The Guru NCAAW Report: Fourth Quarter Eruption Fuels Rider Rally Over Stonehill; Tennessee Fires NCAA Record 30 Made Threes Beating N.C. Central

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

LAWRENCEVILLE, N.J. – Down 11 in the fourth quarter Saturday evening to Stonehill at home in Alumni Gym, it appeared that Rider might be headed for more of the misfortunes the Broncs had been enduring in recent games, until suddenly a reversal sprung out of nowhere.

Actually, it wasn’t exactly nowhere considering earlier in the game the home team had bolted from a 25-15 deficit on a 9-0 run to move within a point at 27-26 going into the break.

But then the visiting Skyhawks came back to life at the outset of the third quarter on a 9-1 attack to regain control.

Rider, though, in what was the only local attraction on Saturday’s slate, had a goal to head off into the MAAC portion of the schedule on a positive vibe and so it was that trailing 46-35 the Broncs took to the air with consecutive threes from Jocelyn Chavez and Camryn Collins with defensive stops followed by two buckets from Winner Bartholomew and went ahead by a point off a 12-0 run.

The game stayed tight for another minute and then Rider (2-7) launched a 10-0 run going on to finish with a 65-53 victory.

‘It’s been a minute, so I was happy with the win today,” said veteran coach Lynn Milligan. “We didn’t start off the way we wanted to very strong.

“I thought we regrouped defensively in that second quarter, to kind of get things settled down a bit. I thought our third quarter was ok, and I thought our fourth quarter was terrific,” she continued. “We went in the fourth quarter down, and there’s been some games where we’ve got knocked down a couple of times, but I think today I was really proud of the way we just stood back up.

“This team was ready to play today. It is our last home game of 2024 we were on a mission, and we talked about it for the last week of practice, we talked about leaving 2024 with a home win. That was really important to this team. We practiced that way, and I thought we played that way.”

This was the first meeting with Stonehill (3-7), a team now in the Northeast Conference undergoing reclassified Division I status.

Bartholomew, a freshman, scored 16 points, her best to date, with seven rebounds and six steals. Gabby Turco, a transfer from La Salle, scored 18 points, the seventh time in the nine games she’s reached double figures.

“We played a lot of tight games, and to come up short so many times is very frustrating for all of us, considering we put in so much work,” Turco said.

“A win isn't going to be handed to us. We need to work for 40 minutes at every game, so just knowing what it takes to win, just laying it all out on the floor so that we can get it done.”

Sham Hayward scored 22 for Stonehill, while Kylie Swider, a Villanova transfer who drew several of her former Wildcats teammates to the game, scored 12, and Shira Elkis scored 10.

The MAAC did Rider no favors, the Broncs launch league play Thursday, visiting Quinnipiac, which tips at 11 a.m. (ESPN+) in Hamden, Conn.

The Bobcats have been back in the mode they used to dominate in the conference.

“No, the MAAC didn’t do us any favors,” Milligan said, “There’s going to be thousands of screaming kids there but we’re going in there to win the game.”

The National Scene

Less than 24 hours after California greeted Stanford’s visit across the San Francisco Bay with a program-record 18 three-pointers, No. 19 Tennessee nearly doubled the amount at home in Knoxville with a rain of 30 makes from beyond the arc setting an NCAA record in a crushing 139-59 win over North Carolina Central at Food City Center (originally Thompson-Boiling Arena). A program and conference member record of 63 shots launched from deep was set.

The outcome set a program and Southeastern Conference member record for points as the Lay Vols increased their record to 8-0.

That total makes it the best start for a new Tennessee coach, who is Kim Caldwell, hired from Marshall of the Sunbelt Conference.

Here’s a gallery link to photos from our William Ewart, who resides in Knoxville. https://williamewartphoto.photoshelter.com/gallery/North-Carolina-Central-vs-Tennessee/G0000ZQrqWR7l3fc/

 

Samara Spencer set an individual mark with nine long-range makes, coming on 13 attempts to fuel a personal best 33 points in the scoring carnage. She also dealt 10 assists.

 

Talaysia Cooper made five three-balls and finished with 21 points while Tess Darby also had five deeps connect to fuel 17 points. Zee Spearman scored 15, Ruby Whitehorn acored 13, and Sara Puckett scored 11 on N.C. Central (0-12), whose Shakira Foster scored 17, and Terriana Gray scored 10.

 

Caldwell has been installing a fierce pressing defense and a week after then-No. 17 Iowa was hit with a season-high 30 turnovers in Tennessee’s win in Brooklyn that enabled the Lady Vols to end a program-record year-long, 22-week drought from the AP women’s poll, the Eagles on Saturday were hounded into 44, third most by a Lady Vols.

 

Elsewhere, No. UCLA (10-0) made the short trip south to win 102-51 at Long Beach State giving Cori Close her 297th career win, a Bruins coaching record.

Angela Dugalic and Lauren Betts each scored 22 points against the 49ers (5-4).

 

No. 13 Kansas State (11-1) in a neutral site game at the Bill Snyder Basketball Classic in St. Joseph’s, Mo., grabbed a 74-48 win over Conference-USA favorite Middle Tennessee (7-4) using a strong second half as Ayoka Lee led three Jayhawks in double figures with 16 points, seven boards, and four blocks.

 

No. 16 Kentucky won 82-52 at Purdue (5-5) as Amelia Hassett scored 22 points, Georgia Amoore scored 21, and Clara Strack had 12 points and 12 boards for the Wildcats 99-1).

 

Ohio State (10-0) got 29 points from Cotie McMahon while Ajae Petty had 19 points and 12 rebounds in an 87-39 win over Youngstown State (6-5) at home in Value City Arena in Columbus.

 

Looking Ahead

 

On Sunday, locally, Temple hosts No. 15 West Virginia at 2 p.m. in the Liacouras Center on ESPN2, the host Owls coming off their recent Big 5 Classic championship at Villanova over the Wildcats, who at the same time will host Sunbelt favorite James Madison (FloSports) in Finneran Pavilion.

It’s a coaching reunion of sorts from the CAA rivalry when ‘Nova coach Denise Dillon at Drexel at the Dukes fought for league supremacy.

Rutgers hosts Wagner at 2 p.m. (B1G+) at home in Jersey Mike’s Arena in Piscataway, N.J., while Penn State visits Kansas in the Jayhawks’ Allen Fieldhouse in Lawrence at 3 p.m. on ESPNU and ESPN+.

Drexel is at Florida State at 2 p.m. (ACCNX) at the Tucker Center in Tallahassee.

Nationally, No. 3 South Carolina hosts American Athletic Conference champion favorite South Florida at 2 p.m. on the SEC Network. No. 2 Connecticut’s Big East game with Georgetown is at 1:30 p.m. on SNY at the XL Center in Hartford.

At noon No. 21 Iowa visits No. 17 Michigan State in a Big Ten game on the Big Ten Network in East Lansing.

And that is the report.