The Guru NCAAW Report: Drexel’s Baker Butchers Elon; Rutgers Rallies From 17-Point Deficit on Penn State for First Big Ten Win; No. 1 UCLA Tops No. 8 Maryland; Vandy Upsets No. 19 Alabama

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

PHILADELPHIA – Drexel completed a weekend sweep Sunday afternoon here at the Daskalakis Athletic Center against the upper portion of the Coastal Athletic Association (CAA) with a one-sided wire-to-wire 64-37 victory over Elon, while in the middle of the state in a Big Ten game, Rutgers rallied from a 17-point deficit on the road to win 77-73 against longtime rival Penn State in the Bryce Jordan Center for the Scarlet Knights’ first conference victory of the season.

Rutgers committed 22 turnovers giving the Lady Lions 23 points, but the Knights got 21 back off 26 miscues.

The Scarlet Knights outscored PSU 25-9 in the final period and used a 17-3 run to end the game.

“We made some adjustments at halftime, and they came out with a higher sense of urgency,” said Rutgers coach Coquese Washington. “We started to press a little more and got to turn them over and take those turnovers and turn them into points and I think that was the difference in the game.”

The other local in action, Delaware fell 58-45 to Charleston at home in a CAA game at the Bob Carpenter Center in Newark.

Nationally, No. 1 UCLA, the lone unbeaten team left among the Division I women, completed a sweep on the East Coast trip, winning a Big Ten game 82-67 at Maryland in College Park.

Meanwhile, among the Top 25 there were upsets and narrow escapes, in the SEC Vanderbilt won 66-64 at No. 19 Alabama, and in the ACC, Florida State won at the finish 86-64 at No. 13 North Carolina, while back in the SEC after Texas topped No. 17 Tennessee at the finish last Thursday at home in Austin, the Longhorns on the road in the last minute beat Ole Miss 61-58, and in the Big 12, No. 9 TCU at home in Fort Worth turned back No. 25 Baylor 80-75.

Beginning with the game, here, Drexel (9-8, 5-2) raced to a 23-6 lead and never looked back on Elon (11-7, 5-2).

Amaris Baker scored 24 points, while Chloe Hodges had a double-double 11 points and 10 assists, while Cara McCormack was 4-8 for 10 points. Deja Evans grabbed 12 rebounds and tied a personal best with five assists.

No one for the Phoenix scored in double figures, Jayda Angel and Kierra Morrow each just short with nine points a piece.

“Just exciting to get two at home this weekend,” said Drexel coach Amy Mallon. “I think we did a great job on the defensive end, got our defensive goals, on the offensive side, a lot of people stepped up, Chloe with a double double.

“Obviously, defense is our number one priority here, that’s something we hold on to, we know that’s what gives our offense, if we can get those touches, get those steals, then rebounds on the defensive end, allows us to push in transition,” Hodges said.

Drexel, this weekend, plays at Northeastern at 3 p.m. in Boston and returns here Sunday to host Towson at 2 p.m. Both games will air on FloSports.

In the Delaware game, the Blue Hens (4-13, 1-6) ran into a Charleston team that let Drexel get away Friday night after holding a ten-point lead.

Nyah Willis scored 13 for the Cougars, McKinley Brooks-Sumpter had 11, and Taryn Barbot had 10 for the Cougars (13-5, 4-3).

Delaware’s Chloe Wilson and Ella Wanzer each scored 12 points, while Rebecca Demeke scored 11.

The Blue Hens this weekend are at Towson in suburban Baltimore Friday at 6:30 p.m. on FloSports and visit Northeastern in Boston on Sunday at 1 p.m.

Standings-wise, Drexel tops a three-way tie with Elon and William & Mary for second place a game behind North Carolina A&T.

Delaware is mired in 12th, a game ahead of Northeastern and Northeastern.

Meanwhile, it was like old times for Rutgers (9-12, 1-9) in beating Penn State (10-11, 1-9) on the road, snapping a combination eight-game and overall and conference losing streak since a non-conference win at home over Lafayette on Dec. 21.

Before last weekend’s upset of then-No. 9 Ohio State at the Bryce Jordan Center, Penn State had not won a Big Ten game this season either.

Freshman Kiyomi McMiller and Destiny Adams each scored 15 points for the Scarlet Knights, while JoJo Lacey had 14 points and Mya Petticord scored 12 points.

As big as the win over the Buckeyes was last weekend, the Lady Lions joined the list of a bunch of teams undergoing huge collapses late in games this season.

Moriah Murray scored 21 for Penn State while Gabby Elliott scored 14 and Gracie Merkle scored 11.

The visitors dominated second chance points 16-5 and led 18-14 in fast break scores.

The National Scene

Completing a week-long road swing in the East Sunday afternoon, UCLA is coming out of it the way the Bruins entered, still No. 1 in the country and still unbeaten, except that when No. 2 South Carolina downed No. 7 LSU on Friday night in an SEC thriller, that left the coach Cori Close’s squad the only one with a perfect record.

Completing the week in tandem as a member of UCLA, Lauren Betts, who set a program record with nine blocks Monday in a win over Baylor in the Coretta Scott King Classic at the Prudential Center, then scored 25 in Thursday’s win at Rutgers, collected a career high 33 points Sunday in an 82-67 win at No. 8 Maryland at the Terrapins’ XFINITY Center in College Park.

Kiki Rice, playing before home folks, scored 19 helping UCLA (20-0, 8-0) to extend the Bruins’ current string of double digit wins to 19.

Saylor Poffenbarger had 18 points for Maryland (16-4, 6-3), getting a diet of ranked teams in the Big Ten and losing three straight.

It’s been a tough week for the Terrapins, who are hopeful of getting second-leading Maryland scorer Shyanne Sellers back soon from a lower leg injury suffered in the loss at the game in North Jersey.

Betts set a program record 14-of-15 93.3% from the field for completion tries minimally 15 tries. The earlier was held by Hall of Famer Denise Curry against LSU in 1979. Betts also had seven rebounds and four blocks against Maryland, which has lost to ten straight foes ranked No. 1 since beating then ACC-rival North Carolina in the 2006 NCAA semifinals in Boston on the way to claiming the national championship.

The Bruins are beating Big Ten opponents by an average of 19.8 points.

UCLA is off until Sunday when the Bruins back home in Pauley Pavilion welcome Minnesota, while Maryland on Wednesday is at Penn State.

As for the upsets, a week after Vanderbilt bested then-No. 15 Tennessee at the buzzer on a putback, the Commodores made it 2-0 by stunning No. 19 Alabama 66-64 in Tuscaloosa in the SEC with freshman Mikayla Blakes scoring 33 for the Commodores (17-4, 4-3) while Sarah Ashlee Barker had 36 points and nine boards for the Crimson Tide (17-4, 4-3).

In the ACC, Florida State stunned host No. 13 North Carolina 86-84 in Chapel Hill as Ta’Niya Latson, the nation’s leading scorer, collected 25 points including the game-winner for the Seminoles (6-4, 6-2) as time expired.

Maria Gakdeng had 21 for UNC (18-4, 6-3), which is at N o. 22 California on Thursday, the same day the Seminoles visit Boston College.

Coming out of its narrow win over No. 17 Tennessee, No. 7 Texas (20-2, 6-1) rallied in the closing minutes 13-2 to slip past Ole Miss 61-58 in Oxford. Taylor Jones had 24 points for the visiting Longhorns while Madison Scott had 17 points for the Running Rebels (13-6, 4-3).

Likewise, No. 9 TCU (20-2, 8-1), which was upset on the road Wednesday at Oklahoma State, came back to win against visiting No. 25 Baylor 80-75, ending a 35-year losing streak to the Bears (16-5, 6-2), last winning in in 1990, 37 games ago.

Sedona Prince had 24 points and 14 rebounds for the winning Horned Frogs, overcoming 21 points, including five treys, from Sarah Andrews.

Baylor is at UCF Wednesday night while TCU is at Iowa State Sunday.

Winning big among ranked teams were No. 20 NC State 85-57 over visiting Virginia Tech; No. 23 Minnesota 71-50 over visiting Wisconsin; No. 5 LSU over visiting Texas A&M 64-51; No. 15 Oklahoma 86-55 over visiting Georgia, and No. 11 Kentucky over visiting Arkansas, 89-69.

Squeezing by were visiting No. 14 Duke (17-4, 8-1) in the ACC 55-50 over No. 18 Georgia Tech (17-4, 5-4); and in the Big Ten, No. 12 Ohio State (19-1, 8-1) winning 72-66 at Nebraska (15-5, 6-3).

 

In the Patriot League, in the first of two home-and-home, Army topped visiting Navy 59-49, the winning Black Knights (14-4, 6-2) getting a balanced attack led Kya Smith with 14 points and 15 boards; while Trinity Hardy scored 13; Fiona Hastick collected 11; Reese Ericson scored 10; and Camryn Tade grabbed 10 rebounds.

 

Julianna Almeida and Zanai Barnett-Gay each scored 15 points for the Midshipmen (14-5, 6-2).

Looking Ahead

The fifth of five straight ranked games is for No. 2 South Carolina is on the radar Monday with the Gamecocks making a radar visit Monday to No. 17 Tennessee, whose ranking number could be changed by noon when the new AP Poll is released.

The game is set to tip off 7 p.m. at Food City Center in Knoxville with new coach Kim Caldwell set to be back on the sidelines following the birth of her baby boy last week causing her to miss the Texas game in Austin.

On Tuesday in the Big Ten Northwestern is at Iowa on the Big Ten Network.

And that’s the report.