The Guru’s NCAAW Report: Saint Joseph’s Uses Defense to Handle GWU; Temple Has Another Big Meltdown; Ivy Wins for Columbia, Harvard, Princeton and Penn

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

WASHINGTON, D.C. – If you’re the coach of George Washington game-planning for a visit from Saint Joseph’s and a seer gave you components such as Talya Bruglar was still going to be sidelined with a hand injury, Mackenzie Smith was going to have another subpar shooting day and the forecast shows your Revolutionaries were going to get off to a great start, you might like how you expected that all to play out in your favor.

“Yes, not having to deal with Bruglar certainly would be a help, but they’ve been able to benefit from Aleah Snead stepping up with Bruglar out,” GWU coach Caroline McCombs said here at the Smith Center.

However, all of that was a moot point here Saturday afternoon with Saint Joseph’s (18-4, 9-2) getting untracked in the second period and moving on to 57-42 victory in the Atlantic 10 to stay a game behind defending champion Richmond tied for second with George Mason but in the second seed slot with two games ahead this week at home in Hagan Arena in which the Hawks will be a strong favorite.

Laura Ziegler continued to shine, scoring a game-high 20 points with nine boards, just short of her 17th double-double of the season.

Snead had another outstanding performance scoring 16 points with five rebounds and four assists.

Lafayette transfer Makayla Andrews had 16 points for George Washington (8-12, 1-8).

“‘Mac may have had some troubles offensively, but still did a lot defensively, guarding their best player, Snead had another big game, and Laura just keeps finding her own ways to score with the opposition always keying on her,” said Saint Joseph’s coach Cindy Griffin.

“And when we’re not having our best day, offensively, we can rely on our defense to get things done.”

Next up is a visit on Hawk Hill Wednesday from Saint Louis at 7 p.m. (ESPN+).

Meanwhile, in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC), local representative Rider made it two straight pulling out a tight game with Merrimack on a layup from Emilee Tahata with 3.8 seconds left in regulation on the road for a 65-63 in Andover, Mass.

La Salle transfer Gabby Turco was double teamed, so she fired over the top of the defense to the Australian, who converted the shot for the Broncs (5-15, 3-8), moving one game behind Merrimack (8-12, 4-7) for the 10th and final spot in next month’s MAAC tourney at James Whelan Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City.

Making a change this season, in a move similar to the expanded Big Ten and Atlantic Coast Conference, the MAAC is including only its top ten finishers in the regular season standings for its tournament leading to an automatic bid to the NCAA field for its winner.

“Tough, physical road win,” said veteran Rider coach Lynn Milligan. “Really proud of our effort and sticking to our game plan. When they made their run, we bent but we didn’t break.

“Our end of game was excellent. This team is playing together and continuing to grow.”

Camryn Collins had had a career-high 15 points for Rider, while Tahata scored 13, and Turco scored 12.

On Thursday the Broncs are back home at 6 p.m. (ESPN+) hosting Sacred Heart in Alumni Gym in Lawrenceville, N.J.

Elsewhere in the MAAC among the two frontrunners after meeting each other Thursday night, defending champion Fairfield (17-3, 11-0) made it 31 straight regular conference wins over the last two season topping Iona 63-46 at home at the Stags’ Leo D. Mahoney Arena in Connecticut.

Kaety L’Amoreaux had 14 points and seven boards for Fairfield, Cyanne Coe matched the points, and Emina Selimovic scored 10.

Iona (8-13, 6-5) got 17 points from Ella Fajardo, but no one else reached double figures.

The Stags forced the Gaels into 20 turnovers.

“We had a good defensive game,” Fairfield coach Carly Thibault-DuDonis said. “We had some mistakes here and there but at the end of the day we got enough stops to give us some separation in particularly the third quarter. Even when your offense isn’t pretty you can still win with defense.”

Fairfield goes back on the road Thursday visiting Marist at 7 p.m. (ESPN+) in Poughkeepsie, N.Y.

Quinnipiac (17-3, 9-2) back home in nearby Hamden, Conn., after the loss to Fairfield, got back up on the winning side, beating Siena 77-74 as freshman sensation Gal Raviv had a career-high 32 points with eight assists, seven boards, while Anna Foley Scored 14 points.

Siena (10-10, 7-4) got 23 points from Teresa Seppala, while Ahniysha Jackson had 19 points. The Saints made it look closer with a 3-pointer with 0.2 left on the clock for the final score.

The Bobcats next go on their Western New York trip, beginning in Buffalo Thursday playing Canisius at 6 p.m. (ESPN+).

In the Patriot League involving the two locals, Lehigh (18-4, 9-1) kept its hold on first place beating defending champion Holy Cross 60-47 at home in Stabler Arena in Bethlehem, Pa.

The Mountain Hawks have now won seven straight, their longest streak since the 2014-15 season.

Maddie Albrecht shot 9-12 from the field, 3-4 from deep, for 22 points, while dealing four assists. Ella Stemmer added 12 points.

Holy Cross (14-7, 7-3) got 13 points from Mary-Elizabeth Donnely.

“I saw a lot of activity on the defensive end,” said Lehigh coach Addie Micir, a former Princeton star from Lower Bucks County. “I thought we did a really nice job early and we like to wear people out.”

Lehigh is off until Saturday, traveling to Washington, D.C., to play American U. in Bender Arena at 2 p.m. (ESPN+).

Lafayette, meanwhile, fell at home to Colgate 75-44 in the Leopards’ Kirby Sports Center in Easton, Pa.

Freshman Talia Zurinskas had 13 points and Abby Atognoli scored 11 for Lafayette (5-16, 2-8), while Colgate (16-7, 6-4) got 16 points from Taylor Golembiewski, Sophia Diehl scored 15, and Anne Bair scored 13.

The Leopards are off until Saturday, traveling to the Naval Academy’s Alumni Hall playing the Midshipmen in Annapolis, Md., at 4 p.m. (ESPN+).

Down in Texas in San Antonio, Temple (12-9, 6-4) suffered another meltdown, this one by 14 points to league-leading UTSA (18-3, 9-1), and as much as 11 in the fourth period, to fall 70-61 for the Owls’ third-straight setback.

A week ago, prior to the Saturday game at the Liacouras Center, Temple had a four-game win streak, which if not going into this eight-day funk would have had the Owls at the top of the league instead of three games off the pace.

In a place appropriately named the Super Pit in the home of the Alamo, Temple did get a positive from Tiarra East, shooting 7-13 from the field for 18 points.

The Owls are back home in the Liacouras Center for the annual Education Day game Wednesday tipping at 11 a.m. (ESPN+).

Turning to the Ivy League, Penn finally pulled out of its recent three-game slide, winning 80-60 at Yale at the John J. Lee Ampitheater in New Haven, Conn.

The the top three Ivy teams also all won, Columbia stayed perfect winning 71-48 at Dartmouth in Hanover, N.H.; Princeton, the other local representative, stayed a game-behind the Lions winning 60-47 at Brown, while Harvard at home beat Cornell 72-60.

In the Penn (11-9, 2-5) game, the 50th win over the Bulldogs (2-18, 1-6), Stina Almqvist was 6-for-12 for 18 points with seven boards, while Simone Sawyer, Mataya Gayle, and Katie Collins each scored 17 points. The latter, a freshman, was 4-for-4 from deep, with four helpers, four assists, three boards, and a block.

Lizzy Groetsch making her first start three months, had a career-high five steals.

The Quakers forced 18 turnovers, worth 32 points.

Princeton (15-5, 6-1) outscored Brown 17-4 in the fourth quarter at the Bears’ Pizitola Center in Providence, R.I., site of the four-team Ivy Madness tourney next month, to stay right behind Columbia in the race for the top seed.

Fadima Tall had a career-high 18 points for the Tigers, while Ashley Chea scored 14, and Skye Belker followed up her 15 points against Yale with 15 more against Brown (10-10, 4-3), which matched its season-low for points.

Penn and Princeton meet next Saturday at 2 p.m., the Quakers on the road, at the Tigers’ Jadwin Gym at 2 p.m. on ESPN+.

Columbia (16-4, 7-0) got another explosive performance from Riley Weiss, this one at Dartmouth’s Leede Arena in which the sophomore scored 25 points against the Big Green (8-12, 2-5).

That’s three-straight with 25, in this one shooting 8-for-16 from the field and 4-for-7 from deep.

“This was the first back-to-back of the Ivies and they are guts games,” said Columbia coach Megan Griffith, the King of Prussia native who played them with the Lions and later was an assistant when Princeton was becoming a powerhouse. “You’ve got to come in with a clear head and be able to execute a game plan.

“I felt Riley was really locked in from the get-go.”

Susie Rafiu scored 12, while Blau Tor had career highs 11 points and nine boards.

Claire Meyer had 16 for Dartmouth.

Columbia is at Brown Saturday at 2 p.m. on ESPN+.

Harvard (16-3, 5-2) got 20 points, five rebounds, four assists, and a steal from Harmoni Turner in the win over Cornell (5-15, 1-6) at home at Lavietes Pavilion in Cambridge, Mass.

Elena Rodriguez had 11 points, four rebounds, a block and a steal.

The Crimson host Dartmouth Saturday at 4 p.m. on ESPN+.

So where are we at?

There’s a clear top three and all of them want the No. 1 seed to not have to play two of themselves trying to get the automatic NCAA bid or get to the Ivy title game with the hope of the tournament committee taking the runner-up as an at-large invite the second straight year.

It is not outlandish that perhaps for a first, three Ivies could go, pending who the third is, what is the .Net, and how much bid-stealing occurs elsewhere.

As for Penn, the way the Ivy schedule has shaken out, among those in the fight for the fourth seed, the Quakers will see lesser killer opponents the rest of the way if they don’t stumble.

Stealing one of the Princeton games or the Harvard game, which was done last year, might do the trick to land seed No. 4, though there won’t be much to gain barring a killer semifinal upset.

Elsewhere, Saturday, two ranked teams played each other in the Big 12, No. 21 West Virginia at home in Morgantown gained a 54-37 win over No. 24 Oklahoma State.

Sydney Shaw scored 18 for the winning Mountaineers (17-4, 7-3) while JJ Quinerly had 15 points and a career-high eight steals.

The Cowgirls (18-4, 8-3) had an 80-point average coming East to be forced into 21 turnovers and undergo a huge defensive effort from the Mountaineers.

Alexis Smith had 15 points and 11 boards for the Cowgirls.

Looking Ahead

Locally, Sunday, all 2 p.m. games, Drexel looks to keep its pace near the top of the Coastal Athletic Association, hosting Towson at the Daskalakis Athletic Center, while Delaware visits Northeastern in Boston, both on FloSports.

In the Big East, Villanova gets a chance to pay back Marquette for the upset loss in Milwaukee, hosting in Finneran Pavilion, also on Flosports.

And in the Atlantic 10, La Salle coming off the win at St. Bonaventure hosts Massachusetts in the John E. Glaser Arena on ESPN+. The visiting Minutewomen are heading for the Mid-American Conference next season, while Delaware is bound for Conference USA.

Nationally, No. 6 Connecticut hosts Butler in the Big East in Hartford at 2 p.m. in a final tuneup before stepping outside the conference Thursday to visit No. 18 Tennessee of the SEC.

In the Big Ten, No. 4 Southern Cal is at Iowa at 1:30 p.m. on FOX, where Caitlin Clark’s jersey will be retired.

Other games in the Big Ten, No. 8 Ohio State hosts Washington at 5 p.m.; No. 1 UCLA hosts Minnesota at 6 p.m., both on the Big Ten Network, while No. 14 Maryland hosts Illinois at 1 p.m.

In the SEC No. 2 South Carolina is hosting Auburn at noon on the SEC network. A’ja Wilson’s jersey is being retired beforehand.

Elsewhere in the SEC, Texas A&M is hosting No. 5 Texas at 6 p.m. on the SEC network, No. 7 LSU hosts Mississippi State on the SEC Network, No. 22 Vanderbilt hosts Ole Miss at 3 p.m.

In the ACC, No.  3 Notre Dame at 5 p.m. is at Louisville on ESPN2; No. 15 North Carolina is at Stanford on the ACC network. On Monday, Duke is at N.C. State at 7 p.m. on ESPN2.

 And that’s the report.