The Guru NCAAW Report: Saint Joseph’s Completes Sweep of La Salle; Villanova Beats Xavier; No. 6 Connecticut Alone on Top of the Big East; Two Big 12 Upsets

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

PHILADELPHIA – Coming out of a tight 30-27 halftime lead here on Hawk Hill Saturday afternoon at Hagan Arena, Saint Joseph’s erupted with a 26-9 explosive third quarter and went on to beat La Salle 76-52 gaining a season sweep of their two games within the Atlantic 10.

The second half dashed the hopes of Explorers coach Mountain MacGilivray that perhaps the losing streak dating back to late December might avoid reaching nine.

“It’s the fourth game we’ve struggled in the third quarter, so I am not surprised,” he said.

“But you never expect to go 26 and 9, so yes, I’m surprised it was that bad. Credit to Saint Joseph’s. Even without two starters, they’re still and formidable team. It’s tough to beat a team that can put the ball in the basket that well.

“I came out thinking, this is a game we could win. I thought we played really poorly in the first half, our offensive execution was not good, we made shots, which was nice, but we were frazzled, defensively we broke down assignments, and we were in a four-point game,” he continued.

“So, I felt great about fixing some things and coming out in the second half. Sometimes when it rains, it pours, it didn’t go that way.”

The Hawks (16-4, 7-2) are without Talya Bruglar (hand) and Emma Boslet (foot) for an undetermined amount of time, but what is happening is the depth is improving with backups doing the job while Laura Ziegler keeps piling up double doubles and Mackenzie Smith has been lights out deadly when needed.

Smith had a team-high 22 points, shooting 8-12 from the field, including nailing five from deep, while Ziegler had 14 points and 13 rebounds.

Paula Maurina had a personal best on the season with 14 points, while sophomores Aleah Snead and Gabby Casey each scored 10 points.

“Really happy with the way we shot the ball today,” said veteran Saint Joseph’s coach Cindy Griffin, now in her 24th season at her alma mater and getting the victory on alumni day.

“Looking at the percentages, we got good lucks inside and outside, a lot of our defense created out offense and I thought we did a good job sharing the ball and getting the ball to the right people.

“‘Mac did an unbelievable job, Aleah making plays for each other, Casey’s threes were big, and Lara was Lara and very pleased, a great team win today.

“I think today is an indicator. I think Wednesday (having beaten St. Bonaventure) is an indicator of how they’re responding. I’m grateful that we are coming out with wins. I think it is going to make us deeper when everyone is healthy.”

A bright spot for La Salle (7-15, 1-8) was the play of freshman Joan Quinn, the A-10 rookie of the week who had a career-high 23 points, six boards, and three assists. The points are also a season-high for any of the Explorers individuals.

“A lot of times, when it gets later in the season, it goes the other way with freshmen, but that hasn’t been that way with her,” the La Salle coach said. “She just plays without fear. She has a great motor and keeps going.”

Saint Joseph’s shot over 50 percent as a team for the ninth time this season and the Hawks outrebounded the Explorers 36-24.

Snead talked about her role with Bruglar, who adds to the rebound force besides scoring, and Boslet, who provides assists, out of action.

“It is definitely giving me more confidence on the floor,” she said. “A lot of people we are missing did a lot of big things for us. I’m just trying to pick up the pieces where they left off, defense and offensive rebounds are a big part of what they did. I’m just trying to pick up the slack.”

The challenge increases for the Hawks Wednesday when they visit Davidson, one of the higher tier A-10 teams, in North Carolina at 7 p.m. (ESPN+)

La Salle will also be on the road at the same time on the same TV stream visiting St. Bonaventure in Olean, in Western New York.

The Bonnies are also struggling with the same conference record so perhaps, this might be the night to flip the script.

Winners Circle to Villanova, Lehigh, and Princeton

It was also alumni day and Daddy Girl Day on the Main Line and the Wildcats (11-10, 5-4) celebrated back home in Finneran Pavilion bouncing back from Wednesday’s Connecticut beat down and taking a 67-52 win in the Big East over Xavier (6-14, 1-8).

There might have been something in the air between Saint Joseph’s and Villanova because 29 was also the magic number for the ‘Cats in the third quarter outscoring the Musketeers 29-14.

Freshman Jasmine Bascoe from Toronto, Canada, shot 9-14 for a game-high 25 points, while Maddie Webber scored 15, Ryanne Allen scored 10 and Danae Carter had nine points and 14 rebounds.

The Wildcat defense was efficient, forcing the opposition into 23 turnovers.

Villanova is now off until Sunday, when the Wildcats will be out for revenge hosting Marquette.

Lehigh also hosted a rivalry game in the Patriot League, the 108th, and blitzed Lafayette 73-51 at Stabler Arena in Bethlehem, Pa., as Meghan O’Brien scored 13 points and Maddie Albrecht tallied 12 for the Mountain Hawks (16-4, 7-1).

“It’s a great feeling,” said Lehigh coach Addie Micir, a former Princeton star out of lower Bucks County. “We played with joy and it showed. We were ready to go right from the start.

“We don’t care who gets the credit – share it and shoot it all the way. To see their smiles on their faces says it all.”

Abby Antognoli scored 11 for the visiting Leopards (5-14, 2-6) from nearby Easton.

Lehigh on Wednesday heads for a conference showdown visiting Navy at Alumni Hall in Annapolis, Md., while Lafayette heads the same direction a little further South playing American U. in the nation’s capital at Bender Arena. Both games start at 7 p.m. streaming on ESPN+.

Princeton (13-5, 4-1) bounced back from Monday’s Ivy loss at Columbia, winning after a brief challenge at the close 62-54 over Cornell (4-14, 0-5) at Newman Arena in Ithaca, N.Y.

Parker Hill had a career high 20 points and 12 rebounds for the Tigers, while Skye Belker and Fadima Tall each scored 12 points.

Next weekend, in a throwback to the old Friday/Saturday games in the Ivies, Princeton and Penn head to lower New England together, Princeton on Friday visiting Yale in the John Lee Amphitheater in New Haven. Ct., at 6 p.m., while the Quakers are at Brown at 7 p.m., the site of this year’s Ivy tournament, in Providence, R.I.

On Saturday, Princeton goes to Brown at 5 p.m., while Penn will be at Yale at 2 p.m.

All those games will air on ESPN+.

Unfortunately, the Tigers’ nearby rival Quakers were unable to help bring Columbia (14-4, 5-0) back to the pack, the host Lions in Levien Gym off Broadway on New York City’s Upper West Side on Saturday exploded with a 21-0 run in the second quarter extending to three more points in the third to take a dominating 79-54 victory on Penn (10-8, 1-4), and the season series.

Columbia’s Riley Weiss had a career-high 25 points off a companion personal best 6-of-9 from deep. Cecilia Collins had 19 points and 10 rebounds.

“I think we are beginning to hit our stride a little bit,” said Columbia coach Megan Griffith, a native of King of Prussia. “This team has so much potential. I’ve thought that since the beginning of the year when we put the puzzle pieces together.”

Perri Page and Marija Avlijas each added 10 points.

Simone Sawyer and Mataya Gayle each scored 14 points for Penn.

Next weekend, Columbia faces its last threat on the front half of the Ivy gauntlet, visiting Harvard, whose sole league loss was at the buzzer at Princeton. That game airs at 7 p.m. on ESPNU. The Lions then go to Dartmouth Saturday.

Woeful Saturday

Temple’s recent four-game joyride through the American Athletic Conference came to an abrupt halt in the Liacouras Center, unable to connect to at least force overtime and losing 62-60 to Tulane.

Sherese Pittman tied it late for the Green Wave (12-7, 5-3) and then put the visitors up with 28 seconds left as the Owls (12-7, 6-2) were unable to hit from the field the final two minutes.

“It was a game that we should have won, and I don’t think we gave enough to win,” said Temple coach Diana Richardson, now in her third season who had been off to her best start since arriving in town. “Tulane came in here fighting, and they came out with a win. We’ve gotta do better than that. We’ve got to play defense the entire game.

“At this point in the season, we’ve got to be ready as soon as the buzzer goes off.

“They played some tough defense, but I thought we should have been able to get open,” said Richardson. “We stood around too much, offensively, didn’t execute our stuff. When we are communicating defensively, we communicate offensively. It’s just like a well-oiled machine, and we didn’t do that today.”

Tarriyonna Gary had 23 points and shot 7-12 from the field for the Owls. She also had eight boards.

On Wednesday, Temple will travel to Denton, Texas, meeting one of the top tier teams of the American, playing North Texas on Wednesday.

 

 

In the other local playing Saturday, Rider fell at home in Alumni Gym in Lawrenceville, N.J., in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) to Quinnipiac 66-53, giving the Bobcats (16-2, 8-1) the season series over the Broncs (3-15, 1-8).

Quinnipiac opened on a 15-2 run, the Bobcats playing for the first time since the upset loss to Mount St. Mary’s in overtime last weekend.

La Salle transfer Gabby Turcol had 20 points for the Broncs, while freshman Winner Bartholomew had a career-high 17 points, 15 in the second half, and Camryn Collins scored 10.

Quinnipiac freshman sensation Gal Raviv from Israel had 21 points, Anna Foley scored 13, and Jackie Grisdale scored 12.

Rider visits St. Peter’s in Jersey City on Thursday at 7 p.m. on ESPN+.

Elsewhere in the MAAC, defending champion Fairfield, yet to lose in league play the last two seasons to date, won 74-55 at Merrimack in North Andover, Mass.

Cyanne Coe had a career-high 18 points, while Meghan Andersen, the MAAC freshman of the year last season, scored 12, and Emina Selimovic scored 10 for the Stags (15-3, 9-0).

The stage is now set for the MAAC 1-2 showdown on Thursday when Quinnipiac visits for the first of the two games between the conference powers, this one at Fairfield’s Leo D. Mahoney Arena at 7 p.m. on ESPN+.

The National Scene: No. 6 UConn Takes Sole Hold of the Big East; Two Big 12 Upsets

Creighton (16-4, 8-1), ranked early in the season, had a chance to go to the top of the Big East, but No. 6 Connecticut came visiting and vanquished that dream 72-61 in Omaha, Nebraska, and likely will be up a spot to No. 5 in the new AP Poll Monday in the wake of LSU’s loss to South Carolina.

Freshman Sarah Strong had 26 points with 12 rebounds, while Paige Bueckers had 19 of her 22 points in the second half for the Huskies (19-2, 10-0).

Strong had 16 in the first half with an 8-for-8 from the line, five steals and four blocks.

The Bluejays got 14 each from Morgan Maly and Molly Mogensen while Brooke Littrel scored 12 points.

In a move similar to when Iowa showed up around the country with Kaitlyn Clark last season, the game was moved from Creighton’s 3,000-seat arena to the 18,000-seat CHI Health Center and set an attendance record with 11,141 spectators.

The Bluejays are 0-10 playing the Huskies.

Geno Auriemma’s NCAA record win total for combined men’s and women’s games as a coach is now at 1,232.

UConn is at DePaul in Chicago Wednesday night while Creighton will be at Georgetown.

Meanwhile, in the Big 12, Colorado at home in Boulder upended No. 10 Kansas State 63-53, while Arizona in Tucson took down No. 16 West Virginia 77-62.

Both winners are brand new in the conference this season coming from the former PAC-12, though Colorado is a past member.

In the win by Colorado (13-6, 4-4), Frida Formann had 14 points and Jade Masogayo threw up three blocks down the stretch on Kansas State (19-2, 7-1) stopping the Wildcats’ 14-game win streak.

Masogayo also had 13 points and seven boards.

Serena Sundell scored 13 for Kansas State.

Colorado is at BYU on Wednesday, Kansas State hosts Iowa State Thursday.

In the other surprise, Arizona (24-8, 5-4) got 18 points and nine boards from Breya Cunningham, shooting 7-11 from the field while also swiping three steals with three blocks.

Paulina Paris and Skylar Jones each collected 16 points.

Ja’Naiya Quinerly scored 26 for the Mountaineers (16-4, 6-3), who don’t play again until Saturday. Arizona has a Pac-12 reunion inside the Big 12 Friday, going to Utah in Salt Lake City.

The Utes won an in-state game Saturday traveling to Ogden to beat BYU 81-76. Oklahoma State on the road edged Texas Tech 71-68.

A Big Ten in-state game of ranked teams saw No. 21 Michigan State rout host Michigan 88-58, the losing Wolverines (14-6, 5-4) had just returned to the poll this week after dropping out several weeks ago.

Theryn Hallock had 23 of her 25 points in the second half, while Julia Ayrault had 18 points and 13 boards for the Spartans (17-3, 7-2).

Michigan is at Wisconsin Wednesday and Michigan State greets Oregon, one of the four new members from the PAC-12 Thursday.

Looking Ahead

Just three local games, two completing weekend hosting and switching guests in the Coastal Athletic Association as Drexel greets Elon, now at 1 p.m., instead of 2, due to the Eagles vs. Commanders NFC title game at Lincoln Financial Field at 3 p.m. to send the winner to the Super Bowl. The Dragons play at the Daskalakis Athletic Center.

Delaware hosts Charleston at 2 p.m. at the Bob Carpenter Center in Newark. Drexel’s game is additionally on NBC Sports Philadelphia + besides FlowSports, which also streams the Delaware game.

Penn State, which has one Big Ten win, the upset last Sunday of then-No. 9 Ohio State, hosts Rutgers, which doesn’t have any, at 1 p.m. in the Bryce Jordan Center in StateCollege.

Nationally, No. 8 Maryland hosts No. 1 UCLA, the last unbeaten Division I team, at 2 p.m. on NBC in the XFINITY Center in College Park.

At 3 p.m. Ohio State, now 12th in the AP Poll, hosts Nebraska.

Vanderbilt in the SEC is at No. 19 Alabama at 2 p.m..

And that’s the report.