complete the weekend sweep of the Oregon schools following the loss to UCLA.

 

“You know, we talked about it after the UCLA game that the next 17 (PAC-12) are the most important and the only ones we can attack right now are the two in front of us,” USC coach Lindsay Gottlieb said. “This conference is so tough and to have a whole weekend coming off the UCLA game, we knew they were must wins.”

 

Marshall and Watkins each had nine rebounds.

 

“You have to pick your poison,” Gottlieb said of the multiple scoring threats on her squad. “If you’re going to try to sell out on Watkins and make it tougher, she’s gonna get you in different ways.

 

“And she’s a two-way player. She’s going to get a ton of deflections; she can block shots and she’s obviously more than just a scorer.”

 

Oregon (9-7, 0-3) got 18 points from Grace vanSlooten, while Chance Gray and Sofia Bell each scored 11 points. Phillipina Keyei had 10 points and 11 rebounds.

 

“I thought we played pretty well and gave ourselves a chance,” said Oregon’s Kelly Graves. “Unfortunately, they made the plays down the stretch when we didn’t execute very well and they can rely on a couple of really good, elite players.

 

“We kind of played a little young there at the end.”

 

Unranked Arizona pulled an upset on visiting No. 15 Utah, edging the Utes 71-70 in overtime in Tucson as Kailyn Gilbert scored 22 points, grabbed 12 rebounds, and nailed two foul shots with one second remaining in the extra period.

 

Helena Pueyo had 20 for the Wildcats (10-5, 2-1), shooting 8-10 from the field, including 4-5 from deep, while also dishing four assists and grabbing three steals.

 

Utah’s Alissa Pili had 18 points for the visitors (11-4, 1-2).

 

It doesn’t get easier for Utah, hosting No. 8 Stanford Friday.

 

It will be a big weekend for Tara VanDerveer, who on Sunday reached 1,200 victories with the 71-59 triumph by Stanford over visiting Washington at home in Maples Pavilion in Palo Alto.

 

Extending her women’s record career mark with very triumph, VanDerveer is two short of tying the combined collegiate record of 1,202 held by retired Duke men’s coach Mike Krzyzewski.

 

That could come next weekend on the trip to Utah and No. 5 Colorado (Sunday).

 

In Sunday’s win over Washington (11-3, 1-2), whose football team plays Michigan Monday night for the collegiate championship in Division I, Cameron Brink had 16 points and 16 rebounds for the Cardinal (14-1, 3-0), while Kiki Iriafen had 19 points and nine rebounds, Hannah Jump had 13 points, and Nunu Agara scored 12.

 

“I’m really proud of our team,” VanDerveer said. “Washington has a very talented team. They’re a very well coached team. They have great shooters on their team. I think our team really stepped up, defensively.”

 

Dalayah Daniels scored 15 for the Huskies, while Ella Landine scored 12.

 

“Stanford’s a tremendous team,” said Washington coach Tina Langley. “They rebounded incredibly well, they executed really well, and they share of the ball extremely well. And so, they were who they were and that was very tough for us.”

 

In the PAC-12’s last season even Cal, in a building mode, is finding victories.

 

On Sunday in Berkeley, the Golden Bears edged Washington State 73-72 in overtime as Ugonne Onyiah made a layup for Cal (12-3, 2-1) with eight seconds left and then at the finish as the Cougars (11-5, 0-3) went for the win, Mia Mastrov stole the ball from Charlisse Leger-Walker.

 

In the remaining PAC-12 game, No. 5 Colorado won 81-68 at Arizona State (8-7, 0-3) in Tempe, as Aaronette Vonleh scored 20 points and Quay Miller had 11 points and 10 rebounds for the visiting Buffs (13-1, 3-0).

 

The Big East had just one game and No. 12 UConn continued to shake off adversity from injuries, winning 83-55 over Georgetown in the nation’s capital at the Enterainment & Sports Arena that is also the home of the WNBA Washington Mystics.

 

Aaliyah Edwards had 18 points, shooting 7-for-11 for the visiting Huskies (12-3, 4-0 Big East).

 

Hall of Fame coach Geno Auriemma, with his 1,192^nd victory remained eight behind Stanford’s VanDerveer.

 

In the wake of fifth year forward Aubrey Griffin’s injury Wednesday at Creighton in Omaha, the Huskies only had nine players in uniform against the Hoyas (12-3, 2-2), who visit Villanova Wednesday at 11:30 a.m., an early start due to the annual Education Day game attracting schools in the area.

 

Freshman Ashlynn Shade had 16 for UConn, while Paige Bueckers scored 15, Nika Muhl 14 with eight assists and four steals, and freshman KK Arnold with 12.

 

Georgetown’s Graceann Bennett had 13 points and 12 rebounds, Kelsey Ransom scored 12, and Alex Cowan had 10 points.

 

Connecticut on Wednesday will be hosting Providence.

 

In the Southeastern Conference, No. 1 South Carolikna at home in Columbia turned aside Mississippi State 85-66, Bree Hall scoring 15 points for the Gamecocks (14-0, 2-0 SEC), including a pair of consecutive shots from deep that provided some breathing room in what had been a close contest.

 

“I thought we did enough to win a basketball game, probably not enough to win the league,” said Hall of Fame coach Dawn Staley. “It seemed like it was a fun time out there. I don’t know, we’ve got to get back to disciplined basketball.”

 

Mississippi State fell to 13-4 overall and 0-2 in the league.

 

Elsewhere in the SEC, Rickea Jackson had 27 points and seven rebounds, while Jewel Spear had 21 for Tennessee in an 87-69 victory over Kentucky by the Lady Vols (9-5, 2-0 SEC) at home in Knoxville, while across the state, in Nashville, Vanderbilt (15-1, 2-0) continued its surprising play under former Connecticut star Shea Ralph with a 63-57 win over Florida.

 

No. 7 LSU (15-1, 2-0) got 21 points from Angela Reese and Mikayla Williams had 20 points, with four makes from deep, in an 84-73 win at Mississippi.

In the Big Ten, Mackenzie Holmes scored 22 points, while Sydney Parrish used six makes from deep for all but two of her 20 points and Sara Scalia likewise with five for most of her 19 points to power No. 14 Indiana (13-1, 4-0) over host Nebraska, 91-64 dropping the Huskers to 11-4 overall and 3-1 in league play. The home team’s Alexis Markowski in Pinnacle Bank Arena had 21 points in Lincoln.

The Hoosiers host Penn State on Wednesday in Bloomington.

In the only other Big Ten game an upset as Wisconsin downed host Illinois 67-61 in Champaign. The Badgers (8-6, 1-3) got 27 points and 15 points from Serah Williams, while Ronnie Porter had 14 points and 12 rebounds.  Makira Cook had 18 points for Illinois (6-7, 0-3).and Adalia Mckenzie had 13 points and 10 rebounds.

In the Atlantic 10, in another key game of matching top tier teams in conference action, VCU won at Davidson 65-55.

 

And that’s the report.