The Guru NCAAW Report: La Salle Beats Chestnut Hill; Now ACC Bay Area Rivals Cal Shoots 18 Threes Ripping Stanford Ending Series 12-Game Losing Streak

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

PHILADELPHIA – La Salle became the latest in the Big 5 Friday night to get a schedule need fulfilled by an area D-II school, which had nothing to lose except the score which went to the Explorers 95-46 over Chestnut Hill at home in John Glaser Arena.

The outcome, off the only local playing Friday, on the D-I side counts in the school record but not in resume profile in terms of NCAA tournament deliberations while on the other it is just an exhibition.

The shoe will likely be on the other foot Tuesday when La Salle (6-5) travels to the Lone Star State in Austin to play No. 6 Texas in the Longhorns’ still relatively new Moody Center.

“We talk every day about getting better and putting our best foot forward,” La Salle coach Mountain MacGillivray said afterwards. “We knew today we were going to be more physically talented than our opponent, but we were competing against ourselves.

“And I was really, really pleased by our effort. We dominated the boards (60-28), we dominated the turnover battle (31-4) and they executed together. I thank Chestnut Hill for coming in and battling against us.”

Avisse Magassa, one of eight new additions to go with a sparkling renovated arena, had a game-high 19 points with six boards for La Salle while Mackenzie Daleba had 13 points and 13 rebounds, on Friday the 13th no less, for the Explorers’ first double-double in three seasons dating to Gabby Crawford collecting 22 points and grabbing 12 rebounds against Saint Joseph’s on February 2, 2022.

Off the bench, Alisa Blalock scored 12 points while Ivy Fox scored 10.

The Griffins, who were 4-6 prior to making the trip here, did not have a player in double figures but Caleigh Edwards had six points, as did three teammates, with six assists, four rebounds, and a pair of steals.

An 18-0 run in the third period thwarted any Chestnut Hill desire to rally.

Philosophically, MacGillivray said La Salle’s approach stays the same though the Explorers will be the decided underdog on Tuesday.

“What we said about going into tonight stays the same,” he noted. “They’re a tremendous team with a lot of talent. We try to be the best of ourselves. We get to see how the other half lives. We got three more games before we hit the break and we’re looking for every opportunity we get.”

The La Salle game was the only local one on the Friday card and for Chestnut Hill the Explorers were an opportunity for the Griffins to ready themselves coming out of their completed finals period for the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC) action ahead.

Especially in the Southern Division dealing with the likes of Jefferson and Holy Family.

La Salle will continue west from Texas to play next week in the UC San Diego Winter Classic against Northern Kentucky and the host school in La Jolla, Calif.

Following those games and the Christmas break La Salle will be back home on Dec. 29 hosting George Washington to resume dealing the rest of the way in the Atlantic 10, which includes two games with Saint Joseph’s.

The National Scene – Stanford Routed

The slate here was also small though of the two games of note Friday one was between former PAC-12 Bay Area rivals Stanford and California which did not go the way in their common ACC opener the way life used to be in the home-and-home series at Palo Alto and Berkeley.

The Big Game as the series is known became blitzkrieg night in the Golden Bears’ Haas Pavilion in which California (10-1) landed a program-record 18 three-pointers, including a mid-court shot at the end of the third quarter from Marta Suarez, as coach Charmin Smith finally got the best of her alma marta in an 83-63 wipeout of Stanford (7-3) that ended a 12-game series losing streak dating to 2019 when Cal won 81-80.

“Stanford was the favorite in the spread,” Smith said. “People don’t know. I’m not worried about it, because we’re going to keep showing them and get what we deserve.

“Yes, it means a lot,” said Smith, who will be hosting Temple, Xavier and Fordham in Cal’s tourney next weekend. The Owls and Bears couldn’t meet until the second day pending the outcomes. “I’d be lying if I tried to downplay it. I don’t care. 

“People sat,  ‘Act like you’ve been there. I don’t care. I’m happy we beat Stanford and l’m going to act like it.

“I’m just happy for the players they get to experience this. We’re not talking about playing the Stanford teams of the past. This is about here in this moment.”

One week after Tennessee ended a long drought from the AP Women’s Poll, the Bears could be doing likewise on Monday.

It was Cal’s largest differential in the series since a 31-point win in 1982. Usually, the closest the Golden Bears have come to saying “cruise” when playing Stanford is on the ferry across San Francisco Bay between the two campuses if taking that route and not on the scoreboard.

It’s the most threes yielded by the Cardinal in records dating to 2002-03.

If this keeps up, No. 6 Notre Dame may not be the only problem ACC contenders will have to deal along with the other recent prime contenders. Cal’s lone loss this season was a 78-72 setback to Michigan State last month in Palm Springs.

Last week the Bears knocked Alabama out of the AP Women’s Poll.

Suarez finished with 21 points, including 4-6 from deep, seven rebounds and six assists.

“We were having fun the entire game, “she said.

Lulu Twidale, who tied a personal best with six from deep, finished with 20 points and a career-high seven boards, while Ioanna Krimili, a native of Greece and transfer from nearby San Francisco, also scored 20, and the group nailed Cal’s 6-of-8 beyond-the-arc makes in the third quarter.

Kayla Williams scored 13 with three makes from deep.

Defensively, Michelle Oniyah matched a personal best with five blocks and also pulled seven rebounds.

“We know who we are,” Twidale said. “We know what we can do. We don’t care what any outsider says we can’t. We show up and do what we do.”

For all the talk of having to travel coast-to-coast in the ACC guessed as a prime cause of Hall of Fame Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer’s retirement after last season it turns out it’s the shortest trip the Cardinal had to watch.

The way the Golden Bears performed they might have been participating in a Be Like Steph Curry promotion, referencing the sharp-shooting ace of the nearby NBA Warriors, if not Caitlin Clark.

Stanford’s Brooke Demetre scored 18 points and Nunu Agara scored 12, while Chloe Clardy scored 10.

“They played a great game,” said Stanford coach Kate Paye, herself a former Cardinal snd former teammate of Smith, who took over Cal in 2020 joining from the staff of the WNBA New York Liberty after Lindsay Gottlieb, now at Southern Cal, left for the NBA Cleveland Cavaliers.

“They shot the ball extremely well. More than that, I think they flat-out wanted it more. We were out-coached, I thought we were outplayed.

“You saw a Cal team that was highly motivated, and they played extremely hard. They rebounded the ball well. They were very aggressive on defense. They took us out of a lot of stuff, and the basket got really big for them. Credit to them.

“They came right out and punched us in the mouth. They were highly motivated, and our team can learn a lot from this. This was a painful experience.”

Ironically, Stanford set a school record with 18 three-balls in its opener last month at home against Le Moyne.

In the other game of note, BYU (9-2), which last year moved to the Big 12 from the West Coast Conference, won 72-57 at Washington State (4-6), which is in a two-year residency in the WCC until returning to a re-organization of its former conference home.

Delaney Gibb had 26 points for the winning Cougars, while Tara Wallack scored 16 for the opposition, also known as the Cougars.

Looking Ahead

On Saturday, locally, Rider hosts Stonehill on the front end of a doubleheader with the men at 6 p.m. (ESPN+) in Alumni Gym in Lawrenceville, N.J.

Nationally, No. 13 Kansas State is hosting Middle Tennessee at 6 p.m. (ESPN+) in Manhattan.

No. 19 Tennessee hosts N.C. Central at 2 p.m. in Food City Center in Knoxville on SECN+.

No. 1 UCLA (9-0) will take its unbeaten record nearby to Long Beach State (5-3) at 5 p.m. (ESPN+), while Detroit Mercy (6-1) is at No. 20 Michigan (8-1) in Ann Arbor at 3 p.m. (B1G+).

No. 16 Kentucky is at Purdue at 5 p.m. in West Lafayette, Ind., on the Big Ten Network.

A non-conference game involving former PAC-12 rivals has Utah of the Big 12 visiting Washington of the Big Ten at 9 p.m. on the Big Ten Network.

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.