The Guru NCAAW Report: Saint Joseph’s Upset Bid Nipped 72-71 in Overtime at Utah; Lehigh Cruises Over Hofstra

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

Maye Toure, who was part of the Rhode Island team that upset Saint Joseph’s in the Atlantic 10 quarterfinals last March, bedeviled the Hawks again Friday night, this time in Salt Lake City scoring the winning basket for host Utah in the John M. Huntsman Center on a jumper with five seconds left in overtime and Talya Brugler missed a layup as the clock expired giving the Utes a 72-71 victory.

 

The win was the first for Utah coach Gavin Petersen, who on Wednesday was promoted from his associate head coach position in the wake of Lynne Roberts resigning to take the vacant WNBA job with the Los Angeles Sparks.

 

Since Saint Joseph’s last meeting with Utah, the school moved back to the Big 12 from the PAC-12, which collapsed leaving just the football programs of Washington State and Oregon State until two years from now when the conference activates a rebuild, but more as a mid-major.

 

In the only other two local results on the schedule, both out of the Patriot League in non-conference action where Lehigh easily won 80-61 over Hofstra at home in Stabler Arena in Easton, Pa., while Lafayette, who hosted No. 6 Notre Dame Sunday, got smacked at No. 13 West Virginia 98-28 at the WVU Arena in Morgantown.

 

Like last season on Hawk Hill in the earlier meeting at Hagan Arena between the two teams, Saint Joseph’s (4-1) ran into problems in the first quarter.

 

Tied 5-5 on a Brugler shot from deep with 6:09 left in the period, the Hawks then hit a serious drought over 6:32 not scoring again until 15 seconds remained, allowing the Utes (4-1) to mount an 11-0 run and go into the next quarter ahead 16-9.

 

They also lost Emma Boslet early with an undetermined ankle injury, freshman Rhian Stokes replacing her while Kaylie Griffith, the daughter of Saint Joseph’s veteran coach Cindy Griffin, also saw extended minutes, and Mackenzie Smith played with foul trouble limiting her time.

 

The offense continued to struggle for the first three minutes of the second period, though the Utes only got four more points out of it for a 13-point lead until Gabby Casey hit a shot from deep to cut the differential to 10 with 7:02 left until the half.

 

But Utah pushed their advantage to 14 points at 26-12 on Jenna Johnson’s 3-pointer with 5:53 left.

 

Finally, Saint Joseph’s began to stir with a 7-0 run to cut the margin in half and other than a brief reduction by two more points that’s how the differential stood at 34-27 into the break.

 

The Hawks still struggled in the third period, but their defense stopped Utah from turning the game on the way to a rout.

 

Saint Joseph’s got within four at the six-minute mark, Utah then went up by 12 but the Hawks inched back and were down just six at 48-42 heading into the final quarter.

 

Casey’s shot with 8:47 left in regulation got the visitors within a basket at 48-46 but then Utah made it a 10-point lead and nursed it there with 4:33 left.

 

The Hawks then kept the home team off the scoreboard the next two minutes and Brugler’s 3-pointer moved the visitors within three with 2:44 to go but Kennedy McQueen answered with a matching shot from deep.

 

Saint Joseph’s continued to rally, and Laura Ziegler assisted by Brugler tied it with a three-pointer with 31 seconds left, Gianna Kneepkens failed with a three-ball attempt going the other way with five seconds left to send the affair into overtime.

 

The Hawks got their first lead of the night on two shots from the line by Stokes with 4:15 left but Toure quickly tied it.

 

The game stayed close and Stokes with two foul shots put Saint Joseph’s in front 71-70 with with 24 seconds left in the overtime.

 

Utah’s Ines Vieira missed a three with 16 seconds left but Reese Ross got the offensive rebound, the Utes took a time out, and then Toure made the winning play.

 

The Hawks called time and got the ball to Brugler, whose shot did not drop, but the end of the game quickly did right behind.

 

The telling statistic in the narrow defeat was the season-high 24 turnovers for the Hawks.

 

Casey scored 21 for Saint Joseph’s, one more than her previous high on Wednesday in the win at Southern Utah, shooting 8-15 from the field with eight boards and five assists, Ziegler had 20 points and 12 boards, Brugler had 14 points, and Stokes had seven points, shooting 5-7 from the line.

 

McQueen and Kneepkens each scored 14 points for Utah, while Toure had 12 points and nine boards. Ross had 10 rebounds.

 

The Hawks host Saint Francis PA Wednesday at 3 p.m. ahead of next Sunday’s Big 5 showdown at home with Villanova, the winner taking first in their pod for the Big 5 Classic on Dec. 6 at Villanova.

 

In the win by Lehigh (4-1), Maddie Albrecht shot 7-9 from the field for a season-high 19 points, while season highs also came from Meghan O’Brien with 14 points and Whitney Lind with 11 and Lily Fondre added10 points.

 

Hofstra (2-3) got 17 points from Emma Von Essen, while Chloe Sterling scored 10 and Zyheima Swint grabbed 12 boards.

 

“I was proud of our toughness,” said Lehigh coach Addie Micir. “They tried to throw their big inside and get us on switches, but we had great ball pressure and great weak side help.

 

“When four people score in double figures we are really hard to guard.”

 

The Mountain Hawks will visit La Salle at 4 p.m. on Tuesday at the John E. Glaser Arena.

 

In the win by West Virginia (6-0), the sixth straight all of which have been at home, Ja’Naiya Quinerly had 19 points and reserve Sydney Woodley scored 15 as the Mountaineers led wire-to-wire.

 

The Leopards (1-4), yet to win on the road in three games, got 11 points from Abby Antognoli. Their demise in part could be found in a 27-shooting percentage from the floor and 12 percent from deep.

 

They stay on the road but much closer to home on Tuesday playing at NJIT Tuesday at 7 p.m. (ESPN+).

 

The National Scene

 

Trying to build a resume to return to the Associated Press women’s poll, Creighton, picked second in the Big East, took down an in-state rival in No. 21 Nebraska of the Big Ten 80-74 in Omaha, while two other games that involved ranked teams saw No. 22 Illinois handle visiting Oregon State 85-66 while No.  9 Oklahoma rolled at Mountain West favorite UNLV in Las Vegas 88-58.

 

The winning Bluejays (2-2) shot 13 3-pointers, including four each from Lauren Jensen, who had 31 points, 11 in the fourth quarter, and Morgan Maly, who scored 18.

 

The Cornhuskers (5-1) were playing their first game without Natalie Potts, the 2024 Big Ten freshman of the year, who suffered a season-ending ACL injury on Tuesday.

 

Nebraska’s Alexis Markowski scored 26 points and Britt Prince scored 20.

 

Illinois (5-0) at home in Champaign got a career-high 31 points from Kendall Bostic, while Makira Cook scored 20 on the Beavers (1-4), who got 16 from AJ Marotte.

 

The Illini open in Nashville, Tuesday, in the Music City Classic against Md., Eastern Shore, while Oregon State plays Monday in the Baha Mar Women’s Championship in Nassau, Bahamas, opening against No. 2 UConn (4-0), who’s coach Geno Auriemma will be seeking to extend his record-setting career win record every time the Huskies take the floor until he retires after becoming the winningest coach in all NCAA men’s and women’s divisions at 1,217 on Wednesday night.

 

 Oregon State saw mass defections after their Elite Eight appearance as the program in the wake of the PAC-12 breakup moved to the mid-major West Coast Conference the next two seasons.

 

Oklahoma (5-0) used a sister act with Skylar Vann scoring 15 points and her freshman sibling Zya Vann collecting 14 in the win at UNLV (4-2), which got 20 points from Kiera Jackson.

 

The Sooners were only up one at the half before defending the Rebels and exploding for a 67-42 advantage.

 

In the first of a parade of holiday tourneys through Thanksgiving Weekend, in the Great Alaska Shootout at Alaska-Anchorage, the host team extended Troy into overtime before falling 80-73.

 

In the other game, earlier, North Dakota State beat Vermont 58-50 as Molly Lena scored 15 points for the winning Bison (3-1) and the Catamounts (3-3) got 13 from Bella Vito.

 

On Sunday, this being one of the few MTE events (Multi Team) in a pure tournament setting, North Dakota and Troy (2-4) will play for the championship at 12:30 p.m., while Vermont and Alaska-Anchorage will play for third at 10:15 p.m. on Saturday night.

 

In the Atlantic Slam in in Charlottetown, PE, at Eastlink Centre, Cincinnati edged Georgetown 59-57 as Chloe Mann made two foul shots with seven seconds left to withstand Victoria Rivera’s 3-pointer for the Hoyas with one second left in regulation.

 

Jillian Hayes had 28 points and 11 boards for Cincinnati (4-1), while Mann had 15 points.

 

Georgetown (2-2) had 26 points and 10 boards from Kelsey Ransom while Rivera scored 17, and Ariel Jenkins had nine points and 12 rebounds.

 

Cincinnati continues in the Atlantic Slam Sunday at 3 p.m. (ESPN+) playing FGCU, which first will play Georgetown Saturday at 5 p.m. (ESPN+).

 

In the Bank of Hawaii Classic in Honolulu, Hawaii topped UL Monroe 69-64 as Lily Wahinekapu had 20 points for the winning Rainbows (2-1) and Jakayla Johnson had 25 for ULM (3-2).

 

In the other game, Saint Mary’s edged Easteron Washington 59-57, though no one reached double figures for the winning Gaels (3-2), starter Maia Jones and reserves Jada Hunter and Ella Wedin each scored nine points.

 

Peyton Howard scored 15 for EWU (1-4), while the Eagles got 13 from Jaecy Eggers and Breeje Schuler scored 10.

 

Eastern Washington trailed by 14 in the final period but rallied to tie before the Gaels regained the advantage with a layup and on the line to withstand the Eagles’ finish.

 

On Sunday, UL Monroe will play Saint Mary’s at 5 p.m., and Eastern Washington will play Hawaii at 7:30 p.m., Hawaii is streaming its games on ESPN+.

 

Looking Ahead

 

In action in one of the Big 5 Classic Pods, Drexel travels to Temple at 2 p.m. (ESPN+) at the Liacouras Center, the Dragons slot into the title game in the triple header at Villanova on Friday, Dec. 6, all three games airing on NBC Sports Philadelphia + beginning 3:30 p.m.

 

It’s Temple’s first game in the two-game set in each group so if the Owls win, they can earn a title slot by beating La Salle on Dec. 1 at 2 p.m. up at the John Glaser Arena.

 

Otherwise, a tie would occur. The rules haven’t been made known, media wise, but last year the best .net rating was the tiebreak. The other way would be the winner of this game if the teams are tied.

 

The other championship slot will be decided when Villanova is at Saint Joseph’s, Sun., Dec. 6 at 2 p.m. Both teams won their other games, each beating Penn, which will be one of the teams playing the fifth-place game at Villanova at 3:30 p.m.

 

Elsewhere, locally, Saturday, Villanova is playing in the Bad Boy Mowers Battle 4 Atlantis in Nassau, Bahamas, the entire event is airing on FloHoops.

 

The Wildcats will play Texas A&M at 9 p.m., the last of four games. In the game determining the Day 2 matchups from the winners and losers of the Villanova game, at 6:30 p.m. 16th ranked North Carolina meets Ball State.

 

In the other groupings for Sunday’s winning and consolation semifinals, No. 18 Baylor gets the day started playing Southern Miss at 1:30 p.m., followed by Indiana meeting Columbia at 4 p.m.

 

Penn State continues in the predetermined set of games in the State Farm WBCA Showcase playing Georgia at at 2:30 p.m. after Tulsa and Marshall meet at 2:30 p.m., both games on Peacock.

 

While these teams finish at the Orlando, Fla., event at ESPN Wide World of Sports, on Sunday, South Florida plays No. 25 Louisville at 1 p.m., followed by Jacksonville and Mississippi State at 3 p.m.

 

In one other local single game on Saturday not already mentioned, La Salle travels to the nation’s capital to play at American U. at Bender Arena on ESPN+.

 

In national games, the first of two mega matchups in Los Angeles this weekend, the battle of last season’s two top rookies occur when No. 6 Notre Dame with runnerup Hannah Hidalgo from Merchantville, N.J., to face No. 3 Southern Cal with JuJu Watkins at 4 p.m. on NBC at the Trojans’ Galen Center.

 

On Sunday, Dawn Staley’s defending national champions and top-ranked South Carolina squad visits No. 5 UCLA at 4 p.m. on FS1 at Pauley Pavilion.

 

Other games of note that were entered on the Guru’s Radar for Saturday are single games, Davidson at Wake Forest at 1 p.m. on ACCNX; Harvard at Northwestern in Evanston, Ill., in suburban Chicago at 1 p.m. on B1G+, Cal Baptist at Portland at 6 p.m. on ESPN+, Boston College at Holy Cross at 2 p.m. on ESPN+, and Big Sky favorite Northern Arizona at 3 p.m. visiting Colorado State on the Mountain West Network.

 

And that’s it for now, you’ll find the Guru at Temple, Saturday, his alma mater.