The Guru Report: Rider Tops Iona in MAAC Play; No.3 NC State Forced to Overtime by No. 22 Florida State; Women’s Hoops Enhanced in New NCAA-ESPN Deal

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

 

In the only game by a local Thursday, Rider followed up its non-conference overtime win at Lehigh back in league competition beating reigning Metro Atlantic Athletic Champion Iona 63-57 at home in Alumni Gym in Lawrenceville, N.J.

 

It was the first MAAC victory by the Broncs (4-8, 1-2) after dropping a pair on opening weekend last month.

 

The game had six ties and five lead changes until Rider regained control in the fourth quarter with a 13-0 run to down the Gaels (5-6, 0-2).

 

Taylor Langan, named MAAC player of the week several days ago after helping deliver Lynn Milligan’s 200^th career victory, made a case for another one on Monday by scoring 25 points and grabbing 18 rebounds.

 

Teammate Makayla Firebaugh was one point better scoring 26, while Iona’s Sierra DeAngelo led her team at both ends with 17 points and eight rebounds.

 

“You’re starting to see some of the pieces we’ve been building,” Milligan said. “I'm proud of the effort we had today. We had the dynamic duo tonight, and they took care of business.

 

“I don't like to say anything is a must win, we needed that. We didn't feel good about our two (MAAC) games in December. So, to have another home game right away as your next MAAC game, it was critical for us to find a way to win this game,” she continued.

 

“I've known Taylor since she was 17 years old. She wants to win, she came here to win, and she's only with us for one year. She does a great job translating that to her teammates.”

 

It was Rider’s first win after seven losses in the long running series with Iona.

 

“We put a big emphasis this year on defense we are slowly getting to where we want to be,” said Langan, a graduate guard. “Our defense isn't perfect, but you can see, we are making little adjustments and having those adjustments peak at the right moments can help us in the long run.”

 

Firebaugh said after a loss at Virginia, “something just clicked for us. Our mentality changed, and we all just came to a point and goal where we all just want to win.”

 

The Broncs are off a week before hosting Marist next Thursday at 7 p.m. (ESPN+).

 

In another MAAC game of note, Fairfield (11-1, 3-0) won 77-54 at preseason favorite Niagara, the Purple Eagles falling to 5-8, and 2-1 in the league. The winning Stags got 30 points from Meghan Andersen.

 

Fairfield on Saturday plays at Canisius.

 

The National Scene: The bulk of Thursday’s action took place in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) and the opening of the Southeastern Conference (SEC), which put a lot of ranked teams on the slate.

 

In the ACC, after being edged out of the Associated Press women’s poll by No. 25 Syracuse, North Carolina made a case to make a quick return, beating the Orange 75-51 at home in Chapel Hill as Alyssa Ustby, one of five USBWA national honorees this week, had the first triple-double by the Tar Heels (10-4, 1-0 ACC), shooting 7-for-11 from the field for 16 points, grabbing 16 rebounds, and dishing a personal best 10 assists while also grabbing a pair of steals.

 

Lexi Donarski connected on four from deep and collected 14 points, snapping a Syracuse eight-game win streak by the Orange, who hadn’t lost since an 83-81 setback at then-No. 20 Maryland on Nov. 19.

 

Syracuse got 17 points from Dyaisha Fair and was coming off an ACC upset of then-No. 13 Notre Dame.

 

UNC in a four-game win streak goes to Notre Dame Sunday while the Orange host Boston College.

 

Over in nearby Raleigh, No. 3 NC State nearly fell from the narrowing unbeaten column but prevailed in overtime over No. 22 Florida State 88-80.

 

River Baldwin had 21 points for the winning Wolfpack (14-0, 2-0 ACC), who outscored the Seminoles 14-8 in the extra period.

 

 Reigning national freshman Ta’Niya Latson tied it for FSU (11-4, 2-1) with 35 seconds left in regulation and Saniya Rivers’ attempted game-winner was blocked by Makayla Simpson.

 

Latson scored 30 for the visitors and current freshman Zoe Brooks was 5-6 from the line in overtime.

 

Florida State visits Clemson Sunday while NC State visits No. 13 Virginia Tech the same day.

 

In three other ACC games involving ranked teams, No. 17 Louisville at home beat Duke 61-44, Virginia Tech won 82-73 at Wake Forest, Elizabeth Kitley scoring 27 for the winning Hokies; and No. 16 Notre Dame in a tight one prevailed 71-66 at Pitt, freshman Hannah Hidalgo from suburban Philadelphia scoring 24 for the Irish.

 

In the SEC, No. South Carolina (13-0) cruised at Florida 89-66, dropping the Gators to 9-4; Rickea Jackson had her best night since returning from an injury, scoring 24 points and grabbing 19 rebounds leading Tennessee to a 79-67 win at Auburn, and Vanderbilt (14-1) won at Mississippi State 71-66 as Lyanna Moore scored 29 for the Commodores. 

 

Reigning NCAA champion LSU (14-1) won its 14^th straight since the opening day upset by Colorado, the No. 7 Tigers beating visiting Missouri 92-72 as DePaul transfer Aneesah Morrow scored 25 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, and Angel Reese had 21 points and 13 rebounds.

 

In a game in the Big Ten No. 14 Indiana at home beat visiting Michigan 80-59, the winning Hoosiers (12-1, 3-0 Big Ten) getting 20 from Mackenzie Holmes, dropping the Wolverines to 11-4 and 2-1 in the league.

 

Nebraska won at Wisconsin 69-57, elsewhere in the conference.

 

Looking Ahead: The Caitlin Clark show comes to Rutgers Friday night at 6 p.m. where a sellout crowd at Jersey Mike’s Arena in Piscataway, N.J. will see the nation’s leading scoring sensation and her No. 4 Iowa teammates meet the Scarlet Knights in a game on the Big Ten network.

 

Retired Hall of Fame Rutgers coach C. Vivian Stringer will be honored before the game for her contributor honor from Naismith of Atlanta, not connected to the folks in Springfield, Mass.

 

It’s the seventh sellout in program history, the previous six in the 1990s when Rutgers battled Connecticut in the old Big East.

 

The only other two local games Drexel hosts Hampton at 6 p.m., while Delaware visits Northeastern at 7 p.m. in openers in the Coastal (former Colonial) Athletic Association.

 

Out West in the PAC-12 the highlight game has Oregon State, one of the remaining unbeaten squads visiting No. 9 Southern Cal, while elsewhere, No. 5 Colorado is at Arizona, and No. 15 Utah is at Arizona State, unbeaten No. 2 UCLA hosts Oregon, No. 8 Stanford hosts Washington State, and Cal hosts Washington.

 

Ivy League play opens Saturday – Penn is at Columbia and Princeton is at Cornell.

 

Saint Joseph’s has an early Atlantic 10 showdown while La Salle hosts Fordham..

 

Temple is at Tulsa in the American, while in the Patriot League Lafayette is at Boston U., and Lehigh hosts Loyola, Md.

 

All games begin at 2 p.m. except Temple is a 3 p.m. start in the East and all games are in ESPN+.

 

In a Big 12 game of note, unbeaten No. 24 West Virginia is at No. 10 Texas at 2 p.m. on ESPN+.

 

Notable: New NCAA Media Day Enhances Women’s Coverage

 

The long anticipated new NCAA media deal has an enhanced eight-year extension with ESPN, the women’s hoops portion valued at $65 million annually or 57% to coverage of women’s March Madness.

 

NCAA president Charlie Barker said the membership will discuss creating performance units paid out to conferences for success in the women’s tournament similar to what occurs off the men’s tourney, the Associated Press reported.

 

The deal was completed during ESPN’s exclusive negotiating window and was never placed in the open market.

 

And that’s the report.