The Guru NCAAW Conference Tourney Report: Lehigh and Delaware Advance, Drexel, Penn, Princeton Begin Play; FDU Earns NEC Bid Ahead of Title Game

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

Unlike yesteryear when several ranked teams and/or power conferences played the second week creating some unknown important pieces not to be determined until a few hours before the public revelation of  the NCAA bracket, the tournament committee has had plenty of time to already decide likely the four number ones, the top 16 hosting teams for the first two rounds, the regional placement, and perhaps a bunch of five, six, and seven seeds.

No. 3 ranked Connecticut over No. 22 Creighton for the Big East title going to the Huskies on Monday night were the last two teams in action in the current Associated Press women’s poll.

But the slew of mid-majors have continued on and added to the draw speculation through upsets of No. 1 seeds causing guessing games over how many one-bid delegations will be permitted a steal to allow their top team to still be included in the field of 68.

The America East winner will be known Friday night when second-seed Vermont plays at No. 1 UAlbany in upstate New York.  All but four remaining league tourneys will be played throughout Saturday with the Patriot, Northeast, Coastal Athletic Association, and Missouri Valley wrapping up early Sunday afternoon ahead of the 8 p.m. announcement of the bracket on ESPN.

The Local Look

There will be a new Patriot League champ and it might be one of the locals after one-seed Lehigh (26-6) hosting one semifinal Thursday night handled five-seed Holy Cross 65-44.

The Mountain Hawks will host two-seed Army at noon Sunday on CBS Sports Network at Stabler Arena in Bethlehem, Pa.

Lehigh’s last appearance in the title game, claiming its fourth championship, occurred through a run as the visiting team ultimately taking down Boston U.

Army (24-6) advanced at home at West Point with a 49-39 win over six-seed Bucknell (17-14), which upset third seed Colgate (23-9) in the quarterfinals.

The Black Knights were led by Trinity Hardy who scored 16 points and Reese Ericson who scored 12.

The Bison were led by Ashley Sofilkanich, who was held 13 points and she had seven boards.

In the Lehigh game the home team committed 14 turnovers but forced Holy Cross into 23 and picked up 14 steals.

The Mountain Hawks recently beat Army at home 76-61 to clinch the top seed and early in the Patriot schedule also won at West Point.

Simone Foreman scored 16 points with 10 boards for the visitors while Lindsay Berger scored 12.

Lehigh’s Maddie Albrecht scored 19 points while Colleen McQuillen scored 14.

“Colleen McQuillen has been our engine the whole time,” said coach Addie Micir, a former Princeton star from Lower Bucks County, heading to her first title game in charge of the program.

“Maddie Albrecht picked up an entry pass and got our spark going. When we play with confidence, we show what we can do.”

Lehigh won all three games this season over Holy Cross.

Delaware Advances in CAA to Join Drexel in Quarterfinals Play.

The seventh-seeded Blue Hens (13-16) after a first round bye got a career game with 18 points from Michelle Ojo to take a second-round 71-55 win over 10th-seeded UNCW (14-18) in the CAA tourney in the nation’s capital at the CareFirst Arena, home of the WNBA  Washington Mystics.

Ojo off the bench was 7-8 from the field and grabbed seven boards.

Ande’a Cherisier scored 11, while Chloe Wilson and Tara Cousins each scored ten points.

Delaware, which is heading to Conference—USA this summer, will face two-seed Charleston (23-6) on Friday at 6 p.m., the opposition having earned a double bye with one-seed North Carolina A&T (19-10), four-seed Drexel (16-12), the defending champion; and three-seed Campbell (19-11).

The games through the semifinals are on FloSports with Sunday’s championship at 2 p.m. on the CBS Sports Network.

“We’ve come a long way,” said Delaware coach Sarah Jenkins. “It’s been a tough year for us. We’ve built a lot of resilience with the thing we’ve had to endure with all of our injuries and not having enough bodies.

“I’m really proud of these kids.”

Drexel will face five-seed Monmouth (16-14) at 2:30 p.m.

The Dragons, picked second in the preseason last fall, knocked the Hawks out last year with a narrow victory making a four-day run as the seventh seed to the championship.

Monmouth advanced Thursday with a 62-54 victory over 13th-seed Hampton (8-23).

In the first game in round two, ninth-seed William & Mary (12-18) won 76-65 over eighth-seed Hofstra (14-16) and will meet North Carolina A&T Friday at noon.

The late game in round two saw 11th seed Towson (12-19) win 53-47 over six-seed Elon (15-15) in a big upset to advance to Friday’s game against Campbell at 8:30 p.m.

India Johnson matched a personal best with 24 points, including four key shots from the line in the closing minutes for the Tigers, coached by former Maryland and Cheltenham star Laura Harper.

“India’s doing what conference players do this time of year,” Harper said.

Princeton and Penn Head to Ivy Semis Friday in Separate Draws

The Ivy Madness four-team fight is where the focus is the weekend at Brown’s Pizzitola Sports Center in Providence, R.I.

The speculation has been on three teams making the NCAA field, the winner with the automatic bid, and two at-large invites which would be a first for the Ancient Eight, which previously got an at-large to Princeton when Penn won the first tournament in 2017, and a first to Columbia last year when Princeton continued to win each year since the Ivies went to a playoff after the Quakers winning the first at The Palestra.

Penn (15-12), the fourth-seed playing top-seed Columbia (22-5) at 4:30 p.m. could upend all that with an upset Friday. Princeton (21-6), the two seed, plays three-seed Harvard (22-4) at 7:30 p.m., both on ESPN+ with Saturday’s championship at 5:30 p.m. on ESPNU.

The top three are inside the NCAA Net top 50.

Princeton swept Harvard, the first at home at the buzzer in Jadwin Gym, but got swept by Columbia, which won its first regular season title outright after sharing the title with the Tigers the previous two seasons.

Penn lost to the top three but came back winning five of eight to tie Brown and win on the third procedure with a better .Net.

Stina Almqvist made all Ivy first team and Katie Collins was the Ivy freshman player of the year.

MAAC By the Sea

Local by event location in Jim Whelan Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference on Wednesday the top two seeds got off to victories, No.1 Fairfield (26-4), the defending champions, whose two-year MAAC unbeaten streak ended at No.2 Quinnipiac last Saturday, beat No. 8 Manhattan 58-51 ending the Jaspers season at 16-15 as Jillian Huerter scored 14 points off the bench while Meghan Andersen scored 13.

Quinnipiac (27–3) coached by Delran’s Tricia Sacca-Fabbri, beat 10th-seed Iona 79-51 as Israeli Gal Raviv, both freshman and player of the year in the MAAC, had 23 points, shooting 11–16 from the field with seven assists.

On Friday in the semifinals, Fairfield meets No. 4 Mount St. Mary’s (15-15) at 12 noon while at 2:30 p.m. Quinnipiac plays No. 6 Merrimack (14-16), which upset No. 3 Siena (17-13) by a 79-72 score.

Both games are on ESPN+ with Saturday’s title game at 1:30 p.m. on ESPNU.

The National Scene – Ticket Punchers

On Wednesday to catch up from a non-post on Thursday, Three-seed South Florida (23-10) came back to live up to its preseason choice taking the American Athletic Conference title with a 69-62 win ending the Cinderella run of ninth-seed Rice (17-17) at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas, as Carla Brito, the MVP, had 17 points and nine boards, while Vittoria Blasigh had 20 points.

In the Big Sky, in an intra-state battle, Montana State (30-3) was saved from an upset bid from Montana (14-18) when Marsh Dykstra put back her miss at the buzzer for a 58-57 victory.

The Grizzlies went ahead on Dani Bartsch’s three-ball by a point with 7.9 seconds left in regulation before Dykstra negated the initial heroics. Esmeralda Morales had 25 points for the winners.

In the Mountain West in Las Vegas in a first-ever triple overtime battle in the title game, fourth-seed San Diego State (25-9), which stunned top-seed UNLV (25-7) a day earlier, ending the Rebels’ string of three straight titles, pulled a 72-68 victory over two-seed Wyoming (22-11).

Veronica Sheffey, the tournament MVP, scored 24 points with five assists for the Aztecs.

On Thursday, in the Southland at the Legacy Center in Lake Charles, La., three-seed Stephen F. Austin (29-5) upset 1-seed Southeastern (26-5) with a 65-57 triumph as the Lumberjacks, who returned to the conference this season, claimed their first title since 2021 but second since 2006.

In all, however, Stephen F. Austin, a national power in the Immaculata era, has 17 Southland crowns in the trophy case.

Trinity Moore had 14 points, 10 boards, three assists, and two steals for the winners.

FDU Earns Bid Without Needing the NEC Title Game

In the Northeast Conference in two home games Thursday, top-seed Fairleigh Dickinson beat No. 6 Chicago State 90-61 ending the opposition’s season at 7-26 while 2-seed Stonehill (17-14) dealt a 60-41 loss to No. 5 Le Moyne (7-24).

The winning Knights at FDU got 23 points from Teneisia Brown and Lilly Parke scored 21.

Though FDU will host Stonehill Sunday at noon on ESPNU, the Knights picked up an NCAA bid with their 21st straight win because Stonehill and Le Moyne are still transitioning to Division I and are ineligible.

This will be the fourth team former Villanova star Stephanie Gaitley is taking to the NCAA tournament. The school won titles in 1990 and 1992 but the NEC’s first bid came in 1994 when the tournament expanded.

Gaitley said she didn’t want to mention what was riding on the outcome Thursday to cause extra pressure but the team was aware what was at stake.

Had Chicago State (7-26) won, they would have had the worst record in NCAA history eclipsing Missouri (12-17) in 1994.

Titles earned Saturday besides any already addressed will come out of the Big West, WAC, ASun, MEAC, C-USA, MAC, and SWAC.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Guru Conference Tourney Report: Battle of Owls Goes to Rice Over Temple Again in AAC Semis; Upset WCC Title to Oregon State; UNLV Upset in Mountain West

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

For the second straight year fourth-seeded Temple’s chance to advance in the American Athletic Conference tournament to the championship at Dickies’ Arena in Fort Worth, Texas, was shredded in the semifinals by ninth-seeded Rice (17-16), this time 67-49.

Instead of the revenge sought by the Owls (20-11) of Philadelphia for the ouster of a third seed by a 10th seed 12 months ago it was the wise ones of Texas delivering a pay back for the rout Temple pulled on senior night at the Liacouras Center less than two weeks ago.

In the other semifinal, preseason favorite but three-seed South Florida (22-10) topped two-seed North Texas 58-48.

Rice and South Florida will play for the title and NCAA automatic bid Wednesday at 7 p.m. on ESPNU.

The winning Bulls had Vittoria Blasigh (13), Carlo Brito (11), and Mama Dembele (11, 5 assists) combine for 35 points while L’or Mputu had a career-high 21 rebounds.

Tommisha Lampkin had 10 points and 14 boards for North Texas.

The Temple loss snapped a seven-game winning streak on a day when two more bids were claimed: In the Horizon League top seed Green Bay (29-5) won 76-63 over Purdue-Fort Wayne (25-8) in Indianapolis but No. 4 Oregon State (19-15) a converted Cinderella from a former mean stepsister in the defunct Pac-12 upset No. 2 Portland 59-46 for the title in the West Coast Conference at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas.

The losing Pilots (29-4) who in the regular season for first place tied top-seeded Gonzaga (22-10), which Oregon State nipped 63-61 in the semifinals, had upset Ivy power Princeton when the Tigers made a two-game swing to the Northwest prior to the start of play in the Ancient Eight.

In another shocker out of the Mountain West, No. 1UNLV (25-7) playing in its home city at the Thomas & Mack Arena fell to No. 4 San Diego State 71-59 in a semifinal.

The Aztecs (24-9) on Wednesday for the automatic bid at 10:30 p.m. on CBS Sports  will meet No. 2 Wyoming (22-10), which advanced with a 57-45 win over No. 6 Fresno State (19-15).

Two other sets of semifinals Tuesday set up title games.

In the ASun, chalk held as top seed Florida Gulf Coast (29-3) took a 63-47 home court victory over No. 4 Eastern Kentucky (21-12) and will stay there Saturday (2 p.m., ESPN+)  as the higher seed to face No. 2 Central Arkansas (23-8), which advanced with a 70-65 home win over Lipscomb (20-11).

In the Big Sky at Idaho Central Arena in Boise, No. 1 Montana State (29-3) won easily over No. 5 Idaho State (14-17) but No. 2 Northern Arizona (26-7) was upset 71-67 by No. 6 Montana (14-17).

Wednesday’s championship between the two Montana schools will tip off 5 p.m. on ESPNU, though neither rapper French Montana nor Hall of Fame retired San Francisco quarterback Joe Montana will be on the scene as spectators.

Turning back to Temple, which leaves Drexel in the CAA and Penn in the Ivies as the remaining Big Five schools momentarily alive for automatic bids, the Owls’ lowest scoring total of the season second to only the 68-46 home loss to nationally ranked West Virginia said it all.

“Everybody’s better than they were when they first got here, and so I’m very proud of that,” said Temple third year coach Diane Richardson. “But I wish we had gone out with a championship, which was our goal for the year. I'm very proud of them, and I know that some of them are going to go on to the next level and do well.”

The Owls went 0-8 from the field coming out of the break and ended up 3-15 in the third period mired in a 15-point deficit that they were unable to overcome.

“I think they were pressuring us a little bit, fighting over screens, our ball screens, and they did a good job with that, being very physical with us,” Richardson said.

 “I think the physicality and the pressure defense was something that we normally do, and they did that today, for sure.”

Rice, which upset top seed Texas-San Antonio in the quarterfinals, was led by Malia Fisher, scoring 18 points with nine boards, while Aniah Alexis scored 14.

Temple’s Jaleesa Molina had 11 points, 10 boards, and three blocks, while Tristen Taylor scored 10, and Tiarra East had eight points and 10 rebounds.

With Temple out of the mix along with Saint Joseph’s likely a first four out from the NCAA field its possible the non-Big Five game the schools were unable to schedule when both weren’t in the same pod in the new format could happen if both land in the WNIT.

Should Temple not land there, if the Owls make the bid they could be taken in the 48-team WNIT.

The National Scene

Prior to first-round play in the MAAC tourney at Jim Whelan Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City the conference announced its postseason awards and Delran’s Tricia Sacca-Fabri out of Quinnipiac was named coach of the year while Israeli newcomer Gal Raviv in a first for the Bobcats earned both player and freshman of the year, among a select few to have gained both from a conference, Connecticut’s Paige Buecker in the Big East being one, to pull a double in conference awards.

Second-seeded Quinnipiac (26-3), which ended top-seeded and defending champion Fairfield’s two-year perfect run at home in Hamden, Conn., Saturday, will meet 10-seed Iona (11-20), in a quarterfinal matchup Wednesday at 2:30 p.m. after Fairfield opens the first half of quarters at noon against No. 8 Manhattan (16-14) both on ESPN+.

The second half on Thursday will see No. 4 Mount St. Mary’s (14-15) meet No. 5 Marist (16-14) at noon before No. 3 Siena (17-12) meets No. 6 Merrimack (13-16) at 2:30 p.m.

On Tuesday in the first round, Manhattan won 52-42 over No. 9 Canisius (10-21) while Iona won 42-40 over No. 7 Saint Peter’s (11-19).

Saturday’s championship is 1:30 p.m. which could see a Fairfield/Quinnipiac matchup after the two each won at home.

This season the MAAC cut the tournament field to ten teams which left Rider, Niagara, and Sacred Heart out of the loop.

The WCC title for Oregon State, which came over with Washington State from the Pac-12 breakout for a two-year stay before returning under a new alignment, was a sweet win considering the powerhouse downsize after a slew of players transferred after last season.

The second big share of the two-week race for 31 bids begins Wednesday and Thursday with Wednesday first-round action in the Colonial Athletic Association (Drexel has a double bye to Friday and Delaware a single bye to Thursday), Big West, Missouri Valley, andquarterfinals in the Mid-American , while first part of split quarterfinals will occur in the  Western Athletic Conference, MEAC, Conference-USA, and SWAC.

In Thursday semifinals in two conferences played on home courts, the Patriot League has top-seed Lehigh (25-6) hosting No. 5 Holy Cross (19-11), the defending champion, at 6 p.m. at Stabler Arena in Bethlehem, Pa., while No. 2 Army (23-6) hosts No. 6 Bucknell (17-13) at the West Point, N.Y., at 6 p.m., both on ESPN+.

The Northeast Conference has No. 1 Fairleigh Dickinson (27-3), coached by former Villanova star Stephanie Gaitley, hosting upset winner No. 6 Chicago State (7-25) at 7 p.m., and No. 2 Stonehill (16-14) hosting upset winner No. 5 Le Moyne (7-23) at 7 p.m., both on NEC Front Row and ESPN+.

The coaching carousel spun again Tuesday with Arkansas’ Mike Neighbors resigning and making it the third SEC opening alongside Missouri and Auburn.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Guru NCAAW Conference Tourney Report: Temple and Lehigh Advance; Three No. 1s Upset; Rider Announces Change

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

There may be a Big Five team yet in the NCAA tournament.

Things broke two ways in four-seed Temple’s path Monday, the Owls (20-10) winning their seventh straight game by a wide 65-34 over Charlotte (11-21) in an American Athletic Conference quarterfinal while ninth-seed Rice (16-16) upset top seed UTSA 62-58 leading to a battle of Owls in Tuesday night’s semifinal opener at 7 p.m. on ESPN+ at Dickies’ arena in Fort Worth, Texas.

Temple recently beat Rice 83-63 in the Owls’ last home game Feb. 28 on senior night at the Liacouras Center. That was considered a revenge game with the opponent having knocked out coach Diane Richardson’s team in last season’s tourney.

With multiple scoring threats under Richardson’s equal opportunity offense and a big lead early Temple was able to get balance and added rest heading to the semifinals, where at worse a win guarantees a spot in the WBIT or WNIT if the Owls fall short of the big goal.

In fact when it comes to the WBIT considering they didn’t meet in Big Five competition it wouldn’t be surprising to see the two hook up in round two if both advance.

In the win over Rice, Amaya Oliver had 13 points and 13 rebounds.

The grad transfer brought experience having played at Southern Cal and Loyola Marymount.

“I would say that you want to feed the hot hand,” she said after Temple’s win. “If somebody's knocking down shots, we're going to try to get you the ball. So I think that has carried on throughout my career, and it's worked, you know.”

Temple owned the paint 36-6 over Charlotte in this one with a 56-36 advantage on the boards. The Owls also mined 20 points off 18 turnovers.

“Charlotte had some really athletic guards, and we knew that in order for us to be able to play with them, our posts would have to be able to be agile and switch on some screens, too, and they did just that,” Richardson said.

 “The good thing about our defense is its team defense, and the trust that they have in their teammates, if somebody gets a blow-by, they know they trust their teammate to have their back. They trusted each other on these switches too.”

In the two other quarter final games second-seed North Texas beat East Carolina 69-58 while third-seeded South Florida, the preseason favorite, beat Tulane 69-59 and the two winners meet at 9 p.m. after the Temple game.

Lehigh Advances in the Patriot League

The Mountain Hawks (25-6) got back on the winning track opening quarterfinal play by topping eighth-seeded Boston U. 62-44 at home in Stabler Arena in Bethlehem, Pa., which earned the right to stay right there for a Thursday semifinal against fifth-seeded Holy Cross (19-11), the defending champions, which won 66-52 in a mild upset at fourth-seeded Navy (19-11) in Alumni Hall at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md.

“Stabler was rocking,” said Lehigh coach Addie Micir. “This team deserves a crowd like that, and I'm going to give a shout out to the people who just keep coming and showing up. I loved how the student athletes show up for each other, even during spring break. We definitely felt that energy, and it's helping us move on.”

Lehigh led all the way from Lily Fandre’s first basket a minute into play and she went on with Maddie Albrecht to each score 16 points while Ella Stemmer scored 11.

Boston U. (12-19) got 10 points from Alison Schwertner.

In the win by Holy Cross, Lindsay Berger scored 19 points with eight boards, while off the bench Kendall Eddy scored 15 points, reserve Simone Foreman and starter Kate Flanagan from Plymouth Meeting each scored 11, and Meg Cahalan scored 10.

Hannah Griffin, the daughter of Saint Joseph’s coach Cindy Griffin, grabbed four boards in 12 minutes of action.

In the other two Patriot League games, sixth-seed Bucknell (17-13) got 28 points from Ashley Sofilkanich and upset three-seed Colgate 63-58 outscoring the Bison 21-12 in the fourth quarter.

Second-seed Army (23-6) at home at West Point ended Lafayette’s season 55-40, Tasha Chudy scored 12 for the visiting Leopards (10-21).

The Black Knights will host Bucknell in Thursday’s other semifinal at 6 p.m. (ESPN+), the highest seeded wining team will host the Patriot League championship game Sunday on the CBS Sports Network.

The National Scene

No. 3 Connecticut added another Big East title beating No. 22 Creighton 70-50 at the Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, Conn., as Paige Bueckers scored 24 points with eight boards for the Huskies (31-3), the extended NCAA record 1,244th win for Hall of Fame coach Geno Auriemma.

Bueckers became the first player to win the Big East most outstanding player three times.

“It’s hard to do something that hasn’t been done at UConn before,” she said.

Azzi Fudd and freshman Sarah Strong each scored 13 points and Strong pulled down 11 boards while Bueckers and Fudd each had three makes from deep.

Creighton (26-6) got 13 points from Lauren Jensen while Morgan Maly scored 12.

The two schools were the last ranked teams playing prior to Selection Sunday and the one change in Monday’s poll saw Michigan State drop and Ole Miss return for the first time since early in the season.

“The change in personnel right how much that means,” Auriemma said, off the injuries that hit the team in 2023 and 2024.  “Last year, take that for instance, and the year before you're going into the NCAA tournament with your fingers crossed open and nothing else happens because you're just so used to one set-back after another after another that it almost like you're operating on borrowed time, you know that they're just waiting for that last … to fall and you knew that your margin for error was so slight, so narrow.

“And it's hard to get players to play at a real high level and know we can't turn the ball over we can't miss shots, you know, we have to do everything perfectly and this year I think the the sense is we can we can handle more things that are thrown at us, maybe have answers to some of the things that we didn't have last year.

 “Obviously, we don't have the same level of experience that we had last year, we don't have an Aliyah (Edwards) …  Azzi hasn't played hardly any basketball and Sarah is a freshman and Jen is a freshman and you know so we don't have quite the experience,” he continued.

 “But what we do have is the ability that if the game's not going in our direction then we can change it, that it's comforting to know, that doesn't mean we're going to change it, but we have the opportunity to change it so some years you know you're hoping and praying, this year you still have that, you still have that, but it's not as dire not as crucial as it was last year.’

Conference Upsets

Besides UTSA in the American, two other No. 1 seeds fell. In the Sun Belt title game James Madison (28-5) that went unbeaten in the league fell in overtime 86-79 to second-seeded Arkansas State (21-10), while in the West Coast, perennial champion Gonzaga (22-10) fell 63-61 to fourth-seeded Oregon State (18-15).

The Beavers, one of two former Pac-12 teams spending the next two seasons thru 2026 in the WCC, will meet second-seeded Portland (29-3), which beat three-seed Washington State, the other former Pac-12 team, at noon Tuesday (ESPN2) for the championship.

The Pilots and Zags, who last missed the NCAA tournament in 2016, tied for the WCC regular season title.

Rider Announces Change

After not making the MAAC tournament, which opens Tuesday in Atlantic City at Jim Whalen Boardwalk Hall, under a new format change, Rider announced the departure of longtime coach Lynn Milligan, a veteran of 18 seasons.

  She compiled a 214-332 overall record, including a 139-203 conference mark, in 18 seasons guiding the Broncs. The Broncs produced a 7-22 record during the 2024-25 season, and finished 11th in the MAAC standings.
 

"I respect and appreciate Lynn's accomplishments, professionalism, and passion in leading the women's basketball program for the last 18 years," said Harnum in a statement making the announcement. "I sincerely wish her nothing but the best in her future endeavors."
 
The two-time MAAC and Metropolitan Basketball Writers Association Coach of the Year (2017 and 2020) and Rider's all-time record holder for career victories, Milligan and the Broncs won the 2020 MAAC regular season championship for the first time in program history, being named MAAC Champions and an NCAA Tournament Selection after the 2020 MAAC Tournament was canceled due to COVID-19.