The Guru Report: Rutgers and Rider Swept; Vanderbilt and Fairfield Still Streaking; Florida State Tops North Carolina

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

 

 The New Jersey duo of Rutgers and Rider came up empty in separate conference road trips Thursday night as the only locals on the daily slate.

 

In the Big Ten, Rutgers is still looking for its first conference win after being downed by another heavyweight, losing 90-55 at No. 17 Ohio State in Columbus.

 

Overall, it was the seventh straight setback by the Scarlet Knights (6-12, 0-5 Big Ten) who last won on Dec. 5 when La Salle paid an out of league visit from Philadelphia.

 

Madison Greene scored 16 points for the host Buckeyes (12-3, 3-1), who forced the visitors into 28 turnovers good for 36 points. Jacy Sheldon, who had eight of 13 OSU steals, joined Cotie McMahon with 11 points each, just under the 12 points from teammate Cotie McMahon.

 

Greene was 4-of-6 from deep on a night the entire squad was 11 of 26 from the perimeter.

 

Rutgers bright spots came from Destiny Adams with 18 points and Mya Petticord with 10, while Chyna Cornwell had 13 rebounds in a game well decided by the Buckeyes with a 51-22 halftime lead.

 

Next up for both is on Sunday when longtime rival Penn State visits the Scarlet Knights at 2 p.m. on the subscription B1G+ network at Jersey Mike’s Arena while Michigan State is the next OSU visitor at 4 p.m. on the main B1G network.

 

Meanwhile, Rider’s two-game winning streak got short-circuited in a Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference game (MAAC) by Marist 65-55 in Poughkeepsie, N.Y.

 

The host Red Foxes (3-11, 1-4) snapped a 10-game losing streak last being triumphant at Lafayette in overtime on Nov. 15.

 

Zaria Shazer scored 27 points for Marist with eight rebounds while Kiara Fisher had 13 points and nine rebounds.

 

The Broncs’ Jessika Schiffer and Taylor Langan each scored 13 points while Langan completed a double double with 13 rebounds as Rider fell to 4-9 overall and 1-3 in the MAAC.

 

Canisius visits the Broncs Saturday at Alumni Gym at 2 p.m. on ESPN+ in Lawrenceville, N.J.

 

Elsewhere in the MAAC on Thursday Fairfield (13-1, 5-0) continued to roll with a one-game lead by beating visiting Iona 72-44. 

 

Izabela Nicoletti Leite had 18 points for the Stags while freshman Meghan Andersen, who won both MAAC player and rookie awards this week, scored 10 points.

 

Niagara (6-9, 3-2), the preseason pick by the MAAC coaches, was edged 66-64 at Siena (6-7, 3-2) in suburban Albany, N.Y., which went in front on Teresa Seppala’s Layup with 22 seconds left in regulation.

 

Angel Parker missed a layup with seven seconds left trying to get the lead back then fouled Cianya Conyers who went 1-2 from the line.

 

On the possession Parker missed an attempted game-winning 3-pointer as time expired.

 

The National Scene: Top-ranked South Carolina, one of two unbeaten teams left in the nation besides the PAC-12’s UCLA, won 81-57 in a Southeastern Conference game at Missouri as Bree Hall had a career-high 21 points, while Oregon transfer Te-Hina Paopao scored 15 for the Gamecocks (15-0, 3-0), who pulled away from a slim five-point lead midway in the third quarter when the Tigers (9-7, 0-3) went cold from beyond the src.

 

Dawn Staley’s team, which was upset by Iowa in the national semifinals, has won 65 straight regular season games last losing at Missouri in overtime on Dec. 30, 2021 before going on to win its second NCAA title.

 

‘I just felt it today,” Hall said of her big game in which she was 8-10 from the field and a perfect 4-4 from deep. “I was really confident and I just felt like the game came to me.”

 

Paopao was 3-4 outside the arc.

 

Elsewhere in the SEC, defending NCAA champion and No. 7 LSU, which hasn’t lost since the opening day upset in Las Vegas to Colorado, rolled over visiting Texas A&M 87-70 as DePaul transfer Anessah Morrow had 21 points and nine rebounds for the Tigers (16-1, 3-0) and Angel Reese had 20 points and 18 rebounds.

 

Freshman Mikaylah Williams had 16 points, while Hailey Van Lith, the Louisville transfer, scored 14 and Flau’Jae Johnson scored 11.

 

Endyia Rogers scored 27 for the visiting Aggies (13-3, 1-2) to Baton Rouge.

 

Tennessee held off visiting Florida 88-81 in Knoxville as Sarah Puckett scored 20 for the Lady Vols (10-5, 3-0) against the Gators (9-6, 0-3).

 

Vanderbilt (16-1, 3-0) got the first of two parts needing to get done to move into Monday’s Associated Press women’s poll, beating host Kentucky 95-73 in Lexington as Iyana Moore scored 37 points with seven assists against the Wildcats (8-9, 1-2), whose Ajae Petty had 23 points and 21 rebounds.

 

The Commodores next host Missouri 1 p.m. Sunday on the SEC network.

 

In the Atlantic Coast Conference, No. 20 North Carolina (11-5, 3-1), which just got back into the poll after a week’s absence, fell at No. 21 Florida State 70-62.

 

The host Seminoles (13-4, 4-1) got 23 points, including five makes from deep, from Sara Bejedi, while Mikayla Timpson had 11 points and 14 rebounds.

 

Deja Kelly had 23 for UNC.

 

Elsewhere, No. 6 NC State bounced back from Sunday’s upset loss to Virginia Tech, winning 93-66 over visiting Virginia; No. 11 Virginia Tech beat visiting Miami, 76-52; No. 18 Notre Dame recovered from Sunday’s home loss to UNC by beating visiting Boston College 98-48; and No. 15 Louisville routed host Pitt 74-44.

 

In the win by NC State, freshman Zoe Brooks scored 19; Virginia Tech got another blockbuster night from Elizabeth Kitley, who had 31 points, the eighth 30-point game of her career; and Notre Dame got two double doubles — 27 points and 10 rebounds from freshman Hannah Hidalgo of Haddonfield, N.J., and Maddy Westbeld had 15 points and 15 rebounds.

 

Out in the West Coast Conference No. 16 Gonzaga (15-2, 2-0) beat visiting Santa Clara 87-49 as Yvonne  Ejim scored 19 and Elizabeth Hollingsworth scored 18 for the Zags.

 

Looking Ahead: On Friday, locally Drexel is at Charleston at 7 p.m. on FloHoops in the CAA in the only game.

 

No. 8 Stanford in the PAC-12 visits No. 19 Utah at 8 p.m. on the PAC12 network as the Cardinal’s Tara VanDerveer with 1200 wins is two short of retired Duke men’s coach Mike Krzyzewski’s collegiate record of 1202.

 

UConn’s Geno Auriemma is at 1193 after Wednesday’s win.

 

Stanford moves to No. 5 Colorado Sunday, the same day No. 2 UCLA (14-0) risks the other unbeaten mark traveling across Los Angeles to meet No. 9 Southern Cal (12-1) at the Galen Center on the PAC-12 network.

 

It’s their second league showdown in two weeks after UCLA before a record home sellout won the first when USC was also then unbeaten and fell from sixth to ninth in the poll.

 

A CAA showdown has Stony Brook visiting Towson in suburban Baltimore at 7 p.m. on FloHoops.

 

On Saturday, locally, besides the Rider game mentioned above, 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. 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, Temple hosts Memphis at 2 p.m. for an American Athletic Conference game in the Liacouras Center on ESPN+; and in the Coastal Athletic Association Drexel is at UNCW at noon, while Delaware hosts Stony Brook in the Bob Carpenter Center in Newark at 2 p.m. both on FloHoops.

 

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.