The Guru NCAAW Report: Buzzer-Beaters Carry Princeton and Temple to Dramatic Wins; No. 17 West Virginia Upset in Big 12; Short-Handed UConn Keeps Winning

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

PRINCETON, N.J. – Defense and a game-winner by Ashley Chea at the finish gave Princeton first blood Saturday afternoon between two of the top three Ivy teams in the way of a 52-50 win over Harvard in the Tigers’ Jadwin Gym.

Long before the game’s end, the key for Princeton (11-4, 2-0 Ivy) was a second-quarter 10-4 shutdown of the visiting Crimson (12-2, 1-1).

Elsewhere in the league down at The Palestra in Philadelphia an upset of sorts occurred with Dartmouth (8-7, 2-0) gaining a 61-49 win over Penn (9-6, 0-2) while in upstate New York, Columbia (11-4, 2-0), the third of three top Ivies, had an easy time winning 69-44 at Cornell (4-11, 0-2) at Newman Arena in Ithaca.

Harvard arrived here with a 70.3 scoring average and found itself sliced by 20 points off the Crimson’s total built primarily on a competitive non-conference schedule, considering league play just got under way a week ago.

“To keep Harvard to 50 points is a pretty great day,” said Tigers coach Carla Berube, who has kept the squad dominating the league in terms of NCAA tournament participation after succeeding Courtney Banghart’s departure for North Carolina.

 Princeton off a 10-0 scoring run in the second quarter built a differential by the same number until Harvard fought its way back in the second half.

The ultimate drama began with 2:17 left in regulation when Elena Rodriguez, who finished with 22 points, put Harvard up 50-48, but Skye Belker got the points right back from the foul line a few seconds later.

Neither team could make a shot as the clock wore down indicating overtime was looming ahead.

But with four seconds left, Parker Hill blocked an inside layup attempt from Rodriguez and grabbed the ball, Princeton calling time with three-seconds left to advance the ball after being on the opportune side of the possession arrow.

“That was one of the most important plays of the game,” said, Chea, who now runs the offense with Kaitlyn Chen spending her graduate year at No. 7 Connecticut. “I trusted whoever was guarding Elena and I just knew we would get that stop back.”

The Tigers quickly got the ball to Chea who made a step-back jumper before time expired to the delight of a near-sellout crowd of 1,961.

“I knew it was going to go in,” said Chea. “I work on that shot more than all of my other shots. I was just having fun out there. I think that’s when I play my best.”

“A play actually worked,” quipped Berube.

That’s only the second buzzer beater for a win in the program in the last 22 years, the other being Grace Stone with a winning shot over Rhode Island in December 2022.

Harmoni Turner, who was averaging 20.7 for Harvard, was held to 15 points, but also had nine boards.

Princeton’s Olivia Hutcherson had a career-high 10 points, matched for a team-high from Skye Belker, while Chea had nine points and five assists, and Fadima Tall grabbed nine rebounds with eight points.

Hutcherson said she had no doubt Chea’s shot would be golden.

“When I saw Ashley hit the little step-back, one dribble going left, I always know. She makes it nine times out of ten, maybe ten times out of ten. I was confident, and of course she made it. Game winner. I’m not surprised.”

The season to date for Princeton is reminiscent of one of Banghart’s last ones, in which injuries turned the non-conference portion into a struggle and had people thinking perhaps the Ivy dynasty might end until the Tigers belied the forecasts.

Nothing has changed the inner belief about themselves, picked again back on media day to win it all once more.

“I think everyone down deep knows who that is,” said Chea in terms of the rulers from Jadwin. “Today’s game was super important for us and what we’re trying to build here.”

Harvard had turned eyes early in the season, winning at Indiana.

But Saturday became another spoiled pseudo-homecoming for Carrie Moore, who served here on Banghart’s staff.

“It feels like a missed opportunity,” she said. “At any point in that game, I felt like we were winning that basketball game.

“I think for us this isn’t new news. We’ve played a lot of game where we haven’t shot the ball very well and we’re doing everything in our power to fix it.”

Harvard next Saturday is at Brown, while Princeton hosts Dartmouth.

Meanwhile, down at Penn, the Quakers (9-6, 0-2) ran into an improving Dartmouth (8-7, 2-0) group, whose Victoria Page erupted for 26 points as the Big Green snapped an 18-game losing streak in the series.

Though Stina Almvist scored 21 playing the full 40 minutes for the Quakers, their overall shooting, including attempts from deep, did not help the cause.

Penn shot 33.3 percent (20-60) from the field, and 3-19 from beyond the arc.

Dartmouth’s Clare Meyer added 14 points, while Oliva Austin grabbed 11 boards, helping the Big Green to a 47-31 domination on rebounds.

The Quakers, who trailed by as many as 16 in this one, are at Cornell next Saturday at 1 p.m. (ESPN+), where Columbia triumphed on Saturday.

In that win, Cecelia Collins had 17 points, while Riley Weiss had 16 points, fueled by four makes from deep, and eight boards, and Kitty Henderson shot 7-11 for 15 points with seven rebounds for the Lions (11-4, 2-0).

Temple Escapes Tulsa Rally at the Finish

Ahead comfortably most of the afternoon, Temple barely dodged a Tulsa rally down the stretch for a 73-71 American Athletic Conference win at home in the Liacouras Center on Amaya Oliver’s offensive rebound as time expired.

The win by the Owls (10-6, 4-1) occurred on a day when AAC preseason favorite South Florida (11-7, 4-1) couldn’t complete a rally, falling 72-65 at North Texas (12-5, 4-1) at the Super Pit in Denton.

Temple got 21 points from Tarriyonna Gary, while Jaleesa Molina had 11 points and 10 boards, in what is the best conference start under coach Diane Richardson, now in her third season, after guiding the Owls to a three-way tie for first last March for the AAC regular-season crown.

“Our resilience has built up through the season, and it was good to see that they toughed it out,” Richardson said. “Tulsa is a great team, they’ve got great shooters, and we knew that, but we hung in there, we didn’t have our heads down, and then that last -second putback put us over.”

In the third period, the Owls snapped out of a three-plus minutes scoring drought to go on an 11-0 run and build a 56-39 lead, that was just two-points less on Tulsa (8-9, 2-3) sliced it to 10 heading into the final period.

But the opposition then came to life and moved within three points with less then 20 seconds remaining in regulation.

Then Temple failed to make the inbounds play within five seconds and on the turnover Delanie Crawford, who had 21 points, tied it with her fifth three with 5.2 seconds left.

That was plenty of time, however, for Oliver to grab an offensive rebound and score for the win.

“We’re getting to that confidence in all of our players and as you can see with so many people scoring, it’s hard to defend,” Richardson said. “That’s what we want. We want to have everybody be a scorer, so it’s hard to double team.”

Temple is off until next Saturday, hosting Charlotte at 2 p.m. (ESPN+).

Villanova Suffers Another Flameout

It happened in non-conference play at Fairfield, it happened at home recently in the Big East in the last second loss to Seton Hall, and it happened again Saturday at Marquette in a 69-54 conference loss in Milwaukee.

In this one Villanova (8-9, 2-3) had leads of 13 overall and nine at the half, but the hosts in their Al McGuire Center grabbed a 21-9 effort in the third quarter to reverse the momentum.

The Wildcats’ scoring came from the Maddies, Webber with 16 points fueled by six from deep, and Burke, who scored 10.

The Golden Eagles (11-5, 3-2) were led by Halle Vice, who had 20 points and 12 boards, while Jaidynn Mason scored 14.

The Wildcats are next back home in Finneran Pavilion hosting DePaul at 11:30 a.m. (FloSports) on Wednesday in the annual Education Day theme.

Elsewhere in the Big East, shorthanded Connecticut continued to dominate despite Paige Bueckers still sitting out from the knee injury suffered last Sunday at Villanova and Ice Brady, who stayed home sick from what became a 73-55 victory by the No. 7 Huskies (15-2, 6-0) at Georgetown (8-8, 2-4) in the nation’s capital and moved to the larger Entertainment & Sports Arena, drawing a crowd of 3,827 in the home of the WNBA Washington Mystics.

Azzi Fudd, in what was a homecoming for her, shot 8-13 from the field and 5-8 from deep, for 21 points for UConn, while freshman Sarah Strong scored 16 points with nine boards, and Ashlynn Shade had 12 points and seven boards, the same total rebounds as reserve Morgan Cheli.

The Hoyas got 22 points from Khadee Hession, while Victoria Rivera scored 10, and Ariel Jenkins, who missed the Villanova game earlier in the week, scored nine with seven rebounds.

Georgetown led early by eight before the Huskies began asserting themselves.

The win extended Hall of Fame coach Geno Auriemma’s NCAA win record for men or women to 1,228.

The Huskies next visit St. John’s at the Red Storm’s Carnesecca Arena in Queens, N.Y., on Wednesday.

Creighton took a road win at Seton Hall 72-64 in Walsh Gym at South Orange, N.J., giving the Pirates (12-4, 4-1) their first conference lost.

The Bluejays (14-3, 6-0) got 23 points and seven rebounds from Morgan Maley, who had four makes from beyond the arc, while Molly Mogensen scored 18 with eight rebounds.

Faith Masonius, a Maryland graduate transfer, had 18 points and six boards for Seton Hall, while Jada Eads scored 11, and I’Yanna Lops scored 10 with six boards.

Creighton next hosts DePaul on Saturday while Seton Hall is at Marquette Wednesday night.

Rider Drops Niagara

The Broncs had one of their better afternoons in beating the Purple Eagles 79-59 at home in Alumni Gym in a Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference game in Lawrenceville, N.J.

In getting its first MAAC win of the season Rider (3-11, 1-4) got 24 points from La Salle transfer Gabby Turco, shooting 8-13, while Mariona Cos-Morales scored 13.

Niagara (1-12, 0-5), which was also winless in the MAAC ahead of the game, got 17 points from Safiatu Kolliegbo, while Marlie Dickerson scored 13, and Jordyn Williams scored 12.

We needed a win,” said veteran coach Lynn Milligan. “We stuck to our game plan, we were strong in our fundamentals, made some really good extra passes, 23 assists on 27 field goals, we’ll take that any night.

Defensively, in the second half, we were terrific.”

Rider visits Mount St. Mary’s Thursday at 7 p.m. (ESPN+).

The two MAAC frontrunners stayed unbeaten but while defending champion Fairfield at home routed Marist 70-31, Quinnipiac, also home, didn’t get control over Iona until late in the game for a 66-58 win.

Fairfield (11-3, 5-0), which next visits Niagara Thursday morning, got 16 points from Meghan Anderson, while Emina Selimovic had 12 points and six boards, Kaety L’Amoreaux had 10 points and eight rebounds, and reserve Cyanne Coe also scored 10 points.

Quinnipiac (14-1, 5-0) trailed 50-43 going into the final period but used a 7-0 run to tie things 50-50 on a three-pointer by Grace LaBarge with 6:24 left in regulation.

Iona (6-10, 4-2), which lost to both leaders this week, went up one from the line with 4:09 left but then the Bobcats eked back ahead and stayed there on a 14-7 spurt to the finish.

Anna Foley scored 21 with 12 boards for the winners, while freshman standout Gal Raviv scored 17 with four boards and four assists.

Quinnipiac goes to Merrimack Thursday.

Lafayette and La Salle Take Road Losses

The other two locals, who both played, suffered losses in their respective conferences, Lafayette losing at defending Patriot League champion Holy Cross 75-69 in Worcester, Mass., while La Salle in the Atlantic 10 fell 79-61 at Dayton.

In the La Salle game, Ashleigh Connor had 18 points and nine boards for the visiting Explorers (7-11, 1-4), while Anna Przyszlak had 15 points, and Ayisse Magassa had 12 points and 10 rebounds.

Dayton (10-6, 4-1), which is starting to show progress under coach Tamika Williams-Jeter, a former UConn star, got 22 points from Ivy Wolf, while Arianna Smith had 21 points and 15 rebounds.

La Salle next visits Massachusetts 11 a.m. (ESPN+) Wednesday.

Lafayette (4-11, 1-3) in its loss to the Crusaders (10-5, 3-1) got 16 points from Abby Antognoli with five assists, Sauda Ntaconayigize scored 12, Tasha Chudy scored 10, and reserve Teresa Kiewiet scored 10.

The Leopards next host Army Wednesday at 11 a.m. in the Kirby Sports Arena in Easton, Pa.

Looking Ahead Locally

On Sunday, Saint Joseph’s will try to bounce back from Wednesday’s home upset loss to Duquesne in the Atlantic 10 and go for a series sweep visiting VCU in Richmond at 2 p.m. on the CBS Sports Network.

Penn State in the Big Ten visits No. 4 Southern Cal at 8 p.m. on the Big Ten Network in Los Angeles, the Lady Lions yet to win in conference play, while Rutgers, in a similar situation in the Big Ten hosts Nebraska at 2 p.m. on the same network at home at Jersey Mike’s Arena in Piscataway, N.J.

Drexel, in the Coastal Athletic Asociation, visits Hofstra at 2 p.m. on FloSports in Hempstead, N.Y., while Lehigh at 1 p.m. visits Army (ESPN+) at West Point, N.Y., in the Patriot League.

The National Scene

On Saturday, six of the seven ranked teams in action, including earlier mentioned UConn, prevailed, the upset occurring in the Big 12 where Oklahoma State at home in Stillwater, took down No. 17 West Virginia 64-57 as Stailee Heard scored 18 points for the Cowgirls (14-2, 4-1).

It’s Oklahoma State’s best start since 17-1 a decade ago in 2013-14.

Kylee Blacksten had 16 for the visiting Mountaineers (13-3, 3-2), while JJ Quinerly scored 10, nine off her average.

Elsewhere in the Big 12, No. 22 Utah (13-3, 4-1) bounced back from a loss earlier this week, beating Houston 69-42 at home in Salt Lake City has Rhode Island transfer Maye Toure scored 22 with 12 boards, Gianna Kneepkens had 15 points, nine boards and seven assists, and Mayy Wilke scored 11.

Utah is at Baylor Tuesday.

 No. 12 Kansas State (17-1, 5-0) won at BYU 92-65 in Provo, Utah, as Temira Poindexter scored 24 points for the Wildcats with five makes from deep. The host Cougars (10-6, 1-4), who joined the league last season from the West Coast Conference, got 18 points, seven boards and five assists from Delaney Gibb.

Ayoka Lee added 19 for the visitors, while Serena Sundell scored 12 with 13 rebounds.

No. 11 TCU (17-1, 5-0) broke a six-year losing streak in Lubbock at Texas Tech with a 69-43 victory.

LSU transfer Hailey Van Lith, originally at Louisville as a collegian, had 22 points, while Oregon transfer Sedona Prince scored 20 with 10 boards, while Madison Conner scored had four makes from deep and finished with 13 points.

Van Lith was 7-14 from the field and 9-9 at the line while Prince was 10-15 from the field.

The Red Raiders (12-6, 1-4) on a four-game losing streak wasted an effort from Bailey Maupin, who had 23 points, aided by a perfect 10-10 from the line.

In the Big Ten, No. 8 Maryland (15-1, 5-1) bounced back from its home loss to win at Wisconsin 83-68 as Bri McDaniel and Shyanne Sellers each scored 21, Rutgers transfer Kaylene Smikle scored 18 with eight boards and Villanova transfer Christine Dalce scored 15 points with eight boards.

Serah William scored 24 for the host Badgers (10-7, 1-5).

Maryland next hosts Minnesota Tuesday at 7 p.m. at College Park on the B1G at the XFinity Center.

No. 25 Michigan (11-5, 2-3) won at Purdue 87-60 in West Lafayette, Ind., as Mila Holloway scored 21 points and Olivia Olson scored 18.

The Boilermakers (7-9, 0-5) have yet to win a Big Ten game this season.

In other games of note, UAlbany at home beat Maine 60-55 in The America East; Ball State won at Buffalo 78-56 in the Mid-American Conference.

Looking Ahead Nationally

It’s another Sunday of ranked teams in power conferences banging into each other, especially in the Southeastern and Atlantic Coast Conferences.

That’s especially true in the SEC where No. 5 Texas visits No. 2 South Carolina at 1 p.m.

Elsewhere in the SEC, No. 16 Tennessee is at Arkansas at 1 p.m. on the SEC Network; No. 28 Alabama is at Ole Miss at 4 p.m., while No. 10 Oklahoma is hosting Texas A&M at 5 p.m. on ESPN2, and No. 15 Kentucky is hosting Auburn at 3 p.m. on the SEC Network.

In the ACC, No. 14 Duke is at Virginia at noon on the ACC Network; No. 19 North Carolina hosting Boston College at 2 p.m. on the ACC network; No. 21 NC State is at Stanford at 3 p.m. on ESPN; No. 24 California is hosting Florida State at 5 p.m.; and No. 13 Georgia Tech is at Louisville at 4 p.m. No. 3 Notre Dame is at Clemson at 2 p.m. on the CW Network.

In the Big Ten, No. 9 Ohio State hosts Oregon at 5 p.m.; No. 20 Michigan State is hosting Washington at 2 p.m.; No. 23 Iowa is hosting Indiana at 3 p.m. on Peacock.

And that’s your Saturday report.