The Guru’s NCAAW Local/National Roundup: Saint Joseph’s Wins at Columbia; Iowa Upsets Baylor and South Florida Drops Duke to 3-3

 By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

NEW YORK, N.Y. – There were three upsets on a moderate schedule Thursday – one involving a Big 5 team and two nationally.

The surprise here was at Levien Gym on Columbia’s campus off Broadway on the Upper West Side where in a morning game visiting Saint Joseph’s opened up on the Lions strong offensively and defensively and had answers for every attempted rally to bounce back from Sunday’s home loss to Penn State to beat Columbia to 66-48.

The game wasn’t as dominant as the final score suggests because the lead grew in the closing minutes, but it was dominant in that the Hawks (4-1) spent most of the way in front 10 or 12 points and several times when the defending regular season Ivy champs (2-2) got the differential into single digits, one time down to five, Saint Joseph’s got stops and drove the score back up to a comfortable lead.

Like Princeton, the long Ivy ruler who Columbia has contested in recent seasons built by King of Prussia’s Megan Griffith at her alma mater, the Lions are a work in progress after a record three schools, including Harvard, from the Ancient Eight were in the NCAA but has suffered through roster losses through expired eligibility.

The Hawks also suffered departures from their post position juggernaut, two graduates and Laura Ziegler’s portal move to nationally ranked Louisville.

But Saint Joseph’s younger core are stepping up led by Gabby Casey, who had a game-high 17 points, shooting frf5-9 from the field, including 3-6 from deep, Aleah Snead with 16 points, and Rhian Stokes with 14 points.

While most of the stats suggest a closer game, the Hawks with 22 turnovers one less than the the Lions and the teams even on points on turnovers at 16, Saint Joseph’s limited second chance points and shot an efficient 47.8% on 22-46 from the field while Columbia was 33.3 percent on 16-48.

The lack of firepower from the Lions was telling from deep, 0-14 from deep with Jill Jekot and Faith Stinson among those grabbing long misfires while Casey and Snead had timely makes for a 12-0 advantage.

“We just beat a very, very talented Columbia team,” said Saint Joseph’s veteran coach Cindy Griffin.” We had a nice balanced attack from everybody because the last game we were perimeter based because of the matchup.

“We had each other’s backs, we shared the ball, we made plays, I was really happy for Rhian Stokes and Cecilia Kay showed up (3-6 off the bench).”

Susie Rafiu scored 14 for Columbia and Perri Page scored 12, but after Riley Weiss scored four early points it took almost the entire game to get to double digits at ten.

The Hawks are 3-0 in the series and Columbia has now suffered consecutive home losses for the first time in six seasons.

“I just think there is a lack of chemistry right now, and that's something that we have to keep working on,” Griffiths said. “There is no recipe for that other than putting the time in. We have a lot of people playing in new roles and, clearly, we're not comfortable yet in those roles.

 “For now, we're going to see that evolve over time. We have to all be patient with that, unfortunately, and that's just part of it. That's part of the process.”

Saint Joseph’s stays in Ivy country, going to Penn Monday night at The Palestra at 6 p.m. on ESPN+ for the Hawks’ first Big 5 game while the Quakers will be looking to finish pod play at 1-1 ahead of the Big 5 Classic Sunday December 7 at Villanova.’’

Two other local teams played Thursday, Lafayette (3-3) won 56-53 at Wagner (1-4) on Staten Island, N.Y., as Teresa Kiewiet scored 15 points, Talia Zurinskas scored 14, Haylie Adamski shot 3-6 from deep, finishing with 13 points, and Tasha Chudy grabbed 10 boards.

The Leopards next play at Pittsburgh, Tuesday at 6 p.m. on ACCNX.

Rutgers (4-2) went on the road in its toughest game to date and fell short 51-46 at Auburn (6-0) in Alabama

Down 16 late in the third quarter, the Knights rallied the rest of the way running out of time to catch the unbeaten Tigers.

Zachara Perkins scored 15 the visitors and Nene Ndiaye collected 12 points and grabbed eight rebounds.

Khady Leye scored 14 for the Tigers while Mya Petticord and Harissoum Coulibaly each scored 12 points.

Rutgers is back home Monday at Jersey Mike’s Arena at 7 p.m. (B1G+) hosting Siena in Piscataway, N.J.

No local teams are playing Friday but on Saturday La Salle host American U. at 1 p.m. (ESPN+) at the John E. Glaser Arena, Princeton and Penn State play each other in the Battle 4 Atlantis in Nassau, Bahamas at 1 p.m. while at the same time Drexel is at NJIT in Newark, N.J. on ESPN+, which will also Saturday night at 7 p.m. air Temple’s Big 5 visit to Villanova repeating last year’s championship match at Finneran Pavilion won by the visiting Owls.

Temple can return to the Big 5 Classic title game, again at Villanova, Dec. 7 with a win, while this will be the Wildcats’ first pod game of the season.

The National Scene

In No. 19 Iowa’s best win since the Caitlin Clark era ended two seasons ago the Hawkeyes (5-0) hit No. 7 Baylor (4-1) with their first loss, a 57-52 upset in the first day of the WBCA Showcase at Disney in Florida.

Ava Heiden had 18 points and 11 boards, most after halftime for Iowa which sustained Talia Scott’s 32 points for the Bears though, she missed her last five attempts from the field.

 The Hawkeyes, who won it with a 9-0 run in the final period, also got 12 points from Taylor Stremlow while Hannah Stuelke had 10 points and eight boards.

Baylor was 0-10 from the field at the end being closed out from rallying in the game.

South Florida in the Bulls’ biggest win since Jose Fernandez recently left to coach Dallas in the WNBA upset Duke 85-72 at home in Tampa improving to 3-2 and dropping the Blue Devils to 3-3.

Duke started the season ranked seventh in the Associated Press preseason poll and fell out this week after a series of losses.

Stefanie Ingram scored 27 for the winners and preseason favorites of the American Conference while Duke got 19 from Taina Mair.

In tne earlier game in the WBCA Showcase Miami (4-0) won 66-58 over Davidson (4-2) as Gal Raviv scored 22, her best game since the combo freshman and player of the year in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference transferred from Quinnipiac after the season.

Miami will play Iowa Saturday at 8 p.m. on ESPN+ while Davidson will play Baylor.

The other eight ranked teams all won easily, No. 5 LSU (6-0) at home in Baton Rouge broke its own program and SEC record set in its 2023 championship season beating Alcorn 112-49 for its sixth straight triumph reaching 100 points.

The Tigers got 18 points each from Flau’Jae Johnson and South Carolina transfer MiLaysia Fulwiley.

No. 12 Iowa State (6-0) opened its road schedule at in-state rival Drake (1-3) winning 87-60 as Audi Crooks scored 22 points and Addy Brown just missed a second straight triple double with 12 points, 15 boards, and seven assists.

No. 9 Maryland (9-0) jumped to a 20-0 lead and crushed visiting Bethune-Cookman 95-49; Gia Cooke scored 19 for No. 23 West Virginia (5-0) in an 80-51 win over visiting Appalachian State; No. 22 Michigan State (5-0) got 17 points each from Grace VsnSlooten and Juliann Woodard in a 101-53 win over visiting Eastern Illinois.

No. 10 TCU (5-0) set a school record winning its 28th straight home game in Fort Worth, Texas, by beating Tarleton State 80-32 as Cal transfer Marta Suarez scored 20 with 10 boards and Notre Dame transfer Olivia Miles had 18 points; Janiah Barker collected 20 points with 12 boards as No. 15 Tennessee (4-1) won 85-41at MTSU and No.14 North Carolina (4-1) won 85-50 at North Carolina A&T.

Seton Hall (4-0) needed double overtime to beat visiting Fordham 90-83, the Pirates getting 21 points from Mariana Valenzuela while Alexis Black led the Rams with 42 points.

First year Army coach and former Saint Joseph’s star Katie Kuester guided the Black Knights (4-1) to a 63-44 victory over visiting New Hampshire.

Florida (5-1) got 27 points from Liv McGill in an 87-89-67 win over visiting Florida State (3-3) while South Dakota State (5-0) dropped visiting Gonzaga to 2-3 with a 72-63 victory, and Stanford (6-0) beat visiting UC Davis 70-45. If the Cardinal do not get ranked in Monday’s next Associated Press Poll they will be tied by Texas with 646 appearances for second behind Tennessee which has 797 in the 50-year history of the rankings.

Connecticut has 642, one of the few positions not first or second but whose current ranking consecutive appearances record is 609 dating to the 1994-95 preseason poll.

This is week No. 888, the first poll appearing in the Philadelphia Inquirer on Nov. 28, 1976.

Looking Ahead

On Friday night No. 1 UConn plays No. 6 Michigan at 8 p.m. on FOX, both teams 4-0, in the second game of the Hall of Fame Women’s Showcase at the Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, Conn., after Utah (3-1) and Syracuse (4-0) meet at 5 p.m. on FS2.

No. 11 Southern Cal (3-1) is at No. 24 Notre Dame (3-1) on ESPN at 6 p.m. in South Bend, Ind.