The Guru NCAAW Report: Temple Tops UAB Returning to Winning Ways; St. Joe’s Ziegler a Triple Honoree; Olsen Leads Iowa Over Nebraska

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

PHILADELPHIA – Many times the team you see to open the conference schedule is not the same you see later down the line if you’re playing home-and-home and the games are far apart.

So it was Tuesday night here at the Liacouras Center that Temple, which cruised at UAB in the last week of December, was deprived of comfort even though ahead most of the way in their American Athletic Conference tilt, one of only five played on the entire Division I schedule.

“We’ve been watching them the last five games and they’ve gotten a lot better,” said coach Diane Richardson after the Owls (14-10, 8-5) doused the Blazers 63-53 finishing in a stretched out minute in real time that had the crowd on hand antsy to get home in case the wintry mix outside would turn dicey. “But we’re a better team, too.”

The bounce-back from Saturday’s series-sweeping loss here to preseason favorite South Florida enabled Temple to become the sweeper and extend the local teams’ positive karma on both sides of Sunday’s Super Bowl rout by the NFL Eagles in New Orleans.

“It was a good win for us,” Richardson said. “We wanted to get back in the win column. We’ve got some games left and l’m glad that we pulled this one off.”

No different than anyone else in the area and across the nation, the next several weeks  can be described as the insanity before the madness.

The name of the drill is win often to get the best seed position for the 31 conference tournaments while also building the best resume to showcase to the NCAA committee to get an at-large bid to the Big Dance in case pursuits for the automatic bids that come with those titles fall short.

Plus if omitted, there’s the second-year 32-team WBIT launched last season by the NCAA while the WNIT is still in business and a berth either place for Temple would still have value in the on-going rebirth of the program.

The NCAA committee will release its first of two Sweet 16 Reveals Sunday on ESPN in association with the UConn at South Carolina game.

On Sunday, the ESPN game between South Carolina and Texas drew 1 million viewers peaking at 1.3 million, most watched women’s game this season.

In this one over the Blazers (15-10, 6-7), some new names came into play for the home team, not on the roster but in terms of contributions such as Savannah Curry off the bench who collected five of her seven points with an add-one score and a putback in a 13-3 run in the second quarter leading to a double digit lead that served as a needed cushion late in the game.

Richardson spoke of Curry’s effort.

“She’s got a high IQ and she works really, really hard. Every time she’s on the floor, she works hard.”

Up 49-38 going into the final quarter, once again a sizable lead became an adventure but Temple’s defense did its job to gain the win, allowing just 15 field goals.

Most of those came from UAB’s Jade Weathersby and Molly Moffitt combining for nine with the former picking up 18 points and the latter 10. Three more came from Eleecia Carter for nine points.

Temple’s Jaleesa Molina double-doubled to 17 points and 11 boards while Tiarra East scored 13 and Tarriyonna Gary scored nine.

Off the bench Anissa Rivera also scored seven points with seven boards and Kaylah Turner scored four as the Owls’ depth continued to improve.

“That’s what we were looking to do when we were recruiting,” Richardson said. “These players could have been starters elsewhere but they chose to come to us.”

Temple heads to New Orleans Saturday to meet Tulane at 4 p.m. (ESPN+) looking to split the series following the recent 62-60 loss here. Then it’s back home next Wednesday hosting Wichita State at 7 p.m.

Triple Honors for Saint Joseph’s Ziegler

Following her record-shattering attack on the Hawks’ record book with 43 points in Sunday’s rout of Loyola Chicago, third all-time among Big Five teams, 2nd in theA-10, Saint Joseph’s junior Laura Ziegler went triple crown on weekly awards picking up one of the five USBWA national handouts from the basketball writers along the honors from the Big Five and Atlantic Ten.

The National Scene

The slate may have been limited the last two nights but key results still occurred.

On Tuesday, in two Big 12 games, No. 25 Baylor at home and back in the national ranking upset No. 18 West Virginia 75-65 in Waco, Texas,  while No. 11 TCU topped visiting BYU 79-47 in Fort Worth.

In the first game, Aaronette Vonleh gained 15 of her 21 points in the second half for the winning Bears (21-5, 11-2) while Bella Fontleroy  scored 15 with four from deep.

Jada Walker added 13 points, 11 in the second half, while Darianna Littlepage-Buggs scored nine, grabbed 13 rebounds and dealt seven assists and Sarah Andrews also dished seven with her 12 points.

The Mountaineers (19-5, 9-4) got 20 points from Jordan Harrison and 17 from JJ Quinerly.

This is Baylor’s best Big 12 start since Nicki Collen left WNBA Atlanta to guide the program after Kim Mulkey left a long run to go to LSU.

In the win by TCU (23-3, 11-2), Madison Conner scored 14 points fueled by four 3-pointers while Sedonna Prince had 13 points and five blocks, and Hailey Van Lith scored 11 against BYU (12-12, 3-10).

On Monday, in the SEC, Ole Miss, ranked earlier in the year, upset No. 8 Kentucky 66-57 at home in Oxford while No. 16 Oklahoma at home in Norman dodge an upset beating Auburn 73-71.

In the game at Ole Miss (16-7, 7-4) Madison Scott scored 22 for the Rebels who rallied from an eight-point deficit in the second half with an 18-4 run in the third period. The winners had a huge 54-33 differential on the boards.

The visiting Wildcats (19-3, 8-2) got 18 points and 10 boards from Teonni Key  while Clara Strack had 13 points, 10 rebounds and blocked a personal best eight shots.

Both teams have a rugged finish facing ranked SEC teams with the Rebels meeting No. 15 Tennessee and No. 5 LSU away and No. 4 South Carolina at home.

Kentucky hosts No. 3 Texas, LSU and Tennessee, while traveling to South Carolina.

In the win by Oklahoma (18-6, 6-5) Skylar Vann scored 20 while Payton Verhulst scored 15, including sealing the outcome with a pair of foul shots with four seconds left in regulation against Auburn (12-12, 3-8).

DeYonna Gaston scored 24 for the visiting Tigers and Mar’shaun Bostic scored 16 with six boards and five assists.

In the Big Ten, Villanova transfer Lucy Olsen scored 32 with six boards and seven assists to lead Iowa (17-7, 7-6) to an 81-66 victory at Nebraska (16-8, 7-6) at Pinnacle BankArena in Lincoln.

Looking Ahead

On Wednesday night, La Salle hosts Fordham in the A-10 at John Glaser Arena at 6:30 p.m. (ESPN+), Villanova is in Chicago at Wintrust Arena to face DePaul in the Big East at at 8 p.m. (FloSports), while in the Patriot League first-place Lehigh hosts Navy at Stabler Arena in Bethlehem, Pa., while Lafayette hosts American U. at the Kirby Sports Center in Easton, Pa., both at 6 p.m. (ESPN+).

On Thursday, Saint Joseph’s visits Richmond for the A-10 showdown game at 8 p.m. on Peacock, while in the MAAC, Rider hosts Iona at 6 p.m. (ESPN+) at Alumni Gym in Lawrenceville, N.J., and in the Big Ten, Penn State visits Illinois at 7 p.m. and Rutgers is at Iowa at7:30 p.m., both on B1G+.

On Wednesday night on the national slate, No. 7 Connecticut hosts St. john’s at 7:30 p.m. in the Big East on SNY while in the AAC South Florida hosts Rice at 7 p.m. (ESPN+) in Tampa, Fla.