The Guru NCAAW Report: Saint Joseph’s Wins Hawk Classic Opener Against Howard While Charleston Tops Northwestern; La Salle and Penn Win; Alabama Upsets Michigan State

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

PHILADELPHIA – Saint Joseph’s is back again in the title game of its Hawk Classic at Hagan Arena Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m. (ESPN+) thanks to prompt shooting and key rebounding to beat Howard 69-53 in Friday’s opener.

The Hawks (8-2) will meet Charleston (9-1), which pulled an upset on sorts pending on whose viewpoint by taking an early lead on Northwestern (6-5), falling back in the second half but then putting on a closing burst to win 68-62.

The Wildcats and Howard (6-7) will play in the third-place game at 11 a.m.

The front three Hawks continued their domination, Laura Ziegler, who less than a month ago in a win here over St. Francis, Pa., produced the first triple double in almost 36 years, gave an encore against Howard with 10 points, 11 rebounds, and 10 assists.

Talya Bruglar, who got off to a hot start, finished with 23 points, while Mackenzie Smith came alive in the second half to create a double-digit separation against an opponent that would not go away and scored 19.

But adding to the developing depth is freshman Rhian Stokes, who got increased minutes in the narrow loss at Utah when Emma Boslet got hurt, and in this one joined Bruglar as the only two for the home team scoring in the first quarter and went on to score a personal best 15 points.

“She is really so productive, whether it be an assist, or hitting upon three or getting the ball to the right player and being really, really aggressive for us and getting into the areas on the floor that we need to get into,” said Cindy Griffin, the dean of local coaches in her 24th season at her alma mater. “Just really impressed with her maturity, and she continues to get better every time.”

Saniyah King had a game-high matching Bruglar with 23 for Howard, which will be a strong contender in the MEAC.

Saturday’s game will complete non-conference play, the Hawks opening Atlantic Ten play after the Christmas break here on Dec. 29 against VCU.

With that in mind and the ultimate goal of winning the conference tournament in March, Griffin’s team gets a test of back-to-back competition.

“Playing back-to-back, we haven’t done that yet,” she said. “It will be a big test for us.”

In the second game, the match was between a Charleston team that had its best season in the Coastal Athletic Association whose tournament was won by Drexel and Northwestern from the heavy duty Big Ten that on Wednesday won a gritty overtime game at home in overtime against Mountain West UNLV.

Charleston raced to a 16-9 lead at the end of the first quarter, Northwestern closed the gap in the next, Charleston then went up eight but at the break was holding a slim two-point lead.

In the third Northwestern finally went up 34-33 two minutes into the period on Kyla Jones’ jumper and grew the margin to five on shots by Casey Harter and and Taylor Williams.

But the Wildcats couldn’t extend, and Lara Rohkohl had the game knotted at 40-40 with 2:49 left in the period.

And that’s where it stayed but at 46-46 at the end of the third.

With less than a minute as the game had continued tight, Taylor Barbot put Charleston back in front with a shot 62-60 at the 34-second mark, Rohkohl blocked an attempted shot to tie and then Taryn Barbot got fouled and made both attempts from the line to make it 64-60 with 13 seconds left.

Taylor Barbot then grabbed a steal, went to the line and got the lead to 66-60 with seven seconds left.

Melanie Daley scored for Northwestern, but then Jami Hill made two free throws for the final score at the finish.

Taryn Barbot had 24 for Charleston with six shots made from deep, and Taylor scored 15.

Northwestern’s Caleigh Welsh off the bench scored 20 with nine boards, Daley, a reserve, scored 12, while Harter and Williams each scored 10 and Williams grabbed 11 boards for a double double.

Penn handled Delaware State 72-45 at home in The Palestra as Tina Njike had a career-high 14 points for the Quakers (8-3), who have now won five straight, while tying the series with the Hornets (3-9) at 1-1 after meeting for the first time since 2003.

Freshman Sarah Miller scored 13 and Stina Almqvist scored 11.

Penn forced 25 turnovers and mined 24 points while the bench points were dominant 30-13 on the Hornets.

No one scored in double figures for the Hornets.

Penn now is off ten days before heading to Arizona State on Dec. 30 at 3 p.m. (ESPN+) in Tempe.

In the only other local action, La Salle bounced back from it Texas massacre and beat Northern Kentucky 70-67 in a closely fought contest in the first day participating in UC San Diego’s multi-team event out west as the Explorers scored nine straight from the line, eight from Ashleigh Connor in the final three minutes.

Joan Quinn had a career-high 18 points, shooting 4-5 from deep, for La Salle (7-6) against the opposition (3-10) while Connor had 16 points, as did Aryss Mactoon, who set a career-high with six steals.

The Explorers play the hosts at 3 p.m. (ESPN+).

Delaware’s visit to Old Dominion Sunday has been postponed until a date to be decided due to a lack of eligible Blue Hens players.

The team only had six in a recent home loss to Villanova before playing at Navy, where Delaware also lost.

The National Scene

In Friday’s late-night attraction out west, No. 11 Ohio State beat Stanford 84-59 before No. 1 UCLA beat Creighton 70-41 in the Bay Area Women’s Classic in San Francisco at the Chase Center, home of the NBA Golden State Warriors.

In the opener, Cotie McMahon scored 16 points with six rebounds while five other players scored in double figures for the winning Buckeyes (12-0).

Nunu Agara scored 17 for Stanford (8-4).

It was their first meeting since December 2015, both schools were coached by Hall of Famer Tara VanDerveer, who retired from Stanford after last season. At the time she held the collegiate combined men’s and women’s win record at 2,116, which was broken last month by UConn Hall of Famer Geno Auriemma.

Ohio State returns to its Big Ten schedule on Dec. 29 at Rutgers while Stanford resumes ACC action on Jan. 2 at SMU.

In the second game, Kiki Rice had 20 points for the top-ranked Bruins (12-0), who were missing Lauren Betts with a leg injury.

Angela Dugalic scored 13 points with 14 boards for UCLA, while Morgan Maly scored 15 for the Bluejays (9-3) of the Big East.

Creighton had won eight straight.

The Bruins get into their Big Ten schedule hosting Nebraska next Sunday while Creighton visits Big East rival St. John’s Saturday.

In the West Palm Beach Classic in Florida, Tulsa beat Montana 68-58, Alabama upset No. 15 Michigan State 82-67, and No. 18 Tennessee beat Atlantic 10 defending champion Richmond 92-67.

In the win by Alabama (11-1), which dropped the Spartans (11-1) from the list of unbeaten teams, now at eight, Aaliyah Nye with 18 points and Zaay Green with 17 led five Crimson Tide players in double figures.

Michigan State got18 points from Julia Ayrault, 14 from Theryn Hallock, and 10 from Grace Vanslooten.

The Spartans return to the Big Ten playing at Maryland on Sunday next week.

In the Tennessee game, Talaysia Cooper scored 17 of 24 in the second half for the Lady Vols (10-0) while Rachel Ullstrom scored 19, and Maggie Doogan scored 13 for the Spiders (9-3).

On Saturday, Alabama plays Richmond while Tennessee plays Tulsa.

In a single game, Villanova transfer Lucy Olsen scored 21 and Addison O’Grady scored 18 to lead No. 22 Iowa (10-2) to a slim 92-86 win over visiting Northern Iowa (5-6).

The Hawkeyes resume Big Ten play next Sunday hosting Purdue.

In two other ranked games involving Top 25 teams, No. 20 Michigan won 96-55 at Akron, while No. 16 Kentucky at home beat Belmont 84-78.

Looking Ahead

Big slate of local games Saturday besides the Hawk Classic and La Salle out West.

At noon, Lafayette is at Rutgers at Jersey Mike’s Arena in Piscataway, N.J. (B1G+), Vermont is at Princeton in Jadwin Gym (ESPN+), and Wofford is at Lehigh in Stabler Arena in Bethlehem (ESPN+).

At 2 p.m., Villanova kicks off its Big East slate hosting St. John’s in Finneran Pavilion (FloHoops).

Out West, late night in a pure tournament format, No. 24 California’s Raising the B.A.R. event has the host Golden Bears playing Fordham at 8 p.m. followed by Temple playing Xavier at 11 p.m., both on ACCNX.

On Sunday, winners and losers play.

Nationally, the two big attractions are the rematch of last season’s Elite Eight game at 8 p.m., No. 7 visits No. 4 Connecticut at the XL Center in Hartford on FOX. Both lost to Notre Dame this season and the host Huskies beat the Trojans last season. It’s Paige Bueckers for UConn and JuJu Watkins for USC.

No. 25 Nebraska visits No. 17 Georgia Tech at 5:30 p.m. (ACCNX).

No. 9 Duke at 1 p.m. is at South Florida (ESPN2).

And that’s the report.