The Guru’s Local/National NCAAW Roundup: Temple Snaps Three-Game Slide; ‘Nova on Six-Game Win Streak Hosts No. 1 UConn; Ole Miss Downs Tennessee

 By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsgurux

After holding control deep into the fourth quarter Tuesday night and then letting things get away with just over two minutes left in regulation Temple (11-14, 5-8) nailed eight straight shots from the line and grabbed a 58-54 victory in the American Conference at Charlotte (12-14, 6-7) in Halton Arena in North Carolina.

Prince Anderson, who gave the 49ers a lead just over the two-minute mark, blew a chance to tie it for the home team, missing two foul shots with 11 seconds left, enabling the Owls to snap a three-game losing streak and stay in ninth two spots above the cutoff line for next month’s tournament in Birmingham, Ala.

Temple, which had been making turnovers in huge piles, continued to do so with 21, but defensively the Owls held the opposition to 26% from the field.

 Savannah Curry scored a career-high 21 points for the visitors, shooting 7-for-12 from the field and 3-for-4 from deep. Jaleesa Molina, playing her best game since back from briefly sidelined with an ankle injury, shot 50% (5-for-10) for 12 points, while grabbing 13 rebounds.

Temple is back home in the Liacouras Center Sunday at 2 p.m. (ESPN+) hosting Memphis.

Rutgers Woes Continue

In the only other local game Tuesday the Scarlet Knights (9-17, 1-14) lost a Big Ten game on the road 76-56 at Illinois (18-8, 8-7) in Champaign to stay in the basement way below the cutoff line to next month’s tournament.

Faith Blackstone, back from an injury, scored 13 points, Nene Ndiaye scored 10, and Imani Lester scored nine, returning from a three-game absence.

Rutgers is back home Saturday (4 p.m., Big Ten Network) at Jersey Mike’s Arena hosting Penn State, looking for a sweep over the only team in the conference it has beaten.

On Sunday, in one of two local games on the schedule, the Lady Lions (9-17, 2-13) picked up their second conference triumph, an 81-71 win over Northwestern (8-17, 2-12) at home in Rec Hall, their first victory in the annual Pink Zone game in the fight against breast cancer since 2017.

Rutgers transfer and sophomore Kiyomi McMiller scored 32 points, her fourth straight 30-point game, collecting 32 with 12 rebounds.

Gracie Merkle had 19 points, shooting 8-for-13 from the field with 11 rebounds, and Moriah Murray had 14 points with 12 beyond the arc.

Penn State outrebounded the Wildcats 45-28 and dominated the paint, 40-22.

There were no local games Monday.

Villanova Wins Sixth Straight, Hosts No. 1 UConn Wednesday

In the only other local game Sunday, Villanova (21-5, 14-3) won 74-64 at Creighton (12-14, 8-9) in Omaha, Neb., clinching at least third in the Big East, meaning the Wildcats by advancing couldn’t face No. 1 UConn, the defending national champs who are unbeaten, until the title game in next month’s tournament at the Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, Conn.

They will, however, host the Huskies (27-0,16-0) playing the second of the home-and-home series Wednesday night at 7 p.m. (Peacock) in Finneran Pavilion (seats still available).

On Monday in the 50th anniversary season, week 900 of the Associated Press women’s poll, Hall of Fame coach Geno Auriemma, who grew up in Norristown, tied retired Hall of Fame Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer with 654 appearances.

The Huskies have been ranked a record number 621 consecutive times since the the 1993-94 preseason poll over three decades ago.

In Sunday’s win over the Bluejays, Jasmine Bascoe scored 21 points and on Tuesday was named one of five Ann Meyers-Drysdale national players of the week by the United States Basketball Writers Association.

She also had seven boards and five assists.

Three other Wildcats were also in double figures: Kennedy Henry had 17 points and four steals, Denae Carter had 16 points and eight rebounds, and Brynn McCurry had 11 points and nine rebounds.

Elsewhere locally Wednesday, in the Atlantic 10, La Salle hosts first-place Rhode Island, having its best season unbeaten in league play, at 6:30 p.m. (ESPN+) at John E. Glaser Arena, while Saint Joseph’s, in a fourth-place three-way deadlock holding the tiebreaker, hosts Duquesne at 7 p.m. (ESPN+) at Hagan Arena.

In the Patriot League, both at 6 p.m. on ESPN+, Lehigh hosts first-place and preseason favorite Navy at Stabler Arena in Bethlehem, Pa., while Lafayette hosts Holy Cross at the Kirby Sports Center in Easton, Pa.

On Thursday at 11 a.m., Delaware has a Conference USA visit to FIU in Florida on ESPN+, while in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Rider at 6:30 p.m. (ESPN+) visits Canisius in Buffalo, N.Y.

On Friday, there’s just one local game, Drexel has a visit in the Coastal Athletic Association at 7 p.m. to Hampton in Virginia on FloCollege.

The National Scene

On Tuesday, there was just one game of note, in the Southeastern Conference (SEC), No. 17 Ole Miss (21-6, 8-4) at home in Oxford, won 94-81 over No. 21 Tennessee (16-8, 8-4), the visiting Vols coming into the game after a narrow 65-63 home loss Sunday in Knoxville to No. 4 Texas (24-3, 9-3).

Ohio State transfer Cotie McMahon had a career-high 39 points for Ole Miss, passing 2,000 to 2,038, shooting 12-for-22 from the field, 14-for-18 from the line, with five assists and 10 boards in the wire-to-wire win.

Latasha Lattimore added 14 points and 12 rebounds.

Tennessee’s Talaysia Cooper had 30 points.

The game was a reschedule caused by winter weather.

On Thursday Tennessee hosts Texas A&M, while Ole Miss will host No. 7 LSU (22-4, 8-4), coming off Saturday’s 79-72 loss at home in Baton Rouge to No. 3 South Carolina (25-2, 11-1), the visiting Gamecocks’ 17th straight win in the series and 500th for coach Dawn Staley, including her earlier triumphs at Temple University.

On Monday, there were two games of note, in the Big Ten, No. 13 Iowa (20-5, 11-3) won 80-67 at Nebraska (16-10, 5-10) in Lincoln as Ava Heiden scored a career-high 27 points with 11 rebounds and Taylor Stremlow had a career-high 17 points.

The Hawkeyes next is at Purdue Thursday, the same day Nebraska is at Oregon.

In the A-10 in another weather-related makeup George Mason (17-8, 12-2) at home in Fairfax, Va., won 46-37 over pre-season favorite Richmond (22-5, 12-2), both teams trailing first-place Rhode Island (23-2, 14-0).

Kennedy Harris scored 15 for the winning Patriots, Jada Brown had 10 points, and Hawa Komara grabbed 12 boards.

No one scored in double figures for the Spiders; Rachel Ullstrom held to nine points and Broomall’s Maggie Doogan held to seven points with eight boards.

On Wednesday, in the Big Ten, No. 18 Michigan State hosts Northwestern at 6:30 p.m., and No. 23 Minnesota hosts No. 10 Ohio State at 8 p.m., both on B1G+, while in the Big 12, No. 12 TCU is at Houston at 7:30 p.m., and No. 15 Baylor is at No. 20 Texas Tech at 7 p.m., the host Raiders coming off Saturday’s 75-65 upset loss at Oklahoma State.

On Monday, Princeton’s weekend loss at Columbia sent the former No. 24 Tigers out of the AP poll after an eight-week run.

On Sunday, in four key results, then-No. 20 Maryland tied a program record with a 19-point comeback to nip then-No 8 Ohio State 76-75 in a Big Ten game in Columbus; Georgia in the SEC edged No. 5 Vanderbilt 76-74, downing the Commodores who had beaten Oklahoma and Texax the previous week to land on the top seed line in the NCAA committee’s first 16-team reveal; and in the Atlantic Coast Conference, then-No. 11 Duke (19-6, 14-0) at home in Durham, N.C., won its 16th straight with a 72-68 outcome over then-No. 21 North Carolina (21-6, 10-4) and Saint Joseph’s transfer Laura Ziegler scored 14 points to lead then-No. 9 Louisville (24-4, 14-1) to an 88-65 win over visiting Florida State.