The Guru NCAAW Report: Upsets (Penn State over Ohio State); Buzzer Beaters (Drexel Over Hampton); and both (Vanderbilt 0.8 Beats No. 15 Tennessee)

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

What a day it was Sunday locally and nationally with buzzer beaters, upsets, and so the national list of unbeaten teams is now down to two – LSU and UCLA.

Two of the locals of the three teams that played were involved with both.

Penn State at home in the Bryce Jordan Center in State College is no longer without a Big Ten Conference win after upsetting No. 9 Ohio State 62-59 taking the Buckeyes (17-1, 6-1) off the dwindling list of teams with perfection.

For the Lady Lions (10-9, 1-7), it’s the first win since Feb. 20, 2012, over a team in the Top 10 of the Associated Press Poll, which was also against OSU, and if the Big Ten tourney started right now that one triumph would also allow participation after escaping from the bottom three in the standings.

It’s also the first win over Ohio State in three seasons.

The Lady Lions were on target within two percent of .500 from the floor and dominated the boards 39-21.

The defense was in high gear down the stretch denying the Buckeyes without a field goal in the closing 6:45 of regulation.

Gracie Merkle had a double-double 12 points and 10 rebounds, Gabby Elliott scored 14, eight in the final period; Jayla Olden scored 13, and Moriah Murray joined Merkle with 12 points.

Penn State, whose last Top 25 win came in February 2021, snapped a seven-game losing streak at the end of a string of three Top Ten opponents after visiting No. 4 Southern Cal and No. 1 UCLA.

Cotie McMahon scored 19 for Ohio State and Chance Gray scored 18 but was off the mark with a three-point attempt in the final three seconds.

The Buckeyes next greet No. 8 Maryland Thursday while Penn State is at No. 22 Michigan State in Lansing on Wednesday before greeting long-time rival Rutgers, also yet to win this season in the Big Ten, on Sunday.

Meanwhile, Drexel, which lost at Penn State in overtime earlier in the season, rode Amaris Baker’s closing basket for her 22nd point with three seconds remaining in regulation, to give the Dragons a 59-58 win over Hampton in a Coastal Athletic Association Road game in Virginia.

Grace O’Neill had 16 points, six rebounds, and six assists for Drexel (7-8, 3-2), which hosts Charleston at 6 p.m. on Friday and Elon at 2 p.m. on Sunday on homecoming weekend at the Daskalakis Athletic Center both streaming on FloSports.

Hampton fell to 4-13 overall and remains winless at 0-6 in the CAA.

In the other CAA game involving a local, as well as the same on the area slate, Delaware (4-11, 1-4) fell decisively 75-54 to Campbell (10-7, 3-2) in a road game at Buies Creek, N.C.

Tara Cousins had a game-high 16 points for the visiting Blue Hens, fueled by 4-8 makes from deep.

Delaware hosts Elon at 6:30 p.m. Friday (FloSports) at the Bob Carpenter Center in Newark.

The National Scene

After giving you an upset and buzzer-beater in the local section, we start here with both in the same game courtesy of the freshmen tandem at Vanderbilt which handed state and Southeastern Conference rival No. 15 Tennessee a 71-70 shocker and more last-second agony in a home game for the Commodores (15-4, 2-3) at Memorial Gym at Nashville.

Tennessee (15-3, 3-3) under first-year coach Kim Caldwell has suffered two home losses to then- No. 9 Oklahoma (87-86) and then-No. 6 LSU (89-87) and then heads Thursday to long-time rival No. 7 Texas, which with Oklahoma has jumped from the Big 12 to the SEC this season.

Vanderbilt, under former UConn star Shea Ralph, had led a good portion of the game until Tennessee rallied late and for once appeared to have won at the finish on Ruby Whitehorn’s basket with four seconds left.

On the last possession, Khamil Pierre, who has been getting more notoriety as one of the nation’s top freshmen, missed a shot to win but classmate Mikayla Blakes from Sommerville, N.J., was in perfect position to sink a putback with 0.8 left for the win.

Blakes had been the top scoring rookie in the nation with with 360 points and scored 23 in this one while Pierre, off shooting 12-14 from the line, scored 21 with eight boards.

When the late legend Pat Summitt coached Tennessee, several decades ago several Commodores games coached by Women’s Hall of Famer Jim Foster in the series ended similarly in favor of the Knoxville folks.

This was only Vandy’s 11th win in 90 games in the series and first in Nashville in 11 seasons.

Iyanna Moore added 17 points with six boards to end a three-game slide that included a single-digit loss at LSU earlier in the week.

Taylasia Cooper scored 20 for Tennessee, while Zee Spearman had 13 points and 11 boards, and Jewel Spear and Samara Spencer each scored 10 with Spencer dishing six assists.

“Hats off to Vanderbilt, I think they outplayed us from the beginning of the game to the very end of the game,” said Caldwell, whose first child is due to give birth momentarily.

“It’s incredibly frustrating when we told them box out, they only get one shot,” she said of the winning play. “We have to make a change. We can’t have quarters when we don’t show up, not rebounding when it matters. That’s the only thing we’re struggling with right now.”

Sunday’s win was the 900th in Vanderbilt history.

Said Ralph, who was part of several wins over Tennessee playing for the Huskies, “I'm not usually at a loss for words, but the resiliency that I saw in our team today was something I knew this team had.

“it's reflective of the program that we are building here and the university. we talk a lot in our locker room about the ways that we've grown, but we are not satisfied

“I told them before this game that there was a fork in the road for us. We've had a couple of tough losses, somewhere we got smacked and went on the road where we played a pretty good team close. Our players told me that they were tired of just being right there. They want to be there, and I think they took a big step in that direction today.”

Speaking of rough patches from the Tennessee side, Iowa (12-7, 2-6) opened its Big Ten game in the Northwest with an 11-point lead on Oregon (14-5, 5-3) but ended up on the wrong side of the one-point club losing 50-49 after Nani Falatea scored the decisive basket with a minute left.

Sydney Affolter got the Hawkeyes within one on a layup 18 seconds later but after the Ducks missed a shot with 12 seconds left, Iowa missed a jumper with four seconds left.

Villanova transfer Lucy Olsen was held to four points for the visitors shooting 2-12.

In the Mountain West, defending champion UNLV (15-4, 7-0) tied visiting Wyoming (10-8, 4-2) with 14 seconds left on Klara Jackson’s jumper and stayed perfect in the conference when she assisted McKinna Brackens with six seconds left in overtime on a layup for a 72-71 victory.

No. 2 and defending NCAA champion South Carolina (16-1, 6-0) was anything close beating No. 13 Oklahoma 101-60, the Gamecocks continuing to mow down the current stretch of SEC nationally ranked opponents.

Though Raegan Beers scored 23 points with eight boards for the Sooners (15-4, 3-3), Payton Verhulst, who scored 38 in the previous win over Missouri, was held to three points.

MiLaysia Fuleiley led another S.C. Balanced attack with 15 points.

The Gamecocks have won 53 straight regular season SEC games and 68 overall at home in Colonial Life Arena in Columbia.

The next big showdown comes Thursday hosting No. 5 LSU.

The Tigers, (20-0, 5-0), one of now two remaining unbeaten teams along with No. 1 UCLA, won at Florida 80-63 in Gainesville, Mikaylah Williams scoring 22 points, Aneesah Morrow with 20 points and 10 boards for her 18th double-double, and Flau’Jae Johnson with 19 against the Gators (11-9, 2-4).

The Big Three

Paige Bueckers at UConn in a 96-36 Big East blowout at home against Seton Hall, JuJu Watkins again starring in what was a narrow 73-66 Big Ten victory, and Merchantville’s Hannah Hidalgo in an 88-64 Notre Dame ACC home wipeout of SMU continue to sparkle.

Bueckers scored 18 for the Huskies (17-2, 8-0) passing her 2,000th to make her the 12th in the program to reach the milestone and pass Maya Moore (108) as the fastest to do it by games at 102, though maybe slowest by calendar in her fifth season missing one-and-a-half with injuries.

Freshman Sarah String had 23 points and 11 boards against the Pirates (13-5, 5-2), while Azzi Fudd also had 18 as Hall of Fame coach Geno Auriemma extended his NCAA record career win total for men or women to 1,230.

The Huskies go for a season sweep hosting Villanova Wednesday night.

Hidalgo, back after missing two games with an ankle injury, showed no rust scoring 23 points with 10 boards in No. 3 Notre Dame (16-2, 7-0) easily beating the Mustangs (10-9, 2-4) at Purcell Pavillion in South Bend, Ind.

Next up is a trip to Boston College Thursday.

Out in the Midwest Watkins scored 22 points and aided by Rayah Marshall with 13 points and 10 boards helped the Trojans (17-1, 7-0) rally from 11 points to beat the Hoosiers (12-6, 4-3) in Bloomington, Ind.

Sydney Parrish had 16 points and 10 boards for Indiana, while Chloe Moore-McNeil had 13 points and Yarden Garzon scored 10 points with nine rebounds.

Looking Ahead

The Ivies have a full slate to note Martin Luther King Day Monday, the key games, Penn hosts Harvard here at 2 p.m. at The Palestra, while later tonight at 7 p.m. in a battle between the last two league unbeaten teams Columbia hosts Princeton in Levien Gym off Broadway on New York’s Upper West Side.

This afternoon at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J., No. 1 UCLA plays Baylor at 3 p.m., followed by No. 7 Texas playing No. 8 Maryland at 5:30 p.m., both games televised on FOX.

Tuesday is basically quiet, so we’ll use the occasion to set you up the rest of the week.