The Guru’s Local/National NCAAW Roundup: Quinnipac Wins MAAC Showdown at Fairfield; While Tennessee and Iowa Lose in Conference Upsets

  

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsgurux

Three stunning results, two in the ranking sector, highlighted a busy night Thursday, though, locally, the one team in action fell, which was Rider at home in a Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) game at Alumni Gym in Lawrenceville, N.J., beaten 70-59 by Mount St. Mary’s (10-11, 6-6).

The loss by the Broncs (4-17, 2-10) saw a career night by Belgium player Kristina Ekofo of Brussels with 32 points go to waste.

The game was tight into the third period in which the visitors held a 34-33 lead before extending the one-point advantage with an 18-8 run to take the lead the rest of the way.

“We were really good offensively, and that’s been an area of struggle for us recently, so I think we showed tremendous improvement on the offensive end, but our defense went the other way tonight,” said first-year coach Jackie Hartzell, spending her first year running a Division I program.

“They’re a really good team, and we had some lapses tonight, and a good team is going to make you pay. Obviously, Kris was a major positive tonight. We were consistent tonight, so now it’s just cleaning it up defensively.”

Of her game, Ekofo said, “We just executed the game plan. I was where I was supposed to be and whenever I was open, I was just taking my shots. My (basketball) IQ has gotten better, playing with my teammates, and being less selfish as a player.”

The top of the MAAC was where one of the surprises occurred, in a battle of two teams with clean conference records, Quinnipiac (17-4, 12-0) shocked Fairfield 72-58, though many would not consider it an upset considering the Bobcats ended a two-year perfect perfect conference streak by the two-time defending champions, though the fact this one came at the home of the Stags (17-4, 11-1) was worthy of being an eyebrow raiser.

Furthermore, Quinnipiac has held its own in the wake of first-year Gal Raviv of Israel, the MAAC’s combo freshman and player of the year, transferring to the Power 4 Atlantic Coast Conference member Miami.

Karson Martin led the visitors with 19 points, sizzling 7-for-10 from the field, and 3-for-4 from deep.

Ella O’Donnell scored 19 points, shooting 6-for-9 from the floor, while Ella Ryan scored 11 points.

The game was nationally televised on ESPNU.

Quinnipiac, which is back home in nearby Hamden, Saturday, hosting Merrimack , at 2 p.m. (ESPN+), for a long time has been under the helm of Delran’s (N.J.) Trish Sacca Fabbri in suburban Philadelphia.

Fairfield has turned it around under one of the bright young mentors in Carly Thibault DuDonis, the daughter of former WNBA coach Mike Thibault, now in charge of the Belgium national team, and is the sister of Eric, who had been the WNBA Washington coach after his dad retired but held the GM position for several seasons and is now on the staff of Cheryl Reeve of the Minnesota Lynx.

Fairfield had won 21 straight games at home and is now 56-2 in recent games against MAAC opposition.

Cyanne Coe scored 14 points, shooting 7-for-9 for the Stags in the game at Leo D. Mahoney Arena, while Jillian Huerter scored 11, while Kaety L’Amoreaux and reserve Lauren Beach each scored 10 points and Meghan Andersen had eight points and eight rebounds.

Fairfield Saturday is at crosstown rival Sacred Heart at 2 p.m. (ESPN+) and Rider is off a week before hosting Manhattan next Wednesday at 6 p.m. (ESPN+).

Ironically, one of Thibault’s previous stops was at Mississippi State, which Thursday night was involved in triggering one of the two other upsets Thursday winning 77-62 in the Southeastern Conference at No. 15 Tennessee (14-4, 6-1), which is next heading to No. 1 UConn Sunday in Hartford.

Kharyssa Richardson scored 21 points, shooting 9-for-11 from the floor, for Mississippi State (16-6, 3-5) while Trayanna Crisp scored 15 points with five rebounds and three steals, Madison Francis had 12 points and10 rebounds and Favour Nwaedozi scored 11 with 14 rebounds and a pair of steals.

The loss by Tennessee (14-4, 6-1) in the SEC comes just ahead yo Hartford Sunday to face No. 1 and defending champion Uconn (22-0) being the last team to beat the Huskies last season.

The Lady Vols’ Talaysia Cooper had 19 points, freshman Mia Pauldo had 13 points with four steals and Janiah Barker scored 10 with six boards.

The visiting Bulldogs had a 50-31 rebounding advantage and bested the home folks in transition 35-11.

Mississippi State on Sunday hosts Missouri.

Over in the Big Ten, No. 8 Iowa (18-3, 9-1) on the way to a showdown for sole possession of first place in the Big Ten, facing No. 2 in Pauley Pavilion on Sunday will now be fighting to get back to a tie after being upended in the Hawkeyes’ first stop in Los Angeles, losing 81-69 to a Southern Cal (12-9, 4-6) team at the Galen Center that had been struggling recently with reigning national player of the JuJu Watkins rehabbing all season from an ACL knee injury suffered in the NCAA tournament.

The Trojans are now 4-4 against ranked opponents, losing two straight recently and 1-6 in that span.

The Hawkeyes had been off to a 9-0 start in the Big Ten, their best since 1996 long before the recently concluded Caitlin Clark era in Iowa City.

Kara Dunn had 25 points for the Trojans in the victory while freshman Jazzy Davidson had 21 points and eight assists, Londynn Jones scored 17.

Iowa’s Journey Houston scored 16 points with eight rebounds as a reserve.

USC never trailed and next host Rutgers Sunday, a team with just one win in the Big Ten, a narrow road victory over longtime rival Penn State, which is winless in conference play as is Indiana.

The Hoosiers (11-11, 0-10) fell Thursday, losing 95-67 at home to No. 8 Michigan (18-3, 9-1), now tied for second with Iowa, the first loss to Wolverines in Bloomington since February, 2014.

Michigan’s Olivia Olson scored 27 points; Mia Holloway scored 17 in the win and the Wolverines’ Syla Swords had a career-high five five steals as the winners converted 23 turnovers into 34 points.

Maya Makalusky led Indiana with 17 points as the Hoosiers went 0-8 in January.

Michigan Sunday is at local rival No. 13 Michigan State Sunday while Indiana the same hosts Northwestern, a team with just two Big Ten wins and whose longtime coach and Father Judge grad growing up in Northeast Philadelphia is Joe McKeown, who announced his impending retirement in advance of the start of the season.

Michigan State (19-2, 8-2) easily won 86-65 at Purdue (11-10, 3-7) in West Lafayette, Ind., being led by Grace VanSlooten with 17 points, while Kennedy Blair scored 15 points.

It was a season-high in scoring in a conference game this season for the victors.

Elsewhere in the Big Ten, No. 11 Ohio State (19-3, 8-2) won at home in Columbus, beating Wisconsin 81-58 as Jaloni Cambridge scored 21 of her 29 points in the second half against the Badgers (13-9, 5-6).

The Buckeyes next host on Sunday Nebraska, which fell out of the Associated Press women’s poll Sunday.

In the Atlantic Coast Conference, No. 7 Louisville (20-3, 10-0), tied with No. 20 Duke, gained a road win and overall 13th straight, tagging host Stanford (15-7, 4-5) with its third straight loss as Saint Joseph’s transfer Laura Ziegler scored 22 points with 11 rebounds in the Cardinals’ 84-66 victory.

Stanford (15-7, 4-5) was led by Courtney Ogden with 16 points.

Louisville is at Cal Sunday while Stanford hosts Notre Dame.

Duke (15-6, 10-0) kept pace with Louisville, whom the Blue Devils meet next week, winning 74-58 at Miami in Coral Gables, Fla., for its 12th straight triumph as Toby Fournier scored 23 points and Tamair added 18 against the Hurricanes (12-9, 4-6), who got 21 points from Ra Shaya Kyle while Quinnipiac transfer Gal Raviv scored 16 points.

The visitors next host Wake Forest Sunday while Miami on Sunday greets Syracuse.

Virginia won in triple overtime 109-103 at Wake Forest in Winston-Salem, N.C.

N.C. State won easily 106-84 at Boston College, while California won 80-69 over visiting Notre Dame in Berkeley, Calif.

South Jersey’s Hannah Hidalgo, a reigning All-American, scored 22 points for the Fighting Irish in the loss, while Cal’s Lulu Twidale scored a team-leading 19 points.

Elsewhere in the SEC, which set an AP Women’s Poll record in the rankings’ 50th anniversary season this week with 10 members listed, No. 3 South Carolina (21-2, 7-1) won 81-51 at Auburn (13-9, 2-6) as Joyce Edwards scored 20 points and Tessa Johnson scored 13 for the visiting Gamecocks who next are Texas A&M on Monday.

No. 8 LSU (20-2, 6-2) shook off a slow start at home in Baton Rouge to beat visiting Arkansas 92-70 as Flaujae Johnson scored 17 points with Mikaylah Williams also scoring the same total.

The Tigers hosts Alabama Sunday after the No. 24 Crimson Tidem won Thursday night at No. 23 Georgia.

Essence Cody scored 16, shooting 6-for-7 from the field for Alabama in the win in Athens, while Ta’Mia Scott added 13 (19-3, 5-3), while Georgia (18-4, 4-4) got 13 points from Mia Woolfolk.

The win gave the visitors the longest streak in program history in the series at 5-0.

Alabama is at LSU Sunday while Georgia hosts Tennessee on Thursday after the Vols’ Sunday visit to UConn.

No. 4 Texas (20-2, 5-2) playing in front of a crowd that included Shaquille O’Neal in Gainesville, Fla., got 24 points from Madison Booker, and Aaliyah Crump scored 14 in a 88-68 win at Florida (13-10m, 1-7).

The Longhorns next hosts No. 10 Oklahoma Sunday while Florida is at No. 5 Vanderbilt.

Oklahoma (17-4, 5-3) got 16 points from Payton Verhulst and 14 from freshman Aaliyah Chavez while Raegan Beers and Shara Williams each scored in an 85-58 win over visiting Texas A&M (8-9, 1-7), which hosts South Carolina Sunday.

In the Big 12, the lone ranked team who played, No. 12 TCU (20-2, 8-1) got 20 points and six assists barely dodging an upset loss in a 79-77 home win over Kansas (13-9, 3-7) in Fort Worth, Texas, in which the Horned Frogs never trailed.

Freshman Jaliya Davis scored 29 for the visiting Jayhawks with nine rebounds while S’Mya Nichols scored 24 points.

Texas Tech Sunday is at No. 21 TCU.

Seton Hall won 58-52 at Georgetown to move into a second place Villanova that holds the tiebreaker in the Big East while in the Northeast Conference defending champion FDU beat visiting Stonehill 78-54 to stay perfect in league play with a two-game lead over Long Island.

In the Big West, Hawai’i at home beat UC Irvine 55-50.

Looking Ahead

Locally, on a night the largest crowd to see a professional women’s basketball game in Philadelphia when Unrivaled plays a doubleheader in front of a sellout crowd at the Xfinity Mobile Center, in the Ivy League, Penn hosts Cornell at 6 p.m. (ESPN+) at The Palestra while No. 19 Princeton hosts Columbia in Jadwin Gym at 6 p.m., the first meeting since the visiting Lions ended the Tigers string of first place finishes.

The Penn game is also on NBC Sports Philadelphia + while the Princeton game is on ESPN+.

Drexel, in the Coastal Athletic Association, visits Monmouth at West Long Branch, N.J., at 7 p.m. (FloCollege).

Delaware, in a CUSA game moved one day each due to weather effects, this weekend, the Blue Hens at home at the Bob Carpenter Center Friday night, begin the two games hosting Missouri State at 7 p.m. (ESPN+).

Nationally, in the Ivy League on a lite night overall schedule, Dartmouth hosts Brown at 6 p.m. while Harvard hosts Yale at 7 p.m., both on ESPN+, while in the SEC in a game off weather moved to Birmingham, Ala., at 3 p.m. (SECN+) No. 5 Vanderbilt meets No. 17 Ole Miss at 3 p.m.