The Guru NCAAW Black Friday Report: Penn Wins Over Chattanooga but Delaware and Rutgers Beaten; No. 17 TCU Rallies Over No. 3 Notre Dame;
By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru
Penn picked up a nice win Friday afternoon beating Chattanooga 74-61 with a strong second half in FGCU’s Homewood Suites Classic in the Alico Arena in Fort Myers, Fla.
But for the other two locals who got started in MTE action, Delaware couldn’t score, losing 54-40 to Tarleton State in the opener of the Big Easy Fleur de lis in New Orleans, while Rutgers couldn’t hold on to the ball in its own Battle of the Banks event in the last minute, Destiny Adams committing two turnovers and the Scarlet Knights got edged by Marquette, 59-57.
But the big story nationally was No. 17 TCU rallying to down No. 3 Notre Dame 76-68 in the Cayman Islands Classic just short of a week after the Irish ripped then-No. 3 Southern Cal in Los Angeles causing almost everybody at once to proclaim them as a prohibitive favorite to reach the Women’s Final Four in Tampa in March.
Let’s get into all of it, first with a roundup of the locals, and then turning attention to one long day of MTEs and another one on tap for Saturday.
In the first meeting between the two schools, Mataya Gayle shot 7-12 from the field and was 4-4 from the line to score 20 points and she also dealt five assists for the Quakers (5-3), while Stina Almqvist collected 19 points, shooting a near perfect 11-14 from the line, and Simone Sawyer totaled 12 to complete those in double figures.
Freshman Katie Collins continued to contribute, scoring seven points while grabbing six boards and rejected a pair of shots from the Mocs (4-4) of the Southern Conference, who went to the NCAA tournament last season.
UTC’s Talia Davis scored 17 points but was the lone player to reach double figures.
In the other game, FGCU (4-2), which recently promoted Chelsea Lyles after longtime coach Karl Smesko left to head the Atlanta Dream in the WNBA, won 66-56 over Cal Baptist (0-7) of the Western Athletic Conference.
He was the first of two veterans within a week of each other to abruptly leave for the pros, the other being Lynne Roberts, who left Utah, shortly before Saint Joseph’s recent visit, to take charge of the Los Angeles Sparks.
Dolly Cairns scored 21 for the winning Eagles, while Emani Jefferson had 11 points and nine boards.
CBU had 14 points and seven boards from Emma Johansson while Anaiyah Tu’ua scored 12.
On Saturday, the Quakers will meet Cal Baptist at 1 p.m. followed by FGCU meeting Chattanooga at 4 p.m.
A brief word considering how much the Multiple Team Events (MTE) terminology is being used this weekend and next month around the Christmas holiday in these roundups.
Anymore, most of these holiday gatherings are not run in pure win-and-advance tournament formats, rather opponents each day are predetermined long before the events occur.
Some places still maintain the pure tourney and it will be noted where that is the case, such as Lehigh’s annual Christmas City Classic, which will occur Saturday and Sunday at the Mountain Hawks’ Stabler Arena in Easton, Pa.
On Saturday, Lehigh will host Marist at noon and both days stream its games on ESPN+, while North Dakota and Valparaiso will play at 2:30 p.m.
The losers will meet at noon on Sunday for third place, while the winners will play in the championship at 2:30 p.m.
There are separate Big Easy events being held in New Orleans, the one Delaware is involved, the Blue Hens (1-5) continued to struggle, shooting 32.7 percent from the field, though they did mine 16 bench points, while grabbing nine steals.
Tara Cousins scored 12 with four rebounds and three assists, while Ande’a Cherisier had 10 points, four rebounds, and two steals.
Tarleton (4-3), a member of the WAC from Texas, got 17 points and 10 rebounds from Faith Acker, while Jakoriah Long had 16 points and nine rebounds in the first meeting between the two schools.
In the other game, Nicholls State beat Evansville 63-50.
On Saturday, Delaware will meet Evansville at 6:45 p.m. followed by Tarleton State meeting Nicholls State. YouTube is streaming the games.
In the Big Easy Bayou Tourney, Cleveland State beat Louisiana 60-42, while Minnesota beat Houston, 61-44.
At Rutgers (4-3), in the Jersey Mike’s Arena in Piscataway, N.J., in a close game in which the fourth quarter saw seven of the eight lead changes with Marquette (3-2), Skylar Forbes’ two foul shots put the visitors up 59-57 with 44 seconds left in regulation.
Kyomi McMiller missed a three-pointer for the Scarlet Knights with 14 seconds left but Lisa Thompson grabbed an offensive board, only to have Adams commit her first miscue of the final minute.
Lee Volker, who stole the ball, went to the line with two seconds left, missed both attempts, Adams grabbed the ball with one second but lost control.
McMiller had 19 points, while Chyna Cornwell had 10 boards and JoJo Lacey grabbed four steals.
In the game Rutgers outscored the Golden Eagles 19-8 in the second quarter, while the Knights had a season-high 11 steals and forced a season high 24 turnovers.
Marquette got 23 points from Forbes, while Volker scored 18.
In the other game, Georgia Southern topped Md.-Eastern Shore 58-47 as Nakiyah Mays-Prince had 14 points for the winning Eagles (5-1) and Lainey Allen had 12 for the Hawks (4-4).
On Saturday, Rutgers will meet Georgia Southern at 2 p.m., followed by Md.-Eastern Shore facing Marquette at at 4:30 p.m., both games will air on B1G+.
The National Scene – No. 17 TCU Fourth-Quarter Rally Overcomes No. 3 Notre Dame
Hailey Van Lith, who previously wreaked havoc at Louisville and LSU is now doing so at TCU, scoring 19 of her 21 points in the second half while Sedona Prince, who previously played at Oregon, scored 20 with 20 rebounds to lead the Horned Frogs back to a 76-68 win over the Irish (5-1), who suffered their first loss of the season, in the Cayman Islands Classic.
Von Lith also dealt seven assists.
Prince is the first player in NCAA women’s history to have 20 boards and eight blocks against an AP Top 5 opponent.
The only other TCU player to score 20 and grab 20 rebounds was Sandora Irvin on Feb. 2, 2004.
Madison Connor added 18 for TCU (7-0), who equaled their previous highest-ranked win over California in 2008.
Merchantville’s Hannah Hidalgo had 27 points for Notre Dame, above her 24.8 average, which was forth in the nation coming into Friday.
The Horned Frogs were down by as many as 14 in the third quarter but outscored the opposition 31-12 in the fourth quarter when they shot 61 percent from the field, including 44 percent (4-9) from deep.
Notre Dame finishes up in the tourney playing Utah Saturday while TCU will meet South Florida.
Since Mark Campbell, a former Oregon assistant, became coach at TCU, the Horned Frogs are 20-0 against non-conference foes.
In the other game, Mississippi State (8-0) beat South Florida 59-52 dropping the Bulls to 4-4.
Jerkaila Jordan scored 20 for the winners, while USF got a game-high 22 from Sammie Puisis. The Bulls were the preseason pick in the American Athletic Conference.
No. 5 Texas and No. 12 West Virginia on Collision Course in the Gulf Coast Showcase
No. 12 West Virginia had an easy 89-54 win over High Point, while No. 5 Texas slammed New Mexico State 90-50 in two opening round games of the Gulf Coast Showcase to reach the semifinals in opposite brackets in Fort Myers, Fla.
The No. 12 Mountaineers (7-0) saw JJ Quinerly score 18 of her 22 points in the first half, while Jordan Thomas off the bench scored 18 and Jordan Harris had 13.
High Point (3-4) got 11 points from Aaliyah Collins.
West Virginia in the semifinals will meet Boise State (7-0), which advanced with a 79-76 win over Illinois State.
Texas and West Virginia are no longer Big 12 rivals since the Longhorns moved last summer to the SEC.
Madison Booker had 21 points for Texas (5-0), while Taylor Jones scored 20.
New Mexico State got 14 points from Molly Kaiser and Sylena Petersen scored 11.
Retired Hall of Fame Longhorns coach Jody Conradt was among the spectators.
Butler beat Santa Clara in the remaining game, sending the winners Saturday against Texas in the semifinals, while Santa Clara will meet New Mexico State in the consolation semifinals.
High Point in the other consolation semifinal will meet Illinois State.
Ranked Teams Rolling
While Notre Dame took a hit, the other AP ranked teams rolled in either MTE play or single contests.
No. 16 North Carolina was home in Chapel Hill where the Tar Heels (7-1) romped over North Carolina Central 119-43 as Alyssa Ustby scored 24 points off 10-13 from the field and grabbed 10 rebounds, while Maria Gakdeng had 10 points and 11 boards.
Lexi Donarski and Indya Nivar each added 11 points and Ciera Twomey scored 10.
NC Central (0-9) still looking for its first win got 18 points from Shakiria Foster.
Next up for Courtney Banghart’s bunch is a visit next Thursday from No. 14 Kentucky, part of the ACC/SEC Challenge series of games.
In the Daytona Beach Classic, No. 11 Ohio State rolled over Utah State 87-51 as Ajae Petty scored 17 points, while Mia Tarver scored 12 for the opposition (1-6).
The Buckeyes (7-0) also got 17 from Chance Gray, while Jaloni Cambridge scored 13, and reserve Elsa Lemmila scored 11.
Out in the middle of the Pacific where all the teams began a round-robin in the Rainbow Wahine Showdown hosted by Hawaii, No. 1 UCLA got face the opposition for the first time in its program history as the top team in the AP Poll and dispensed of UT Martin 97-37 as Lauren Betts had 18 points and 12 boards for the Bruins (6-0).
Londynn Jones scored 11, as did reserve Timea Gardiner, but elsewhere on the bench, Gabriela Jaquez had 17 points and four boards, while Janiah Barker scored 10.
No one scored in double figures for UT Martin (1-5).
In the other game, Hawaii edged Fresno State 50-47.
On Saturday, UCLA plays Fresno State (5-2) at 5 p.m., while Hawaii hosts UT Martin at 7:30 p.m. on ESPN+.
When Villanova transfer Lucy Olsen joined Iowa between seasons, the No. 22 Hawkeyes (8-0) showed they could win after the graduation of Caitlyn Clark.
Now after a freak accident took Olsen out of the lineup for the past two days — Iowa is still winning in the Cancun Challenge Rivieria Division in Mexico over BYU 68-48.
Hannah Stuelke had 16 points and eight boards, while Addison O’Grady had 12 points and Aaliyah Gordon scored 11.
BYU (6-2) had 13 points from Kemery Congdon while Amari Whiting scored 11.
According to a source familiar with Olsen’s injury, she rolled her ankle during practice prior to the start of the MTE causing her to trip and her knee hit a tile that cut her, and stitches had to be used to close the wound. Now she’s day-to-day in terms of her return to action.
Iowa is now off until next Saturday’s Champions Doubleheader in Brooklyn at the Barclays Center where the Hawkeyes will face Tennessee at 7 p.m. on FOX before No. 2 UConn faces No. 24 Louisville at 9 p.m.
No. 6 Southern Cal (6-1) in the remaining game of the Acrisure Holiday Invitational in Palm Springs, Calif., decimated Saint Louis 104-65 as JuJu Watkins shook off four fouls to score 34 points and Stanford transfer Kiki Iriafen had a personal best 30 points.
Iriafen was 12-12 on the line and had 12 boards while Oregon State transfer Talia Von Oelhoffen had 13 points against the Billikens (3-5), who had 19 points from Mia Bergstrom.
Southern Cal on Tuesday will welcome Cal Baptist.
Noteworthy
In the Daytona Beach Classic in Florida, Richmond beat Oakland 76-49 as the unbeaten Spiders (7-0) and Atlantic 10 Conference defending champs got 35 points from Rachel Ullstrom and Maggie Doogan scored 16 in a 76-49 win over Oakland (2-5).
On Saturday, they will face Oklahoma State, which beat Arkansas 70-56.
Bowling Green beat Stetson 79-43 in the other game on the schedule.
In the St. Pete Showcase in Florida, James Madison beat Florida 77-72.
Host Colgate beat UMBC 75-49 while Akron beat Iona 64-51 to meet Saturday for the championship while the other two teams will play for third place.
Miami’s Thanksgiving Tournament is also in a true format and in the openers the host Hurricanes beat Charlotte 79-63 while Quinnipiac beat SE Louisiana 70-53 to advance to Sunday’s championship at 2:30 p.m. on ACCNX after SE Louisiana meets Charlotte at noon to play for third.
Gal Raviv, the freshman from Israel who has helped revive Quinnipiac, had 24 points and seven rebounds for the Bobcats (6-0).
Looking Ahead
Saturday was covered through most of the preceding narrative so skipping ahead to Sunday for you long-range planners there’s a Big 5 doubleheader except it’s not in the same place but is at the same 2 p.m. tip time as the remaining game in each of the two three-team pods will decide the lineup for Friday’s first Women’s Big 5 Classic at Villanova, where the tripleheader for 5th, 3rd, and the championship will begin at 3:30 p.m. and all three games will be broadcast on NBC Philadelphia Sports Plus.
The two games Sunday on ESPN+ are Temple at La Salle at John E. Glaser Arena while the annual Holy War will see Villanova visit Saint Joseph’s at Hagan Arena on Hawk Hill.
On the one side, Penn is locked into the 5th place game, likely to play La Salle if the Explorers lose. A Temple win puts the Owls in the championship game with Drexel in the middle.
But if it goes the other way, a messy 1-1 record for all three will have to be broken.
On the other it’s clear-cut; the winner goes into the title game and the loser goes into the third-place game.
Due to the way the oddities of last season played out, both the Wildcats and Hawks have revenge attitudes.
For the Wildcats, it was Saint Joseph’s under the old City Series round-robin that ended a long losing streak to beat Villanova and go on to a 4-0 sweep.
But, with both teams just missing the NCAA field, they played in the new NCAA sponsored WBIT and ended up facing each other in the Elite Eight at Villanova, which got an instant payback to end Saint Joseph’s season and advance to the title game at Butler’s Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, where the road was ended by Illinois.
Nationally, in a non-tournament wrap up game, Columbia finishes a home-and-home off last year and visits No. 11 Duke at noon on the ACCN.
The Lafayette at Monmouth game at 2 p.m. will air on NBC Philadelphia Sports Plus, while the Rider at Boston U. game will air at 1 p.m. on ESPN+ and the Patriot League Network.
And that’s your report.
posted by Mel Greenberg | 4:36 AM
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