The GURU NCAAW REPORT: No. 3 Notre Dame (ACC), No. 3 South Carolina (SEC), No. 9 Ohio State (Big Ten), and Fairfield and Quinnipiac (MAAC) Stay Perfect in Conference

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

There were a lot of games, though just one local, Thursday night, while all the ranked teams won, or the higher ranked teams in head-to-head confrontations triumphed.

Taking the one local first, Rider fell 66-60 at Mount St. Mary’s while the two Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) frontrunners Fairfield and Quinnipiac continued to roll separating themselves by two games from the rest of the crowd.

In the Rider game, La Salle transfer Gabby Turco had 18 points for the visiting Broncs (3-12, 1-5 MAAC), who are now one game below the cut-off point from making the reduced ten-team field at the tourney in Atlantic City in March.

Jo Raflo did the damage for the Mountaineers (8-8, 3-3) with 28 points and eight rebounds.

Rider next is back home Saturday hosting Marist at 4 p.m. (ESPN+) at Alumni Gym in Lawrenceville, N.J.

Defending champion Fairfield (12-3, 6-0) ripped through Niagara 96-49 in the game played in Western New York, Meghan Andersen scoring 20, propelled by four makes from deep, while Kaety L’Amoreaux had 16 points and seven assists, while reserve Sydni Scott scored 11 against the Purple Eagles (1-13, 0-6), yet to win in the MAC.

Quinnipiac (15-1, 7-0) had to work a little harder, but prevailed 72-67 at Merrimack (7-8, 3-3) in Andover, Mass., as freshman Gal Raviv scored 27 with eight boards, Jackie Grisdale scored 14, and Caranda Perea scored 12 with five boards, all helping to offset and off night from Anna Foley, who scored just one point in what was a homecoming visit.

On Saturday Fairfield completes its swing playing at Canisius at 1 p.m., while Quinnipiac back home in Hamden, Conn., hosts Mount St. Mary’s at 2 p.m., both airing on ESPN+.

The National Scene

In the SEC, No. 2 South Carolina (17-1, 5-0), the defending NCAA champs, won at No. 19 Alabama 76-58 as freshman Joyce Edwards scored 21, Chloe Kitts had 10 with 13 rebounds, Milay Fulwiley scored 16, and Te-Hina Paopao scored 11 in the Gamecocks’ sixth straight win over a ranked opponent.

Zaay Green and Essence Cody each scored 15 and Aaliyah Nye collected 12 for Alabama (16-3, 3-2), which next is at Arkansas Sunday, while South Carolina, continuing its stretch of five straight ranked games, is back home in Columbia Sunday, hosting the third in No. 13 Oklahoma.

No. 7 Texas (17-2, 4-1), bouncing back from the loss at South Carolina, cruised 74-57 at Auburn as Madison Booker scored 22 points and Rori Harmon scored 20 for the Longhorns, who next meets No. 8 Maryland of the Big Ten Monday, playing in the doubleheader including No. 1 UCLA meeting Baylor at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, in the Coretta Scott King Classic celebrating Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Oklahoma (15-3, 3-2) rode Payton Verhulst’s career-high 38 points, six makes from deep, to win at home in Norman 80-63 over Missouri ahead of the Sooners’ Sunday trip to South Carolina.

No. 15 Tennessee (15-2, 3-2) in an 86-73 win over Mississippi State (15-3, 2-3) at Food City Center home in Knoxville got 20 points from Ruby Whitehorn, while Talaysia Cooper had 16 points, 10 boards, seven assists and three steals, Samara Spencer had 18, and Jewel Spear scored 13.

Here’s Willbill’s photo gallery from that game. https://williamewartphoto.photoshelter.com/gallery/Mississippi-State-vs-Tennessee/G0000.AL5HjDvmls/ 

The Lady Vols next visit Vanderbilt in Nashville, Sunday.

In the ACC, No. 3 Notre Dame (15-2, 6-0) at home in South Bend, Ind., had a strong second half to subdue No. 17 Georgia Tech 81-66 as Sonia Citron scored 21 and Maddy Westbeld scored 20.

Merchantville’s Hannah Hidalgo missed her second straight game with an ankle injury.

Kara Dunn had 21 for the Yellow Jackets (15-3, 3-3), who have lost three straight games since being one of five remaining Division I teams with perfect records, now reduced to three in No. 1 UCLA, No. 5 LSU, and No. 9 Ohio State.

Elsewhere in the ACC, No. 21 N.C. State at home in Raleigh beat Pitt 83-67; No. 14 North Carolina (16-3, 4-1) won 64-33 at SMU in Dallas, Stanford won a narrow 74-71 win at Wake Forest, and in an ACC game between two ranked teams, No. 16 Duke (14-4, 5-1) at home in Durham, N.C., got 23 points and 11 boards from freshman standout Toby Fournier in a 72-38 win over No. 18 California (16-3, 4-2), which with Stanford and SMU are new members this season.

In the Big Ten No. 9 Ohio State (17-0, 6-0) won 80-69 at Wisconsin (10-8, 1-6) in Madison as Jaloni Cambridge scored 27 and Chance Gray scored 22 for the Buckeyes, who are at Penn State Sunday.

In the Big 12, No. 11 Kansas State (18-1, 6-0) at home in Manhattan won 62-47 over new member Arizona as Serena Sundell scored 16, crossing the 1,500-career threshold with eight assists.

Looking Ahead

Just two locals Friday night, both involving Coastal Athletic Conference road games with Drexel visiting North Carolina A&T while Delaware is at Hampton, both tipping at 7 p.m. and airing on FloSports.

Nationally in the Big 12, No. 23 Utah is at No. 10 TCU in Fort Worth, Texas, at 7:30 p.m. on ESPN+.

And that’s the report.