The Guru’s Local/National NCAAW Roundup: Blakes Leads No. 5 Vanderbilt to Upset of No. 4 Texas; TCU Upsets Host Baylor; Tennessee Routs Missouri and Former Coach

 By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsgurux

As daylight breaks on Friday, it’s the traditional date of Lincoln’s birthday, but the basketball fireworks that went off on the national scene Thursday night, certainly made it a Fourth of July experience.

That begins in the Southeastern Conference where No. 5 Vanderbilt (24-2, 10-2) at home in Nashville decisively beat No. 4 Texas 86-70 just three days after the Commodores extinguished No. 10 Oklahoma 102-86 also at home.

They matched their 10-2 record in the SEC all the way back to the 2008-09 season and the win is the highest over a ranked opponent since a conference win at home over No. 3 Auburn in 2009.

As Vandy bolts its way into making a stronger case to be on the top line of four No. 1 seeds when the NCAA tournament bracket is unveiled next month, so too has Mikayla Blakes forced her way into the national player of the  year discussion.

Following the sophomore out of Somerville, N.J., scoring 34 points in the win over the Sooners, Blakes, the reigning USBWA national freshman of the year, torched the Longhorns (23-3, 9-3) for 34 more, making her way into the nation’s scoring leader with a 26.2 average, her fourth straight 30+ game and ninth this season.

She is the first played this century in the SEC to have four-straight scoring games in the 30s. She’s the 21st NCAA D-1 player to do it since 1999-00 and her 45-game streak of double digit performances is the third longest active streak.

Aubrey Galvan added 18 points with eight boards for the Commodores while Madison Booker scored 20 with eight rebounds for Texas and Breya Cunningham had 14 points for the visitors.

The Longhorns were on top early and then Vanderbilt took over at the midpoint of the first.

Once again, postgame coaching comments from the defeated side were uttered with statements not seemed likely earlier in the season.

On Sunday, it was Tennessee second-year coach Kim Caldwell referring to a quitters mentality after her Lady Vols fell at No. 3 South Carolina with the worst loss by differential in the program’s stories history, though things were a lot more positive in their game Thursday against visiting Missouri.

In Nashville, Texas veteran coach Vic Schaefer at the podium,  “I’ve had my butt beaten before when you’ve done it as long as I have, it’s not the first time, it’s the first time at Texas where I feel my team was out-toughed, the other team played harder, and just quite frankly, we had no heart.

“My staff and I were frustrated we’re coaching that,” he continued. “Effort, energy, and focus, that’s a given, man, it used to come with a scholarship. Now it comes with hundreds of thousands of dollars and I’m fixing to call my (athletic director) and say ‘I’m sorry.’ Because I am.

“That’s not the way you represent the University of Texas. I wear it. I’m accountable. That’s my team, but it’s so disappointing. It’s probably the softest team I’ve had in years.”

It was 7-4 early against Vandy, which then went on a 14-0 run in Memorial Gymnasium to go on and lead 27-15 going into the second quarter off an offensive attack that saw coach Shea Ralph’s team shoot 9-of-12 from the field, including 4 makes from deep in 5 tries.

It was plus 26 midway through the third before Texas moved within 11 with 2:15 left in regulation.

Ironically, Ralph is a former UConn star and assistant coach while Blakes and former Huskies sensation Paige Bueckers, the reigning WNBA rookie of the year, are the only NCAA D-1 players to have three straight 30-point games against ranked opponents.

“It’s broken record time,” Ralph said. “I’m proud of my team. This is what we came here to do. I love that we’re starting to get some momentum in terms of recognition, and this room is full, which is amazing to see.

“We don’t look ahead to March. We look ahead to Friday, tomorrow, then Saturday’s road trip, and then Sunday’s game. We just take it one day at a time.”

Vanderbilt is at Georgia at noon Sunday in Athens on the SEC Network.

Texas is at No. 22 Tennessee Sunday in Knoxville where the Lady Vols (16-6, 8-2) rolled over Missouri 98-53 in an SEC game marking the return of former Tennessee coach and player Kellie Harper guiding the Tigers (16-11, 4-8).

The two coaches gave each other a warm embrace before the game.

Then Tennessee went to work led by Janiah Barker with 22 points and eight rebounds. Talaysia Cooper added 17 points and four steals.

Alyssa Latham sizzled with 7-for-10 from the field  and 15 points, Nya Robertson scored 14, and Deniya Prawl had her first career double-double with 13 points and a career-high 10 rebounds.

Grace Slaughter scored 10 for Missouri, which is off until hosting Auburn next Thursday.

“We wanted a response, this is a good start,” said Caldwell of the game and turnaround performance from the South Carolina game, though Sunday’s game on ABC will be more telling from both sides considering Texas as the opponent.

“Everything was electric today,” Latham said. “When you see your teammates diving on the floor, you want to do as well. This was a team effort for sure.”

“They absorbed it pretty quick,” Caldwell said of team’s response to Sunday’s comments. “We had an off-day and by then we were moving on.

“Forty minutes was pretty important, that we didn’t come out (after the break), get lax and see the score and start taking shots that were not in our offense.”

The night’s other big upset among ranked teams occurred in the Big 12 where Notre Dame transfer Olivia Miles had a career-high 40 points, aided by 10 made shots from deep to lead No. 17 TCU (22-4, 10-3) to an 83-67 road  victory at No. 12 Baylor (21-5, 10-3) in Waco, Texas.

Miles was especially explosive in the third period shooting 7-for-9 from beyond the arc and scoring 23 of the Horned Frogs’ 25 points in the period which began with the visitors holding a slim four-point lead.

Per ESPN, she is the first Division I player in the last 25 years to connect with 10 3-pointers on the road against a ranked opponent and had the most points in any quarter since former Iowa star Caitlin Clark on Feb. 15, 2024.

California transfer Marta Suarez added 27 points with six boards for TCU.

Baylor’s Taliah Scott had 22 points, including the 1,000th of her career.

TCU in Fort Worth on Sunday hosts No. 19 West Virginia while Baylor visits UCF.

The other ranked teams Thursday all won though Oklahoma (18-6, 6-5) needed a second half rally to win its SEC contest, 81-74 over visiting Florida (15-12, 3-9).

Zya Vann scored 18 points for the  Sooners, while Peyton Verhulst had 16 points and nine rebounds.

Aaliyah Chavez added 16 points with seven assists and was a perfect 10-for-10 on the line.

Sarah Williams for the hosts scored eight points, including her 1,000th.

Florida’s Liv McGill had 29 points, seven boards and seven assists for the visiting Gators, who next visit Mississippi State Thursday while Oklahoma is at No. 23 Alabama on Sunday.

Elsewhere in SEC, games with ranked teams, No. 18 Kentucky (19-7, 6-6) got 19 points each from Asia Boone and Tonie Morgan in a 75-55 triumph over visiting Texas A&M (10-10, 2-9) in Lexington and next host No. 14 Ole Miss on Sunday the same day Texas A&M hosts Auburn  in College Station.

Ole Miss (20-5, 7-3) also had an easy time at home in Oxford as Ohio State transfer Cotie McMahon scored 21 points with five assists in an 80-57 win over Arkansas (11-15, 0-11), yet to win a conference game this season.

In the Atlantic Coast Conference No. 21 North Carolina (21-5, 10-3) at home in Chapel Hill romped 94-42 over SMU (8-17, 1-12) as Courtney Banghart, combined with her previous job at Ivy power Princeton, reached 400 career wins, one of 48 active coaches in Division I to reach that milestone.

Lanie Grant scored 15 points and Indya Nivar scored 14 for the Tar Heels, now on an eight-game win streak.

SMU in Texas hosts Pittsburgh Sunday while UNC has a major showdown the same day with No. 11 Duke in nearby Durham, N.C. The Blue Devils have won 15 straight games.

In the other ACC game with a ranked team saw No. 9 Louisville (23-4, 13-1) win 86-67 over visiting Wake Forest (13-13, 3-11) as Saint Joseph’s transfer Laura Ziegler scored 13 points and Tajianna Roberts collect 12 points.

On Sunday Louisville hosts Florida State while next Thursday Wake Forest hosts Notre Dame.

In another game of note in the ACC, Virginia Tech won79-67 at Stanford.

In the Big Ten, No. 7 Michigan (21-4, 12-2) won 80-58 at Northwestern (8-16, 2-11) in Evanston, Ill., as Oliva Olson scored 21 points with eight rebounds and seven assists, though the Wolverines needed to rally from a seven-point deficit in the third quarter.

Syla Swords added 16 points and Kendall Duley scored 12 for the visitors.

On Sunday Michigan is hosting in-state rival No. 13 Michigan State, while Northwestern is at Penn State.

Out West, Southern Cal (16-8, 8-6) at home in the Galen Center in Los Angeles won 79-73  over Indiana (14-12, 3-11) as freshman Jazzy Davidson had 24 points and six rebounds for the host Trojans and Maya Makalusky was 5-for-10 from distance to aid a 29-point finish for the Hoosiers.

There were several overtimes on the night, also.

In the Metro Atlantic Conference (MAAC) Merrimack won 77-72 at Marist in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. In the ACC, Clemson at home edged Georgia Tech 67-65 in double overtime.

South Dakota at home in double overtime beat Kansas City 70-65, in the Big Sky, Northern Arizona won 88-80 at Portland State, while in the Big West UC Davis went for triple overtime beating UC San Diego 88-80.

In the MAAC, the two leaders continued winning, both easily, Quinnipiac 62-40 at home in Hamden, Conn., beating Siena 62-40, as Ella O’Donnell led two other Bobcats (21-4, 16-0) in double figures with 14 points and nine rebounds to stay perfect in league competition, while two-time defending champion Fairfield (21-4, 15-1), whose only loss was at home to Quinnipiac, won 69-43 at Mount St. Mary’s as Meghan Andersen was 5-for-9 from deep and scored 17 points Jillian Huerter scored 15 points with five from distance.

The two wins sets up Saturday’s second showdown when Fairfield visits Quinnipiac at 4 p.m. on ESPN+.

The Local Scene

The importance of the night caused a flip in the normal order of the daily report, but back in the Big Ten, Penn State (8-17, 1-13) threatened an upset early at No. 20 Maryland (20-6, 8-6) in the XFINITY Center in College Park but the Terrapins ultimately took control for an 81-62 victory as Oluchi Okananwa scored 15 points, Addi Mack scored 13, and Saylor Poffenbarger and Mir McLain each scored 10 points.

Rutgers transfer Kiyoni McMiller had her third straight game scoring 30 or more points, exactly at 30, shooting 12 of 26 from the field.

Maryland became the fifth conference team joining No. 2 UCLA, No. 7 Michigan, No. 8 Ohio State, and No. 13 Michigan State with 20 or more wins.

Penn State hosts Northwestern Sunday while Maryland is at No. 8 Ohio State in Columbus, the same day.

In the MAAC, Rider (5-19, 3-12) lost a tough one at home at Alumni Gym, in Lawrenceville, N.J., falling 42-40 in a low-scoring affair to Saint Peter’s, wasting Alena Cofield’s first career double-double with 10 points and 12 rebounds, as the winners swept the two games.

“Our effort was really good, we did a great job of rebounding the ball, and we played like we wanted to win, but unfortunately not enough shots fell our way,” said first-year coach Jackie Hartzell.

“We just couldn’t put the  ball in the basket, and we couldn’t get stops down the stretch when we needed them. We had 17 second-chance points and 20 offensive rebounds, you expect to win the game.”

On Saturday, Rider hosts Marist at 1 p.m. on ESPN+.

In Conference USA, in the night’s only other local game, Delaware (12-12, 6-5) at home in the Bob Carpenter Center in Newark, picked up a 65-62 win over New Mexico State (8-16, 4-8), a triumph a few days later after retired sensation Elena Delle Donne was announced as a finalist for the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.

The Wilmington native has already been announced as an inductee in this year’s Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in Knoxville, Tenn., in June.

In Delaware’s Thursday night win, Ande’a Cherisier had 18 points with 10 rebounds for the Fightin’ Blue Hen, while Trinity Vance had 12 points, shooting 40 percent from beyond the arc, and Lay Fantroy had nine points, five boards and and four steals.

The winners next stay home Saturday on Valentine’s Day hosting UTEP at noon on ESPN+.

Looking Ahead

On Friday night, the action is all local and limited, as Drexel in a Coastal Athletic Association game at the Daskalakis Athletic Center hosts Elon at 6 p.m. on FloCollege, while in the Ivy League, No. 24 Princeton, the only ranked team playing, looks to avenge its only recent league loss visiting Columbia at Levien Gym off Broadway on New York City’s Upper West Side at 6 p.m. (ESPN+), the same time Penn will look to avenge its recent league loss to Cornell, visiting the Red Raiders in Newman Arena on ESPN+ in Ithaca, N.Y., site of this season’s four-team Ivy Madness tournament next month.

On Saturday in the Ivies, the two locals switch road stops, Penn at Columbia, looking to sweep the series, at 5 p.m. (ESPN+), while Princeton is at Cornell at the same time, also on ESPN+.

In the Atlantic 10, La Salle at 1 p.m. on ESPN+ is at George Washington in the  nation’s capital at the Smith Center, while Saint Joseph’s is at Loyola, Chicago at 7 p.m. (ESPN+).

Temple, in the American Conference, looking to snap a current two-game skid, is at home hosting East Carolina on ESPN+ in the Liacouras Center at 2 p.m.

Rutgers is at Purdue in the Big Ten at noon in West Lafayette, Ind., on B1G+, while in the Patriot League, the two locals face each other a second time, Lehigh traveling to nearby Lafayette at at 2 p.m. (ESPN+) in the Kirby Sports Center in Easton, Pa.

Nationally on Saturday, No. 1 UConn at 1 p.m. will look to stay unbeaten with a visit to Marquette on FS1 in Milwaukee, where a win helps idle Villanova stay further away from landing in fourth place in next month’s Big East tournament at the Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, a spot that with advancement avoids meeting UConn until the title game.

In the SEC, No. 3 South Carolina is at No. 6 LSU at 8:30 p.m. on ABC.

In the A-10, Rhode Island is at George Mason at at 3 p.m.(ESPN+) in Fairfax, Va.