The Guru Report: Iowa Upset by Nebraska as Clark Goes Scoreless in Fourth Quarter; South Carolina Blasts UConn; Drexel Fades at Home

 BY Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

 

PHILADELPHIA – A Super Sunday for No. 2 Iowa and Caitlin Clark gave way to the rankings jinx that has been occurring for teams in that position in The Associated Press women’s poll each week since the arrival of 2024.

 

Poised to set the NCAA Division I women’s scoring record heading into the fourth quarter in a Big Ten visit to Nebraska before a packed house at Pinnacle Bank Arena needing eight points to replace former Washington star Kelsey Plum at the top of the list, the cascade of numbers stopped changing and what had been a double-digit lead vanished as the Huskers went ahead in the final minute for a stunning 82-79 upset.

 

The annual unique day for the celebrated end of football until next fall was just another day of whacky upsets that have been occurring all season in the women’s game.

 

Though the loss left No. 5 Ohio State alone at the top of the Big Ten, the upside for Hawkeyes fans is that the historic action will likely occur at home on Thursday night when Michigan visits at 8 p.m. for the game scheduled to stream on Peacock.

 

Nebraska (16-8, 8-5) trailed by 14 in the final period which Clark entered with 31 points already collected but she went 0-6 in the period including a game-tying three at the finish that would have sent Iowa (22-3, 11-3) into overtime.

 

Nebraska took its first lead on Jaz Shelley’s shot from deep with 30 seconds remaining and she finished with 23 points, the game-winner being her fifth shot from beyond the arc.

 

Clark’s total for her career stands at 3,520 behind Plum’s total of 3,527 set from 2013-17.

 

The student section at the game in Lincoln stormed the court as the game ended, Nebraska snapping a nine-game losing streak to Iowa.

 

Ohio State (21-3, 12-1), which tied Iowa by beating the Hawkeyes last month, moved in position to climb higher in the new AP poll when the rankings are released Monday at noon and held its spot in the Big Ten with an 80-71 victory on the road at Michigan State (17-7, 7-6) in East Lansing as Celeste Taylor scored 20 points, Rebeka Mikulasikova collected 19, Jacy Sheldon 18, and Taylor Thierry 12.

 

The Buckeyes’ lead grew to 33 points in the second half.

 

Theryn Hallock had 18 points for the Spartans.

 

“With our pressure (defense) we got a lot of layups because we turned them over and then we made shots,” Ohio State coach Kevin McGuff said. “But overall, our offensive execution was really good, and I thought it led to great looks.”

 

The Buckeyes next host Nebraska, now in fourth, Wednesday.

 

No. 14 Indiana (20-3, 11-2) moved into second place tie with Iowa by beating Purdue 95-62 at home in Bloomington as Chloe Moore-McNeil helped change the momentum in the third quarter with 12 of her career-high 22 points against the Boilermakers (10-13, 3-9).

 

Mackenzie Holmes passed Tyra Buss (2014-18) to become Indiana’s all-time scorer with 2,365 points.

 

A crowd of 13,304 fans was the third-largest women’s crowd in Assembly Hall drawn by a match between two in-state rivals.

 

Indiana will go to Wisconsin Wednesday, the host Badgers coming off a 69-64 upset at home in Madison of Penn State (16-8, 7-6), one of three locals who played Sunday.

 

The other two were Drexel here in the Daskalakis Athletic Center losing a lead and falling to front-runner Norrh Carolina A&T 54-47 in the Colonial Athletic Association while elsewhere in the CAA Delaware won at Monmouth 71-67.

 

In the Penn State loss, Ashley Owusu had 24 points, while Shay Ciezki had five makes from deep on the way to 18 points and Leilani Kapinus scored 11.

 

Serah Williams scored 31 with 15 rebounds for the Badgers.

 

Penn State next hosts Illinois Thursday at 6 p.m.

 

South Carolina Singes UConn: The tide has shifted in this national rivalry with No. 1 South Carolina (23-0) of the Southeastern Conference winning its fourth straight in the series with the Big East power, this one an easy 83-65 victory over the No. 11 Huskies (20-5).

 

“They're a much different team than some of the ones we've faced,” UConn coach Geno Auriemma said after his career total stayed at 1200. “Their style of play is different. They're able to keep the pressure on.”

 

The Gamecocks, who go to Tennessee Thursday, won their 54^th straight at home in Colombia and second without center Kamilla Cardoso who is in Brazil in a national team Olympic qualifying tournament.

 

Oregon transfer Te-Hina Paopao scored 21 points with five makes from deep for Dawn Staley’s team, while Raven Johnson had 10 points and 12 rebounds.

 

Ashley Watkins and Chloe Kitts combined for 29 points, 13 rebounds and four blocks.

 

While Paige Bueckers had 20 for the visitors, she was forced into 8-of-20 from the field.

 

“We just wanted to make it hard for her,” Staley said. “She definitely felt our presence on her.”

 

Aaliyah Edwards added 20 points with 11 points for the Huskies, who go to Xavier Wednesday.

 

In the SEC, No. 13 LSU, the reigning national champion, rallied at home in Baton Rouge after trailing 41-31 at the half to Alabama.

 

The Tigers (21-4, 8-3) began the third period with a 15-1 run to take control.

 

Angel Reese had 27 points and 19 rebounds for LSU, while Flau’jae Johnson had 16 points. Aneesah Morrow reached her 2,000^th career point. 

 

Alabama (19-7, 6-5) got 19 points from Aaliyah Nye.

 

Lsu is off until visiting Texas A&M on February 19^th next Monday.

 

Upsets and Narrow Escapes in the ACC: No. 12 Notre Dame needed two overtimes to win 98-94 at Florida State in Tallahassee as the Irish (18-5, 8-4) rallied led by freshman Hannah Hidalgo with 27 points. Fordham transfer Anna DeWolfe had 24 points, while Maddy Westbeld had 19 points and 14 rebounds, and Sonia Citron scored 18.

 

The Seminoles (17-8, 8-5) got 34 points from Ta’Niya Latson.

 

Freshman reserve Delaney Thomas had 19 points to lead Duke (16-7, 8-4) to a 68-60 overtime win against nearby rival North Carolina at home in Cameron Indoor Arena in Durham, N.C. 

 

UNC (15-9, 7-5) got 20 points from Deja Kelly.

 

No. 23 Syracuse (20-4, 10-3) skyrocketed to within a game of No. 16 Virginia Tech (20-4, 11-2) by upsetting No. 15 Louisville 73-72 as Dyaisha Fair made two foul shots with 2.3 seconds left off an intentional foul and scored 29 points.

 

Nyla Harris had a career-high 22 points and 11 rebounds for Louisville (20-5, 9-3).

 

In Virginia Tech’s 74-63 win at home over Boston College, Elizabeth Kitley had 24 points while Georgia Amoore scored 26.

 

Pac-12 Power: Out west, in the ranking kingdom that is the Pac-12 No. 6 Stanford won at Washington State 73-68 lifting the Cardinal (22-3, 11-2) to a half-game lead in first and giving Tara VanDerveer an extended record career win total of 1208, eight more than UConn’s Auriemma, who’s just behind retired Duke men’s coach Mike Krzyzewski (1202).

 

Cameron Brink had 21points, 11 rebounds, and five steals for Stanford and Hannah Jump scored 20.

 

Kiki Iriafen had 17 points and 14 rebounds for the winners.

 

No. 17 Oregon State (20-3, 9-3) completed a weekend sweep of the road trip to the Rockies and first top five road win in program history by knocking No. 4 Colorado (20-4, 10-3) down to second with a 65-59 win in Boulder as Talia von Oelhoffen scored 18 points.

 

“I thought our team really embraced how hard it was going to be and how fast (Colorado) play at home,” Oregon State coach Scott Rueck said. “I thought we did a really good job of keeping them out of transition for most of the game and I just loved our defensive intensity and our accuracy.”

 

Reagan Beers had 12 points and 12 rebounds.

 

The Buffaloes got 14 points from Jaylyn Sherrod.

 

Stanford transfer Lauren Betts in her second game back from a recent injury scored 18 points, shooting 9-10 from the field, leading No. 9 UCLA (19-4, 8-4) to a 78-45 win over visiting Arizona State in Los Angeles to complete a weekend sweep.

 

No. 20 Utah (18-7, 8-5) salvaged a weekend split bouncing back to beat Oregon 70-48 at home in Salt Lake City as Jenna Johnson scored 2) points on 9-13 shooting and Maty Wilke rode five from deep to 17 points.

 

The Local Scene: Here at Drexel the Dragons (10-11, 5-5) were on their way to a nice upset of league-leading North Carolina A&T (15-7, 9-2 CAA) in the Daskalakis Athletic Center until the opposition turned up the pressure with a 19-6 fourth quarter and rallied to a 54-47 victory.

 

Villanova transfer Brooke Mullin scored 16 for Drexel and Chloe Hodges had 12 points.

 

The Dragons have a three-game road trip beginning this weekend at Towson in suburban Baltimore at 6 p.m. and then looking to completing a series sweep Sunday visiting Delaware at 1 p.m. in the Bob Carpenter Center in Newark.

 

The Blue Hens (8-14, 5-6) rallied to a 71-67 win at Monmouth (14-8, 7-4) in Central Jersey as Rebecca Demke scored 14 points, Ande’a Cherisier scored 12, and Grace Sundback had 10 points.

 

Delaware moved into a three-way tie for fifth and has a Friday bye before hosting Drexel Sunday on FloHoops.

 

Looking Ahead: No locals play Monday night, but No. 10 Southern Cal completes its Pac-12 weekend hosting Arizona at 9 p.m. on ESPN2 after Tennessee hosts Arkansas at 7 p.m. on SECN.

 

On Tuesday Villanova has a quick trip south to the nation’s capital looking for a series sweep playing a Big East game at 11 a.m. at Georgetown. 

 

Rutgers at 7 p.m. hosts Minnesota at Jersey Mike’s Arena in Piscataway, N.J. on the Big Ten Network.

 

And that’s the report.