The Guru NCAAW Report: Drexel Fades to Monmouth at the Finish; Delaware Tops UNCW

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

Only two games that were both local and national overall Friday night on the daily radar chart – and the outcomes were a split result from Drexel and Delaware on the Coastal Athletic Association Schedule.

Drexel feel just short on the road losing at Monmouth 50-47 while Delaware took a home win 72-67 over UNC Wilmington at the Bob Carpenter Center in Newark.

In the case of the Dragons (11-9, 7-3) on the down side they fell two games behind the North Carolina A&T (13-8, 9-1), which won, but stayed alone in second by a half-game ahead of William @ Mary (9-11, 6-3), which was idle and a game ahead of the Hawks (12-10), which moved closer with the win.

Delaware (6-14, 3-7) is alone in 12th place in the 14-team conference, which means the Blue Hens would have to play the first day in the CAA tournament next month in Washington, D.C., but they are just a game behind Hofstra and Towson which keeps them in the hunt for avoiding day one in the five-day competition for the NCAA automatic bid.

Drexel remains in position for a double-bye – last year the Dragons had a one-day bye when racing from the seventh seed to the title -but in back of William & Mary, five teams are one down in the loss column.

In the game with Monmouth, they fell behind by 11 in the second quarter and cut it to six at the half, 24-18, got within a point on Amaris Baker’s jumper early in the third, tied it at 30-30 just over the 4-minute mark and then went ahead for the first time in the game on Grace O’Neill’s shot a minute later.

Going into another scoring slump, Drexel still ended the period in a 37-37 tie.

The Dragons then surged to a 47-41 lead with 3:34 left in regulation.

But that was the high-water mark and last points by the visitors, who went 0-5 the rest of the way with two turnover and Monmouth reeled off a 9-0 finish.

Baker had 20 points but off a 9-31 effort from the field and was the only Dragon scoring in double digits.

Monmouth had three such players – Belle Kranbuhl with 15 and eight boards, while Damaris Rodriguez and Tisha Exanor each had 13 with Exanor completing a double-double with 11 rebounds.

Ahead 58-53 at the outset of the fourth period Delaware stayed in front of UNCW (12-11, 6-4) the rest of the way.

A five starters scored in double figures – Ande’A and Ella Wanzer with 13 points each, Tara Cousins with a double-double 12 points and 11 assists, Rebecca Demeke with 11 points, and Chloe Wilson with 10.

Looking Ahead

On Saturday, the local Ivies play each other – Penn travels to Princeton at Jadwin Gym at 2 p.m., (NBC Sports-Phila+), the Quakers looking to pull a huge upset and move closer to the fourth and final playoff spot while the host Tigers and multiple defending champions look to stay at least one game behind Columbia and one ahead of Harvard.

Columbia is at Brown at 2 p.m., while Harvard hosts Dartmouth at 4 p.m., both on ESPN+.

Temple hosts pre-season favorite South Florida, which is in second in the American Athletic Conference, looking for a season split in the game at the Liacouras Center at 2 p.m. (ESPN+).

Villanova is looking for a key upset hosting Creighton, second in the Big East, at home in Finneran Pavilion at 2 p.m. (FloHoops).

Rider in  a sudden three-game win streak in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) is at Siena at 2 p.m. (ESPN+) in Loudonville, N.Y., near Albany, looking to make the 10-team cut for the tourney next month in Atlantic City.

La Salle travels in the Atlantic 10 to Saint Louis for an 8 p.m. tip time (ESPN+).

In the Patriot League, Lehigh is at American U. in the nation’s capital at Bender Arena at 2 p.m. (ESPN+) while Lafayette is at Navy at 2 p.m.(ESPN+)  in Annapolis, Md.

Nationally on Saturday, in the Big Ten, No. 8 Ohio State is at No. 7 Southern Cal  at 9 p.m. on FOX, while in the West Coast Conference, streaking Gonzaga hosts Washington State at 5 p.m. (ESPN+), and the Big 12 highlights No. 12 Kansas State at No. 25 Oklahoma State at 3 p.m., at the same time No. 18 West Virginia at Houston, and at 5 p.m. No. 9 TCU hosts Texas Tech, all on ESPN+.

On Sunday, locally, at 1 p.m. in the A-10 Saint Joseph’s hosts Loyola Chicago (ESPN+), in the CAA Drexel hosts UNCW at the Daskalakis Athletic Center at 1 p.m.  while Delaware is at Hofstra at 2 p.m., both on FloSports, and in the Big Ten it’s a basement double header involving the four teams looking to escape the three-team cut from next month’s tournament.

Penn State (1-11 Big Ten) hosts Northwestern (0-10) at 2 p.m. at the Bryce Jordan Center in State College while Rutgers (1-11), which lost at Indiana Thursday, hosts Purdue (1-10) at 1 p.m., both on B1G+.

The national highlights on Super Bowl Sunday will be in the next report.