The Guru Report: No. 1 South Carolina Rallies at No. 9 LSU; Penn State Moves Into 4th in Big Ten; Duke Downs Fla. State While Syracuse Wins First Time at Notre Dame

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

 

For most of the night Thursday in the big game in the Southeastern Conference the last piece of stability in a year of ongoing upsets, No. 1 South Carolina was on the ropes at No. 9 LSU before a sellout in Baton Rouge, down by 11 earlier in the game.

 

With No. 2 UCLA losing at Utah on Monday, had the last No. 1, also unbeaten, gone down, the next AP Poll on Monday would have been the most interesting yet in terms of placing the team at the top.

 

Of course, once before South Carolina in a rarity for what normally happens managed to stay in first place after a loss.

 

However, in a game in which the starters for each team were all in double figures, at the four-minute mark the pendulum shifted with Angel Reese fouling out for the Tigers and soon thereafter Bree Hall nailed one from deep for the Gamecocks (18-0, 6-0) to snap a deadlock and they went on to a 76-70 victory over the Tigers (18-3, 5-2).

 

Interesting enough, while the story line notes the loss deprived the reigning NCAA champions of an upset, had not LSU lost to Colorado on opening day and recently to Auburn, the Tigers would have held their preseason No. 1 ranking, and the match would have been a 1-2 battle of unbeaten teams with Dawn Staley’s bunch the ones with the achieved upset.

 

It was the Gamecocks’ 15^th straight win in the series and they ended the Tigers’ 29-game home winning streak.

 

“Once we settled in, it was a dog fight and it was a game of runs,” Staley said. “They made big plays, we made big plays. It was the team that made the last play was the one who was going to win the basketball game.” 

 

While at the moment LSU has no more ranked teams on their schedule and South Carolina only has No. 8 Uconn, it could be that Tennessee could be back in the poll when either team plays the Lady Vols either on the remaining SEC slate or in the conference tournament.

 

From the other side, Tennessee with both left has an opportunity to make up for lost time.

 

“When you don't have Angel Reese on the floor the last four minutes of the game, it takes you out of your rhythm,” LSU coach Kim Mulkey said. “It takes you out of your confidence. The game came down to exactly what it usually does. It's toughness, it's experience.”

 

LSU’s Flau’jae Johnson referenced giving up threes at the end of the first two quarters and losing by six points.

 

“We have to tighten up on things like that. That was the number one team in the nation, and we were almost there,” she said.

 

Chloe Kitts had 14 points for South Carolina, Kamilla Cardoso had 11 with eight rebounds, Hall had 10 points, Raven Johnson had 13, including the score that sealed it, while Oregon transfer Te-Hina Paopao had 12.

 

Reese had 15 points and eight boards for the Tigers, DePaul transfer Aneesah Morrow had 16 and 10 boards, freshman Mikayla Williams had 12, Johnson had 10, and Louisville transfer Hailey Van Lith scored 13.

 

ACC Upsets:  No. 23 Florida State’s 88-46 loss at Duke has put the Seminoles’ poll status in jeopardy after a third straight setback while the Blue Devils (13-6, 3-2) are in seventh in the conference behind six ranked teams and just ahead of FSU (14-7, 2-5).

 

The outcome was Duke’s largest margin of victory (42) against a ranked team since 2000.

 

Ta’Niya Latson had 15 points for the visitors, while Taina Mair had 18 points for Duke, propelled by four three-pointers.

 

No. 22 Syracuse got its first win ever at No. 15 Notre Dame, the 79-65 victory keeping the Orange (17-2, 7-1) tied for first in the ACC with No. 20 North Carolina (15-5, 7-1), which beat visiting Miami 66-61 in Chapel Hill, N.C.

 

Dyaisha Fair had 25 and four makes from deep for Syracuse while Alaina Rice had 19 points and eight rebounds.

 

Freshman Hannah Hidalgo from Haddonfield, N.J., had 23 for the Irish (14-4, 5-3).

 

The loss brightens the outlook for UConn, whose injury-riddled squad on a 13-game win streak hosts Notre Dame on campus at 8 p.m. Saturday night.

 

Deja Kelly had 18 for UNC, which nearly had a 19-point lead on the Hurricanes totally erased.

 

Elsewhere Jacy Sheldon scored 25 points, while Cotie McMahon had 17 points and 11 rebounds to lead No. 12 Ohio State (16-2, 7-1) to a 67-59 win at Illinois in the Big Ten, while Yvonne Ejim had 19 points, 13 rebounds and five assists to lead No. 17 Gonzaga to an 82-45 win at Santa Clara in the West Coast Conference.

 

Back in the ACC, Kiki Jefferson had 27 points leading No. 18 Louisville 88-60 over visiting Boston College, while Elizabeth Kitley had 29 points and Georgia Amoore had 24 points and 13 assists for No. 19 Virginia Tech in an 87-69 home win over Georgia Tech. 

 

No. 7 NC State got 24 points from Madison Hayes in a 71-49 win at Clemson.

 

The Local Scene: Penn State in the Big Ten made it four straight wins, the latest beating host Northwestern 76-65 in the Welsh-Ryan Arena in suburban Chicago, all since the debut of transfer Ashley Owusu, who had 20 points against the Wildcats (7-12, 2-6) while Makenna Marisa also scored 20, including her 2,000^th career point for the Lady Lions (14-5, 5-3), now in fourth place.

 

Marisa is the seventh player in program history to reach 2,000, and third active player in the Big Ten along with Iowa’s Caitlin Clark and Indiana’s Mackenzie Holmes.

 

Owusu, who has scored 18 or more points in all four games, faces one of her former schools Sunday when Penn State hosts Maryland at 1 p.m.

 

In the only other local games, Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference preseason favorite Niagara won at Rider 81-62 in Alumni Gym in Lawrenceville, N.J., as Sage Glover scored 13 points to lead four players in double figures for the Purple Eagles (8-11, 5-4).

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The Broncs (5-12, 2-6) got 16 points from Mikayla Firebaugh and 13 from Jessika Schiffer.

 

Rider next plays Saturday at 2 p.m. (ESPN+) at Saint Peter’s in Jersey City.

 

Elsewhere in the MAAC, Fairfield (16-1, 8-0) keeps rolling, winning 74-59 at Quinnipiac (7-10, 4-4)  in Hamden, Conn., opening a two-game lead as freshman Meghan Andersen scored 19 points.

 

Looking Ahead:  There’s just one game on the Friday local card Delaware hosting Northeastern 7 p.m. in the Bob Carpenter Center on FloHoops.

 

Out west in the Pac-12, No. 6 Stanford is at Arizona at 8 p.m.; No. 3 Colorado is at No. 25 Oregon State at 10 p.m.; No. 16 Utah is at Oregon at 10 p.m.; No. 2 UCLA hosts Washington at 10 p.m.; and No. 11 Southern Cal hosts Washington State at 10 p.m.

 

On Saturday, locally, Saint Joseph’s can at least briefly take sole possession of first in the Atlantic 10 when the Hawks host Davidson at 2 p.m. (ESPN+) in Hagan Arena since Richmond doesn’t play Saint Louis until Sunday.

 

Penn also at 2 p.m. has a key Ivy game hosting Columbia in The Palestra (ESPN+), while league-leading Princeton at 7 p.m. hosts Cornell (ESPN+).

 

Rutgers is at Wisconsin in the Big Ten, while in the Patriot League Lehigh host league-leading Holy Cross at 2 p.m. and Lafayette at the same time visits Boston U., both on ESPN+.

 

And that’s the report.