The Guru NCAAW Report: Temple Rally Falls Short Hosting Princeton While Penn Sets Scoring Records and La Salle and Lafayette Also Register Victories

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

PHILADELPHIA – The pattern that has been Temple struck again Tuesday night in the Liacouras Center this time against Princeton, which has been forced to undergo its own changes with the recent season-ending ACL injury to Madison St. Rose.

Offensively, most of the game the Owls couldn’t find a shot and fell behind by 18 points to the five times reigning Ivy League tournament champion.

Then as the game got late Temple’s defense and an awakened offense got the home team within a basket.

Unlike the key previous Big 5 pod game win over Drexel, however, there was no happy ending, and the Tigers escaped back home an hour to the north with a 62-57 victory.

“We scheduled this non-conference to be ready for (American Athletic) Conference schedule,” said Temple coach Diane Richardson.

‘It’s a tough loss to look at because we played Temple basketball in the second half and unfortunately, we kind of sat back in the first half and we’ve got to get a better start. (Princeton) ran their stuff and we pretty much just sat back a little bit.”

Not that the Owls (3-3) were surprised by anything shown by the Tigers (5-2).

“The whole week, when we started with the Princeton scouts, (the coaches) told me that I had one job,” said Tristen Taylor. “That was to guard the girl on the other team, just keep her contained.”

“We knew we had to play tougher defense, and we had to make shots,” Richardson said. “We’ve had some woes shooting the ball lately, but I know always our defense turns into offense and so we had to ratchet up our defense so that it could turn into offense.

Temple outscored the Tigers 21-11 in the fourth quarter, but the early deficit was too much to overcome in this one.

“Quite honestly, the games that we lost, we were close. If we can withstand this non-conference schedule, I think that will put us in a good position for conference.”

A year ago, the Owls finally got hot on the back end of the season and finished in a three-way tie in the AAC with a deep run in the league tourney.

Temple comes back Sunday up Broad Street to La Salle at the Explorers’ John Glaser Arena at 2 p.m. (ESPN+) where a win puts the Owls in the title game of the women’s first Big Five Classic at Villanova on Dec. 6 following the new format then men underwent last season.

It could be that should the Explorers win, the resulting three-way 1-1 tie might put Temple there anyway out of the Owls’ pod with Drexel and La Salle with the .Net used as the tie break.

As for the boxscore Tuesday, Kaylah Turner off the bench scored 15 points helped by 3-4 makes from deep. Tiarra East after struggling most of the game got untracked with 14 points at the finish, but those were the only two in double figures for the home team.

Princeton’s Ashley Chea, picking up from the absence of St. Rose, scored 17 points, while Skye Belker scored 14, and off the bench, Tabitha Amanze had a double double 12 points and 11 rebounds.

The loss of St. Rose has been crucial because graduation has made the roster younger and the Ivies look even stronger this season.

But since the injury, the Tigers won their central New Jersey round robin winning at Seton Hall and Rutgers ahead of the Temple game.

“Last year we knew exactly what to do,” said Princeton coach Carla Berube. “There are a lot of good Ivy teams this year but first we have to take care of our nonconference.”

The Tigers after the Thanksgiving break go to Portland and Utah out west, in part to provide a homecoming game from senior Katie Thiers from Seattle though with more teams reluctant to play Ivy opponents the trip to the game will be a little longer for family and friends.

“That’s why we’ll be in Oregon instead of Washington,” Berube said.

This was not the only game on Tuesday locals battling each other with La Salle hosting Lehigh while Penn and Lehigh also won.

La Salle was able to close out at the finish for a 65-62 victory off a tight 49-48 lead into the fourth quarter building confidence with three straight wins on the revamped roster ahead of Sunday’s visit from Temple.

Ashleigh Connor and Aryss Mactoon each scored 15 points for the Explorers (4-3), while Jolene Armendariz scored 11 off the bench and Ayisse Magassa scored 10.

Lehigh (4-2) got 18 points and eight boards from Maddie Albrecht, while Ella Stemmer scored 14 and Lily Fandre had 10 points.

The Mountain Hawks are home Saturday and Sunday hosting their annual Christmas City Classic at Stabler Arena in Easton, Pa., hosting Marist at noon Saturday and then either North Dakota or Valparaiso Sunday at noon or 2:30.

Penn set a program scoring and differential records at home at The Palestra feasting on Area Division III Immaculata 114-39 as Sarah Miller and Mataya Gayle each scored 16 points.

Saniah Caldwell and Tina Njike each scored 12 and Stina Almqvist collected 10, the first time five were in double figures since 2019 against Ivy foe Harvard.

Miller, Gayle, and Caldwell each had four of Penn’s 17 three-pointers, the rebound disparity was 65-27 and the bench was total domination 60-10 for the Quakers (4-3), snapping a three-game losing streak.

Carly Coleman had 12 for the Mighty Macs (5-1).

Penn this weekend will be in the Florida Gulf Coast’s tourney playing Chattanooga 1 p.m. Friday and Cal Baptist 1 p.m. Saturday.

Lafayette also won Tuesaday but unlike Penn as tight as one got get 71-69 at NJIT in Newark after ranking losses at home to Notre Dame and on the road at West Virginia.

Abby Antognoli had 20 points for the Leopards (2-4), while Kay Donahue scored 18, and Emma Shields had a double double with 12 points and 11 boards.

NJIT (2-6) got 24 points from Alejandra Zuniga while Audrey Kormann scored 11.

Lafayette is at Monmouth Sunday in West Long Branch, N.J., at 2 p.m. (ESPN+).

Wrapping up the local slate on Wednesday Saint Joseph’s prepares for Sunday’s Holy War visit from Villanova hosting St. Francis, Pa., 3 p.m. (ESPN+) in Hagan Arena while Drexel visits Penn State at the Bryce Jordan Center at 1 p.m. (B1G+) in State College.