The Guru Report: No. 25 Oregon State Upsets No. 3 Colorado; Stanford Routs Arizona State; Delaware Downed by Northeastern

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

 

Out west Friday night a glance at the halftime scores in the Pac-12 indicated a bunch of ranked teams were going to get rocked.

 

In the end, however, a game between two of them was the only place an upset occurred as newly entered No. 25 Oregon State at home shocked No. 3 Colorado 68-62.

 

Elsewhere, No. 16 Utah won at Oregon, 58-48, No. 11 Southern Cal at home beat Washington State 70-62, No. 2 UCLA at home thumped Washington 62-44, and No. 6 Stanford won easily at Arizona State 80-50.

 

With the loss by Colorado, Stanford is likely to be in the Top 5 on Monday when the next Associated Press women’s poll is released assuming business is taken care of at Arizona on Sunday.

 

The triumph by the Cardinal (18-2, 7-1) in Tempe required a quick update to the 1203 labelled shirts given out on Sunday, the number of record-setting wins by Hall of Fame coach Tara VanDerveer in collegiate basketball, eclipsing retired Duke men’s coach Mike Krzyzewski.

 

Kiki Iriafen with 27 points and 14 rebounds, Cameron Brink with 20 points and 16 rebounds, and Hannah Jump with 13 against the Sun Devils (9-11, 1-7), got VanDerveer’s record extended to 1,204 easily in enabling her to have more career wins than all but four schools in NCAA women’s basketball.

 

The quartet are Tennessee, No. 8 Connecticut, Stanford, and James Madison.

 

VanDerveer is seven wins ahead of Hall of Fame UConn women’s coach Geno Auriemma (1197) whose Huskies host No. 15 Notre Dame in a non-conference game Saturday night at 8 p.m.

 

In the game, Jalyn Brown scored 17 points and Trayanna Crisp had 16 for Arizona State, whose coach Natasha Adair, previously at Delaware, offered flowers to VanDerveer before the opening tip.

 

Iriafen and Brink are 6-3 juniors, accounting for the bulk of Stanford’s 49-33 rebounding advantage, 44 points in the paint and seven blocked shots.

 

Brink leads all active NCAA D-I players with 358 career blocks.

 

“Having two big players out there kind of give teams, like, ‘pick your poison,’” said Iriafen. “Whoever they want to guard, the other big goes off, and vice versa. We have a lot of energy between us.”

 

VanDerveer praised her post players, saying, “They are so skilled and they complement each other very well.

 

“The second half we took care of the basketball, we got the ball inside, and there was no answer for Kiki or Cam.” 

 

UCLA (16-2, 5-2), which had lost two of its previous free games, including Monday night at Utah, got 17 points from Charisma Osborne while Londynn Jones scored thirteen.

 

Dalayah Daniels had 14 points for Washington (12-6, 2-5) and Elle Ladine scored 13.

 

Southern Cal (14-3, 2-6) snapped its two-game losing streak as JuJu Watkins, the rookie sensation, scored 29 points and grabbed 7 rebounds with three steals and three blocks. Harvard transfer Mackenzie Forbes added 22 points.

 

Tara Wallack scored 21 for Washington State (14-6, 3-4) and Eleonora Villa scored 12.

 

After the two Los Angeles members of the conference switch opponents on Sunday, each will face Stanford next weekend on the road.

 

In the upset, Donovyn Hunter and Talia von Oelhoffen each scored 16 points for Oregon State (16-3, 5-3) in the game in Corvallis. 

 

“This was just a great environment and it's really easy to play passionately in front of the crowds that we get in front of Beaver Nation,” von Oelhoffen said. “I'm proud of this group.”

 

Jaylynn Sherrod had 19 points for Colorado (16-3, 6-2).

 

“This game today got us to a different level in the progression we've been on through conference so far,” said Oregon State coach Scott Rueck. “We’re getting better and better, and it kind of just all came together today against a very good team that expects to win.”

 

Utah (15-5, 5-3) got all 16 points from Alissa Pili in the second half and recorded the 1000th win in the Utes’ history.

 

Phillipina Kyei had 19 points and 16 rebounds for Oregon (11-10, 2-6) in the game in Eugene.

 

The Local Scene: There was just one game, which involved Delaware at home in the Bob Carpenter Center in Newark, where the Blue Hens (6-12, 2-4) rallied but not enough in a 73-66 loss to Northeastern (7-9, 3-3) in the Coastal Athletic Association.

 

Ande’a had a career-high 14 points with a pair of steals and a block for Delaware, while Chloe Wilson scored 13, and Darrionna Howard scored 11.

 

Northeastern (7-9, 3-3) was led by Derin Erdogan with 15 points, seven assists and four rebounds.

 

The Blue Hens host Towson Sunday at 2 p.m. on FloHoops.

 

Looking Ahead:  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 2 p.m. hosts Cornell (ESPN+).

 

Rutgers is at Wisconsin at 3 p.m. in the Big Ten, while in the Patriot League Lehigh hosts league-leading Holy Cross at 2 p.m. and Lafayette at the same time visits Boston U., both on ESPN+.

 

Rider in the MAAC at 2 p.m. visits Saint Peter’s in Jersey City on ESPN+.

 

In the Big Ten Saturday Nebraska is at No. 5 Iowa on the Big Ten Network.

 

Elsewhere in the MAAC, league leading Fairfield hosts Canisius at 2 p.m. on ESPN+.

 

On Sunday Penn State in the Big Ten hosts Maryland at 1 p.m. as the Lady Lions go after their fifth straight victory.

 

At 2 p.m. Villanova in the Big East visits DePaul in Chicago on FloHoops while Drexel in the CAA is at league-leading Stony Brook also on FloHoops.

 

Temple at 3 p.m. is playing Tulane in New Orleans in the AAC on ESPN+.

 

Vanderbilt is at No. 1 South Carolina at 3 p.m. on the SEC Network.

 

And that’s the report.