The Guru’s Local/National NCAAW Roundup: A Sweep by Rider in Hartzell debut, Rutgers and Lasalle; George Mason Ends Decade-Long 20-Game Losing Streak to JMU

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

When you don’t see a dateline on these roundups on game nights it indicates the Guru was not live and gathered the information from headquarters because the nuance of the schedule or being elsewhere, which in the case Thursday night, as a past inductee, was at the Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame ceremonies.

That said, the table assigned to the Guru included the feisty Saint Joseph’s, ABL, and WNBA point guard Debbie Black, who shared she is involved in activities serving as a run-up to the coming of the WNBA team here in Philly.

Meanwhile, it was another perfect sweeps night in three games involving locals, though two played each other, again the situation involving Lafayette on the road following the opening night loss at Villanova, this time Rider prevailed 65-58 at Alumni Gym in Lawrenceville, N.J., as former Arcadia and USP coach Jackie Hartzell made a successful D-I debut with a 65-58 victory with the Broncs.

Trailing 17-12 early in the second half, Rider erupted on a 13-0 run to go in front before the Leopards countered with a 7-0 burst to move within a point.

Then the Broncs streaked back 5-0 followed by Lafayette’s 6-0 answer leading to a halftime deadlock.

Rider after the break moved from a 33-32 early third quarter lead on a 10-0 eruption and stayed ahead the rest of the way, in the process also engaging in a 12-0 eruption.

A 55-38 lead after three was plenty to sustain Lafayette’s final rally at 10-0 to stay safe as the game hit the closing minutes.

“I’m just really proud of our team,” Hartzell said. “We played really hard. I think we had some nerves early, then went on the run in the second quarter.

“We just talked about stepping it up defensively, and it was a little shaky at the end there, but I'm just so proud of our group for doing enough to win the game,” she said.

“Defensively in the second half, we really stepped it up, and offensively, this is pretty much our style. We played for the most part, pretty disciplined, so we would like for that to continue throughout the year.”

As for walking out for the tipoff after years in D-II with the nationally prominent Devils in Southwest Philly and then, after the school merged with D-1 Saint Joseph’s, at Arcadia, Hartzell said, “it was a little emotional when I first walked out, hearing the band and looking around. In some ways it felt surreal. But once the ball is thrown up, it's just the basketball game and to get a win in that atmosphere was really special,” Hartzell said at the postgame press conference.

 “We've been working here since July, so it's been a long few months, we're excited for the first game, it's great to get that first win, and hopefully build off that with some positive momentum moving forward.”

Hartzell followed her predecessors Eldon Price and Lynn Milligan in winning their Rider coaching debuts.

Graduate transfer Kristina Ekofo, a native of Belgium from North Dakota State, had a game-high 19 points followed by freshman Alena Cofield from Neshaminy High scoring 14 points. Junior Aliya McIver tied a career best with 11 points, while Australian Emmy Roach matched her personal best with 10 points, and set new highs with five steals and three blocks.

Rider next hits the road traveling to Boston College Wednesday at 6 p.m. on the ACCX streaming package.

Lafayette’s Teresa Kiewet had a double double 17 points and 10 boards, Sauda Ntaconayigize scored 13, Tasha Chudy scored 12, and Talia Zurinskas collected 11 points.

The Leopards make their season home debut hosting Le Moyne of the Northeast Conference Sunday at 11 a.m. on ESPN+.

Rutgers Tops Quinnipiac

Further up North in New Jersey, Rutgers made it two straight by remaining at home at Jersey Mike’s Arena in Piscataway, N.J., and fending off MAAC contender Quinnipiac 64-55 as Boston College transfer Nene Ndiaye of Senegal in her second game with the Scarlet Nights led all scorers with 23 points while grabbing nine boards, grabbing three steals, and dealing two assists.

Kaylah Ivey scored 19, Zachara Perkins had 10 points and Imani Lester matched Nidaye’s rebound best in the game with an added nine boards.

It took until late in the fourth quarter until Rutgers caught the Bobcats to maintain a lead preserved to finish in front.

“I thought we played some pretty intelligent basketball in the fourth quarter,” said Rutgers coach Coquese Washington. “We definitely gotta do a better job knocking down free throws but in the fourth quarter we made enough of them, even when we went 1-2 but those were bigs and I liked the way we gutted it out defensively.”

Jackie Grisdale scored 19 for Quinnipiac, whose coach Tricia Fabbri of Delran in South Jersey was back in her home state where the Bobcats were reduced to 1-1 on the season start.

Ella Ryan with 14 points was also in double figures.

Rutgers Sunday remains home hosting Stony Brook at 2 p.m. on B1G+.

Quinnipiac Tuesday hosts St. John’s at 5 p.m. in Hamden, Conn.

La Salle Takes Opener

The Explorers made it 11 of the Guru’s 13 locals now under way with a season-opening 71-59 victory at Loyola, Md., at Reitz Arena in Baltimore as Aryss Macktoon celebrated her homecoming with a double double 25 points and 10 boards in a wire-to-wire lead all the way game for the visitors.

Ashleigh Connor scored 20 with five assists and four rebounds.

Redshirt freshman Kiara Williams scored 12 off a perfect 5-for-5 from the field.

La Salle jumped to an 11-2 lead and made it more solid finishing ahead 21-10 in the period forcing the Greyhounds into 10 turnovers.

By halftime, the advantage held and grew to 37-22 where unlike 12 months ago veteran coach Mountain McGilivray went into the season with a brand-new roster, this time he begins with eight players back to navigate non-conference foes and the Atlantic 10 competition.

The Explorers next launch their home schedule Saturday at noon hosting Saint Francis of Pa. on ESPN+.

On Friday Penn gets under way at 4 p.m. at The Palestra hosting King’s on ESPN+ while Princeton Sunday is at Georgia Tech in Atlanta.

Also Friday, Saint Joseph’s is up at America East contender Maine, while Temple off the Owls’ opening over George Mason hosts another George of the Atlantic 10 at the Liacouras Center, this one (7 p.m.) George Washington, a past rival when the home team played in the conference. Both games tip at 7 p.m. and are on ESPN+.

Elsewhere locally, Drexel tries to make it a 2-0 opening on the road at Marist at 7 p.m. in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. on ESPN+, while at the same time, same network, Delaware goes after 2-0 in the Bob Carpenter Center in Newark hosting Patriot League favorite Navy.

Also at 7 p.m., Penn State in Rec Hall on B1G+ hosts Cincinnati.

On Saturday, the only other local playing is Lehigh, visiting MAAC favorite Fairfield at 7 p.m. on ESPN+, the visiting Mountain Hawks having pulled a road upset at Cincinnati and the host Stags having won their season opener at Villanova.

The National Scene

Because this post is delayed, the ranked results are known to many of you but to let you know how the Guru’s giant composite is put together and later amended as needed, all the local games of the D-Is are entered, no matter good or bad, because in writing these roundups, it affords fans in the market to have a place to check since surviving publications in the areas are more reduced to focusing on the Big Five.

All TV linear games are included, including many not expected to draw ratings, all key games of the Power 4 frontrunners voted at the top of their respected leagues before a gap in the votes occur, so some are deeper than others, but also from the locally affiliated conferences – the American, Conference USA, Ivy, Coastal, Metro Atlantic, Patriot, Atlantic 10, and Big East.

The sane standard is applied to the rest of the mid-majors, though the Guru has not seen a Southland vote, but Stephen F. Austin is a traditional team of competitiveness roaming league-to-league while the new coach at McNeese State was followed by eight players from regular season champion Southeast Louisiana.

Included are their games against each other, games against likes from similar conferences and games against powerful opponents that were not entered originally from the other side.

Because to get on mock brackets and tournament discussion by the committee these are games you must win.

Teams with upsets and others who have built nice records not originally listed, are added in the first update though, pending the upsets, some sooner.

That all said, to get results into the Guru record, they key win in Thursday’s overall non-local collection goes to George Mason, which after losing at Temple in Monday’s season opener, the second-place pick Patriots in the Atlantic 10 gained an impressive 72-57 win at Sun Belt favorite James Madison in Harrisonburg, Va.

It’s the first win over the Dukes since 2005, a streak of 20 losses, the victory marked by 14 makes from deep, and 11 steals, defensively as both teams became 1-1.

Zahirah Walton followed her big game in the loss to Temple with 22 against JMU, shooting 8-16 from the field, 4-8 from deep, 2-2 on the line and seven boards.

Kennedy Harris added 13 points.

JMU’s Ashanti Barnes scored 21 with 16 boards while Peyton McDaniel scored 15.

When the new AP Poll comes out on Mondays all games of ranked teams the coming week go into the grid including any not already there.

As for the current bunch Thursday night, it was No. 3 UCLA over Santa Barbara 87-50; No. 10 Maryland 87-54 over UMBC; No. 17 TCU routed North Carolina A&T 82-43; No. 24 Kentucky whomped Monmouth 104-46; No. 11 North Carolina defensed Elon 71-37; and triple digits were also thrown 115-26 at No. 5 LSU over SE Louisiana and No. 22 Oklahoma State beating Langston 105-35.

The winners were all home.

Gabriela Jaquez, Kiki Rice, and Utah transfer Gianna Kneepkens each scored 20 or more for UCLA; Maryland’s Oluchi Okananwa and Isimenme each scored 15; Notre Dame transfer Olivia Miles in TCU’s season opener scored 16, grabbed eight boards and dealt six assists while Cal transfer Marta Suarez scored 19 as the Horned Frogs stayed third in home opening winning streaks with 25 behind N.C. State (35) and Florida Gulf Coast (37).

The Tar Heels after a 42-17 second half in Chapel Hill had five in double figures led by Indya Nivar with 13 points.

In the triple digit tallies, Flau’Jae Johnson scored 17 at LSU, Lena Girardi scored 29 fueled by a program record nine 3-pointers, most by a freshman in any Cowgirls’ games, while Kentucky connected 17 times from deep in Lexington, Lexi Blue with career highs 18 all of six from deep, and Amelia Hassett had 17 points and seven boards.

The big national game of Friday night has No. 24 Richmond that tied Kentucky in the Spiders’ first ever poll appearance visiting No. 4 Texas at 8 p.m. on SECN+.

SEC teams are also the three other ranked teams playing, two hosting, like Texas, with No. 8 Tennessee at 6:30 p.m. hosting ETSU and No. 2 South Carolina hosting Bowling Green at 7 p.m., both on SECN+, while No. 12 Ole Miss visits Alabama A&M of the SWAC.

Ranked teams are not scheduled Saturday.