The Guru’s Local/National NCAAW Roundup: Drexel Defenses Stony Brook and Delaware Completes CUSA Road Sweep

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsgurux

PHILADELPHIA - In a light local schedule Friday night Drexel in a low-scoring game here at home in the Daskalakis Athletic Center dominated defensively in a low-scoring wire-to-wire 49-41 victory avenging a recent earlier road loss to Stony Brook in a Coastal Athletic Association contest.

Deja Evans was the leader of the Dragons (10-7, 3-3) with 13 points, nine rebounds while tying a personal best with five steals, the most this season on the squad.

“It’s definitely always a big win when you get it back,” she said of the outcome. “We emphasized it a lot in practice. We came out and did just this.”

Also scoring in double figures were Amaris Baker and Laine McGurk each with 12 points and McGurk matched her career-high with six rebounds.

While Drexel got to .500 in the conference, at the same time the Dragons knocked a peg off one of the conference leaders in Stony Brook (10-10, 5-2), which was led by Diaka Berete with 15 points and 11 boards while Caitlin Frost had 10 points and 10 rebounds.

The Dragons forced the visitors into 21 turnovers while only committing 11 miscues.

“It was important because we’ve had several games where we were not scoring, and we weren’t able to get the stops we needed in those moments,” Drexel coach Amy Mallon said. “I think this was a good turning point. This is a reallly good turning point. This is really a good point of our launch that we are capable of doing that in these moments.”

Due to the severe forecast of the impending snowfall coming sometime between Saturday night and Sunday morning, many local and national games have switched to Saturday or if already scheduled moved up their tipoff times.

Drexel will experience a back-to-back returning here Saturday night at 6 p.m. in a doubleheader tipoff hosting Towson followed by the men’s team.

If anything, at least it’s a chance to navigate a quick turnaround considering the number of games in succession played to advanced to conference titles during March Madness.

“It’s probably more fun than actually practicing tomorrow,” Mallon said of what occurs most during the back end of the season on a conference slate that is Friday and Sunday with byes also tossed to each team.

Delaware, the other team in action Friday night ended up in a back-to-back road trip gaining a sweep after a ragged start in the Blue Hens’ debut in Conference USA.

On Thursday, Delaware (9-10, 3-4) knocked off a conference heavyweight, winning 61-48 at Middle Tennessee (10-9, 5-2) in Murfreesboro, snapping a 39-game home win streak in CUSA competition dating to March 4, 2021, and temporarily depriving MTSU legendary coach Rick Insell of his 500th victory.

The milestone came soon enough, however, the Blue Raiders winning Friday night at home 63-54 over Liberty as freshman Blair Baugus scored 22 points with eight boards.

The Blue Hens’ Ande’a Cherisier scored 18 points and grabbed 13 boards.

Then, Delaware came right back Friday night with its third straight win making the short trip up to Western Kentucky in Bowling Green and gaining a 66-55 triumph over the Hilltoppers (5-14, 1-7).

The Blue Hens made 10 three-pointers tying their best on the season.

Trinity Vance scored 20 on 7-for-11 from the field with a personal best six makes from deep.

Cherisier came back with 17 points, shooting 8-for-11 from the field and grabbing eight boards while Lay Fontroy had 12 rebounds and Kailah Correa had 10 points, four assists, and three rebounds.

Delaware next is home Thursday at 7 p.m. (ESPN+) in the Bob Carpenter Center in Newark hosting Missouri State.

Reviewing the week locally since yours truly had to pay attention to the annual Philadelphia Sportswriters Association awards banquet, receiving a special achievement for the 50th year of the Associated Press women’s poll, besides being on the board.

Big East Commissioner Val Ackerman did the intro preceded by a special congrats video from the local coaches.

Links to all of it will be provided later on the weekend after it is sent.

I’ll post the speech here also.

On Tuesday, Temple rallied and stunned by beating preseason favorite South Florida 86-83 in the American Conference at home in the Liacouras Center.

On Saturday the Owls will be back home hosting Charlotte, the game has been moved up an hour to 1 p.m. (ESPN+).

On Wednesday La Salle lost its Atlantic 10 contest at Loyola, Chicago 64-60, while Penn State, which remained winless in the Big Ten last Sunday with visiting Rutgers gaining its first conference win, continued the drought on the road falling 81-65 to No. 25 Washington in Seattle.

In the Patriot League, Lehigh won 67-61 at Loyola, Md., while Lafayette at home fell to Boston U. 66-55.

On Thursday, in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, Rider at home lost to Iona 48-40 fading at the finish, while Rutgers at home dropped its Big Ten contest to No. 7 Michigan, 94-60.

In the Saturday local schedule considering the changes, some still in place, some moved, beyond what’s already been mentioned, Penn, which snapped its conference 0-3 start Monday beating Dartmouth at home in The Palestra, has an Ivy visit to Yale, 2 p.m. (ESPN+) as originally scheduled in New Haven, while No. 20 Princeton, which won a wild overtime affair over visiting Harvard, Monday, is at Brown at noon (ESPN+) in Providence, R.I.

In the A-10, La Salle is at St. Bonaventure at 3 p.m. (ESPN+) in Olean, N.Y., and Saint Joseph’s now at noon (ESPN+) visits Duquesne in Pittsburgh.

Rider in the MAAC at 2 p.m. (ESPN+) is at Saint Peter’s in Jersey City.

Villanova at 2 p.m. (FS1) is at St. John’s in the Big East in Queens.

The two Patriot rivals locally face each other for the first of their two as Lafayette at 4:30 p.m. (ESPN+) makes the short trip to Lehigh in Stabler Arena in Bethelehem, Pa.

A key morning game at 11 on on CBSSN has Army, under first-year coach Katie Kuester, visiting Navy, the two teams in a Patriot League first in their series are tied for first.

Penn State is still out west in the Big Ten visiting Oregon at 5 p.m. (B1G+).

As of early Friday evening, Rutgers had not yet made a decision whether to move its Sunday Big Ten game currently scheduled for 2 p.m. (B1G+) in Jersey Mike’s Arena in Piscataway, N.J.

The National Scene

No. 1 UConn, one of two remaining unbeatens, and defending NCAA champion UConn is now at Seton Hall in the Big East Saturday at noon in South Orange, N.J. on Peacock.

In the Big 12, No. 9 TCU is at UCF at 2 p.m. (ESPN+), No. 19 Texas Tech, which has lost two straight after its unbeaten start, is at Utah at 7 p.m., while No. 22 West Virginia is at BYU at 9:30 p.m.

Several Atlantic Coast Conference games are now scheduled for Saturday, No. 21 Duke at 4 p.m. is at Pittsburgh, No. 9 Louisville hosts Boston College at 11 a.m., all on ACCNX as is an uranked game of ACC teams, N.C. State at Virginia at 3 p.m. in Charlottesville.

In the SEC moved from Sunday, No. 11 Kentucky hosts Georgia at 1 p.m. on SECN. The Wildcats lost a close one to 60-58 at No. 17 Tennessee in Knoxville on Thursday.

That same night, the upset of the week occurred with No. 16 Oklahoma at home winning 94-82 in overtime against No. 2 South Carolina, now involved in the national game of the week on Sunday in the SEC when No. 5 Vanderbilt, the other unbeaten team, visits the Gamecocks at 3 p.m. on ESPN in Columbia.

On Sunday in the Big Ten, No. 7 Michigan at 2 p.m. hosts Southern Cal on the Big Ten Network. No. 12 Ohio State at 2 p.m. is at No. 10 Iowa on Peacock.