The Guru’s NCAAW Report: Penn, Villanova and Rider Claim Victories; Tulsa Upsets No. 19 Oklahoma State for First-Ever Ranked Win

 By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsgurux

PHILADELPHIA – The locals went 3-0 Thursday night, here at The Palestra where host Penn (4-0) got a slow start and then started churning on the way to a 72-53 win over Longwood (2-2) which proved an excellent tuneup for Saturday afternoon’s 4 p.m. visit from No. 23 North Carolina (ESPN+) marking the return of Tar Heels coach Courtney Banghart from her days as a Dartmouth player in the Ivy wars and then coaching Princeton as a national force.

Out on the Main Line, Villanova (1-2) had its home opener at Finneran Pavilion and shook off two opening road losses to get the Wildcats’ first win of the season, a 97-55 rout of Merrimack.

Up north on the road Rider (1-1) picked up its first win, triumphing 56-45 at Central Connecticut (0-4), which is seeking its first victory of the season.

Nationally, it was a nice night for The American, the conference of which Temple is a member, as Tulsa (2-1) became the first unranked team to beat a ranked team this season, occuring on the 12th day by downing No. 19 Oklahoma State 64-62 in overtime.

It was also the first time in 56 games that Tulsa beat a ranked team and flipped the Cowgirls (3-1) , the last of such opponents faced, a year ago when Oklahoma State won 90-58 in Stillwater.

American favorite South Florida (3-1) under new coach Kristy Curry won 72-70 at Florida (3-1) of the SEC, while American member Memphis (4-0) at home upset Curry’s former team Alabama of the SEC 75-70 handing the Crimson Tide (4-1) their first loss of the season.

In the Penn game, center Tina Njike and freshman guard Rachel Thatcher of the Quakers each scored 16 points, with Thatcher going 3-for-3 from deep, pulling 10 boards, with three steals and five assists, playing all but 50 seconds.

Njike pulled seven boards, Brooke Suttle was 4-for-8 from beyond the arc and scored14 points and Mataya Gayle scored 11 points.

Longwood got 14 points from Kayla Washington, Shakira Gresham scored 12, and

Nal’La Bennett scored 11 drawing a nice crowd off her local roots of Sicklerville, N.J., and Friends Central High, whose collegiate career began at Stony Brook on Long Island.

“That may have been their intent give her a homecoming but we were just looking around for people to go home-and-home as part of our scheduling,” said veteran coach Mike McLaughlin.

A 13-0 run in the second quarter gave the Quakers control of the game the rest of the way, building a 21-point lead in the fourth quarter.

“They got a really nice team, well-coached, they’re going to give a lot of teams trouble,” McLaughlin said the Quakers’ opponent.

But he was generally pleased with his outfit.

“They controlled the tempo the first half but I thought the second half we controlled the tempo both sides of the ball,” McLaughlin said.

He had praise for Thatcher who is the latest in a long line of freshmen he has recruited who have stepped in and been a big factor from the moment they made their collegiate debutes.

“What are you going to say … she can score the ball, she’s tenacious on the glass, as a freshman to come out there and perform 39 minutes,” McLaughlin said, also praising Njike’s development to date.

“Tina’s worked real hard,” he acknowledged.

North Carolina (1-2) comes to town having lost the Tar Heels’ first two games, 91-79 to then-No. 21 Oklahoma in Paris, 84-39 Sunday to Dawn Staley’s No. 1 South Carolina squad, and finally got a win 109-40 at home over NC Central in UNC’s home opener as the Tar Heels set a program record with 18 shots connected from beyond the arc.

UNC features one of the top freshman in the nation in Kate Hapring, who had 16 points with five boards and five assists in Wednesday’s victory.

Villanova Sinks Merrimack

In the Wildcats’ win, Jasmine Bascoe continued to impress in her junior year to date, scoring a game-high 26 points against the winless opposition (0-4).

Tied 13-13, Villanova then ripped off an 11-0 run to close the opening period up 24-13.

The home folks continued to build on their advantage throughout the rest of the game reaching a 53-point lead.

Defensively, Villanova forced Merrimack into 15 turnovers in the first half.

For the game behind Bascoe’s performance, EJ Bender added 13 points, Kelsey Joens scored 12 and Kennedy Henry scored 10 while Simone Pelish grabbed 10 rebounds.

For the game, the Wildcats had 24 steals and forced 29 turnovers to mine 42 points.

 

Villanova returns to getting tested by bigger fish on Sunday, traveling to multi-Metro (formerly MAAC) champion Fairfield at 2 p.m. (ESPN+).

Fairfield Thursday took down a Wildcats’ Big East rival on the road, defeating Seton Hall 69-67  to stay unbeaten at 3-0 while the Pirates (2-1) suffered their first loss.

Preseason Metro player of the year Kaety L’Amoreaux had 26 points with five rebounds.

Hoddinott Leads Rider

Giana Hoddinott led the Broncs to their first win scoring a career-high 18 points while grabbing four rebounds and adding three assists.

Gabby Sweeney followed up her 11-rebound mark her previous game by equaling that total on the boards on Thursday.

“I am really proud of the resiliency our team showed tonight,” said second-year coach Jackie Hartzell. “We have plenty to improve on, but I am really happy to come out with our first win.”

Rider will stay in Connecticut to face Yale of the Ivy League on Saturday at 11 a.m. in Connecticut.

The National Scene: Huskies Handle Buckeyes

In the third straight game playing a ranked opponent, No. 4 UConn (3-1) after losing last week at Michigan, followed up Sunday’s home win over Iowa by claiming an 87-55 win over No. 17 Ohio State (3-1) to hand the Buckeyes their first loss.

Reigning national player of the year Anna Strong had 25 points for the Huskies fueled by a career-high seven 3-point shots and was 9-for-12 from the field in her game and missed just one 3-point shot in her eight attempts.

Hall of Fame coach Geno Auriemma’s record-breaking collegiate win total for men or women reached 1,291.

Ashlynn Shade added 15 points, freshman Olivia Vukosa had 12 rebounds.

The Buckeyes’ Jaloni Cambridge had 21 points on a mediocre 6-for-21 from the field and 1-for-7 from deep. Ava Watson had 13 points.

Defensively Uconn hampered an Ohio State squad that had been shooting nearly 50 percent their previous games to 19-for-55 from the field for 34.5 percent and 5-for-24 on shots beyond the arc.

Leading 38-35 at the half, UConn erupted for a 27-11 attack in the next period. The Huskies are 8-1 against the Buckeyes, though the one several years ago during their injury-riddled season came in the Sweet 16 ending a long consecutive run to the Women’s Final Four.

The visitors move on to No. 7 Louisville Sunday while Ohio State hosts Fairleigh Dickinson the same day.

No. 1 South Carolina Keeps Rolling

The unbeaten Gamecocks (3-0) won their 16th straight in-state triumph over host Clemson (3-1), this one 65-44, as Tessa Johnson had 13 points and Chloe Kitts had 12 points and 12 boards.

The Tigers failed to make a shot in seven attempts in the third period as S.C. outscored them 21-7.

Next up is the recently created annual Real S.C. game Sunday playing No. 3 Southern Cal in Greenville with 2025 national player of the year JuJu Watkins back in play following rehabbing a knee injury last season.

Wolverines Tame Lions

No. 2 Michigan joined the teams with dominant (3-0) third-quarters Thursday, the Wolverines outscoring host Columbia of the Ivy League 24-14 in taking an 81-58 victory.

Syla Swords led Michigan scoring 17 points while Kendall Dudley grabbed 10 boards.

Columbia’s Riley Weiss scored 23 points.

Olivia Olson had 15 points while Dudley scored 15 also.

The Columbia squad played their highest-ranked opponent ever besides hosting one. The only other ranked opponent to visit Levien Gym off Broadway on the Upper West Side in New York City was Ivy rival Princeton, though No. 5 Duke is on the schedule to visit later this month.

Megan Griffith was back on the sidelines for Columbia after a three-game suspension starting the season following a external review finding her coaching interactions with the team didn’t align with expectations for the program. The Lions also had a banner raising ceremony for winning the 2026 WBIT.

Michigan hosts Central Michigan on Monday while Columbia visits No. 19 Maryland in College Park on Sunday.

Tulsa Upsets Oklahoma State

In the first-ever win over a ranked team besides the first unranked team to beat a ranked team this season Mady Cartright had 17 points while Alisha Peavy had 12 points and 11 boards in the overtime triumph by the Golden Hurricane in overtime.

Oklahoma State kept Tulsa from connecting from the field the final 3:25 of the overtime but was unable to erase all of a 7-point deficit.

Jade Clark had 11 points for the home team and Dora Toman had 10, including five in the extra period.

Iowa State transfer Audi Crooks scored 17 points and Florida transfer Liv McGill had 13 points while Stailee Heard grabbed 15 boards to go with eight points.

Oklahoma State visits Summit contender South Dakota State Sunday.

Ranked Teams Still Dominate

The rest of the ranked teams all won their games against unranked opponents. Toby Fournier came back for her second game of the season following a lower leg injury and led No. 5 Duke (3-0) to an 85-23 win over Norfolk State (1-3) in Virginia before hosting Marshall Sunday at Cameron Indoor Stadium in Durham, N.C.

No. 15 TCU went to 5-0 winning 108-47 over visiting SE Louisiana (1-2) as Clara Silva led the way with 20 points, shooting 9-of-11 from the field. The TCU home-winning streak of 49 is the nation’s longest active one.

No. 7 Louisville (5-0) on the road easily won 94-73 at Ball State (1-2) as Imari Berry scored 22 points in Muncie, Ind. over the favorites in the Mid-American Conference ahead of No. 4 UConn’s Sunday visit to back home in Kentucky.

No. 10 Iowa (3-1) bounced back from Sunday’s loss at UConn winning 78-40 over Northern Iowa (3-1) back home in Iowa City as Dani Carnegie scored 22 points. Freshman McKenna Woliczko scored 14 points with nine rebounds for the Hawkeyes who next host No. 8 Vanderbilt Sunday in Sioux City, Iowa.

Elsewhere in the Big 10, No. 16 Washington at home in Seattle beat Bakersfield 85-51 while defending champion and No. 10 UCLA at home in Pauley Pavilion won 76-44 over Arizona, a rival when both were in the former makeup of the PAC-12. The Wildcats are now in the Big 12.

In key games and wins by mid-majors, in South Florida’s narrow 72-70 win at Florida Stefanie Ingram scored 25 points with 10 rebounds for the visiting Bulls while Memphis in its 75-70 win over Alabama got 17 points from Tamya Smith off the bench and got 12 rebounds to go with 11 points from Daejah Richmond.

Richmond of the Atlantic 10 got a big second half to down nearby Old Dominion of the Sun Belt 90-67, Holy Cross of the Patriot League won at the Ivy League’s Brown 77-64.

Tennessee (4-0) at home in Knoxville with a totally remade roster blasted Middle Tennessee 100-64 as Kaylene Smikle, a former Rutgers player who made several other stops, scored 30 points for the Lady Vols.

Next up Tuesday is a visit to Missouri Valley contender Belmont in Nashville, Tenn.

Looking Ahead

Locally in the first of two stops Friday Princeton visits Pepperdine at 9 p.m. in Malibu, Calif., on ESPN+.

Nationally, the Bank of Hawai’i Classic gets under way with Saint Mary’s playing the host Wahinies at 4 p.m. on the Mountain West Network MW+ and LMU playing SWAC contender Alabama A&M at 7:30 p.m. on YouTube TV.

In the Greenbrier Tip-Off Northwestern plays No. 24 West Virginia at 5:30 p.m. on CBSSN, in the 401 Invitational involving Baltimore area schools this weekend, Towson is at Loyola, Md., and UMBC hosts Morgan State.

Elsewhere, Oregon making a Northeast/New England swing visits Maine at 7 p.m. on ESPN+, PAC-12 favorite Gonzaga is at Grand Canyon of the Mountain West in Phoenix at 8 p.m. on the CW; Stanford is at West Coast favorite Santa Clara at 10 p.m. on ESPN+, and among ranked teams, No. 14 Oklahoma hosts Oral Roberts at 11:30 a.m. on SECN+, which also airs No. 9 LSU hosting Denver at 7 p.m. in Baton Rouge.