The Guru’s Local/National NCAAW Roundup: Saint Joseph’s Wins at Penn; Hosts Drexel Saturday Sending Winner to Big 5 Classic Championship; Rutgers and Penn State Gain Wins

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

PHILADELPHIA – For the second time in two games Saint Joseph’s went through one of the upper pieces of the Ivy League Monday night following Thursday’s win at Columbia by keeping it local with a 74-53 Big 5 win over Penn at The Palestra.

Two other locals in action took wins, Rutgers at home in Jersey Mike’s Arena in Piscataway, N.J. edging Siena 67-61 while Penn State finished play in the Battle 4 Atlantis in Nassau, Bahamas beating San Diego State 83-67.

The win here by the Hawks relegated the Quakers to the fifth-place game at Villanova when the Big 5 Classic returns to the Main Line December 7.

The Wildcats after avenging Temple Saturday night for last season’s loss at Villanova in the championship can regain the title round by beating La Salle Tuesday night at 6:30 p.m. (ESPN+) at the Explorers’ John E. Glaser Arena.

The championship slot from the other side can be set Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m. (ESPN+) by the winner of Drexel’s visit to Saint Joseph’s at Hagan Arena.

In three other local in action Tuesday night, Rider tries to snap a four-game losing streak when the Broncs visit defending Atlantic 10 tournament champion George Mason at 7 p.m. (ESPN+) in Fairfax, Va., while the two local Patriot League members are Lafayette at 6 p.m. visiting Pittsburgh at 6 p.m. on ACCNX while Lehigh finishes its trip west to the Bay Area looking to bounce back from Sunday’s thrashing by Stanford when the Mountain Hawks visit San Francisco, the school and city, at 9 p.m. on ESPN+.

In Saint Joseph’s (5-1) win over Penn (4-2) the Hawks featured a balanced attack led by Aleah Snead with a near triple double scoring 18 points shooting 8-for-10 from the field while grabbing 11 boards and dealing eight assists.

Gabby Casey scored 12 points with six rebounds, Jill Jekot scored 13 shooting 5-for-10 and Faith Stinson shot 5-for-9also scoring 13 points.

Penn’s Simone Sawyer scored 14 points with seven rebounds and Tina Njiike scored 10 points.

The Quakers will be bringing Ruke Ogbevire and Ese Ogbevire to their home state this weekend when Penn plays St. Thomas on Friday and visits No. 4 Texas on Sunday.

Snead had a career night for Saint Joseph’s and was aware as the game was closing down that the triple double was attainable and made teammates Casey and Jekot were aware.

“I just look up (at The Palestra scoreboard) myself,” she related. “The last minutes it’s like ‘Gabby, Jill, I’m going to pass you the ball, just shoot it.’”

On still picking up a double double Snead said, “You’ve got to let the game come to you, and that’s my first double double, so that’s what I’m proud of. The past couple games I haven’t really been rebounding as much, and my position coach (Ashley Prim) has been on me about that and getting in there and stop watching, and I think I did that tonight.”

Penn coach Mike McLaughlin said of defending the Penn Charter graduate, “She's a tough matchup because you have to put a four on her, we had to put one of our posts on her,” he said. “She’s really grown. She got better poise than she's ever had, credit to her, but she's a tough match up if we   didn't have to go against her, I'd say it's pretty cool watching her get better and better and better.”

Added Hawks coach Cindy Griffin, “She was always a really smart player, passing and moving.  Sometimes you take advantage of guys that move, she moves without the ball really really well and she moves into space really really well, she's stepping up for us big-time.”

While Penn has struggled early, McLaughlin praised Sawyer.

“This is the best basketball Mo has played since she’s been at Penn. She’s rebounding the ball at a level she never has, she defends, plays hard.  When you talk about progress she’s taken a big step forward.”

In Rutgers game the Scarlet Knights (5-2) used a 22-16 fourth quarter to keep Siena (0-6) out of the win column as Nene Ndiaye reached a new high with 26 points, Zachara Perkins matched her best with 17 points and Imani Lester scored 10.

Lester also matched her career mark with nine boards, Ndiaye grabbed eight and Perkins got seven caroms.

“Typically, it has become down to being better on the floor, and rebounding, and we get stops,” Rutgers coach Coquese Washington said of her team’s domination at the end of games.

The Knights this weekend host Northeastern Friday and Saint Peter’s Sunday.

Down in the tropics Penn State (5-1) got another big game from Gracie Merkle scoring 26 points and 12 rebounds in the win over San Diego State (4-3) while Rutgers transfer Kiyomi Miller scored 19 and reserve Nyla McFadden scored 10 points.

The Lady Lions next host Yale Sunday in Rec Hall at 1 p.m. (B1G+).

The National Scene

This is the week on the calendar that’s the next best thing to March Madness with the number of events in the tropics and around the country for Thanksgiving.

The highlight comes Wednesday and Friday in the Players Era Championship in Las Vegas in which three of last season’s Final Four will compete as Duke, the one team replacing national champion and top ranked UConn in the Tampa reunion, meets No. 2 South Carolina at 4:30 p.m. on TruTV following the 2 p.m. meeting on the same network when No. 4 Texas plays No. 3 UCLA

Winners and losers meet Friday.

On Monday No. 21 West Virginia took the Baha Mar Pink Flamingo – Goombay Division championship beating McNeese 83-63 while in single games all at home No. 13 Ole Miss cruised 102-50 over Longwood; No. 24 Oklahoma State thumped Texas A&M-CC 98-45; and South Jersey’s all-American Hannah Hidalgo scored 25 points with seven assists, six steals, and five boards to lead No. 19 Notre Dame to an 83-51 win over Central Michigan.

On Tuesday, out West No. 22 Washington hosts SWAC contender Southern at 9 p.m. while No. 18 Southern Cal hosts Tennessee Tech at 10 p.m., both on B1G+.

Another marquee Wednesday attraction has No.16 Kentucky and No. 7 Maryland meeting a 5:30 p.m. in the Puerto Rico Shootout.