The Guru’s Local/National NCAAW Roundup: The Locals Were Idle While Five Ranked Teams Easily Win Led by No. 3 South Carolina Over South Florida

 By Mel Greenberg

No locals played Thursday but as the two-week finals period comes to an end Friday will see Penn host Washington State at 11 a.m. (ESPN+) at The Palestra while Rider at 6 p.m. opens MAAC play at 6 p.m. (ESPN+) hosting two-time champion and preseason favorite Fairfield at Alumni Gym in Lawrenceville, N.J., and two other games, both at 7 p.m., also on ESPN+ has Temple hosting Coppin State at the Liacouras Center while in the Big East Villanova hosts Seton Hall at the Finneran Pavilion.

Nationally, the ranked teams in action easily won their games.

No. 3 South Carolina (11-1) won 103-44 at American South Florida (6-6) in Tampa as Joyce Edwards was near perfect from the field shooting 13-14 for a career-high 34 points topping last Sunday’s total of 29 in the win over visiting Penn State.

The Gamecocks, who shot 62% from the floor, next stay in the Sunshine State to visit Florida Gulf Coast on Saturday while USF hosts Navy Sunday.

No. 13 Vanderbilt (11-0) at home in Nashville topped Albany 64-35 as Mikayla Blakes out of Somerville, N.J., had 17 points and six steals against the visitors (9-3), extending her double-digit scoring streak to 30 games.

The Commodores next host Texas Southern on Saturday.

No. 21 Ohio State (10-1) at home in Columbus took a 79-45 victory over Norfolk State (5-9) as Kylee Kitts scored 13 points and Jaloni Cambridge scored 11.

The Buckeyes next host Western Michigan on Monday.

No. 15 Baylor (11-2) at home in Waco, Texas, won 77-60 over SWAC favorite Southern (4-6) led by Bella Fontleroy shooting 7-11 from the floor for 21 points while Darianna Littlepage-Buggs had 13 points and 12 boards.

The Bears next host Texas Tech Sunday in a Big 12 opener.

No. 19 Southern Cal (8-3) at home in Los Angeles got a career-high 28 points from Londynn Jones while freshman Jazzy Davidson had 17 points with nine boards and six steals in an 86-39 Galen Center victory over Cal Poly (2-9) and next play California Sunday in the Invisalign Bay Area Women’s Classic at the Chase Center in San Francisco which also has Oregon playing Stanford.

In other Thursday games of note, Loyola Chicago (4-7) won 69-68 at nearby Northwestern (6-5), Oregon (12-1) won 85-59 over visiting Portland (5-6), and Duke (5-6) won 97-54 over visiting South Dakota State (10-3), while in three ACC contests Virginia Tech won 79-54 at Florida State, Miami won 64-61 at Wake Forest, and NC State topped Georgia Tech 87-58.

On Friday, No. 7 Maryland hosts Central Connecticut at 11 a.m. (B1G+), No. 12 Kentucky hosts Wright State at 6:30 p.m. (SECN+), and Stanford, now in the ACC, hosts former Pac-12 rival No. 22 Washington of the Big Ten at 10 p.m. (ACCNX).