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.