The Guru’s Local/National NCAAW Roundup: Poor Shooting Costs La Salle Against St. Louis; No. 14 Ohio State Pounds Penn State; No. 19 Iowa State Drops 4th Straight; No. 10 TCU Wins at the Buzzer

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsgurux

PHILADELPHIA – In what was with one exception an unpleasant day for the locals, for the second time in less than 24 hours a career performance went to waste.

Following Jaleesa Molina scoring 20 points in Temple’s loss to Tulane Tuesday night, La Salle’s Ashleigh Connor against her former school collected 25 here with eight rebounds in a Kid’s Day Wednesday morning game at the John E. Glaser Arena but most of the rest of the Explorers shot blanks in a 66-57 Atlantic 10 loss to St. Louis.

Aryss Macktoon added 18 points with eight boards and four steals with a block, Joan Quinn scored 11 and reached a new high with five steals and Kiara Williams reached a personal best with 10 rebounds and tied another with three blocks.

A 29.9 shooting percent sent the Explorers (10-7, 3-3) to their third straight loss in the A-10 and on the line the team was 24-for-31.

The Billikens (9-10, 3-3) got 20 points and 13 boards out of Alyssa Koerkenmeier while Jahda Denis scored 18, and Zya Nugent had 13 points 10 boards.

Replicating the recent loss at Saint Joseph’s, the Explorers used a 19-9 third quarter to take a brief lead but the visitors rode a 20-7 fourth quarter to victory.

“It’s the same thing,” said La Salle coach Mountain MacGillivray. “At halftime (trailing 37-31) we’re desperate and they’re trying to hold on to a lead.

“You’re not going to win many games shooting 29 percent. When you see the other team celebrating and jumping around at the end of the game, many times it means they came here not thinking they’re going to win.”

Foul trouble added to the misery with Quinn and Macktoon using up their quota of five while two other starters were each saddled with four.

MacGillivray said of getting five “usually there were three when you need to have a little better control.”

Next up is a 1 p.m. visit from Davidson Sunday on ESPN+.

Saint Joseph’s fell behind early on the road trailing 22-10 in the second quarter and couldn’t complete a rally losing an Atlantic 10 game 57-48 at St. Bonaventure (12-6, 3-3) in Olean, N.Y.

Rhian Stokes scored a game-high 20 points for the Hawks (12-5, 3-3) with five rebounds and three steals while Gabby Casey scored 15 with eight rebounds, three steals and two assists.

On Sunday in the first meeting since losing to George Mason in last season’s A-10 title game, the Hawks will host the Patriots at 2 p.m. in a nationally televised CBS Sports Network telecast at Hagan Arena.

In the Big Ten, Penn State lost 108-84 at No. 14 Ohio State (16-2, 6-1) in Columbus.

The Buckeyes, who got 33 points from Jaloni Cambridge and 23 from Chance Gray with seven of the home team’s season-high 17 makes from deep, have only lost to No. 1 UConn and No. 3 UCLA.

Elsa Lemmila added 21 points.

The Lady Lions (7-11, 0-7) got 25 points from Moriah Murray while Gracie Merkle had 21 points and 11 rebounds, while Rutgers transfer Kiyomi McMiller scored 20.

Penn State hosts Rutgers Sunday in the first of a home-and-home and the second time in two seasons the longtime rivals are meeting at a significant stage of the season both winless in conference play.

In the Patriot League Lehigh (8-8, 4-1) suffered its first conference loss of the season, falling 68-64 to Boston U. (5-11, 1-4) in the home game at Stabler Arena in Bethlehem, Pa., in which the visitors got their first league win.

Lehigh only had seven active players with Lily Fandre scoring 17 points while Belle Bramer and Whitney Lind each scored 15 points.

The Mountain Hawks next visit preseason favorite Navy Saturday in Annapolis, Md., at 1 p.m. (ESPN+).

Lafayette (7-9, 3-2) with the lone local triumph of the night won it’s Patriot League Game 62-49 at Bucknell (4-12, 0-5), the Leopards’ first win in Lewisburg, Pa., since the 2013 season.

Teresa Kiewiet scored 20 for the winners and Sauda Ntaconavigize collected 14 and Haylie Adamski scored 12 points.

Lafayette next goes to Holy Cross Saturday in Worcester, Mass., at 2 p.m. (ESPN+).

The host Crusaders fell 61-46 at Army (13-3, 4-1), which was led by Kya Smith with 18 points and seven rebounds.

The Black Knights are under first-year coach Katie Kuester, a former Saint Joseph’s star and assistant coach.

Hawks coach Cindy Griffin’s younger daughter Hannah plays for Holy Cross.

On Thursday Villanova is at No. 1 and defending NCAA champion UConn at 7 p.m. on FS1 in a 1-2 Big East matchup, the only local game on the schedule.

The host Huskies are honoring their 2015 and 2016 NCAA champions.

The National Scene

The Iowa State slide continued to four straight as the No. 19 Cyclones (14-3, 2-4) in the Big 12 fell 68-62 at Colorado (11-6, 3-3) which was led by Desiree Wooten with 24 points while Audi Crooks scored 17 points with 15 boards for the visitors.

On Sunday Colorado visits UCF and Iowa State is at Oklahoma State.

Elsewhere in the Big 12, No. 10 TCU (17-1, 5-1) narrowly avoided an upset at West Virginia (14-4, 4-2) in Morgantown as California transfer Marta Suarez hit a 3-pointer as time expired.

Notre Dame transfer Olivia Miles scored 14 for the Horned Frogs and Suarez had 11 points and nine rebounds.

The Mountaineers were led by Jordan Harrison with 19 points.

TCU hosts Arizona Saturday and West Virginia is at Cincinnati Sunday.

No. 18 Baylor (16-3, 5-1) won its Big 12 game 61-45 at Utah (13-5, 4-2) as Taliah Scott scored 14 points for the visiting Bears and Chyra Evans scored 14 with 11 boards for the Utes.

On Saturday Baylor visits BYU and Utah visits Houston.

In the only other ranked game, No. 3 UCLA (16-1, 6-0) in the Big Ten got 25 points from Kiki Rice shooting 8-for- from the field while Lauren Betts had 17 points and 10 boards in a 76-58 win at Minnesota (12-5, 3-3), which was led by Amaya Battle with 16 points and Mara Braun with 15.

The visiting Bruins next go home to Pauley Pavilion to host No. 12 Maryland Sunday while Minnesota is at Washington.

On Thursday night in the Southeastern Conference No. 4 Texas is at No. 2 South Carolina at 7 p.m. on ESPN2, the visiting Longhorns coming off their first season lost Sunday at LSU while the host Gamecocks can avenge a non-conference loss to Texas at the finish in November.

No. 5 Vanderbilt, the other unbeaten team, is at Mississippi State at 6:30 p.m., on the SEC Network which will also air No. 21 Alabama at Auburn at 9 p.m.

No. 7 Kentucky hosts Florida at 7 p.m. on SECN+, while in the Atlantic Coast Conference No. 8 Louisville is at No. 23 Notre Dame at 6 p.m. on the ACC Network.

In the Big Ten, No. 12 Maryland is at Southern Cal at 9 p.m. on Peacock, No. 24 Nebraska is at No. 8 Michigan at 7 p.m. on the same network, and Oregon is at No. 11 Iowa at 9 p.m. on FS1.