The Guru Report: Saint Joseph’s Wins at St. Bonaventure and Moves Into 1st Place A-10 Tie; Blown Leads Doom ‘Nova and Temple; Texas Upset in Big 12

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

 

Continuing the best start in the 23-season era under Cindy Griffin at her alma mater, Saint Joseph’s powered its way on the road to a 65-40 win over St. Bonaventure Wednesday night in Olean, N.Y. and into a first-place tie in the Atlantic 10 with Richmond, which was upset 72-59 by host Duquesne in Pittsburgh.

 

If the regular season ended today the Hawks (18-2, 7-1) would be the two seed having lost at Hagan Arena to the Spiders (17-4, 7-1) earlier this month.

 

Rhode Island (13-8, 5-3), which lost at home to Saint Joseph’s on Sunday, was here in Philadelphia Wednesday morning where it spoiled La Salle’s annual Kids’ Day event, beating the Explorers 75-47 at Tom Gola Arena with a 51-21 domination of the boards, including 25-5 on the offensive end.

 

URI was the preseason favorite of the conference coaches just ahead if Saint Joseph’s, who they play a second time next month visiting Hawk Hill.

 

However, a series of upset losses to date overall and in conference has the Rams tied for sixth but holding the seventh seed.

 

The top four seeds will have double byes into the quarterfinals at the A-10 tournament (March 6-10) at the brand-new Henrico Sports & Events Center in Henrico, Va., a suburb of Richmond.

 

Seeds 5-7 get single byes into the second round.

 

In Saint Joseph’s win over the Bonnies (4-15, 1-7), who are in a three-way tie for 13^th place in the 15-member league, the Hawks, who recently won the Big 5 title, are so balanced, especially up front, that while Talya Brugler was defensed into six points and one rebound, her underperformance did little to hurt the visitors’ cause.

 

Mackenzie Smith, the senior from Nova Scotia, had 18 of her game-high 20 points in the first half, while Laura Ziegler had another double-double with 14 points and 11 rebounds with four assists.

 

Smith made three from deep and Ziegler nailed two. Chloe Welch, the transfer from Davidson, who will face her former school playing the Wildcats at 2 p.m. on Hawk Hill Saturday (ESPN+), grabbed 10 rebounds. 

 

Freshman Gabby Casey off the bench had three rebounds, two assists, three steals, and five points, while freshman reserve Aleah Snead had nine points, a personal best.

 

 

It’s just the third time the Hawks are 18-2, which is the best overall record in the conference. They have the best road record in the nation at 10-0, also a program record for best road start.

 

La Salle (6-13, 3-5) decidedly undersized to the Rams was in horrific trouble quickly trailing 17-2 from the opening tip and 17-5 at the end of the first period, Makayla Miller accounting for both home team scores from mid-range and beyond the arc.

 

The next period provided some hope, the Explorers playing almost even to trail 30-16 at the break but with Rhode Island converting a slew of missed shots to score 28 points in the next, the outcome was decided well before the final score was registered in the official book.

 

Miller finished with 15 points but inside was lopsided to the visitors 42-12 in the paint.

 

“That’s a really good team, they were preseason No. 1 for a really good reason,” said La Salle coach Mountain MacGillivray, “they’re big, they’re strong, they’re physical. They’re a lot of things that we’re not.

 

“We got dominated on the boards, but I don’t think it was for lack of fight on our team. We were fighting hard, but we were physically outmatched, and they were allowed to do what they wanted to do,” he continued. “We got some time before our next game, and we got to regroup.”

 

Maye Toure had 17 points for Rhode Island along with seven rebounds, Tenin Magassa had a double double 11 points and ten boards besides offering five assists while Anaelle Dutat had 13 rebounds.

 

Being optimistic MacGillivray can look to two other Big Five examples of rosters that once experienced at Penn and Saint Joseph’s the wins have outnumbered the losses.

 

Indeed, La Salle will be looking for a sweep of the home-and-home league series with Massachusetts when they visit Amherst next Wednesday, another morning game at 11 on NESN available on the Live Stream feed.

 

Villanova Overcome at Providence: Ironically two Rhode Island teams hung losses on Big Five schools, the second being Providence in the Big East rallying from a 16-point deficit near the end of the first half to get back into contention shooting just under 70 percent in the third to mount a 24-7 differential and go ahead 50-48 on the play of Grace Efosa shooting 6-8 from the field.

 

Still, it looked like the Wildcats might survive the collapse when Bella Runyan scored inside with 2.5 seconds left in regulation to force overtime.

 

But the heavily underdog Friars regained control in the extra five minutes of play to add another stunning loss to Villanova over the years, this time 82-76.

 

After a long streak of at least one three in every game ended Sunday on an 0-17 futility in the home loss to then-No. 21 Creighton, the Wildcats (12-7, 5-3) began connecting from the outside with eight makes.

 

Freshmen Maddie Webber had a career-high 20 points for the Wildcats, who outscored Providence 25-3 from the bench.

 

Lucy Olsen had 18 points but 16 came in the first half before the Friars (10-11, 4-4) shut her down.

 

Zanai Jones tied a personal best with 13 points and Runyan had 12 points while Christena Dalce had eight Points and 14 rebounds.

 

Grace finished with 29 points for the Friars, while Marta Morales had 26, and Brynn Farrell and Olivia Olsen each scored 11, the latter also grabbing 13 rebounds.

 

Villanova stays on the road heading to Chicago Sunday to play DePaul in Wintrust Arena at 2 p.m. before returning home to host No. 8 Connecticut at 6:30 p.m.

 

The Huskies, on a 13-game win streak and hosting No. 15 Notre Dame of the ACC at 8 p.m. Saturday night on FOX, got more bad injury news, Caroline Ducharme out since Nov. 19 with head and neck injuries shutting down till next season.

 

The Wildcats are now tied for third but in the fourth slot.

 

Temple Falls on Waved Off Basket: Appeared headed for a three-way tie for third in the third slot a game out of first in the American Athletic Conference, the Owls faded down the stretch against SMU in Dallas ultimately losing when a seemingly three-point game-winner from Tiarra East at the buzzer was disallowed giving the Mustangs a 68-66 victory.   

 

As Temple (10-9, 4-3) celebrated after the shot scored, the officials went to the monitor and determined the ball left East’s hand a flash of time too late.

 

The Owls saw a seven-point lead evaporate to SMU (9-10, 3-5) down the stretch. 

 

Unless they meet in the AAC tournament in Fort Worth in March this was Temple’s last conference matchup with SMU, which will be heading to the ACC with the Pac-12 duo of Southern Cal and UCLA this summer.

 

Though the heartbreak came at the end, the seeds were sown off another slow start after the opening tip.

 

“It was just a slow start,” said Temple second-year coach Diane Richardson. “You start slow, you lose games.”

 

Temple’s Demi Washington had 17 points and seven rebounds while Tarriyona Gary scored 16m fueled by connecting on all four of the Owls’ 3-point makes.

 

Aleah Nelson, Temple’s leader, got just one point missing a part of the third with an apparent leg injury.

 

Tristen Taylor, in a homecoming appearance, filled in and scored eight points.

 

“Richardson confirmed Nelson’s knee problem, adding, “We expect Tristen to play anyways. Being in her hometown, I knew she would play and with Aleah being out I knew she would step up.”

 

Temple next is at Tulane in New Orleans Sunday at 3 p.m. (ESPN+) before returning home Wednesday to host Wichita State in the Liacouras Center.

 

Lafayette Downed In the only other local action, Lafayette took a Patriot League loss at the hands of Loyola, Md., 67-60 at home in the Kirby Sports Center in Easton, Pa.

 

Laura Salmeron had 21 points for the visitors (8-10, 3-4) while Lex Therien had 17 and nine rebounds, while Melish Van-Otoo had 13 points.

 

The host Leopards (6-12, 1-6) got 18 points from Mikayla Andrews, while Abby Antognoli rode four made shots from deep to score 16 points with five assists, and Kayla Drummond scored 10 with nine rebounds.

 

Lafayette next travels to Boston U. Saturday at 2 p.m. on ESPN_.

 

Elsewhere in the Patriot in a battle at the top favored Holy Cross opened a two-game lead on American U., beating the visiting Eagles 59-48 in Worcester, Mass., as Bronagh Power-Cassidy scored 22 points with 10 rebounds for the Crusaders (13-5, 7-0). 

 

American (7-11, 5-2) got 11 points from Lauren Stack.

 

The National Scene:  No. 10 Texas was upset at home 91-87 in the Moody Center in Austin by Oklahoma (12-6, 6-1) in a Big 12 contest as Skylar Vann had 19 points and 12 rebounds and Payton Verhulst scored 18. Lexy Keys had 15 points for the Sooners and Nevaeh Tot dealt 10 assists.

 

Freshman Madison Booker scored 29 while Shay Holle had a career-high 22 on 10-12 from the field for the Longhorns (12-6, 6-1).

 

Elsewhere in the Big 12 Kansas edged visiting Iowa State 60-58 with S’Mya Nichols scoring 16 for the winning Jayhawks and freshman Audi Crooks scoring 25 for the Cyclones.

 

In the Big Ten, Michigan at home in Ann Arbor edged Maryland 79-77 in overtime, Chyra Evans scoring 17 for the Wolverines (14-6, 5-3) while Jakia Brown-Turner had 21 for the Terrapins (12-7, 4-4).

 

Looking Ahead: Locally, just two games Thursday, in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) Rider hosts preseason favorite Niagara at 7 p.m. (ESPN+) in Alumni Gym in Lawrenceville, N.J., while in the Big Ten Penn State seeks to keep its win streak alive while visiting Northwestern in Evanston, Ill.

 

On Friday, Delaware hosts Northeastern at 7 p.m. on FloHoops in the Bob Carpenter Center in Newark.

 

The big game nationally Thursday has No. 10 and reigning NCAA champion LSU in front of a sellout in Baton Rouge in the Southeastern Conference hosting No. 1 South Carolina, the only team in Division I still unbeaten, at 8 p.m. on ESPN.

 

Fairfield unbeaten in the MAAC with just one overall loss visits Quinnipiac at 5 p.m. on ESPN+.

 

And that’s the report.