The Guru NCAAW Report: Columbia the Gem of New York City; Awards and Rankings; Looking Ahead

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

Monday was a breather of sorts with not a lot on the game plate, nevertheless Columbia now at 3-0 is a team taking care of business,

Last week the Lions opened and routed a Stony Brook team they had no business losing to a year ago even though ultimately, they landed in the NCAA tournament as just the second Ivy team ever to earn an at-large bid.

Then they gutted an overtime win at Providence, a team that earned a preseason pick of third from the Big East coaches, the highest forecast in decades for the Friars.

Those two triumphs were then capped Monday night with a 62-51 win at home in Levien Gym over Florida Gulf Coast, which has won the Atlantic Sun eight straight seasons.

Cecelia Collins had game highs of 22 points and eight rebounds with a perfect 3-3 from deep for the home team and Perri Page supplemented her by exploding for 19 of her career-best 21points in the second half.

Kitty Henderson, the first Ivy player of the week off those two earlier wins, balanced it out against the visiting Eagles (0-2) with nine points, three boards, three steals, and five assists.

The Lions also proved to be a two-way threat defensively in the off-Broadway performance on New York’s Upper West Side as Page and Henderson combined for seven steals, limited FGCU to 30 percent from the field and gained 19 points off 20 turnovers.

The visitors’ Maddie Antenucci had 16 points fueled by four treys while Emani Jefferson was 4-6 from the field for 11 points.

Columbia’s next game will be a closer homecoming trip for coach Megan Griffith, who grew up in King of Prussia, when the Lions visit Villanova Saturday at 2 p.m.

That game is the second of three straight Ivy helpings for the Wildcats who visit Ivy tournament champion Princeton Wednesday at 7 p.m. in Jadwin Gym and host Penn in a Big Five pod game on Nov. 20.

In another game of note Creighton, knocked out of the rankings with a loss last week, bounced back to beat visiting Drake 80-72.

Noteworthy

With not much else hapenning on the nightly radar list we can spend a little time on off-court news.

Monday is weekly conference awards day, though a few give their on honors on Tuesday, and Saint Joseph’s Talya Brugler shared A-10 player of the week honors with Richmond’s Rachel Ullstrom while Penn’s Katie Collins took home the first Ivy player of the week.

The first work day of the week is also release day for the Associated Press women’s poll voted by a nation-wide media panel.

The first eight teams from the preseason rankings stayed in place headed by South Carolina, an unanimous choice, and Connecticut.

For the first-place Gamecocks, it’s their 85th appearance at the top behind Connecticut (250) and Tennessee (112).

The second-place Huskies have now been ranked an ongoing record 587 straight times dating to the preseason vote of 1993-94 with 127 players having been part of the run.

This is week number 866 in season number fourth-nine in the poll that began in The Philadelphia Inquirer in November 1976.

While the top was stable with no upsets unlike the outset of last season, down below Indiana had a 96-week run across four seasons end, dropping out with Creighton and Florida State, replaced from 23-25 by Illinois, Stanford, and Oregon.

The return of Stanford after a one-week absence made new coach Kate Paye the 50th to play and coach AP ranked women’s teams and 16th at her Alma mater.

Looking Ahead

Just three locals and two games Tuesday with Temple, off since last Monday’s narrow home loss to Richmond, making the short trip to Delaware for a 6:30 p.m. tip at the Bob Carpenter Center (FloHoops) while Rider travels to Long Island U. for a 7 p.m. tip streamed by NEC Front Row.

Nationally, Tennessee ramps it up at 6:30 p.m. hosting C-USA favorite Middle Tennessee (SECN+); Richmond visits Fairfield at 7 p.m. (ESPN+); Arizona, now in the Big 12 hosts Mountain West favorite UNLV at 8 p.m. (ESPN+); and Vermont hosts Providence at 6 p.m. (ESPN+).

Locally on Wednesday, besides the aforementioned Villanova game, the Drexel women make their first-ever Big 5 debut hosting La Salle, which had been a past non-City Series rival, at 6 p.m. (FloHoops); Penn hosts Siena at 6 p.m. at The Palestra (ESPN+); and Lafayette is at Marist at 7 p.m. (ESPN+) in Poughkeepsie, N.Y.