The Guru’s March Madness Report Day 10: Drexel Turnover With Nine Seconds Left Leads to Hofstra Overtime Win in CAA Semis; No. 23 Princeton Adds Another Ivy Crown; More Upsets to No. 1 Seeds in Title Games; Top 16 Revealed

 By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsgurux

No. 23 Princeton turned on the jets at the end of the Ivy League title game against Harvard as the dynasty continues with a 63-53 victory while Drexel (21-10) short circuited right before regulation time expired in the third seed Dragons’ semifinal in the Coastal Athletic Association allowing 10th seed Hofstra (11-21) to win 53-49 in overtime and move to Sunday afternoon’s championship against top seed Charleston.

That’s the way it went for the two locals on a day eight more conferences declared their champions and saw several more top seeds fall for the 68-team NCAA national field which will be revealed Sunday night at 8 p.m. on ESPN followed at nine by the 32-team WBIT field revealed on ESPN+.

The WNIT field will also be revealed.

One more local has a chance at the Big Dance out of the Patriot League among the last four conferences to gain automatic qualifiers Sunday afternoon when defending champion and fourth seed Lehigh visits Holy Cross at noon on the CBS Sports Network.

In a new wrinkle as a teaser the NCAA committee Saturday afternoon announced the top 16 teams alphabetically that will host but not their seed or region.

Changes from the last reveal saw Maryland and Michigan State drop out and Big 12 champion West Virginia and North Carolina enter after making deep runs in their conferences.

Meanwhile in the CAA the curse or magic of the deep seed run, depending on whose viewpoint, continued – the last three titles going to No. 7 Monmouth, then a new member, No. 7 Drexel, No. 9 William & Mary, and now the deepest yet as a contender in No. 10 Hofstra.

The Pride will be a deep underdog as would have Drexel, which reminiscent several years ago at Delaware was three plays away from a title and went into a closing meltdown against Towson, then coached by Temple’s Diane Richardson.

Saturday was just as agonizing for the Dragons in the low scoring game at the WNBA’s Washington Mystics CareFirst Arena where nine seconds remained in regulation, and they had a two-point lead and the ball but lost it on an inbounds pass stolen by Chloe Sterling who raced down the court to feed Sandra Magolico with a layup and the game tied 44-44 with three seconds left.

Hofstra, heading to its first CAA title game since 2015, went down 2-0 and then took off on a 7-0 run.

Ema Karim, the lone Pride player in double digits, was 6-9 from the field, including 3-4 from deep for 17 points while Sterling had nine points and five assists.

Drexel’s Amaris Baker had a game-high 19 points while Deja Evans had a double double with 15 points and 11 boards.

The Dragons had a seven-point lead in the third quarter cut to three heading to the fourth quarter and then up 44-40 with 1:56 left when Hofstra cut it to two and then cashed in with the steal.

“Obviously, so much credit to Hofstra, we’ve been in those shoes before and understand what it takes and they dud what they needed to do today,” said Drexel coach Any Mallon.

“My team and the way it ended is not something we wanted, and we talk about it all the time. We go back to what my dad said when I was young, and I had a temper when I didn’t win every game, and he said, ‘You win some and you lose some.’”

She paid tribute to her seniors Baker and Grace O’Neill who will likely play in the WBIT or WNIT.

‘Right to the end they’re winners.”

“We played great defense,” Baker said. “Sometimes the ball just doesn’t go in, that’s what it is.”

“As we look back at the season, these were two of our worst games against Drexel and for this team to show up, the belief that they had, how hard they played, and had faith in everybody in our locker room and come out here with the competitiveness with a team like Drexel I’m so proud what they did and hard they worked,” said Hofstra coach Danielle Atkinson, now in her seventh season.

In the opening game, Charleston (26-5), the No. 1 seed, made easy work of fourth seed Stony Brook (17-15).

Taylor Barbot had 10 points and 11 assists, third highest in the history of the tournament, for the Cougars and her sister Taryn had 24 points, seven rebounds, six assists and six steals.

Princeton on Top Again

The 23rd ranked Tigers (26-3) replicated their season in one afternoon in the Ivy title game at Cornell’s Newman Arena.

Since 2010 before Ivy Madness started as a four-team tourney and through the nine to date Princeton has made 13 NCAA appearances, including last year as an at-large team snd seven as tourney champs.

During this season, Columbia swept the Tigers but gave the No. 1 seed back to Princeton, losing to Harvard the last game and then losing in overtime Friday to the Crimson in the semifinals.

Princeton easily beat Brown in the semifinals and had this one handled until Harvard (18-11) tied it three times in the fourth quarter.

But late in the game with the last tie at 51-51, coach Carla Berube’s team took off on an 11-0 run into the last minute to win 63-53.

Fadima Tall, voted the Most Outstanding Player, led the winners with 20 points, while Ashley Chea scored 13, and Olivia Hutcherson scored 12 points while Harvard’s Karlee White scored 15 points and Olivia Jones scored 13.

“We had to fight to the very end and that last three minutes; there was really some great basketball,” Berube said. “I Love the way we shared it and got the big stops and that karma you know karma that's Princeton basketball,” Berube said.

“We definitely felt like we fell short last year, and we felt we had something like taking from us last year, and we knew coming into this we had to sweep teams that we've beaten twice, a team that we haven't beaten at all, or teams besten twice again,” Tall said.

“We told ourselves; it's us that's going to win this game; it's us who's going to lose this game.”

More Upsets While Tickets Punched

Seven other conferences claimed titles and shockers continued where in the American Conference after going unbeaten most of the league slate Rice (28-5) fell 54-40 to six seed UTSA while in Conference USA top seed Louisiana Tech (26-6) ended a 19-game winning streak and  fell 43-38 to six seed Missouri State (22-12), the first CUSA title for the program, now coached by former Notre Dame star Beth Cunningham.

It’s the lowest combined title score in CUSA history and second lowest in NCAA conference history.

In other conference tournaments where the top seed prevailed, Miami of Ohio (28-6) won 68-58 over Toledo (17-15) in the Mid-American; Howard (26-7) won 53-46 over Norfolk State (18-14) in the MEAC; and Cal Baptist (23-10) won 74-58 over Abilene Christian (23-10) in the WAC.

In two other conferences where the top seed had already fallen, UC San Diego (24-8) won 60-48 over Hawaii (22-11) to claim the Big West; and Southern U. (19-13) won 73-56 over Alabama State (17-15) to claim the SWAC.

In the semifinals, top seed Murray State (30-3) won 72-59 over Northern Illinois (18-14) in the Missouri Valley, while Evansville (10-24) won 75-70 in overtime over Illinois State (20-13) and the winners meet Sunday at 2 p.m. on ESPN2.

The fourth conference joining the other three Sunday to complete the field of auto qualifiers, FDU (29-4), the top seed, while host two-seed Long Island (21-10) at noon on ESPNU as FDU coach Stephanie Gaitley goes for her second straight Northeast Conference crown.

The Top 16

Here are the teams who will be hosts in the first two rounds, holding seeds 1-4 in each region, the same four as last year expected to be overall No. 1s but in a different order with Uconn and UCLA will be 1 or 2, which is which still debated, Texas three and South Carolina four.

Duke

Iowa

Louisville

LSU

Michigan

Minnesota

North Carolina

Ohio State

Oklahoma

South Carolina

TCU

Texas

UCLA

UConn

Vanderbilt

West Virginia

 

The two regionals eight teams each are at Fort Worth and Sacramento, Philadelphia has one next year, and the Final Four is in Phoenix.