The Guru NCAAW Report: St. John’s Saddles Penn State With First Defeat; Looking Ahead at Week for Locals and the ACC/SEC Challenge; First NCAA .Net Index

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

Considering the very recent passing from St. John’s 99-year-old retired Hall of Fame men’s coach Lou Carnesecca, perhaps his spirt was there on Monday night to guide the Red Storm women’s squad, who, after just missing a chance at home to knock off Ivy power Harvard, got a key win in Happy Valley, hitting Penn State with its first setback, 72-67, in the Bryce Jordan Center.

In the only local game on the books, PSU (8-1) couldn’t stop the visitors’ Lashae Dwyer, who was 10-15 from the field and a near-perfect 5-6 from the line for 25 points, with seven steals, six rebounds, and five assists.

Reserve Jailah Donald had 11 points for St. John’s (7-1), which had suffered its first loss last week by the Crimson, while Ber’nyah Mayo and Kylie Lavelle, a transfer who had played at Penn State and Drexel, each scored 10 points.

The performance served as a homecoming for Lavelle since Moosic, Pa., is nearby.

Jayla Oden for the home team scored 24, but committed eight turnovers, while Gracie Merkle continued in double figures, but at a lower 13-point total, and Gabby Elliott scored 12.

Dwyer’s scoring was a personal best, and the Red Storm swamped Penn State’s program record 17-game non-conference home win streak, dating to the onset of winter, Dec. 21, 2022.

As for significance on the Johnnie’s side, it’s the first win over a Big Ten oppponent since defeating Rutgers on Nov.19, 2015, nine seasons ago. Their 16 steals were also the most since an equal number on Fairfield, Dec. 20, 2019, and the seven swipes from Dwyer, a native of Toronto, were the most since Kadaja Bailey on March 5, 2021.

St. John’s looked to take control in the middle of the third period with an 9-0 run but the Nittany Lions fired back on an 11-2 move to within a basket.

Lavelle and Dwyer combined to end the quarter each with a basket to to go into the last period ahead 58-52.

Down the stretch the Nittany Lions got to within three of a tie but then got pressured by the Johnnies into several turnovers to clinch the win.

Penn State next opens Big Ten play Saturday hosting Indiana at 1 p.m. (B1G+).

The National Scene

The scene is not much larger than the local one you just read, two ranked squads with relatively easy wins.

No. 19 Alabama topped visiting Georgia State 98-49 in Coleman Coliseum in Tuscaloosa as Zaay Green scored 22 points and dealt seven assists for the unbeaten Crimson Tide (9-0).

She completed a double double with 10 rebounds. The stat also went to Essence Cody with 13 points and 11 boards, while Sarah Ashlee Parker scored 12 and Aaliyah Nye had 11 points as did Eric Lester.

Georgia State (5-4) got 10 points and three boards from Mikayla Tolivert.

The Tide next plays in the ACC/SEC Challenge traveling to Berkeley to play new ACC member California on Thursday at 9 p.m. on ESPNU.

In the other game with a ranked squad, No. 21 Illinois traveled to Buffalo and the home school of Illini coach Shauna Green to play at Canisius, winning 68-55.

Adalia McKenzie had 15 points and 10 rebounds for the Illini (7-1), while Kendall Bostic had 16 points with seven boards and two assists with a block and Jasmine Brown-Hagger came off the three-game disabled list with 13 points and a pair of steals off the bench.

Illinois joins the Big Ten opening weekend, occurring earlier with the four-team expansion to an 18-member conference, playing at No. 12 Ohio State in Columbus at 4 p.m. on the Big Ten Network.

Looking Ahead

Another tiny local plate Tuesday has La Salle opening Atlantic 10 play by visiting Loyola Chicago at 6 p.m. on ESPN+. The Explorers will then be off until Friday afternoon playing Penn for fifth place at 3:30 p.m.to start the inaugural women’s triple-header Big Five Classic at Villanova’s Finneran Pavilion.

All three games will air on NBC Sports Philadelphia Plus, the marathon day for broadcasting handled by Steve Pinone and Christine Motta, the latter who has been an analyst at Delaware and on CAA tournament broadcasts besides Villanova games in the Big East.

Drexel, ahead of it’s third-place game at 5:45 p.m. against Saint Joseph’s, on Wednesday at the Dragons’ Daskalakis Athletic Center, at 6 p.m. (FloSports) will host Lehigh, which last weekend won its two-game Christmas City Classic in Bethlehem for the first time since 2010.

Lafayette will host Fairleigh Dickinson on Wednesday at 6 p.m. At the Kirby Sports Center in Easton, Pa. (ESPN+).

Friday’s Big 5 title game between Temple and Villanova will tip off at 8 p.m.

On Thursday, Rider is at Monmouth in West Long Branch, N.J., at 7 p.m. (FloHoops/NBC Sports Philadelphia Plus).

Friday, besides the Big 5 Classic, Princeton is on the start of its West swing playing at Portland at 9 p.m. on ESPN+.

While the busiest week outside March Madness with all the Thanksgiving Holiday Events concludes, a sizable but smaller amount will occur on the run-up till the Christmas break, there’s still plenty of national action highlighted by the annual ACC/SEC Challenge, which has more dynamic matches off the realignment that besides the Big 12 and Big Ten brought Stanford and California to the ACC and Texas and Oklahoma to the SEC.

Though every team in Wednesday’s opening ACC/SEC slate of games has been ranked in AP women’s poll history, the only current ones on the card that night, are No. 11 Oklahoma at 5 p.m. visiting No. 22 Louisville on ESPN2, though at 7:15 p.m. on the SECN Tennessee hosting Florida State in Knoxville is worth a look.

Thursday, however, is another story.

At 5 p.m., No. 14 Kentucky is at No. 16 North Carolina on ESPN2, while at 7 p.m. No. 4 Texas is at No. 10 Notre Dame on ESPN.

Also, at 7 p.m. No. 18 Ole Miss is at N.C. State, which just dropped from the rankings for the first time in 24 weeks. That game in Raleigh airs on ESPN2.

At 9 p.m., Duke, which has risen to No. 8 is at No. 3 South Carolina at on ESPN, while at the same time Stanford is at No. 5 LSU on ESPN2 featuring the 2021 and 2023 NCAA champions.

Also, Friday at 6:30 p.m. on ESPN is the WNBA expansion draft selections announcement for the new Golden State Valkyries, who begin play this summer.

Noteworthy: Monday’s AP Poll off realignment that left the Power 5 reduced to the Power 4 with the leveling of the PAC-12 and addition of Michigan and Michigan State gave the Big Ten nine teams, while the SEC is represented with seven. The ACC has four teams and the Big 12 has 4, while the Big East has one – a big one in No. 2 Connecticut.

The first .Net of the season by the NCAA through Sunday was released.

If La Salle had won Sunday and a 1-1 three-way tie in one of the Big 5 pods had to be broken with use of the .Net here are the reads through Dec. 1.

Big 5 Pod-A

Temple 100

Drexel 122 — which leads the CAA

La Salle 258

Big 5 Pod-B

Saint Joseph’s 40

Villanova 49

Penn114

 

The Other Area

Princeton 44

Penn State 55

Lehigh 91

Rutgers 145

Delaware 235

Rider 272

Lafayette 337

 

The .Net for the AP Top 25 This Week

UCLA 3

Connecticut 4

South Carolina 1

Texas 2

LSU 8

 

Southern Cal 14

Maryland 15

Duke 9

TCU 5

Notre Dame 13

 

Oklahoma 16

Ohio State 12

Kansas State 11

Kentucky 20

West Virginia 10

 

North Carolina 21

Iowa 29

Ole Miss 18

Alabama 23

Iowa State 76

 

Illinois 28

Louisville 38

Michigan 17

Michigan State 6

Nebraska 34

 

Other Select Schools

Vanderbilt 7

Richmond 19

Baylor 26

Florida State 27

NC State 30

Tennessee 32

Utah 33

Stanford 35

Harvard 36

Creighton 39

South Dakota State 41

Fairfield 42

George Mason 45

Columbia 46

Indiana 47

Oregon 50

Quinnipiac 52

St. John’s 53

Virginia Tech 54

UNLV 56

James Madison 61

MTSU 67

Kansas 68

Miami 69

Arizona 73

Colorado 79

Seton Hall 81

South Florida 99

FGCU 110

Duquesne 140

Rhode Island 142

Georgia 156

Oregon State 164

Northwestern 168

Toledo 172

Bucknell 173

Gonzaga 181

Chattanooga 184

 

And that is that.