Womhoops Guru

Guru's Report: Kuester Keeps St. Joseph's In A-10 Title Race

2012-01-28T18:57:00.002-05:00

(Guru's Note: Updating for later Saturday games and a note about Tiffany Hayes not making the midseason Wooden watch list.)

By Mel Greenberg

PHILADELPHIA -- St. Joseph's senior Katie Kuester went bananas on the scoreboard Saturday afternoon scoring a near-career high 20 points as the Hawks beat Duquesne 72-51 in a key Atlantic 10 game at Hagan Arena to stay in the top of the tightly-packed conference standings.

"It's funny, our other shooting guard Shelby Smith gave me a banana before the game as she swears that's what made me shoot better," said Kuester, who was 7-for-11 from the field and 6-for-9 on three-point attempts.

"But I haven't been shooting well, that's obvious from the stats, but shooters keep shooting and that's what my coaches have been telling me so I just tried to execute and stay with the game plan and luckily they fell today."

St. Joseph's (14-6, 4-2 A-10) was coming off a tough 68-61 loss Wednesday night at conference frontrunner St. Bonaventure.

"We battled. They're a very talented team. We hope we get another chance at them at the A-10 tournament (at St. Joseph's) but to bounce back going into Temple Wednesday, it was a good win."

Kuester is the daughter of John Kuester, the former NBA Detroit Pistons coach who is now an assistant with the Los Angeles Lakers.

The Hawks moved into sole possession for fifth place though the standings will change again Sunday following the conclusion of the battle between Temple (11-8, 4-1) and Charlotte (13-7, 5-1) in town at the Owls' Liacouras Center.

St. Bonaventure (20-2, 7-0) stayed unbeaten a game in front after winning in town here 75-57 at La Salle (9-12, 3-3).

Dayton (14-5, 6-1) is in second after a 74-56 win at George Washington (10-11, 3-4) followed by Charlotte, Temple and then the Hawks.

Duquesne fell to 15-6 overall and 3-3 in the conference.

St. Joseph's, which had not been shooting well, sizzled Saturday with a 53.7 percent effort from the field as Michelle Baker added 13 points, and Samira Van Grinsven and Ashley Prim scored 10 each.

Kelly Cavallo grabbed 10 rebounds.

Duquesne's Alex Gensler scored 17 points and Carly Vendemia scored 13.

"I thought it was a great game to come home to -- Katie Kuester got us off to a great start making shots early, giving us momentum, giving us some cushion and the other kids stepped up," St. Joseph's coach Cindy Griffin said.

"To have 20 field goal assists out of 29 (made shots) says a lot about this team and how we moved the ball today," Griffin said.

"We're taking it one game at a time. We had a chance to beat 'Bonnies and we beat ourselves in a lot of regards and certainly we wanted to learn from that and move on and that's what we did today," she noted.

"We were very efficient with our offense and our defense was tremendous again. We did a nice job on their top three kids."

Duquesne was held to 34.4 percent.

Discussing Kuester's performance, Dukes coach Suzie Serio-McConnell, the former Penn State all-American, Olympic gold medalist, as well as WNBA all-star and coach, noted, "She hadn't had a game like that all season.

"But still the type of shooter she is and what she is capable of doing, obviously we didn't challenge her like we needed to -- she made great plays. We couldn't finish. A lot of disappointing things in my mind. St. Joseph's played a great game and we didn't compete."

In one of the ironies of life, one of the officials working the game was former Tennessee star Dawn Marsh, a contemporary of Allentown's Michelle Marciniak on the Lady Vols back in the day.

"Yeah, I played against her," McConnell-Serio said. "We beat them my senior year."

Meanwhile, in the La Salle game, the Explorers' Jada Payne was held to 11 points, while Nadia Duncan and Alexis Scott scored 10 each,

The Bonnies' Jessica Jenkins, selected national player of the week Tuesday by the United States Basketball Writers Association, scored 28 points, while Megan Van Tatenhove had 16 points, while Doris Ortega scored 12.

Coach Jim Crowley's squad had been nearing a first-ever appearance in the Associated Press women's poll with the Bonnies' only loss were to Villanova in Monmouth's tournament and at home to No. 15 Delaware.

In another Atlantic 10 game of note two-time defending conference champion Xavier, decimated by the graduation of two all-Americans and the transfer of the Musketeers' best outside shooter finally won a conference game as well as snapping an 11-game losing streak.

Xavier (4-15, 1-5) got a career-high 27 points from Tyeasha Moss in a 67-57 win at Rhode Island (1-20, 0-6) while Jessica Pachko scored 14 points.

In two Atlantic Ten games later in the day stretching into the night Fordham topped host Massachusetts 56-54 as the Rams reached .500 overall at 11-11 and improved to 2-5 in the conference. The Minutewomen fell to 6-15 overall and 1-5 in the A-10.

Richmond (16-5, 4-3) picked up a 63-45 win at Saint Louis (7-14, 1-5).

Villanova Edged at Louisville

The Wildcats (13-8, 3-5 Big East) nearly stole one at No. 16 Louisville (17-4, 6-2 Big East) in Kentucky, losing down the stretch 62-58.

Asia Taylor, who had a season-high 14 points, scored 12 of them in the second half for the Cardinals, while Shoni Schimmel scored 18 for Louisville and Bria Smith had 10 points and 10 rebounds.

Villanova held a 38-32 lead with 11:30 left in the game.

Laura Sweeney had 18 points and 11 rebounds for the Wildcats.

In other highlight games on a heavy card out of the rugged Big East, No. 2 Notre Dame won at St. Johns, 71-56, No. 3 Connecticut beat visiting South Florida, 77-62, No. 23 DePaul won at Seton Hall 71-59, while Cincinnati edged hosted Syracuse 55-54, and Providence topped visiting Pittsburgh 66-50.

In the win by Notre Dame (21-1, 8-0 B ig East), Skylar Diggins followed up her 27 points in Monday night's lopsided nonconference win over Tennessee at home by scoring 24 against the Red Storm (13-8, 5-3).

Deveraux Peters had 18 points and 15 rebounds for the winning Irish along with five blocked shots and four steals.

The Irish, whose only loss is at top-ranked Baylor, next visit No. 11 Rutgers Tuesday night following the Scarlet Knights' trip Sunday afternoon to Washington to play No. 20 Georgetown.

In Connecticut's win at the Huskies' second home in the XL Center in Hartford, Tiffany Hayes, who scored 35 points in Wednesday's win at Syracuse, scored 33 points and grabbed 10 rebounds in Saturday's win over the Bulls (12-10, 4-4).

The 68 points over the two games are the most ever by a long line of prestigious all-Americans at UConn.

Stefanie Dolson, the sophomore center for UConn (19-2, 8-1) whose only losses are at Baylor and Notre Dame, got 22 points and 18 rebounds.

It was the 790th win for Huskies coach Geno Auriemma, which is sixth on the all-time list and just ahead of Georgia coach Andy Landers.

Connecticut next heads for a major nonconference meeting Monday night at No. 5 Duke in Durham, N.C.

The game will be one which has a major implication in NCAA tournament pairings since both the Huskies and Blue Devils are in contention for No. 1 seeds, though their will be much to be played yet over the next month in Duke's Atlantic Coast Conference and UConn's Big East.

DePaul (16-6, 4-4) was returning to the Garden State days after losing an excruciating one-point loss before the buzzer at Rutgers after holding a 16-point lead earlier in the second half.

Jasmine Penny scored 19 points for the Blue Demons against the Pirates (7-15, 0-8).

DePaul, down to seven players, had lost three straight and needed a win Saturday ahead of playing two other ranked teams in the conference in Louisville and Notre Dame.

Seton Hall, under second-year coach and Hall of Famer Anne Donovan, have lost 21 straight conference games at home dating back before her hire after she had been head coach of the WNBA New York Liberty.

UConn's Tiffany Hayes Misses Wooden Watch List -- Yes and No

In the wake of UConn senior Tiffany Hayes completing the best back-to-back scoring efforts in the Huskies' long and storied history some individuals in coverage of Saturday's win over South Florida took time to note that Hayes was not on the midseason Wooden Award watch list of 20 players.

In the interest of journalistic enhancement the Guru feels compelled to bring some clarity to the situation before the fan base begins running amok and thinking those who vote are a bunch of dopes.

Understand that ballots were due prior to last weekend at a time when Hayes was being overshadowed by her teammates, especially Bria Hartley and Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis.

Between that deadline and the release of the 20 names, election central will usually come back around the horn if a gray area develops involving the lowest totals of those holding the the last few spots and highest of those who just missed the cut.

If the break was clear cut between No. 10 and No. 11 then it's end of story.

But if, say, only a very few points separate No. 8 -- it could be a little higher depending on the totals -- and No. 12 there is a chance for re-consideration so the best candidates at this point in time are in the mix.

Also understand between now and the actual end game producing the winner there will be another go round and then a paring down to five finalists.

There are people not on the list who might be next time and vice versa.

When the Guru got a call Wednesday for his turn to provide input he was aware of what Hayes was doing in the Syracuse game and asked where she was in terms of the also rans.

The reply was Hayes nowhere near the high also rans which means to lift her into the mix this time would play havoc with the integrity of the ballot because, remember, the vote was based on the national picture at the time of the ballot.

Also, sports reporting off the first of the two games depicted Hayes making a dramatic improvement in her production, which inherently certifies there hand't been much offensive production compared to others at the time of the vote.

After the adjustments, only election central internally knows the final result and then releases the list.

So the list of 20 was in the books before Hayes' effort in Saturday's win over South Florida.

Thus to start implying Hayes was bypassed is technically correct in not making the list but incorrect in terms of Hayes' performance at the time of the initial ballot.

If Hayes had had a couple of 15-point games instead of the two monster games it would seem the allusion to not making the Wooden ballot would not even had occurred.

If she continues to be more of an prolific scorer, Hayes would definitely be a stronger candidate the next time around. And as the five finalists go, barring major alterations between now and the end of the season, most believe that four spots are virtually locked up -- not only in the Wooden vote -- with Baylor's Brittney Griner, Notre Dame's Skylar Diggins, Delaware's Elena Delle Donne, and Stanford's Nneka Oguwmike getting the nod. Then it becomes a tight race among perhaps six or seven persons, if not more, right now for the fifth spot on the finalists list.

So that said, it's time to return to the rest of the roundup.

Penn Gets Even In the Ivies

There will be a further update after the Quakers host Cornell Sunday but in a Friday night game at The Palestra Penn evened its overall record at 8-8 and Ivy record at 1-1 with a 75-50 win over Columbia (2-15, 0-3).

Renee Busch had a career-high 20 points while Alyssa Baron scored 13 and Jackie Kaites scored 10.

Tyler Simpson had 19 points for Columbia.

Penn shot 10-for-21 on three-pointers, including 4-for-6 by Busch but the highlight was the return of senior leader Jess Knapp, who suffered an ACL injury on the trip to San Diego State's tournament at the end of December, but has fought her way back on the floor.

Knapp returned to practice this past week.

"It certainly is inspirational to see her do that," said Columbia coach Paul Brown.

The National Scene

In a major upset in the Big Ten host Iowa upset No. 13 Purdue 59-42 to knock the first place Boilermakers from the unbeaten column in the conference.

No. 12 Wisconsin-Green Bay stayed overall unbeaten with a 65-37 win at host Valparaiso in the Horizon Conference.

Top-ranked Baylor, the only other unbeaten Division I women's team, beat visiting Kansas 74-46 in a night game in the Big 12 as Brittney Griner scored 28 points and had five blocks to move into second place on the all-time rejections list with 506.

Former Michigan State star Alyssa DeHaan had been second while the all-time NCAA leader is former St. Mary's, Calif., star Louella Tomlinson, who had 663 blocked shots.

Elsewhere in the Big 12, No. 21 Texas Tech edged Texas 75-71, Oklahoma beat Missouri 62-59, and Kansas State beat Oklahoma State 67-56,

The two teams out of the West Coast Conference that made the poll last Monday had major conference challenges before No. 22 Gonzaga beat host St. Mary's, Calif., 75-70 and No. 23 BYU pulled away in the closing minutes to beat host Santa Clara 74-64.

And in a Pac-12 neighborhood battle in the Bay Area in northern California No. 4 Stanford at home survived California 74-71 in overtime.

Chiney Oguwmike, the sister of Nneka who is the two-time reigning Pac-12 player of the week, had a career-high 27 points and a career-high 18 rebounds for Stanford (18-1, 9-0 PAC-12), whose only loss came in a non-conference trip to No. 3 Connecticut early in the season.

California (15-6, 6-3) got a career-high 19 points from Brittany Boyd, while Toni Kokenis scored 18 points and Layshia Clarendon scored 17, including her 1,000th career point.

  Looking Ahead

No. 15 Delaware will try to stay unbeaten in the Colonial Athletic Association Sunday when the Blue Hens visit James Madison, the two-time defending conference champion who is in a three-way tie for second with Drexel and Hofstra

The other two will meet each other Sunday afternoon at Drexel's Daskalakis Athletic Center.

The Delaware game is a rematch of last year's conference title game when the Blue Hens rode upsets of Old Dominion and N.C. Wilmington to meet the Duchesses for the championship won by JMU.

Temple, trying to keep a streak going to gain a safety valve at-large bid to the NCAA tournament, hosts Charlotte Sunday at 2 p.m. in a game betwen two upper tier teams in the Atlantic 10.

Rutgers, as mentioned, is at Georgetown, while No. 18 Penn State, the preseason favorite in the Big 10, has a chance to gain some ground with a win at Michigan State.

In other games involving ranked teams Sunday, No. 6 Kentucky will host Alabama in a Southeastern Conference game, while No. 7 Tennessee will go for a sweep visiting No. 17 Georgia in another SEC game.

No. 9 Ohio State will be looking to move into a tie with Purdue in the Big 10 when the Buckeyes visit Minnesota while in another Big 10 game No. 19 Nebraska visits Illinois..

No. 10 Miami visits Boston College in the Atlantic Coast Conference while No. 14 Texas A&M will host Iowa State in the Big 12. Also, in the ACC, No. 25 North Carolina will visit Wake Forest.

That's it for now.

-- Mel





- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad10

Guru's College Report: "41" Magic Number For Delaware and Drexel in CAA Wins

2012-01-27T07:23:00.003-05:00

By Mel Greenberg

NEWARK, Del. – Individually, mark “41” down as the number of the night Thursday for 15th-ranked Delaware and junior all-America Elena Delle Donne here at the Bob Carpenter Center while to the South note “41” as a defensive team gem for Drexel in the two major games on the Colonial Athletic Association card.

The Blue Hens here are getting the hang of 1 vs. 2 games in the conference.

Four days after turning away Drexel’s attempt to gain a tie at the top of the CAA standings Delaware rode Delle Donne’s explosive 41-point performance to repulse a similar attempt from Hofstra in an 84-66 win over the Pride to open a two-game lead while staying perfect in conference competition.

Drexel, meanwhile, kept Virginia Commonwealth under control with a 47-41 win over the Rams in Richmond to move into a three-way tie with Hofstra and James Madison for second place heading into Sunday’s visit from Hofstra at the Dragons’ Daskalakis Athletic Center in Philadelphia.

The high-scoring Pride (14-5, 6-2 CAA) forced Delaware into early turnovers and drove to a nine-point lead at 19-10 with 11 minutes, 25 seconds left in the half before the Blue Hens (17-1, 8-0) rallied to gain a 37-37 tie at the half despite having starters Akeema Richards and Danielle Parker missing significant minutes because of foul trouble.

Delle Donne, who had already scored 16 points by halftime, got Delaware’s first nine points of the final 20 minutes but the outcome was still in the balance at 55-55 with 11:11 left in the game.

Just when it seemed this thriller was going to stay close to the wire, an array of Blue Hens launched a 14-0 run and by the time the game ended Delle Donne had a new building record topping her 40-point performance here earlier in the season in the upset of then-No. 11 Penn State.

Delle Donne also has gained 40 points against George Mason on the road.

Her nation-leading scoring average had shrunk to 27.9 over the previous four games but Thursday’s performance shot her up to 28.7, which is 4.4 points better than runnerup Florida International’s Jerica Coley, who is averaging 24.3 points per game.

Delle Donne, who was 10-for-10 at the line and connected on 14-of-a-career-tying 29 shots, also grabbed 15 rebounds, dealt five assists, blocked two shots, had a steal and committed two turnovers.

Lauren Carra added 16 points to Delaware’s total and reserve Kelsey Buchanan off the bench set a career high with nine points, all scored in the first half.

Hofstra’s Shante Evans, on a two-game homecoming trip including Sunday’s game at Drexel, had 22 points.

She is a graduate of Henderson High and lives in West Chester, Pa., a Western suburb of Philadelphia not far from here.

Katelyn Loper scored 14 points, while Candice Bellochio had 10 points.

“Against a great time like that we have to play at our best – we can’t lose focus,” Hofstra coach Krista Kilburn-Stevesky said, adding that her group has one, possibly two more shots at the Blue Hens, including the Feb. 16th visit from them to Long Island and the Pride’s arena in Hempstead.

“Two games we have lost we got outrebounded badly.”

Delaware had a 48-25 advantage on the boards, including 17-7 on the offensive end. The Blue Hens also dominated 22-4 in second chance points and 15-4 in terms of points from the bench. Hofstra gained a 16-9 advantage in points off turnovers while Delaware outscored the Pride 46-34 in the paint.

Delle Donne, who had a series of injuries and illnesses her first two season, has been on fire as a junior, especially in the wake of her performance as the top scorer and rebounder on the gold-medal USA Basketball World University team in China last summer.

“I think we came out in the first half like we were scared to lose and we were playing passive, really sloppy, weren’t going after loose ball,” Delle Donne said of the way the game went for Delaware.

“The second half more than anything, more than scoring and rebounding, I just wanted to get the hustle plays to get my team going. Once you get those you can really push ahead.”

As for her own effort, Delle Donne said, “We were kind of in a little bit of a lull tonight and some nights you just have to put your team on your back and be a leader for them and this was one of those nights where I saw it, be a leader, and step up.

“I haven’t had to do it as much this season because we’ve had such a balanced attack but we have those nights and there are nights when people put me on their backs. We needed it so you just have to step up to the plate.”

Delaware had another big crowd at 3,510 in the 5,000-seat arena that was sold out for the first time ever for a stand-a-lone women’s game Sunday.

“We got in foul trouble, which really hurt us, so yes it was a test,” Delaware coach Tina Martin said of the Blue Hens’ rally from the nine-point deficit.

“I thought Kelsey Buchanan came in and played solid,” she said. “It’s really hard when you’re a sophomore and you’re going up against Shante Evans, a first-team all-conference player.

“In the second half, we held them to 29 points and the defense speaks for themselves. The kids realized they were in a battle. Give Hofstra credit, they threw the first punch and our kids were surprised by that.

“But we made adjustments and the fact we got a tie at the half, it was a big key. Hofstra runs a dribble-drive offense to just go like a bat out of you know what, just put your head down and try to get into the paint. Then they try to dish off to Shante Evans, who is a big strong lady or kick out to the shooters,” Martin explained.

“They have a senior-laden team, seniors and juniors, those kids know how to play and Hofstra’s a solid program.

“Everybody’s giving us different looks and doing different things. Like I said, I think our team has to adjust on the fly some times. It’s an adjustment because (Hofstra) plays different than anyone else in conference.”

Dragons Slay Rams

Kamile Nacickaite scored 17 points and Fiona Flanagan scored a career-high 10 points in Drexel’s win over Virginia Commonwealth.

Defensively, the Dragons (10-8, 6-2 CAA) held the Rams’ Courtney Hurt, one of the nation’s top scorers, to nine points, well below her 22.8 average.

“It was an ugly defensive game but Fiona came up big for us and Kamile really shot the ball well tonight,” Drexel coach Denise Dillon said.

Andrea Barbour, VCU’s other big scorer, got 14 points.

Drexel’s game with Hofstra Sunday to wrap up the first half of CAA play tips off at 2 p.m. while Delaware visits James Madison (15-4, 6-2), the two-time defending CAA champions.

So for the third time in a row, Delaware will be in a 1 vs. 2 game, though the Blue Hens have a margin of error. A Blue Hens win would put the Hofstra-Drexel winner in sole possession of second place.

Hofstra beat the Dragons at home 76-65 earlier this month to open CAA play.

Elsewhere in the CAA, William & Mary beat area rival Old Dominion 83-80 in Willamsburg, Va., as Taysha Pye had 23 points for the Tribe (9-10, 2-6).

It was the first win over the Lady Monarchs (6-14, 3-5) in 37 years since 1975.

Old Dominion, which went 17-0 winning CAA titles after joining the conference in 1991-92, went 11-7 in the conference in 2009, the year Drexel knocked off the Lady Monarchs in the semifinals to end their string of titles.

The five CAA losses are second most for ODU, tying the five in the inaugural year in the conference when they began their string.

Penn State Tops Michigan

On a day that the Penn State community attended a memorial service at the Bryce Jordan Center for legendary former football coach Joe Paterno, who died Sunday, the 18th-ranked Lady Lions stayed perfect as road warriors in the Big Ten Conference, beating Michigan 77-56 in Ann Arbor to go 4-0 away from home for the first time in the conference since 1993-94.

Penn State (16-4, 6-2 Big Ten) sizzled from the field, shooting 56.1 percent as Maggie Lucas, the graduate of Germantown Academy from Narberth, Pa., outside Philadelphia, scored 23 points – the 11th time this season she has scored 20 or more points.

Alex Bentley, the preseason conference player of the year, scored 18 points against the Wolverines (16-5, 5-3).
Penn State, the preseason favorite, is tied with Nebraska (17-3, 6-2) for third place a game behind Ohio State (20-1, 7-1) and two behind Purdue (18-3, 8-0).

On Sunday, Penn State visits Michigan State, who fell at home to Illinois 72-62 in overtime to fall to 12-9 overall and 4-4 in the conference.

Elsewhere in the Big Ten, No. 13 Purdue got a career-high 29 points from Courtney Moser in an 80-70 road win at Northwestern (12-9, 2-6) in Evanston, Ill.

No. 19 Nebraska beat visiting Iowa 60-53 at home in Lincoln as the Cornhuskers got 22 points and 15 rebounds from Jordan Hooper in the win over the Hawkeyes (11-10, 3-5).

No. 9 Ohio State got all of Tayler Hill’s 18 points in the second half as the Buckeyes rallied on the road to beat Indiana 73-55 and drop the Hoosiers to 5-16 overall and 0-8 in the conference despite Aulani Sinclair’s career-high 27 points.

Virginia Tech Shocks Maryland

The No. 7 Terrapins were taken down 75-69 by the Hokies (7-14, 3-5 ACC) in the Comcast Center in College Park, Md., as Montel Tellier tied a career-high 31 points in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Maryland (18-3, 5-3), which now trails front running and fifth-ranked Duke by three games in the ACC, got 21 points and 10 rebounds from Lynetta Kizer, 19 points from Laurin Mincy, and 18 from Tianna Hawkins.

Terrapins coach Brenda Frese said the absence of leading scorer Alyssa Thomas, who was recuperating from a sprained left thumb, was no excuse for the upset.

“I’m mostly disappointed,” Frese said. “I really like coaching this team. I think this team has a lot of great parts to it. I think as young players, it’s important for them to understand the big picture.”

That situation is the Terrapins probably said adios to remaining in the hunt for a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament.

As far as missing Thomas, Frese noted, “We also have a lot of talented players in the locker room that should be able to step up in her absence.”

Maryland next hosts Boston College (5-15, 0-7) next Thursday.

In the only other ACC game on the books, No. 10 Miami (18-3, 7-1) grabbed a 64-39 win at home in Coral Gables, Fla., over Wake Forest (12-8, 2-5) to stay a game behind Duke as Stefanie Yderstrom and Riquana Williams each scored 14 points.

Vandy Gets Dandy Win Over Georgia

Christina Foggie had a career-high 34 points as Vanderbilt (15-5, 3-4), which just fell out of the Associated Press women’s poll, upset No. 17 Georgia 68-48 at home in a Southeastern Conference game in Nashville, Tenn.
Anne Marie Armstrong had 15 points for Georgia (16-5, 5-3).

Elsewhere in the SEC, No. 6 Kentucky (19-2, 8-0) stayed unbeaten in conference play as A’dia Mathies scored 20 points in a 66-48 road win at Auburn (10-11, 2-6).

No. 7 Tennessee (15-5, 6-1) recovered from Monday night’s 72-44 drubbing at No. 2 Notre Dame in a nonconference confrontation to beat host Alabama 86-56 in Tuscaloosa as Shekinna Stricklen had 14 points and Glory Johnson scored 13 in the win over the Crimson Tide (10-11, 0-7) to stay a game behind Kentucky.

Markeshia Grant scored 20 points in a 61-43 win by South Carolina (16-5, 5-3) at home in Columbia over Mississippi (12-9, 2-6).

Still Playing Perfect

Top-ranked Baylor and No. 12 Wisconsin-Green Bay stayed unbeaten with respective conference wins.

The Bears (20-0, 7-0) of the Big 12 got 18 points and seven blocked shots from Brittney Griner in an 89-58 road win at Oklahoma (12-6, 4-3), which got 19 points from Whitney Hand in Norman.

Julie Wojta scored 13 of her 15 points in the first half as Wisconsin-Green Bay (18-0, 7-0) scored a road win in the Horizon League over host Butler (7-12, 3-5) in Indianapolis.

In the only other game involving a ranked team, Stephanie Golden came off the bench to score a career-high 15 points for No. 22 Gonzaga (18-3, 7-1) in a 79-61 home win in Spokane, Wash., over Loyola Marymount (5-15, 1-7).

Quakers Return To Ivies

In the only area Division I game on the card Friday night Penn returns to finish out its season with Ivy League games only as Columbia visits the Palestra at 7 p.m.

CACC Race Tightens

Philadelphia University and Holy Family both suffered losses in Division II Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference games to tighten the Southern Division race.

In East Falls, though Stephanie Agger became the 27th player to reach 1,000 points for the Rams, they fell at home in overtime to Georgian Court 83-80 in the Gallagher Center.

Agger, who joined teammate Christine Wooding this season in the 1,000-point club, scored 19 points for the Rams (14-5, 8-2) while Goldey Beacom (12-6, 7-4) got 14 points and 11 rebounds from guard Ashley Rosario in snapping Philadelphia U.’s six-game win streak.

Meanwhile, University of the Sciences at home at the Bobby Morgan Arena in Southwest Philadelphia, beat Holy Family 65-53 for the Devils’ fourth straight win.

USP (11-7, 7-3 CACC) posted its first win over the Tigers (13-7, 9-2) in a regular season home game since a narrow 60-59 win on Feb. 7, 1995, though the Devils also beat Holy Family at home in a conference tournament game in 2006.

The Devils moved to with a game of first place, where Holy Family and Philadelphia U. are tied.

Freshman Brianne Traub had 16 points for USP, Carolyn Edwards and Jessica Sylvester each scored 13 points, and Becca Ruggear had 10 points and nine rebounds.

Isabella Ross pulled down a game-high 10 rebounds.

Erin Mann scored 15 points for Holy Family as the only Tigers star in double figures.

Noteworthy

Carolyn Sprague, Pittsburgh’s longtime senior women’s administrator who also served on the NCAA women’s basketball tournament committee, is set to retire at the end of the school year.

As part of the reorganization, Stacey Brann, the sports information director for women’s basketball who moved to the Steel City from Rutgers last season where she was the press aide among other activities for Hall of Fame coach C. Vivian Stringer, will be promoted to assistant athletic director for women’s basketball, though Boss Brann will also retain her SID duties.

Some conspiracy theorists jokingly thought the announcement was timed for Brann to steal the thunder from the news at her former place of employment which learned Thursday that football coach Gregg Schiano had been named the new coach of Tampa Bay in the NFL.

Elsewhere, longtime Bowling Green women’s basketball coach Curt Miller will miss Saturday’s game at Central Michigan in the Mid-American Conference after a medical diagnosis Thursday determined he suffered a mild stroke late in Sunday’s win over Eastern Michigan.

Miller’s return has not been determined, though he said in a statement, “This is a wake-up call for me and I have already begun the process of finding a healthier balance.”
Jennifer Roos, associate head coach will run the team, which is 16-3 overall and 6-0 in the MAC.

“Our first priority is Curt’s health,” athletic director Greg Christopher, said in a statement. “Although he has been cleared to continue coaching, we all felt it was best to take a step back right now. We fully expect Curt to return to the bench, soon.”

Christopher is also the new head of the NCAA women’s basketball tournament committee this season and is also the first male head since the organization began sponsoring the championships in 1981-82.

And that’s it for now until tweeting from the Penn game Friday night.

-- Mel

Guru's USBWA Talk: Strong Field Continues In Weekly Candidate List

2012-01-24T02:07:00.002-05:00

By Mel Greenberg

Here are some of the performances in the week ending Sunday that produced conference player of the week honorees, which in turn makes them eligible for the new United states Basketball Writers Association (USBWA) women's national player of the week award.

The winner, baring complications of technology, will be announced Tuesday afternoon.

In the Southeastern Conference Sarah Watkins of Arkansas was chosen for her performances in a rare win by the Razorbacks over Vanderbilt in which she tied a school record with six blocked shots and she also helped in a win over

Performances in Monday;s big win by No. 2 Notre Dame over Tennessee won't get into the process until next week but at the moment the Irish's Deveraux Peters took the Big East prize for averaging 19.5 points in wins over Pittsburgh and Villanova to stay unbeaten in conference play.

In a key conference game in the Atlantic Coast Duke's Chelsea Gray had 17 points and dealt 11 assists in Duke's win over Maryland and with her performance over Georgia Tech finished with a 16.5 scoring average in the two games and a 7.5 assists average to earn the ACC citation.

Teri Oliver helped Southern Illinois break a 24-game losing streak in the Missouri Valley Conference with a win over Missouri State as she averaged 25.5 points and 5.0 rebounds.

Chantell Alford of Boston University is the reigning America East player of the year and at the moment helped keep the Terriers in first place with an 11.7 average with 5.5 rebounds in three wins including a comeback win over arch-rival Hartford.

The new career leader in three-point connections in the Atlantic Ten is St. Bonaventure's Jessica Jenkins with 293. including six against Charlotte last Saturday night in North Carolina while she finishe dwith 23 points. She also had 18 against Richmond to send the Bonnies into sole possession of first place as the only team in the A-10 that still has a perfect record.

George Mason's Taleia Moton averaged 28.8 points and 4.0 rebounds in wins over William & Mary and VCU to earn the weekly award of the Colonial Athletic Association.

It's two weeks in a row that Stanford's Chiney Oguwmike has taken Pac-12 honors this time with a 17,.0 scoring average and 11.5 rebounds in the Cardinal's home sweep of Washington and Washington State. Her older sister Nnemkadi earlier this season captured the USBWA prize.

Aarynb Ellenberg of Oklahoma starred with a 24.5 scoring average to go with 4.5 rebounds and 5.5 steals in Sooners wins over Kansas State and Texas to bring home the honor from the panel that deliberates the Big 12 award.

Hawaii's Kamillah Jackson had a 16.0 average and 13.0 rebounds to be given the Western Athletic Conference player of the week award for wins over Louisiana Tech and New Mexico State.

The Mountain West honoree is Kayla Woodward for a 25.5 scoring average, 8.0 rebounds and 3.5 steals with Wyoming.

Loyola of Maryland's Miriam McKenzie took home the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference player of the week award with averages of 20.5 points and 11.0 rebounds as the Greyhounds went 1-1.

And in the Southland Nicholls State's Sumar Leslie had a career-high 34 points in a win over Southeastern Louisiana. She leads the conference with a 20.8 scoring average.

That's just a sampling. When the Big Ten winner is known Tuesday morning that honoree will be tweeted here and then the USBWA winner will be tweeted when it is officially released. If you are not following the Guru the handle is @womhoopsguru.

On the local front, La Salle's Jada Payne took home the Atlantic 10 freshman of the week award while Temple's Shey Peddy earned another Big 5 women's player of the week award.

Philadelphia University's Christine Wooding captured player of the week honors in the Division II Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference while University of Science's freshman Brianne Traub picked up another rookie of the week award from the CACC.

In other news, the Guru doesn't have the link at the moment but if you google around or get on twitter on Delaware's Elena Delle Donne's twitter you will be led to a YouTube flash dance mob video in which the entire family performs.

Perhaps whatever WNBA team Delle Donne ultimately lands on, the entire group can be hired in the manner of the New York Liberty's Timeless Torches to perform during timeouts and thus Elena can have the whole brood around in the summer for home games whatever part of the country she is at.

Will this be like 1997 for Tennessee. The Vols got knocked around that season with 10 losses, though most were competitive, and still claimed the first of what became a three-peat of NCAA titles. So far the Lady Vols have suffered an upset at unranked Virginia to go with losses to Kentucky, Stanford, Baylor and, now, Notre Dame.

There is a lot of season left so don't count Tennessee totally out for now. At this time in 1997 no one thought a championship would be attained, either.

That's it for now. The Guru will be at Rutgers for the DePaul game Tuesday night but will be tracking Temple at Xavier and Cincinnati at Villanova on the local front as well as other national games of note.

And the Guru closes on this note. However badly things went down at the end of the life of Penn State legendary football coach Joe Paterno, no one championed the cause of women's sports more than Paterno back when he was athletic director several decades ago.

When the Lady Lions were in the Atlantic 10 and the Guru made trips to Happy Valley because of the Rutgers-Temple-St. Joseph's games, there was seldom a time that Paterno was not at a home game as well as attending the many postgame receptions of the booster club afterwards.

-- Mel

Guru's College Report: Together At Last -- Delle Donne, Biden and Delaware

2012-01-23T07:03:00.003-05:00

(Guru's note: There is a print version of Sunday's Drexel game in philly.com. Tuesday's notebook will lead with St. Joseph's in the print section. Material on Penn State drawn from wire reports. At some point Monday a Big East notebook will appear in Full Court Press at the web site.).

By Mel Greenberg

NEWARK, Del. – On the front and back ends of a weekend in late August 2008 down here, the two biggest news events of the year in this state occurred.

On a Saturday it became official that U.S. Senator Joe Biden had been picked by Barack Obama to be his running mate on the Democratic ticket for the presidential campaign, which resulted several months later with Biden becoming vice president of the United States.

Two days later local high school sensation Elena Delle Donne, the high school national player of the year out of Wilmington’s Ursuline Academy dropped the other shoe after foregoing her scholarship to powerful Connecticut.

Delle Donne held a press conference here at the University of Delaware to say she had enrolled but to play volleyball saying she had suffered burnout from the sport of her acclaim.

Much has happened to the two marquee names since that eventful weekend in which some noted Delle Donne’s presser drew more reporters than the throng who camped out near Biden’s house expecting his appointment by Obama.

Biden has gone on to be anything but the traditional bit player vice presidents have been as he has helped Obama in establishing policies of the administration.

Delle Donne eventually returned to basketball the following spring, transferring sports again and joining Tina Martin’s squad to ultimately lead Delaware to new vistas in this her junior season with a first-ever national ranking as well as becoming the frontrunner and favorite in the ongoing title chase in the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA).

Though it seemed it should have happened before, the two finally crossed paths Sunday afternoon when Biden was part of a first-ever women’s single-game sellout of 5,021 at the Bob Carpenter Center that watched Delle Donne and her teammates on the 16th-ranked Blue Hens hold off longtime rival Drexel for a 60-49 win to move into sole possession of first place in the CAA at 16-1 overall and 7-0 in the conference.

Drexel (9-8, 5-2) dropped from second to a third-place tie with James Madison but another 1-2 CAA showdown looms Thursday night when Hofstra (14-4, 6-1) visits.

Biden is a Delaware graduate and also at the game was Delaware governor Jack Markell.

Drexel missed its first seven shots, falling 10 points behind and making it appear that for once this encounter was not going to be the closely-fought encounters that are a staple of the series dating back to the days when the two battled in the America
East before joining the CAA for the 2001-02 season.

But the Dragons rallied, got to within two near the end of the half. However, Delaware, which was part of Drexel’s only sellout two seasons ago in Philadelphia, did not yield ground and eventually pulled away late in the second half.

Delle Donne finished with 21 points, below her nation-leading 28.4 average. She’s still comfortably ahead in the NCAA statistics.

Since Martin doesn’t like the use of the phrase “supporting cast,” in terms of Delle Donne’s teammates, she heartily enjoyed the phrase “other options,” to discuss the across-the-board blend of Delaware’s attack.

Akeema Richards had a first-ever double double with 14 points and 10 rebounds while Danielle Parker and Lauren Carra each scored 10 points.

Drexel, which had a four-game win-streak snapped and was held to a season-low output, got 12 points from Kamile Nacickaite and 10 from Tyler Hale.

But before getting to the normal basketball talk there was the excitement of the surprise visit by Biden and of course the record crowd to address by Martin.

“It was an honor to meet him and the kids were thrilled they got a chance to meet him,” Martin said and reported Biden came into the locker room after the game.

“He even did a U-D Hoop Squad cheer. It was really cool. He was in the locker room with the kids, taking pictures and what an honor for our team and he said he’s been trying to come for two years now to see us play,” Martin continued.

“Obviously, he said, we’re the happening thing right now in Delaware so that was nice of him. That was very complimentary. It’s a thrill. It’s not every day you meet the vice president of the United States. It was very cool.”

Martin said she wasn’t aware of the impending visit until informed during her pre-game radio interview.

“I said, `What??’ I heard the governor was coming but I didn’t hear about the vice president.

“They were keeping it low key. The secret service was there. He obviously bleeds Delaware through and through so he was rooting for us all the way. It’s just an honor that he came to the game.”

As for how the game played out, Martin said, “Drexel and Delaware, we know each other so well. And these kids play against one another and it’s always going to be that way.

“You throw out the records, you throw out the statistics – we’re 35 miles apart from each other and all the games are like this – they’re knock down, drag out games. To win by double digits speaks volumes about our team.

“Drexel certainly put up a great fight and they’re a good basketball team and they understand now they’re really playing well together, they’ve got their two shooters going – I thought we did a very good job of defending them today,” Martin continued.

“But they’re going to fight and scrap and I have the utmost respect for Drexel as a team. I knew it was going to be a fight – it always is when we play them – and it’s going to be a fight when we go up to Drexel.

“This is the type of game you get – good, intense college basketball.”

Martin cited her team’s ability to be more aggressive in the second half to stay in control.

“(Drexel) was playing a triangle and two to start and then they switched to a box-and-one and then they went to a 2-3 zone and they stayed in that 2-3 zone but every time Elena got the ball they were playing her man-to-man in the zone.

“So wherever she cut, she had somebody hanging on her, so we moved her outside a little bit more to open up some of the driving lanes. Akeema Richards took advantage of that, Lauren Cara got to the rim a couple of times – to have four people in double figures – and obviously Danielle Parker got some looks out of that too. And Elena was able to slice, cut, and get some looks herself.

“I thought we shared the ball and attacked the rim much more effectively than in the first half. We were a little impatient.”
Delaware will have to switch gears Thursday to deal with Hofstra’s explosive attack.

“Hofstra plays a different style. Obviously Drexel like to run a motion type offense, a lot of back screens, a lot of things curl-ins, back-door cuts and things like that, whereas Hofstra just likes to run a 100 miles an hour and score 100 points,” Martin explained.

“They’re a hard team to defend because they just run, run, run. We’ve got to be again patient on the offensive end and do some good things against them because their tempo is going to be different than this game.”

Martin referred to the conference run as a “grind it out” effort at the moment compared to earlier in the year in playing the likes of Penn State, Princeton, St. Bonaventure, and Maryland.

“Everyone knows what you’re doing. A lot of junk defenses. Very physical. We have a target on our back and people are coming after us and how can you not be excited as a player,” Martin said in talking about the ambience in the arena.

“I don’t care if you are on Drexel, Hofstra, whoever you are. You come into this building and there’s 4,000 people every night – today this was obvious a sellout. This is why you put the uniform on.

“Then the vice president is here on top of that. So you’re up. Your blood is pumping and you’re ready to go. Every game is going to be like that because the opposing team knows there’s going to be great crowds, so it’s what college basketball should be.”
As for the matter of second options:

“Our other options are really starting to step up,” Martin said of the total team effort. “Elena scores a lot of points and certainly she’s got a great shot but these kids are screening and passing the ball to her and she couldn’t go 1-on-5 against anybody in the country – not even a Division III school.

“So credit goes to our other options. Our players for all the things they do – getting Elena looks and in turn Elena getting them looks – the combination of Elena and Trumae (Lucas) and Parker and Carra – it’s all those players combining their talents – if Elena scores, we all score; If Parker scores, we all score; If Carra scores, we all scores and our kids realize that.

“It’s great to have four kids score in double figures today. It’s a team and everybody needs to realize that and respect that and give these kids credit because I’ll tell you what – bodies are flying out there – these kids are playing their hearts out for Delaware and they deserve respect for thoat.”

Penn State Stays In Big Ten Hunt And Mourns Paterno

Playing hours after the passing of former Hall of Fame football coach Joe Paterno at the age of 85 because of cancer, the No. 22 Lady Lions beat Iowa 68-52 in a Big Ten game at the Bryce Jordan Center as Alex Bentley scored 21 points.

Penn State coach Coquese Washington said Paterno took care of her from the moment she arrived in Happy Valley from her previous job as associate head coach at Notre Dame, her alma mater, when she was hired in the spring of 2007.

“It wasn’t like we had Sunday dinner every week,” Washington related. “But the times we spent together he was always giving me some advice and inspiration.”

The Lady Lions (15-4, 5-2 Big Ten) had black bands on their uniforms and Washington had a black ribbon on her sweater.

“I know he would have been ticked off if we lost,” Washington said. “We just wanted to play our best today, give our best effort in honor of a man who always gave his best to Penn State.”

The Lady Lions, trailing 50-48 with 6:32 left in the game, surged with a 20-2 rally to beat the Hawkeyes (11-9, 3-4).

Temple: New Digs and New Look In Win Over Penn

After moving into impressive new offices and practice facilities built on the top of McGonigle Hall, Temple used a special post presence Saturday to beat Penn 72-47 in a Big Five game that was the last nonconference event for both teams before the Owls head back to the Atlantic 10 with a Tuesday visit to Xavier and the Quakers head back to the Ivy League to host Columbia on Friday night at The Palestra.

Victoria Macauley had a career-high 20 points and Joelle Connelly, a transfer from Hofstra, had the best effort as an Owl with 16 points.

Penn also had two players with landmark games in their careers as Jackie Kaites scored 17 points and Kristen Cody scored 12.

The Quakers on the grueling part of their schedule are now 7-8 overall on a six-game losing streak that included a league-opening loss to powerful Princeton at The Palestra. The Tigers are the two-time defending Ivy champs and league favorites.

Penn finished 0-4 in the Big Five, playing three City Series games in January after having gotten off to the best 10-game start in the program’s history.

Temple is 10-8 and 1-1 in the Big Five, already won by Villanova. One of the Owls’ Atlantic 10 games with St. Joseph’s will also count in the Big Five as will the regular-season-ending visit to La Salle.

Shey Peddy had 15 points and Kristen McCarthy scored 10 marking the first time this season four Owls scored in double figures.

Penn used the city’s subway system to travel from the Quakers’ campus in West Philadelphia to Temple in North Philadelphia.

“I thought our posts came up hugh for us, I thought our defense did a good job limiting (Alyssa) Baron’s touches,” Temple coach Tonya Cardoza said. “Last year she had a really good game against us.

“Our post presence took the pressure off our guards,” Cardoza said. “That’s how you would like to play – shooting high percentage shots.”

Despite the outcome, Penn coach Mike McLaughlin felt his players competed much better than in their previous outing, losing at Villanova on Tuesday.

“I thought we had so many open shots that we missed, but we ran a better and cleaner offense and I thought we executed better than we did the last five games.

“We need to look at the progress we are making and I thought we did. Unfortunately, we have to make those shots, playing a team like this who made us pay for every mistake we made,” McLaughlin said.

“We did some real good things in our non-league. Jackie Kaites had a breakout game – she needed one – and she controlled our portion of what we wanted to do today and that’s going to help us immensely.”

It’s not inconceivable that Penn could finish second in the league and that would lead to a bid to the Postseason WNIT.

St. Joseph’s Wins A Close One Again

The Hawks survived a visit to two-time defending Atlantic-10 champion Xavier in Cincinnati 70-67 as Michelle Baker scored 15 points, Erin Shields had 13 points and Samira Van Grinsven scored 12.

The win kept St. Joseph’s (13-5, 3-1 A-10) in a two-way tie with Temple for third, a half-game behind Charlotte and 1.5 games behind St. Bonaventure, whom the Hawks visit Wednesday night in a key game in the conference.

Xavier (3-14, 0-4) got 19 points from Jessica Patchko.
In another A-10 game Saturday involving a local team, La Salle lost its second straight – a tough one at Richmond, 74-70, despite Jada Payne’s 24 points, a second-straight career best.

La Salle fell to 9-11 overall and 3-2 in the conference while the Spiders improved to 15-4 overall and 3-2 in the A-10.

Rutgers Recovers

After an upset loss at St. John’s earlier in the week, No. 7 Rutgers beat host South Florida 72-66 as senior April Sykes had 23 points and 10 rebounds and Khadijah Rushdan, also a senior, scored 16 against the Bulls in a Big East game in Tampa. Monique Oliver had 14 points.

The Scarlet Knights (16-3, 5-1) will host No. 21 DePaul Tuesday night. Blue Demons coach Doug Bruno was just announced as an assistant to UConn’s Geno Auriemma along with WNBA Atlantia Dream coach Marynell Meadors and former WNBA Los Angeles Sparks coach Jennifer Gillom for the summer Olympics in London.

The same staff guided the Americans to a gold medal in 2010 at the world championships.
South Florida fell to 11-9 overall and 3-3 in the Big East.

That’s the news for now until the next sunrise.

-- Mel

Guru's College Report: Delaware Sells Out Sunday's CAA Showdown With Drexel

2012-01-21T10:39:00.003-05:00

By Mel Greenberg

For those of you not following the Guru on twitter here is the Delaware release about Sunday's sellout and first place CAA showdown with Drexel.

NEWARK, Del. -- The University of Delaware announced Friday that the Blue Hen women's basketball matchup with Colonial Athletic Association rival Drexel set this Sunday, Jan. 22, at the Bob Carpenter Center, is a sellout.

The Blue Hens (15-1, 6-0 CAA), who are currently ranked No. 16 nationally in both the Associated Press and USA Today/ESPN Coaches polls and riding a five-game win streak, will take on Drexel (9-7, 5-1 CAA) in a battle for first place in the league standings. The Dragons have won four straight entering the game.

The game, set to begin at 3:30 p.m., will mark the first sellout for the UD women at the 5,000-seat Bob Carpenter Center in a game that does not include a doubleheader with the Blue Hen men. The previous high attendance for a UD women's game at the BCC was 4,772 vs. Old Dominion on Feb. 11, 2005.

The game will be broadcast live on 1290 AM The Ticket as well as on UD student station WVUD 91.3 FM. In addition, the game will be televised live locally and regionally on The Comcast Network as well as on Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic. Live stats and live video are also available on the UD athletics website at www.bluehens.com/teams/womens-basketball.

UD athletics also has announced that due to the increased attendance for basketball games this season, doors to the arena will now open 90 minutes prior to game time for all men's and women's games for the remainder of the season. This will also include the ticket windows for both sales as well as for Will Call.

The change will begin on Jan. 21 when the Delaware men host Georgia State at 2 p.m. at the Bob Carpenter Center. Please continue to plan to arrive early to avoid lines and traffic.

Guru's College Report: Delaware and Drexel Win Big Heading To Sunday CAA Showdown

2012-01-20T05:49:00.002-05:00

(Guru's note: Material and quotes from beyond Drexel game site drawn on team and wire reports)

By Mel Greenberg

PHILADELPHIA – There was very little for Drexel coach Denise Dillon to find fault with her Dragons in a 66-39 win Thursday night over Northeastern at home at the Daskalakis Athletic Center.

At the same time to the south on a night that Elena Delle Donne was a bit off the mark No. 16 Delaware used balance to end Towson’s 7-0 home streak with a lopsided 65-46 victory and a season sweep of the Tigers.

Thus the stage was set for the first of two meetings between these neighboring rivals Sunday afternoon at 3:30 p.m. when Drexel travels to Delaware at the Bob Carpenter Center in Newark with a chance to knot things even tighter in the Colonial Athletic Association.

Drexel (9-7, 5-1 CAA) won its fourth straight and continued its recent combo of tough defense and balanced offense to handle the Huskies (3-14, 1-5) as Tyler Hale and Kamile Nacickaite each scored 14 points while Hollie Mershon, the reigning CAA co-player of the week, scored 13 and Taylor Wootton scored 12.

In yet another wild night in the CAA, Delaware (15-1, 6-0), the preseason favorite, finally broke free in the standings to takeover first place alone and unbeaten in conference play while Drexel’s second-place dynamics was altered.

The Dragons became tied with Hofstra (13-4, 5-1), which lost at home 81-63 to two-time defending CAA champion James Madison (13-4, 4-2).

Virginia Commonwealth (11-6, 4-2) was nipped 57-56 at North Carolina-Wilmington (10-7, 3-3) to fall into a third place tie with James Madison.

Alisha Andrews scored the game-winner for UNCW with 18 seconds remaining in regulation.

After Delaware plays Drexel Sunday, the Blue Hens will host Hofstra next Thursday night while Drexel will travel to VCU. Hofstra will host Northeastern on Sunday.

“It’s early in the year,” Dillon said. “You don’t get too worked up on positioning right now – especially with the stretch we have coming up, so I just told our players, `Sunday’s game is a game you’d love to steal but we have nothing to lose and everything to gain.’

“We’re trying to take care of the games we have a chance of winning and we’re doing exactly that.”

While Drexel was able to hold Northeastern’s Jewell Tunstell to five points – seven below her average, the Huskies broke free for several three-pointers early in the game but the Dragons tightened things up after Jamie Conroy nailed a trey for a 16-15 lead with 7 minutes, 39 seconds left in the first half.

“I was upset early with the threes we were giving up, but we made the adjustment defensively and our players responded,” Dillon said.

“Once we took them out of that game with threes, it made it hard and Taylor Wootton did a phenomenal job on Tunstell. We’re talking about how important post defense is and she single handedly took her out of the game.”

Northeastern’s Conroy and Deanna Kerkhof each scored 12 points for the Huskies fueled by their three-pointers in the first half.

Meanwhile, down at Towson, Delle Donne, the nation’s leading scorer with a 29.3 average, was held to 15 points by the Tigers (11-6, 2-4) and the Blue Hens still won with ease.

Delle Donne missed most of the first half of Sunday’s win at Northeastern but still scored 22 points playing with what has been diagnosed as a calf injury.

It was the first time in 19 games that Delle Donne did not score 20 or more points dating back to last season.

Delaware’s Lauren Carra had a season-high 15 points and in the first half the Blue Hens found the open person consistently in getting 13 assists on 13 baskets and a 39-18 lead at the half.

Akeema Richards added 11 points and Danielle Parker scored nine.

“We shared the ball and our defense set the tone,” Delaware coach Tina Martin said. “I knew this had to be about defense and rebounding. We got some really good looks, and the defense led everything from there.

“Elena is wrestling with an injury, which really showed the strength of the team tonight. It’s nice to see the team step up because I know they are capable of doing that. They proved it tonight. It’s a win-win all around.”

Lucas Leads Penn State Again

Germantown Academy graduate Maggie Lucas of Narberth, Pa., just outside of Philadelphia, had 19 points as No. 22 Penn State picked up its third straight win and first since returning to the AP Poll after a week’s absence by beating host Illinois, 71-65, in a Big Ten game in Champaign.

Alex Bentley, the preseason conference player of the year, scored 15 points for the Lady Lions (14-4, 4-2 Big Ten) against the Illini (6-13, 0-6).

Penn State’s Nikki Greene had 10 points, eight rebounds and three blocked shots.

It was the 80^th win for Lady Lions head coach Coquese Washington, whose team will host Iowa Sunday. Lucas crossed the 900-point milestone and now has 917 career points.

Elsewhere in the Big Ten, No. 13 Purdue got a season-high 20 points from fifth-year senior Antionette Howard as the Boilermakers topped in-state rival Indiana 82-60 to hold first-place at 16-3 overall and 6-0 in the conference.

She also had eight rebounds and four steals.

Indiana fell to 5-14 overall and remained winless in the conference at 0-6.

In a game between two ranked teams in the conference No. 10 Ohio State stopped No. 20 Nebraska 82-68 as Tayler Hill scored 21 points and grabbed 10 rebounds while Samantha Prahalis scored 19 points and dealt nine assists for the Buckeyes (18-1, 5-1 Big Ten) at home in Columbus, Ohio.

Prahalis is the only senior on the Ohio State roster.

Emily Cady scored a career-high 24 points for the Cornhuskers (15-3, 4-2), new to the conference this season moving over from the Big 12.

Ohio State, which was tied with Nebraska and Michigan State for second place and now is all alone a game behind Purdue, while Penn State moved into a three-way tie for third.

Michigan State was upset by Minnesota 71-65, Michigan beat Northwestern 58-48, and Iowa beat Wisconsin 69-57.

Maryland and Miami Hold Ground

After Virginia narrowly lost at No. 9 Maryland Monday night Virginia coach Joanne Boyle, who is in her first year with the Cavaliers after a successful career in the Bay Area at California, said they were tired of moral victories and it was time to get a win.

But all Virginia had to show after a tough battle at home Thursday night was another tough loss, this time to No. 11 Miami, 56-53, at home in the John Paul Jones Arena in Charlottesville.

Shenise Johnson, expected to go high in the WNBA draft next spring, had 20 points, including a pair of foul shots with 18.2 second left in regulation for the Hurricanes (16-3, 5-1 ACC), who stayed within a game of first-place and No. 5 Duke, which was idle, in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Ariana Moorer had 18 points for Virginia (14-6, 2-4).

Elsewhere in the ACC, No. 8 Maryland stayed with Miami by defeating Wake Forest 86-58 at home at the Comcast Center in College Park as Tianna Hawkins set a school record with 24 rebounds for the Terrapins (18-1, 5-1)

With the outcome under control after a tie score at the half, Hawkins was on the bench when Frese learned of the potential record and re-inserted her star rebounder back into the game.

“I asked the team if we should let her come back in and they unanimously said yes,” Maryland coach Brenda Frese said. “That record has been in the record books for a very long time. It’s special for us to be able to break records.”

Angie Scott set the previous mark in February 1977 against Towson State and then 10 months later Debbie Jones matched it against Howard.

"It felt good. My teammates were pushing me to get that last rebound and the crowd was pushing me," said Hawkins, who scored 18 points and fueled a second-half surge by Maryland.

Hawkins finished with 18 points, Alyssa Thomas scored 16 and had 11 rebounds, while Lynetta Kizer, Laurin Mincy and Brene Moseley each scored 11 points.

"Obviously you look pretty good when you have rebounding machines like we have here," said Frese, who sat between Hawkins and Thomas for the postgame news conference.

Chelsea Douglas of Wake Forest (11-7, 1-4) had 15 points.

“I’m very disappointed the ACC voted down my proposal to play 20-minute games,” jested Demon Deacons coach Mike Peterson. “That would have made this evening very more enjoyable.”

Meanwhile No. 24 North Carolina recovered from its nonconference 86-35 thrashing at No. 3 Connecticut Monday night, the worst-ever defeat in the program’s history, to beat Virginia Tech 56-37 as Tar Heels coach Sylvia Hatchell, who is 872-308 overall, hit a UNC milestone with her 600^th win at the ACC school.

Former Virginia coach Debbie Ryan and the late North Carolina State coach Kay Yow also got 600 victories at the same ACC school.

The win by the Tar Heels (13-5, 3-2) was the fourth try to get Hatchell to 600.

Virginia Tech (6-13, 2-4) is down to six scholarship players but trailed at the half just by four points at 25-21.

In other ACC results, North Carolina State beat Clemson, 62-46.

Mentee Caldwell Loses To Mentor Summitt

No. 9 Tennessee topped LSU 65-56 at home in Knoxville in game in which Lady Vols coach Pat Summitt in the Southeastern Conference game was on the sidelines against her former player and assistant Nikki Caldwell, who is in her first year with the Tigers (13-5, 4-2 SEC).

She previously coached at UCLA.

Meighan Simmons and Cierra Burdick, seeing more action than usual because of injuries at Tennessee (14-4, 5-1 SEC), had 19 points and 15 points, respectively.

Leading scorer Shekinna Stricklen departed with a streak of 121 starts at Tennessee because of a right knee sprain suffered Sunday against Vanderbilt while Taber Spani hasn’t played since Dec. 26 because of a bone bruise in her left knee.

The Lady Vols are headed to No. 2 Notre Dame Monday night in a nonconference meeting that will be the first between the two since last season’s NCAA tournament in which the Irish upset Tennessee in the elite eight and advanced to the title game in Indianapolis before losing to Texas A&M.

LSU’s Courtney Jones had 16 points in a game in which the Tigers lost two players with injuries.

Two minutes into the game starting Tigers point guard Jeanne Kenny went to the bench with what appears to be a concussion and later Destini Hughes went down three seconds before halftime with a serious knee injury.

“Obviously, it was a knock-down drag out type fight, but it was a very competitive fight,” Caldwell observed. “You saw two teams playing every possession like it was their last.”

In another SEC game that featured two ranked teams, No. 6 Kentucky (17-2, 6-0 SEC) outlasted No. 15 Georgia 69-64 on the road in Athens as former UConn player Samarie Walker had 18 points.

Georgia fell to 15-4 overall and 4-2 in the conference.

No. 5 Vanderbilt was upset 69-47 at unranked Arkansas (13-5, 2-4) as Sarah Watkins scored a season-high 21 points for the Razorbacks, who hadn’t beaten the Commodores (14-4, 2-3) since 2006.

Mentee Elliott Loses To Mentor Auriemma

Besides the matchup of familiarity on the coaching sidelines in the game at Tennessee, a Big East matchup in Storrs, Conn., had Geno Auriemma, coach of No. 3 UConn, going against his former star player and assistant Jamelle Elliott, who is running Cincinnati.

Like most games this season, it was another Huskies rout, this one 80-37 as Tiffany Hayes led the way for UConn (16-2, 5-1 Big East) with 17 points and the Huskies’ NCAA home win streak record was extend to 96 straight.

Cincinnati fell to 9-9 overall and 0-5 in the Big East.

“It only gets easier from here, I hope,” Elliott said after Cincinnati lost to three Top 10 teams in their last four losses.

The Bearcats will be at Villanova Tuesday night.

-- Mel

Guru's College Report: Temple and St. Joseph's Dodge Losses In A-10 Play

2012-01-19T02:44:00.001-05:00

By Mel Greenberg

PHILADELPHIA – Temple and St. Joseph’s endured narrow escapes Wednesday night in a pair of Atlantic 10 games in their respective home arenas while La Salle’s six-game win streak came to an end on the road in another conference matchup.

Temple eked out a 67-64 win against Duquesne in a battle of two upper echelon squads in the conference while St. Joseph’s got pushed into overtime by Fordham at the last second of regulation but then regained its footing and dominated the extra period on the way to a 57-46 victory.

The Owls played Duquesne in a late afternoon game at the Liacouras Center on the front end of a doubleheader with the men’s team that hosted La Salle in a Big Five contest.

Temple (9-8, 3-1 Atlantic 10) shook off 23 turnovers and a 25-13 disadvantage on points off turnovers to stay within range of the conference leaders while Duquesne (13-5, 1-2) fell to the crowded middle of the pack.

“The Owls enjoyed their largest lead at 11 points early in the second half and built a seven-point lead with 46 seconds left in the game.

Temple was only narrowly in front 60-57 when Owls’ senior Shey Peddy was fouled and went to the line making both free throws and Temple getting possession because of a technical foul on Duquesne coach Suzie McConnell-Serio, the former Penn State all-American who has quickly built the Dukes into a conference contender.

BJ Williams hit a pair of free throws to extend the lead to 64-57 but Temple was not quite home as free as it seemed.

Duquesne’s Jocelyn Floyd made one of two foul shots on the next possession with 36 seconds left but Temple’s Monaya Merritt likewise made one of two chances from the line.

When she missed the second the Owls’ Victoria Macaulay got the rebound only to turn the ball over and then committed a foul to send Duquesne’s Ahjah Hall to the line.

Hall made both to cut the deficit to 65-60 and Merritt missed a chance to re-extend the lead when she failed to connect on both free throw opportunities with 26 seconds left.

Orsi Szecsi cut it to three with a layup with 14 seconds to go but missed a chance to slice it further when she didn’t hit the free throw after she had been fouled by Macaulay on the scoring play.

Hall then got a layup making it a one-point game with 10 seconds left at 65-64.

But then Peddy was fouled, hit both foul shots and Alex Gensler missed a long 3-point attempt to end the game.

“We made some unnecessary inexcusable plays allowing them to stop the clock and extend their pressure, fouling, and ones, got them to the point where they had a chance to tie the game,” Temple coach Tonya Cardoza said.

“Obviously, I’m happy we pulled the game off but I just wish we would have ended the game in a different way.”

Peddy finished with a game-high 22 points and 11 rebounds, while BJ Williams scored 14 points, Kristen McCarthy scored 11, and Macaulay grabbed 11 rebounds.

Floyd scored 18 points for Duquesne, while Wumi Agunbiade had 15 points, and Szecsi had 10.

Following a home loss last week to frontrunner St. Bonaventure, Temple knocked off Dayton – the conference co-favorite with the Owls – on the road Sunday and then outlasted Duquesne.

“It means a lot (to win the last two) because these are two of the tougher teams in the conference, they have been for the last few years. Three of their players have been among the leaders so to beat them and beat Dayton on their home court that says a lot,” Cardoza said.

“Obviously St. Bonaventure is a great team, but we feel like we let one get away, we didn’t play very well. So we made sure we were focused, played very good defense and stopped teams from what they like to do.”

Temple will take its last break from conference play Saturday hosting Penn in a Big Five game next door in McGonigle Hall at 3 p.m.

Villanova won the title with a sweep 4-0 beating the Quakers at home Tuesday night but Temple could still finish second outright with a win Saturday and also with wins over St. Joseph’s and La Salle that are also part of the A-10 schedule.

“I don’t really look forward to that game,” Cardoza said. “Penn is a good team and they play us really tough – they’re physical – since I’ve been here every game is really a close game. I’m still enjoying this one and we’ll prepare for that one in a couple of days.”

St. Joseph's Survives Ram Attack

Meanwhile over on Hawk Hill at Hagan Arena, the site of the conference tournament in March, Fordham (10-9, 1-3) battled host St. Joseph’s (12-5, 2-1) tough and forced the game into overtime when Cody Sims hit a three with one-second left in regulation.

But then Ashley Prim broke the deadlock with a layup with 3:07 left in the extra period.

Becky Peters then missed a shot for Fordham and Michelle Baker extended the lead with 2:09 left.

Abigail Corning missed a three-pointer for the Rams and then Prim nailed a trey to make it 53-46 with 1:28 left.

Arielle Collins then missed a layup and Peters fouled Katie Kuester.

Though she missed both free throws, Samira Van Grinsven grabbed the offensive rebound and Michelle Baker went to the line and hit a pair to get things safe for the Hawks.

Prim and Kuester each hit one-of-two free throws to close out an 11-0 overtime and stay in the conference hunt.

Van Grinsven finished with 12 points and nine rebounds, while Baker and Prim each scored 11, as did Fordham’s Charlotte Stoddart as the only Ram to hit double figures.

St. Joseph’s shot 41.2 percent from the field, but held Fordham to 30.9 percent.

“I thought it was a well-fought game and when it comes down to possessions, it’s just about execution and playing defense and today I thought our defense was terrific,” St. Joseph’s coach Cindy Griffin said.

“We’re not shooting ball extremely well right now, but we’re finding ways with rebounding, key rebounds and key shots down the stretch – I thought Samira came up big for us, Prim came up big for us, and overall I thought it was a great team effort.”

As for the Fordham’s last-second shot, Griffin said, “It was a little bit of a fluke shot – could we have bene a little bit closer, or course we could have been closer and we should have been closer.

“But our team is a very experienced team and we’ve been in those situations before.”

St. Joseph’s next travels on Saturday to struggling Xavier (3-13, 0-3), the two-time defending conference champion.

“With their tradition, they have a couple of kids on the team who have experienced success. I want our team to be playing each game and learning from each experience,” Griffin said. “It’s very important we take one game at a time and focus that way.

“Our goals are what they are – seeding is going to be very important in this drag out fight that’s going to occur with the Atlantic 10 and we want a good seed and have a good showing in the Atlantic 10 and ultimately our goal is to be in the (NCAA tournament).

Former St. Joseph’s coach Stephanie V. Gaitley, also a former Villanova star, was back on Hawk Hill as the first-year coach at Fordham, following a previously stint at Monmouth.

It was her second trip back to Philadelphia in a week after losing at La Salle last week, but she thought the game against the Hawks was a major improvement for her squad.

“I was really proud of the effort, we had some tough losses at La Salle and (George Washington), where I don’t think we grew as a team,” Gaitley said. “We definitely grew as a team today against a very good St. Joseph’s team.

“You can’t put a price on experience when they’re starting four seniors. We’re young, inexperienced and I’m proud of the effort. Hopefully we can keep that effort when we’re back here in March.”

Down at Charlotte in North Carolina, the 49ers got revenge on La Salle for the Explorers’ win over them last season with a 77-66 victory.

The loss spoiled the state homecoming for Jada Payne who scored 18 points and grabbed eight rebounds for the Explorers (9-10, 3-1), who suffered their first AS-10 setback.

Alexis Scott had 16 points and Brittany Wilson scored 15 for La Salle.

Charlotte (12-6, 4-0) kept pace at the top of the conference with St. Bonaventure (17-2, 4-0), who beat Richmond (14-4, 2-2) Wednesday night.

Hillary Sigmon, a high school teammate of Payne, had 17 points as did Jennifer Hailey for the 49ers. Epiphany Woodson had 14 points and Amanda Dowe had 10 points and a game-high 10 rebounds.

La Salle next travels to Richmond Saturday.

The National Scene

Elizabeth Williams, considered one of the top prospects last season, had 20 points and 11 rebounds as No. 5 Duke won its ninth straight and beat Atlantic Coast Conference rival Georgia Tech 79-62 for the 34^th consecutive time, dating back to a loss to the Yellowjackets on Feb. 27, 1994, in Duluth, Georgia.

Richa Jackson had 17 points for the Blue Devils (15-2, 5-0 ACC) while reigning conference player of the week Sasha Goodlett scored 25 points for Georgia Tech (13-6, 3-3).

Brittney Griner had 21 points and eight blocked shots as top ranked Baylor stayed unbeaten with a Big 12 road win at No. 17 Texas Tech, 69-63, in Lubbock, Texas.

Destiny Williams had 16 points and 16 rebounds for the Bears (18-0, 5-0 Big 12) while Christine Hyde had 15 points for the Lady Raiders (14-3, 2-3).

In another Big 12 contest, No. 14 Texas A&M, the defending national champion beat visiting Missouri 78-52 as Sydney Carter and Adaora Elonu each scored 16 points for the Aggies (12-4, 3-2) to keep the Tigers (10-6, 0-5) winless in conference competition. Missouri’s Christine Flores scored 13 points in the game in College Station, Texas.

In the lone Big East game involving ranked teams, No. 18 Louisville beat visiting Providence 64-48 as Bria Smith scored 12 points for the Cardinals (15-4, 4-2 Big East) and Alicia Cropper, the lone Providence player to score in double figures, had 14 points for the Friars (10-9,l 2-4).

Looking Ahead

Drexel goes after its fourth straight win in Colonial Athletic Association play Thursday night at home when Northeastern visits while co-conference frontrunner Delaware will visit Towson, which lost two weeks ago to the Blue Hens but are 7-0 at home.

Hofstra, also unbeaten in conference play, hosts two-time defending champion James Madison.

Penn State stays on the road in the Big 10 and visits Illinois.

The Guru will be tweeting from the Drexel game at @womhoopsguru.

-- Mel

Guru's College Report: Villanova Wins Big Five Title

2012-01-18T02:51:00.001-05:00

By Mel Greenberg

VILLANOVA, Pa. – Following its annual spanking from Connecticut in Big East play, Saturday, though a little less painful this time around, Villanova was the thrasher Tuesday night beating Penn 52-30 at home at The Pavilion to complete a sweep of the Big Five at 4-0 for veteran coach Harry Perretta’s 13^th City Series title.

The Wildcats (12-6, 4-0 Big Five) matched their entire win total for last season and with win 96 in the Big Five contests they lead St. Joseph’s by two games.

The Hawks can catch them in that regard by beating La Salle and Temple in what will also be Atlantic 10 contests while Temple and St. Joseph’s will also play a solo A-10 game as part of the annual home-and-home rivalry in the conference between the two schools.

Penn (7-7, 0-3 Big Five) will finish its local slate at Temple 3 p.m. Saturday at McGonigle Hall and then return to Ivy play the rest of the way trying to finish second to Princeton – does anyone think the Tigers won’t win three straight crowns – and get a bid to the postseason WNIT.

Villanova’s Laura Sweeney, continuing her fine play, scored 22 points and grabbed 12 rebounds.

Newcomer Lauren Burford had 17 points.

Additionally, senior Lindsay Kimmel became the first to win two Big Five titles at separate schools. Temple won when Kimmel was a freshman who later transferred to the Main Line school here after her sophomore season.

“It’s fun. I like playing against the local kids. Some of the girls I played against in AAU and some of the local high schools so it makes it competitive and makes it fun,” said Sweeney, who starred at Cherokee High across the Delaware River in South Jersey in Marlton.

“It’s fun to play with them and play against us them. Penn put a lot of pressure on us so that will help us when we get back to the Big East.”

Villanova may want to take its time changing back into the Big East mindset considering the Wildcats head to South Bend, Ind., against No. 2 Notre Dame, the Big East leader, which destroyed Pittsburgh 120-44 Tuesday night.

Here against the Quakers in one of only two local games on the slate, Villanova held a slim 20-16 lead with five minutes left in the first half and then finished with a 10-0 run culminating with Sweeney’s layup before the buzzer for a 30-16 advantage at the break.

The lead grew to 27 points late in the game prior to the final score.

Villanova bedeviled Penn into 23 turnovers and as a result had a huge 21-6 differential on points off turnovers.

“It’s always fun to win,” Perretta said of earning another Big Five crown. “And for the kids it means a lot. And for me, I’m from Philly so it means a lot to me, too.”

The women have competed in a full round robin every year since the 1979-80 season.

“Even though we won by a lot of points, it was a typical Big Five game – it was ugly, that’s what it was,” Perretta said.

“I kind of expected it to be really ugly,” he said.

“In the first half we were rushing things and either make a turnover or not get a quality shot. But then in the second half we decided to walk the ball, take our time, and then what happened was we put Sweeney and (Emily) Leer in position to see the double team better and we started to get more quality kick outs.”

Perretta said his team still lacks a certain confidence needed to get Big East wins bolstered by the RPI to have a good shot at the NCAA tournament as an at-large team.

“To be honest with you, I thought today we played scared,” he said. “I don’t think we had the same concentration level today that we had against UConn and I think it was because we’re nervous, we’re just scared because we knew we had a chance to play for the Big Five title.

“You have to be able to handle success and they’re not handling success,” Perretta said. “By success I mean now that we’re winning we’re the favorite. Last year we were the underdog and we were scared to lose.

“Good teams don’t worry about being the favorite – they just go out and win.”

Penn, meanwhile has hit the skids with a toughened stretch of schedule before getting back to Ivy competition.

“I’m really disappointed overall,” Penn coach Mike McLaughlin said. “We didn’t play the way Penn plays. We didn’t play as hard as we have to do just to give ourselves a chance, let alone s fair chance.

“Penn didn’t put on a lot of pressure on us. Just careless turnovers. Just not a very good effort for us.”

No one scored in double figures for Penn with Jourdan Banks scoring nine points and leading scorer Alyssa Baron being totally shut out.

She was 0-for-8.

“She struggled against St. Joseph’s. I’m more interested that she handles this right,” McLaughlin said. “She’s hard on herself. She’ll have better days ahead.”

Rutgers Upset By St. John’s

For the second straight year the Scarlet Knights had a disastrous visit to the Red Storm in Queens, N.Y.

The last time Rutgers lost at the finish on an error while the Scarlet Knights were on the line. Tuesday night the seventh-ranked Scarlet Knights parted with a six-game win streak losing 62-57 despite 16 points from Khadijah Rushdan and 14 from Monique Oliver.

"I was hoping we'd remember we had lost to them before and have some sense of urgency coming out,"Rutgers coach C. Vivian Stringer said referencing two straight losses last year. "We just weren't. We were a day late and dollar short."

Rutgers (15-3, 4-1 Big East) committed 21 turnovers and St. John's got to the free throw line 32 times.

The Scarlet Knights didn't really have any urgency until they were down by nine points with 2½ minutes left. That's when senior Khadijah Rushdan tried to rally her team. It just wasn't enough.

"We were lax," said Rushdan, who led Rutgers with 16 points. "We really couldn't get into our 55 (press) and we draw a lot of our energy from it during games. We misunderstood personnel. Tonight we were playing them like shooters and they went to the line 32 times."

St. John's (12-7, 4-2) was 26 of 32 from the free throw line in the game, including making 14 of 16 over the final 4½ minutes.

"We did a great job of making our free throws," St. John’s coch Kim Barnes Arico said.

-- Mel

Guru College Report: Delle Donne Leg Injury "Just A Strain"

2012-01-17T11:53:00.001-05:00

(Guru's Note: Updating to refine and correct nature of Delle Donne injury being a strain of a tendon in her calf, not her knee. Also correcting the Mountain West home to be in Colorado Springs, not Denver. Also be patient with type faces in posts here. There's been some change in the program and the Guru's wonks aren't around to tell him how to correct the problem.)

By Mel Greenberg

Delaware fans can sort of breathe a sign of relief concerning junior sensation Elena Delle Donne, who missed most of the first half of Sunday’s win over Northeastern in a Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) game in Boston because of an injury in her left leg.

The former high school national player of the year out of Ursuline Academy in nearby Wilmington still managed to finish with 22 points after entering late in the first half to transform a closely fought contest with the Huskies into a lopsided win.

Though Delle Donne’s nation-leading scoring average got nicked a bit, falling to 29.3 points per game, the Blue Hens (14-1, 4-0 CAA) used the win to catapult from No. 21 to 16 in The Associated Press women’s poll announced Monday afternoon.

Delaware has now been in the rankings for the eight straight weeks since making its debut this season.

Penn State, incidentally, re-entered at No. 22 after dropping out last week for the first time this season, and Rutgers moved to seventh while Dawn Staley’s South Carolina team lasted just a week because of two losses.

Meanwhile, according to a person familiar with tests on Delle Donne’s leg, she has a strain of a tendon, not a ligament, as noted in the previous post, that starts in her calf and is more in her calf than her knee.

It is just a strain and she will be rehabbing and strengthening the source of the difficulty.

Delle Donne did not think she got hurt in Thursday’s win at home at the Bob Carpenter Center in Newark – she did not fall or suffer any major collisions – but after she got home her leg began to hurt and she initially had doubts she could play on it Sunday at Northeastern.

But as noted she did come to the Blue Hens’ rescue and her chances of playing at Towson will be mentioned here when it is known.

Delaware has already beaten the Tigers once but the Blue Hens head to a Towson team that is 7-0 at home.

In another note, Delaware’s RPI remains strong after wading into the CAA waters, though it has dipped to eighth on the NCAA’s official weekly tabulation after having been No. 1 until the Blue Hens’ start of conference play.

Princeton, which had been around 11-14, fell to 22 because of weak numbers from two of the Tigers’ three Ivy rivals played to date.

Strong Field Contends For National Player Honors

Two former winners of the United States Basketball Writers Association’s (USBWA) new weekly women’s national player honor are in the hunt for a second honor and are joined by the sister of another previous winner.

The pool of candidates is formed from the weekly conference player and co-player honors in all 31 leagues, of which the Guru here makes some of the performances highlighted prior to Tuesday afternoon’s weekly announcement.

Kentucky’s A’dia Mathies, who was the first-ever USBWA winner six weeks ago, picked up another citation from the Southeastern Conference for averaging 21.0 points, 5.5 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 2.5 blocked shots in two games, including a career-high 34 points and the last-second winning shot over Tennessee.

The Big 12 named Brittney Griner of Baylor, another previous winner, again after averaging 30.0 points per game and 12 rebounds in two wins by top-ranked Baylor, which; along with Wis.-Green Bay are the only two remaining unbeaten teams in Division I.

Stanford’s Nnemkadi Oguwmike is not contending for another honor this week but her sister Chinney, who also plays for the fourth-ranked Cardinal, is in the hunt after averaging 15.0 points and 12.5 rebounds in two games on the road beating new Pac-12 opponents Utah, formerly of the Mountain West Conference, and Colorado, who left the Big 12.

In the Big East DePaul’s Anna Martin played in just one game but her 29-points against Pittsburgh in Chicago enabled her to join previous Blue Demons honorees from the conference.

Philadelphia-area athletes earned honors from several conferences to become USBWA nominees.

Drexel’s Hollie Mershon, who averaged 21.5 points in two games, including a first-ever Dragons win in regular season play at James Madison, shared the CAA award with Virginia Commonwealth’s Courtney Hurt, who averaged 25.0 points and 15.5 rebounds in two games.

Princeton’s Niveen Rasheed, who averaged 15.5 points and 10 rebounds in two wins by the two-time defending league champions, added to her collection of awards from the Ivy League.

And La Salle’s Brittany Wilson averaged 29.5 points in two Explorers wins to get both the Atlantic 10 award, which puts her in the USBWA pool, and the Big Five’s weekly women’s award in Philadelphia which just gets the winner a mention here and elsewhere.

Another local honoree, but not in Division I, was Richard Stockton College’s Kelsey Brown, who picked up the player of the week honor from the New Jersey Athletic Conference.

Back in Division I, Georgia Tech’s Sasha Goodlett averaged 21.7 points and 10.3 rebounds across three games to pick up the weekly award from the Atlantic Coast Conference’s blue ribbon media panel.

The Big 10, because of a TV game on Monday night the rest of he way, will not name a winner until Tuesday morning, which is still time to get consideration for the USBWA honor.

But the Guru suspects Purdue’s Brittany Rayburn will be at least a co-winner after tying an NCAA record with 12 three-pointers in one game and then scoring 14 Sunday, including the last-second block to preserve the Boilermakers’ win and keep them alone at the top and undefeated in Big 10 play.

If the Big 10 goes a different direction, well, Brittany, at least you know your effort was noticed here.

In the America East, Vermont’s Lauren Buschmann averaged 18.5 points and 13 rebounds in two games while in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Fairfield’s Taryn Johnson averaged 18.7 points and 12.3 rebounds.

Denver is not only the home of the 2012 NCAA Women’s Final Four, it is also the headquarters of the Western Athletic Conference and not far from the Mountain West Conference located to the south in Colorado Springs.

In the Mountain West, Boise State’s Lauren Lenhardt’s 26.0 average in two games brought a shared award with San Diego State’s Chelsea Hopkins, who averaged 14.0 points, 8.5 rebounds and 6.5 assists.

Over in the WAC, San Jose State’s Brittany Johnson had 22 points, 12 rebounds and five assists in a win over Hawaii.

Sequeena Thomas of Sam Houston averaged 14 points and 14 rebounds to pick up the Southland player of the week while in the Missouri Valley Conference; Drake’s Rachel Hackbarth averaged 23.0 points and 14.5 rebounds in two wins.

Finally Akil Simpson of SMU in two games averaged 18 points and 14 rebounds to receive player of the week honors from Conference USA.

On The Road Again – Briefly

This report is originating halfway between College Park, Md., and back in the hometown because, hey the nice hotel is cheap enough, much cheaper in fact, than the train still known as Amtrak.

Knowing all this had to be written, it makes sense to establish mobile headquarters unless using the fantastic I-95 rest stop near the University of Delaware exit.

The Guru was at the Comcast Center for Maryland’s ACC battle with Virginia and unlike the other nationally-ranked – the Guru doesn’t know why – ACC team getting mixed up in the state of Connecticut that reduced Tobacco Road to an alleyway resided by Duke, the Terrapins-Cavaliers contest was competitive.

There is no game report here because there’s nothing the Guru would have said that isn’t already deftly handled by the Associated Press and Washington Post.

The Guru did get nostalgic remembering a time in Cole Fieldhouse that print media vastly outnumbered photographers – videographers and all others did not exist yet.

Also, the Guru noticed the headline in his weekly notebook for the printed alma mater on North Broad St. reads Early A-10 Tests May Hurt Temple.

The Guru does not write the headlines for print – he occasionally makes them but that’s another story, and does write them here.

But before he arrives at the Liacouras Center Wednesday afternoon for the Duquesne game and gets pounced by certain friends on the Temple coaching staff, which enjoys dispensing grief, the Guru will pretend he is an SID and spin it the other way.

The original point was to say that it is a rough diet with no margin of error in terms of losses to stay strongly in the hunt for an NCAA at-large bid.

But, as was the case several years ago when Temple blitzed the four other top conference teams down the stretch, including upsetting Xavier, which was nationally-ranked, surely if the Owls could beat these teams – all with strong winning records – the at-large shot gets stronger as long as they don’t trip up after they get to the less arduous part of the conference slate, which still will have a second St. Joe game and a La Salle game.

And to you RPI junkies, this will be part of the next blog or after-next blog, the Guru noticed that the rankings are not all that far apart between the official NCAA weekly release and the daily one shown at Realtime RPI.

OK. The Guru will be on the scene at Villanova Tuesday night for the Penn game that could bring the host Wildcats the Big Five title with a win.

He will be tweeting from @womhoopsguru.

-- Mel

Guru's College Report: Temple Holds Off Dayton In A-10 Showdown

2012-01-16T05:39:00.002-05:00

(Guru's Note: Quotes beyond Drexel game site and calls to the locals are drawn on team and wire reports.)

By Mel Greenberg

Temple shook off a tough loss and moved forward with a major win. Drexel made it three straight outings of offense and defense. Penn State delivered a major dose of revenge. Princeton and Delaware stayed perfect in their respective leagues with Delaware, ranked 20^th in the Associated Press women’s poll showing one half of Delle Donne is sometimes nifty as two.

And elsewhere around the country there were other things to note.

Things began to get bleak quickly for Temple following a home loss to St. Bonaventure on Wednesday.

Ahead Sunday afternoon in another key showdown in the Atlantic 10 the Owls were slotted to play at Dayton on national TV in a game between the two conference co-favorites.

Temple had gone through a roller-coaster non-conference schedule before pulling a last-second win at surprising Richmond a week ago Saturday only to be handled by the Bonnies in the Liacouras Center.

While the Owls were being placed into a dismal situation, Dayton had dominated St. Joseph’s on the road.

But Temple was able to come out Sunday against the Flyers with a hot start that put the Owls in position to withstand a Dayton rally in the second half and emerge with a 61-57 victory as Shey Peddy scored 21 points and Victoria Macauley grabbed 11 rebounds.

The result enabled Temple (8-8, 2-1 A-10) to even its record and stay in the hunt for at least a bye for the conference tournament at St. Joseph’s in March.

“That was a great effort but we have to maintain our focus and intensity,” Temple coach Tonya Cardoza said afterwards as the team headed to the airport for the flight back to Philadelphia.

The Owls are seeing nothing but the best of the conference until they reach the back end of the schedule.

Next up Wednesday at 4 p.m. in the Liacouras Center in the opener of a doubleheader with the men’s team is a visit from Duquesne before taking a brief conference break on Saturday to host Penn in a Big Five game.

Patrice Lalor had 15 points for Dayton (10-5, 2-1), which was prevented from joining surprising La Salle and St. Bonaventure at the top of the league standings.

Other statistical performers for Temple were Brittany Lewis with 13 points, Kristen McCarthy with 11 and while BJ Williams dealt eight assists and Peddy also grabbed eight rebounds.

Temple, which led by 10 points at the half, was reduced to a mere 58-57 advantage with 26 seconds remaining when Lalor hit a jumper.

Then Peddy was fouled and hit both free throws to at least be in position with 16 seconds left to go into overtime. But Williams forced a Dayton turnover and then went to the line where McCarthy hit one of two free throw attempts and Dayton was deprived of a shot in the Flyers’ final possession.’

Drexel 1-2 Punch Carries Dragons Over Georgia State

Following a stirring first-ever regular season win at James Madison, the biggest concern for Drexel coach Denise Dillon on Sunday was whether the Dragons would still be dancing off the victory and not be able to deal with the next matters at hand in Georgia State.

The answer came quickly at the Dasklalakis Athletic Center in West Philadelphia as Drexel took an early lead and was never threatened the rest of the day as the Dragons stayed tied for third with Virginia Commonwealth one game behind Delaware and Hofstra, who have yet to lose in the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA).

Kamile Nacicakaite had 17 points of her 20 points in the first half and Hollie Mershon followed up her career-high total at James Madison with 16 points and nine rebounds in what became an easy 65-38 win over the Panthers.

Drexel (8-7, 4-1 CAA) dominated the boards 42-30 and built on a 30-15 halftime lead by going on an 11-1 run at the outset of the second half stay in the comfort zone all the way to the finish.

No one scored in double figures for Georgia State (6-10, 0-5), which is still winless in the CAA after five games.

The Panthers were held to 25.5 percent from the field and Kendra Long had a team high eight points.

Drexel, which shot 48.9 percent from the field, next hosts Northeastern Thursday before heading to Delaware Sunday for a major showdown in the long-running rivalry both in the conference and dating back to when both belonged to the America East before the 2001-02 season.

“That’s definitely what we were concerned about – it was a good win on the road against JMU and then coming in against a team that you’re not really aware of what they are going to do, defensively,” Dillon said.

“They do a lot of matchup zones. They do a lot of trappings so you’re not sure what you are in store for. We wanted to keep the team on track with what has been working offensively,” Dillon added.

“A couple of times we wanted to make things happen instead of just allowing the offense to create shots for us, but that will tend to happen.

“We’re now playing team defense and they’re focusing so much on that end that offense is becoming easier for them. (Reserve) Fiona Flanagan is now comfortable taking shots. There’s no panic involved. She doesn’t feel like she has to make something happen but she’s looking to shoot the ball and that’s a great thing for us.”

Flanagan had seven points off the bench in 21 minutes. And Jackie Schluth scored five points.

“How about that. Schulth comes in and scores five points in six minutes. That girl can score points, she just needs to keep working on defense. Taylor Wootten is focusing so much on defense that offense is becoming easier for her.”

Meanwhile it was high drama for Delaware up at Northeastern where before the game it was learned that Ellena Delle Donne, the nation’s leading scorer (29.8 points per game), had some kind of undisclosed injury on her left foot, would not start, and it was unlikely she would play against the Huskies in Boston.

But with five minutes left in the half, Delle Donne, who missed 12 games last season due to Lyme disease, entered the tightly contested game which ended at the break with the Blue Hens in front 31-28.

The junior all-American forward-guard then spurred Delaware to a solid lead and 70-54 victory as she finished with 22 points and 10 rebounds . The Blue Hens are now 14-1 overall and 5-0 in the CAA heading to a return match with Towson, this time at the Tigers’ arena in Maryland, Thursday.

Delle Donne was perfect at the line 9-9 but also dished five assists to be part of a season-high 20 assists, one more than Delaware’s previous game – a win at home over UNCW.

Danielle Parker had 13 points and 10 rebounds while Lauren Carra had 12 points from four three-pointers. Jocelyn Bailey scored 10 points as the fourth Delaware player scoring in double figures.

It was the Blue Hens’ 20^th straight win over Northeastern (3-13, 1-4), which got 14 points and nine rebounds from Deanna Kerkhof.

“We didn’t start out very well without our regular starters and it threw everyone off a little bit,” Delaware coach Tina Martin said after getting her 292^nd career win – all with the Blue Hens. “In the first half, we didn’t share the ball as well as we have and some people played really tight.

“Overall in the second half we got much more comfortable with the flow of the game than we were in the first half. We were very up and down but we came out with a victory.”

Hofstra kept pace in the CAA with Delaware by gaining a first-ever win at Old Dominion in Norfolk, Va., at the Ted Constant Convocation Center, beating the former conference power 81-68 as Shante Evans of Henderson High and West Chester in suburban Philadelphia posted her eighth straight double double with 22 points and 10 rebounds.

The Pride (13-3, 5-0 CAA) had lost all nine previous meetings at ODU and the 13-3 record ties the best start ever for Hofstra, which also occurred in 2006-07.

Marie Malone had a career-high 20 point and nine rebounds for the Pride, a scoring total matched by teammate Nicole Capurso.

Hofstra coach Krista Kilburn-Stevesky, a former star at North Carolina State whose six-year head coaching caeer has all been with the Pride, gained her 99^th win.

Tia Lewis had 27 points for ODU (5-12, 2-3). Hofstra next hosts James Madison Thursday. The Duchesses (12-4, 3-2), the two-time defending CAA champions, took over fifth place with a home win over Towson (11-5, 2-3), which fell into a three-way tie for sixth with ODU and UNCW.

Virginia Commonwealth kept pace with Drexel by blunting a rally by William & Mary 83-80 on the road in Williamsburg, Va., as Courtney Hurt had 28 points and 15 rebounds for the Rams (11-5, 4-1).

The host Tribe fell to 8-8 overall and 1-4 in the CAA.

Princeton Routs Columbia

The two-time defending Ivy League champion Tigers made it 3-0 in league competition this season with a lop-sided 94-35 win at home over Columbia (2-13, 0-1 Ivy) in Jadwin Gym.

Princeton (13-4, 3-0), which will now be off almost three weeks for final exams, is now 30-1 the last three seasons in the Ivies. They next host Brown and Yale in back-to-back contests Feb. 3 nd

The Tigers roared to a 58-13halftime lead. Niveen Rasheed finished with 21 points and eight rebounds, Lauren Edwards had 19 points, Laura Johnson scored 12, and Devona Allgood had 10 points.

Melissa Shafer had 10 points for Columbia.

We talked a lot about our transition push and how we wanted to start the game strong … We took it to them right from the start and sustained that effort over 40 minutes,” Princeton coach Courtney Banghart said.

“This is an important time for (the team) academically,” Banghart said. “We asked them for the first three games to let us do our thing, and they did that, now we are going to let them do their thing academically … Our goals are still in place and that means we still have to keep getting better,” she added about keeping the team fresh through the final exam period.

Penn State Eyes Return To The Rankings

Having been bounced out of the AP poll a week ago for the first time this season, the Lady Lions attempted a quick return with a revenge-tinted 93-73 win on the road over No. 15 Nebraska in Big Ten contest in Lincoln.

To get this one, Penn State had to rally from an early 11-point deficit.

Several teams at the bottom of the current poll suffered losses to make re-entry possible while A-10 frontrunner St. Bonaventure is looking to gain more support as well.

Penn State (13-4, 3-2 Big Ten) lost at home several weeks ago to the conference newcomer who moved from the Big 12

“Since we played Nebraska the first time, we found a way to get (her players) to understand how important it is to play with patience, poise and composure,” Penn State coach Coquese Washington said. “As our team learns and grows, we’ll be able to hopefully do this, by this I mean, go on the road into a tough environment and execute down the stretch of games.”

Maggie Lucas, the graduate of Germantown Academy from Narberth, Pa., in suburban Philadelphia, had 24 points, while Alex Bentley scored 23 for the Lady Lions, who were the preseason conference favorites.

Nebraska (15-2, 4-1) suffered its first conference loss and yielded 90 points for the first time since 2008.

“Penn State, I thought, was hitting all cylinders in the second half,” Cornhuskers coach Connie Yori said. “We lost the game because of our defensive end. We could not slow them down.”

Penn State heads to Illinois Thursday and then returns home to the Bryce Jordan Center against Iowa on Sunday.

Elsewhere in the Big Ten, Brittany Rayburn, who tied an NCAA record with 12 three-pointers last time out, scored 14 points and made a key block at the finish as Purdue edged Iowa 57-55 at home in West Lafayette, Ind.

“All I know is I felt the ball, and the buzzer went off,” Rayburn said.

The No. 17 Boilermakers (15-3, 5-0) are alone in first place in the conference as the last unbeaten team in Big Ten competition.

Jaime Printy had 15 for Iowa (10-8, 2-3).

No. 11 Ohio State took Michigan State down from unbeaten play in the conference beating the Spartans on the road 64-56 in East Lansing as Samantha Prahalis scored 15 points for the Buckeyes (17-1, 4-1), who pulled the opposition (12-6, 4-1) into a three-way second-place tie with Nebraska.

National Highlights

In the Southeastern Conference, No. 6 Tennessee bounced back from its last second loss at No. 9 Kentucky by beating in-state rival No. 25 Vanderbilt 87-64 at home in Knoxville.

Shekinna Stricklen scored 20 points for the Lady Vols (13-4, 4-1 SEC) and suffered a knee injury, which later was said to mostly likely be a strain but further evaluation will be made Monday.

Glory Johnson had 16 points and 13 rebounds for Tennessee.

Christina Foggie tied her career-high with 27 points for Vanderbilt (14-3, 2-2).

Kentucky turned aside No. 24 South Carolina 66-58 on the road in Columbia as Kelya Snowden scored 15 points for the first-place Wildcats (16-2, 5-0).

The Gamecocks (14-4, 3-2) returned to the AP Poll a week ago for the first time since 2003 but the stay for Dawn Staley’s squad may be short after a road loss at LSU and Sunday’s setback to Kentucky.

Iesia Walker had 14 points for South Carolina, which was hounded into 28 turnovers as Kentucky is off to its best start ever in the SEC.

“Turnovers killed us,” Staley said.

South Carolina missed a chance to beat a Top 10 team for the first time since January 2002, one year before making the NCAA tournament for the last time since then.

“Keep turning the page,” Staley said about shaking off this past week’s two setbacks to land a spot in the 64-team field. South Carolina was also 12-for-25 on the line.

Meanwhile, No. 19 Georgia’s Anne Marie Armstrong had 22 point for the Bulldogs in a 68-51 road win at Mississippi State in Starkville.

Khaadlidah had 17 points for Georgia (15-3, 4-1) while Porsha Porter had 12 points for Mississippi State (11-6, 1-3).

In the Big East, No. 18 Georgetown stayed part of a five-team logjam for fifth place with an easy 69-42 win over Syracuse at home in the nation’s capital as Sugar Rodgers poured 23 points for the Hoyas (14-4, 3-2).

Isasia Hemingway had 14 for the Orange (12-7, 1-4).

Marquette’s 63-55 road win at St. John’s put both teams in that fifth-place crawl.

Katherine Plouffe had 18 points and 11 rebounds for the visiting Golden Eagles (12-6, 3-2), while Shenneika Smith had 13 points for the Red Storm (11-7, 3-2).

Idle Louisville (14-4, 3-2), which lost in overtime at Rutgers Saturday, and idle West Virginia (12-5, 3-2) are the other two teams in the five-game tie.

In the Big 12, top-ranked Baylor used Brittney Griner’s 32 points to down host Texas 77-59 in Austin. The Bears (17-0, 4-0 Big 12) and Wis.-Green Bay (15-0) and are the only remaining unbeaten teams in Division I.

Griner connected on 12 of her first 14 shots against the Longhorns (11-5, 1-3), who were without Cokie Reid who suffered a strained leg muscle in practice Saturday. Chassidy Fussell scored 20 points for Texas.

Over in the Atlantic Coast Conference, No. 7 Duke, which might jump into the top five in the AP Poll, had an easy time at Virginia Tech beating the Hokies 61-34 in Blacksburg.

It was the 16^th straight win in the series by the Blue Devils (14-2, 5-0 ACC), who got 20 points, seven rebounds and four blocked shots from freshman Elizabeth Williams.

The Hokies (6-12, 2-3) because of injuries have just six scholarship players.

No. 13 Miami edged Florida State 60-57 on the road in Tallahassee following the Hurricanes’ home upset of No. 5 Maryland as Stefanie Yderstrom nailed a three-pointer with 17 seconds remaining in regulation.

Miami (15-3, 4-1), which had not win at Florida State in 25 years, got 24 points from Shenise Johnson, including her 2,000^th career total.

Natasha Howard scored 22 for Florida State (10-9, 2-3).

In the Pac-12, California won its first game at Utah 63-56. The Utes joined the conference this year from the Mountain West.

Looking Ahead

Maryland (16-1, 3-1) will try to bounce back from its loss at Miami when the Terrapins host longtime rival Virginia (14-4, 2-2) Monday night.

The Guru may be on the scene and will tweet the game if so.

Meanwhile North Carolina (12-4), which could be out of the poll by game time, will be at No. 3 Connecticut (14-2) at the Huskies’ campus Gampel Pavillion in Storrs as Tar Heels coach Sylvia Hatchell again goes for her 600^th victory in the nonconference game.

North Carolina was upset last week at home by Clemson.

In a battle of two unbeaten America East teams in conference play Boston U. (11-6, 4-0) will visit Albany (11-7, 5-0).

-- Mel

Guru's College Report: UConn Swarms Over Villanova To Big East Win

2012-01-14T20:27:00.002-05:00

(Guru’s note: There is a separate post under this off the weekend Princeton games and below that is the interview that had been up with Cynthia Cooper-Dyke about Elena Delle Donne. Quotes in this post beyond the game site are from team and wire reports. If you are in melgreenberg.com click mel’s blog on the left column to get to the full archive in blogspot.)

By Mel Greenberg

VILLANOVA, Pa. – When it comes to Villanova playing a team like No. 3 Connecticut, where the outcome will be a foregone conclusion to many, many times to Wildcats coach Harry Perretta the win or loss takes a distinct back seat as to how the game is played.

And on Saturday afternoon before a lively crowd of 3,206 at the Pavilion though the result went heavily to the Huskies 72-49 in Villanova’s annual Big East matchup, Perretta felt from his perspective the game was played well enough.

“I thought we executed ourselves well – we were able to get shots, something we haven’t been able to do against them in a while,” Perretta said.

“I thought the game helped us a great deal and I thought it helped their young players a great deal because they don’t see (the way Villanova plays) – so I thought it was a good game for both teams.

“In the end you just couldn’t sustain it for 40 minutes. They did a good job – they disrupted us with their press, something that a lot of teams try to do – they try to not let us run our offense. I told the kids afterwards, we competed.”

Connecticut (14-2, 4-1 Big East), though, has answers to almost 96 percent of what the Huskies are presented with and even though Villanova (11-6, 2-3) is unique with its patient whip-around, shoot-from-the-perimeter style, Huskies coach Geno Auriemma went to a five-guard lineup when the Wildcats were making things difficult early in the contest.

The high watermark for Villanova came on Laura Sweeney’s layup for a 15-11 lead with 13 minutes left in the first half.

Then UConn went on a 15-0 run over the next six minutes to take control before Sweeney temporarily stopped surge with a pair of foul shots. The Huskies then scored six more points before Devon Kane’s three-pointer ended what had been a stretch of 9 ½ minutes without a field goal.

In that drought Villanova, which leads the nation with fewest turnovers at 11.1, was hounded into 11 of the Wildcats’ season-high 23 miscues.

“Our kids are not as athletic as they are so it’s tough,” Perretta said of Connecticut’s pressing defense. “Even though I know where they should pass it, they kind of know where they should pass, but they can’t get it there, and I made an adjustment, I did a poor job early not putting them in the right spot.”

Perretta’s group, though, was able to tough it out early in the second half slicing an 11-point deficit to five at 41-36 with 14:18 left in the game before the Huskies dominated the rest of the way.

Rachel Roberts, who grew up in Marlboro, Conn., watching the Huskies, was the only player in double figures for Villanova with 16 points, while Tiffany Hayes poured 22 points for UConn., freshman Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis scored 16 off the bench, and Kelly Faris scored 11.

Caroline Doty, the native of Doylestown, Pa., and graduate of Germantown Academy, celebrated her homecoming with nine points, shooting 4-for-9, including a three-pointer.

Doty and Villanova’s Jesse Carey were teammates here and played on the same AAU team. She had a large contingent of friends and family who got to see her play unlike UConn’s visit last spring to nearby Temple near center city in the NCAA Philadelphia regional.

The reason was Doty was still rehabbing from her third recurring knee injury that caused her to miss last season.

It was also another homecoming for Auriemma, who grew up in nearby Norristown.

“We’re so much better than last year,” Perretta said. “But sometimes we don’t concentrate and we kind of slip back into the last year when we don’t concentrate, we don’t make quick passes, we don’t do this or that.

“Today we were focused but they have to understand we have to be focused not just for UConn but every single time.”

Villanova, which connected on 11-of-24 three-pointers, was coming off an excruciating one-point loss at Marquette at the buzzer that occurred on a defensive lapse.

The Wildcats next step out of the Big East temporarily to host Penn Tuesday night when a win will give them the Big Five title outright at 4-0.

UConn also steps out of the conference to meet a struggling North Carolina team Monday night at Gampel Pavillion on campus in Storrs.

“Now you have to turn around and prepare for something entirely different,” Auriemma said of the different styles played by Villanova and the Tar Heels of the Atlantic Coast Conference.

He talked about the move to five guards to the Wildcats out of their rhythm.

“Villanova makes it very, very difficult on you to defend them because what they’ll do is take whatever big guy they think is the least mobile and they’ll make you come out on the perimeter and there’s nothing they can do about that. That’s how they play,” he said.

“We were hoping to have enough success where they missed enough threes and not hurt us and still play our regular lineup. But they shot the ball well from the perimeter today and forced us to go in another direction.”

Wheeler’s Shot Gives Rutgers Win Over Louisville

In an outcome that at times has gone against Rutgers in a similar fashion in recent seasons, Erica Wheeler capped her career-high 23 points with a three-point buzzer beater in overtime to give the eighth-ranked Scarlet Knights a 71-68 win over No. 16 Louisville at the Louis A. Brown Athletic Center in Piscataway, N.J.

The win moved Rutgers to 15-2 overall and 4-0 in the Big East keeping the Scarlet Knights on track for its end-of-the-month showdown hosting second-ranked Notre Dame and then visiting Connecticut in consecutive Big East games.

“One of the coaches were saying they hadn’t seen that kind of fight in us for a while,” Rutgers coach C. Vivian Stringer said afterwards. “It’s good to see us grind that one out and we’ll be more confident because of this situation.”

The game had 11 ties and 11 lead changes as April Sykes added 19 points to Rutgers’ total and Monique Oliver had 17 points. Khadijah Rushdan had nine points, 11 rebounds and eight assists.

Rutgers next travels to improving St. John’s for a Tuesday contest on Long Island.

La Salle Downs Xavier

Reversal of fortunes continued for La Salle and Xavier with the Explorers beating the two-time defending Atlantic 10 champion Musketeers 63-51 at Tom Gola Arena for La Salle’s sixth straight win.

The rugged nonconference schedule drawn up by second-year coach Jeff Williams is paying off at the moment with La Salle, at 3-0 in the conference, making its best start in the Atlantic 10 since 1996-97 season while also evening the overall record at 9-9.

Xavier, which was hit by graduation losses, transfers and the departure of former coach Kevin McGuff to Washington in the Pac-12, fell to 3-13 overall and 0-3 in the conference.

Brittany Wilson scored 28 points for La Salle, including 15 courtesy of connected three-pointers, while Nadia Duncan scored 14 points and Jada Payne scored 10. Ruvanna Campbell grabbed nine rebounds, four steals and dealt two blocks and two assists.

La Salle forced the Musketeers into 21 turnovers and cashed the miscues by the opposition into 23 points.

Shatyra Hawkes had 14 of her team high 17 points in the second half for Xavier while Jessica Pachko had a career-high 16 points.

The Explorers will wade into deeper conference waters on the road visiting Charlotte at noon on Wednesday and at Richmond Saturday.

Xavier is off all week until St. Joseph’s visits Saturday.

Hawks Edge Quakers

St. Joseph’s used a 19-4 run to finally put away Penn for a 42-34 victory in a Big Five game at home at Hagan Arena to move to 11-5 overall and 1-1 in the City Series.

Katie Kuester and Samira van Grinsven each scored 10 points for the Hawks while Kelly Cavallo matched a career high with 15 rebounds.

Penn (7-6) struggled from the field shooting 13-for-50 as Kara Bonenberger had 10 points and 10 rebounds.

The Quakers are on a three-game stretch away from the Ivy League on the Big Five circuit with a visit to Villanova ahead on Tuesday followed by Saturday’s game at Temple.

St. Joseph’s next hosts Fordham Wednesday night and visits Xavier on Saturday.

Elsewhere in the Atlantic 10, St. Bonaventure continued its hot hand, beating visiting Saint Louis 64-52 to improve to 16-2 overall and stay perfect in the conference at 3-0.

It’s the fifth straight win for the Bonnies – the second time that’s occurred this season – and the 3-0 conference start is the best ever.

Jessica Jenkins had 15 points and Megan Van Tatenhove scored 14.

Janisha Gearlds was the only Saint Louis player in double figures with 19 points as the Billikens fell to 6-12 overall and remained winless in the conference at 0-3.

Charlotte edged George Washington 61-60, Fordham beat Rhode Island 69-49 and Richmond beat Masscusetts 73-54.

Temple travels to Dayton Sunday in a game between the two teams co-picked to win the Atlantic 10 according to the preseason poll of the conference coaches.

The Owls are coming out of a home loss to St. Bonaventure while the host Flyers beat St. Joseph’s on Wednesday.

Looking Ahead

In three key Colonial Athletic Association games Sunday Drexel, which is getting near the so-called NCAA bubble, hosts Georgia State while frontrunners No. 20 Delaware travels to Northeastern in Boston and Hofstra travels to Old Dominion in Norfolk,Va.

Princeton hosts Columbia before a three-week break will host Columbia to try to stay unbeaten in the Ivy League.

Penn State, looking to get back into the poll, makes a first-ever visit to No. 15 Nebraska in the Big 10. This is the host Cornhuskers’ first year in the conference after leaving the Big 10.

Elsewhere in the Big 10, No. 11 Ohio State is at Michigan State while No. 17 Purdue hosts Iowa.

In the Atlantic Coast Conference, No. 7 Duke will try to stay unbeaten in the league traveling to Virginia Tech while No. 13 Miami fresh off its upset of No. 5 Maryland will be at Florida State; The Terrapins will try to bounce back Monday hosting Virginia.

In the Southeastern Conference, No. 6 Tennessee coming off a one-point loss at No. 9 Kentucky will host No. 25 Vanderbilt while Kentucky visits No. 24 South Carolina, which is coming off a loss at unranked LSU. No. 19 Georgia travels to Mississippi State.

In the Big East, No. 18 Georgetown hosts Syracuse.

-- Mel

Guru Report: Princeton Battling Ivy Foes And Computer Rankings

2012-01-14T19:37:00.002-05:00

(There is a post above this on Saturday's action)

By Mel Greenberg

PRINCETON, N.J. - Ivy opponents are causing Princeton more problems when it comes to computer rankings than they are in the actual games though Cornell made things interesting for a half here Friday night before the Tigers put away the Big Red 64-35 in Jadwin Gym.

Kate Miller had 14 points, Megan Bowen scored 10 and Rasheed Niveen had 10 points and 12 rebounds for the two-time defending Ivy champions (12-4, 2-0 Ivy).

Clare Fitzpatrick scored 12 for Cornell (5-9, 0-1).

The Big Red stayed with the Tigers for the first 20 minutes, trailing just 25-17 at the break. Then Princeton roared from the locker room with a 13-0 run and stayed comfortably ahead the rest of the way.

“The first half against the zone, I thought we knew were the gaps were but we weren’t getting to the gaps the way we wanted to get to the gaps,” Princeton coach Courtney Banghart said. “So at halftime we found the gaps and these are the ways we want to get our bodies there and we did a much better the second half.”

Cornell coach Dayna Smith, a former Penn assistant when Boston U’s Kelly Greenberg, a La Salle grad, was in charge the front end of the last decade, spoke of the game from here viewpoint.

“I thought we did a nice job of protecting the gaps in the first half,” Smith said. “Second half, they spread us out too much – we were undisciplined in our zone. But, yeah, they’re very, very talented so it’s hard to keep them down.

“This team is bigger and stronger than any team in the league at every position,” Smith said. “They have size, they have strength, and skill set in each position. – Very unique.”

It’s enough to make one wonder after a rigorous non-conference schedule and the long break ahead followed by a group of opponents who will be heavy underdogs in each Princeton games, how the Tigers will maintain their mojo.”

“This group is not complacent – so that was not a complacent effort,” Banghart said of Friday’s game. “It wanted it so bad they were getting where they needed to go but they weren’t getting there the right way – we weren’t playing together and this is a team that needs to play together.”

When the question came up as to what challenges might exist from Princeton’s Ivy rivals, Banghart said, “Anyone watching this game might think, `Boy they’re a beatable team.’ We have to be sharper.

“Fortunately, we have depth, we have great effort, we had more offensive rebounds (26) than they had total (55), but I still expect better play from our starters and I think we’ll get it Sunday.”

That’s when Columbia will visit before Princeton goes on a three-week break for finals before resuming the Ivy schedule the rest of the way.

“There are some good teams in our league. Our league RPI is 11 out of 31. Last year it was 28 out of 31. We have to make them look bad and we’re going to try.”

One reason is Princeton alone is lifting the league level with its amazing designation at 14 RPI and 10 strength of schedule.

It was even higher before being dragged down by Cornell (273) followed Sunday by Columbia (335).

Saturday's daily simulation looked like this in the Ivy section in terms of RPI and Strength of Schedule:

Princeton 14 10

Yale 93 136

Harvard 143 215

Penn 165 197

Brown 215 319

Dartmouth 253 85

Cornell 273 305

Columbia 335 304

If Princeton runs the table, the Tigers could get the highest seed ever given an Ivy team in the NCAA tournament because many concede that on a blind sampling of sorts they could be mistaken as one of the bonafide BCS bunch.

The Tigers are taking a bigger hit in the computer ranking because they had been as high as 11 before this weekend’s set of games.

If such a thing were possible, the Ivies should declare Princeton the champion, put the number of games needed to sweep the league into the Tigers’ win column, freeze their RPI and then let the rest of the league play for the WNIT berth, which is what is going to inherently happen anyway.

One just hopes when the NCAA committee meets to set up the 64-team draw the infamous blind test of teams on their own merits and not where they come from will be used to give the Tigers their due.

-- Mel

Guru Interview: Cooper-Dyke Calls Delle Donne "Elite" And WNBA-Ready

2012-01-13T09:06:00.007-05:00

(Guru’s note. Below this are two posts – local and national roundups with the local roundup including Delaware and Drexel game details as well as all CAA and Big ten games highlighted by Penn State. If you are in melgreenberg.com and arrived here first, click mel’s blog on the left to reach the other two posts and full archive in blogspot).

By Mel Greenberg

NEWARK, Del. – North Carolina-Wilmington reached a milestone in the Seahawks’ history playing their 1,000^th game here Thursday night when they matched up with front-running Delaware in a Colonial Athletic Association game at the Blue Hens’ Bob Carpenter Center.

However, there was not much memorable to take home from a 69-37 loss in which UNCW (8-7,1-3) was held to a season-low and beyond on the scoreboard as well as shooting a dismal 23.7 percent from the field and being hounded into 21 turnovers.

While the loss did not sit well with second-year coach Cynthia Cooper-Dyke, the former WNBA and Olympic great who earned CAA coach of the year honors last season for turning UNCW into a Cinderella story, she didn’t mind discussing Delaware junior sensation Elena Delle Donne, who has the option because of her natural senior class of joining the WNBA after this season.

Delle Donne for the moment is placing her emphasis on helping Delaware make school history in trying to win the CAA and also already has led the Blue Hens to their first-ever appearance in the Associated Press women’s poll.

The graduate of Ursuline Academy in nearby Wilmington who was the 2008 national high school player of the year recently set the women’s career scoring record at Delaware – she reached 1,748 points after Thursday’s game – and leads the nation in scoring with a 30.3 average thought that will dip a bit when Delaware updates its stats since she scored just 23 points and saw less playing time than normal because of the rout.

Of course, with a visit on tap for Sunday at Northeastern, the scoring needle can swing back up 180 degrees quickly as it has done several times in both directions as the Blue Hens have moved to 13-1 overall and 4-0 in the CAA.

At the end of last season Delle Donne, who was still recovering from the effects of Lyme Disease earlier in the year causing massive fatigue, led Delaware, a 7^th seed, to a 62-47 upset of second-seeded UNCW in the CAA tournament semifinals.

“The biggest difference (in Delaware this season) is Elena,” said Cooper-Dyke, who helped lead the former Houston Comets to the first four WNBA titles in the late 1990s. “Elena is playing at a different level this year.

“She is playing great defense, she’s really the enforcer underneath the basket, she’s hitting her outside shot, which forces you to come up on her, and then she can penetrate around you,” Cooper –Dyke continued.

“I really think the intensity of Elena has changed from last year and that is the biggest difference,” Cooper-Dyke said and cited Delle Donne’s performance for the USA Basketball squad in the World University Games winning a gold medal as the main cause.

“This is going to sound a little weird but I think USA Basketball boosted her confidence. It showed her she really is an elite basketball player. She might have had some doubts in her own mind – we all knew she was the best – but if she had doubts, playing for USA Basketball, playing on the world’s stage, really gave her confidence, that push she really needed to take her game to the next level.”

As one who knows talent at the pro level, Cooper-Dyke was asked if Delle Donne could fit into the league now if she made the jump and responded, “She was a pro two years ago. Oh, yeah. She’s absolutely ready.”

“It’s really about Elena and her growth. I think the very next step for her has to be set on making her debut in the league.”

Cooper-Dyke then smiled and noted a personal interest for Delle Donne to make the move now, though it is believed she is having too much fun to leave her teammates.

“We all want her to get out of the CAA now so we can compete again. But she’s just a great player and (Delaware coach Tina Martin) has just done a fantastic job with her and the rest of the team. They have a couple of transfer players that have solidified what Delaware does with outside shooting, penetration, and ball movement – they have the complete package.”

The Los Angeles Sparks have the first pick in this year’s draft while the Seattle Storm hold the second pick ahead of the WNBA champion Minnesota Lynx (through a trade with Washington) and the Tulsa Shock.

The next time around in 2013, however, if things don’t go well for Connecticut, Washington or New York, at least two of them could land in the lotto and if a West team has the first pick there’s the chance Delle Donne could land in the East close to home.

The other factor is both Baylor great Brittney Griner and Notre Dame sensation Skylar Diggins, because this will be the 22^nd year of their birth, they have the option of leaving early, according to the WNBA collective bargaining agreement.

If Delle Donne declares for this summer Los Angeles would then have to deliberate whether to make her the pick or the currently perceived top choice – Stanford senior Nnemkadi Oguwmike.

Griner, if she stays, is considered the likely choice for the overall No. 1 pick next summer but if an Eastern seaboard team holds that choice, especially Washington or New York, the selection of Delle Donne could have an even greater impact on attendance growth.

With Delle Donne having claimed the Delaware women’s career scoring mark – now at 1,748 points – here are some career milestones to keep in mind with 14 regular season games remaining, plus the potential of at least three in the CAA tournament if the Blue Hens get to the title game, and at least one more in either the NCAA or WNIT.

Delle Donne needs just 13 points to pass former James Madison star Meredith Alexander and climb into the CAA Top 10 of all-time scorers.

She is also 19 away from reaching ninth currently held by Pam Bryant of former CAA member Richmond at 1,766.

Delle Donne is 273 from reaching 2,031, which would eclipse former Blue Hens men’s star and current men’s assistant Mike Pegues, who has the combined men’s/women’s scoring record at Delaware at 2,030.

When Delle Donne reaches 2000 points she will become the fifth women’s player in CAA history to get to that total.

Former James Madison star Dawn Evans claimed the CAA scoring summit last season at 2,667 – two less than the men’s mark set by former great David Robinson when Navy was a member and he finished with 2,669 points.

When Evans shot to No. 1, she past the previous CAA women’s mark of former Drexel star Gabriela Marginean who finished with 2, 581 in 2010 to also set an all-time record for Philadelphia area collegiate schools at all NCAA divisional levels.

Third on the CAA women’s list is former JMU star Tamera Young at 2,121 and fourth is former Old Dominion great Celeste Hill at 2,112.

-- Mel

Guru's Local Roundup: Delaware and Drexel Deliver

2012-01-13T08:56:00.003-05:00

(Guru’s note: There are two posts above and below this, the one above is a sidebar discussion with UNCW coach and former WNBAS great Cynthia Cooper-Dyke about Delaware’s Elena Delle Donne. The post beneath covers other significant national games not in this post. In this and the national post, material and quotes beyond the game site are drawn on team and wire reports.)

By Mel Greenberg

NEWARK, Del. – Mark down Thursday night as one of satisfaction for both Delaware coach Tina Martin and Drexel coach Denise Dillon in terms of how far their Colonial Athletic Association teams might soar when everything is going right.

Delaware, the 20^th-ranked team in the nation, demonstrated the Blue Hens could be a blend of a one-woman crowd pleaser within a multi-player attack as they locked down UNC Wilmington 69-37 in front of another near-sellout crowd of 3,552 at the Bob Carpenter Center.

Drexel on the site of the Dragon’s two-greatest moments in the program’s history, added perhaps No. 3 on the list with a stunning 60-43 victory at two-time defending champion James Madison in Harrisonburg, Va.

The Dragons rallied from an eight-point 25-18 halftime deficit caused by being held without a field goal the final 9:25 of the opening period.

Back here, junior sensation Elena Delle Donne continued to dwarf everyone else in the game stats for Delaware (13-1, 4-0 CAA) and the opposition, scoring 23 points while Lauren Cara was also in double figures for the Blue Hens with 12 points.

But the Blue Hens also shared the basketball quite well at the same time compiling 19 assists, five each by Delle Donne and her former Ursuline Academy teammate Kayla Miller at the nearby Wilmington High School.

Defensively, Delaware held the Seahawks (8-7, 1-3) to a season-low and beyond on the scoreboard in depriving anyone of double figures and also harassing UNCW into 21 turnovers on the night of the opposition’s 1,000^th game in the history of its program.

The miscues and the Blue Hens’ 46-37 rebounding advantage enabled Delaware to double the Seahawks’ production inside the paint 36-18 and do likewise on fast break points 12-6.

Delaware’s Danielle Parker and UNCW’s Karneshia Garrett shared game rebounding honors at nine each while Garrett and Abria Trice each had team highs of eight points.

The game stayed lopsided most of the way enabling Martin to give Delaware’s bench plenty of action and get a 20-6 response compared to the points scored by Seahawks reserves.

Jocelyn Bailey, in 19 minutes of action, scored six points, a total also produced by Kelsey Buchanan in 15 minutes of playing time.

While Delaware shot 47.7 percent from the field, including 51.5 percent in the first half on a night that Delle Donne’s outside shooting was off the mark (1-for-5 on three-point attempts), UNCW was limited to 23.7 percent from the field.

“I’d like to see our younger players – we got some freshmen and sophomores – I’d like to see them get time and get a chance to see what they really can do, and nights like this when we play defense like this we’ll have an opportunity to get those players some minutes,” Martin said.

As for the 19 assists, Martin noted, “Once we get out on the break, sometimes we over pass, they want to pass so much to each other, so I told them don’t be too fancy, we tried to thread the needle a couple of times, but overall, yes, we shared the ball very nicely, we looked for each other – we’re looking for the best high percentage shot we can get.

“The two biggest things about this team, I think, when they are focused, those are the two biggest areas – we defend and we do share the ball. It’s something they’ve learned to do over the last two years. And it’s really good to see it come all the way full circle when we have a game like tonight.”

Martin said her team is enjoying its new status this season as a nationally ranked team – this week is the seventh since making its debut in The Associated Press women’s poll. The Blue Hens are also 18^th in the USA Today/ESPN coaches’ poll.

“I think they’re excited about it,” she said. “It’s a source of pride for them right now. Certainly, the fans are awesome. I think there’s just a lot of pride right now – the fact that we are in the Top 20. I think the kids feel really good about it and they want to stay there.

“So each and every night they’re bringing the focus they need to be that kind of team right now. And we just need to keep that going. So just they continue to understand its about defense then offense will take care of itself and we’re going to be just fine.”

Delle Donne, named on Tuesday as the United States Basketball Writers Association women’s national player of the week, was honored before the game for her participation on the USA Basketball squad that won a gold medal at the World University Games last summer as she led the Americans in scoring and rebounding.

She was more thrilled at her squad’s ability to excel when she realized she wasn’t her exact best – Delle Donne is currently the nation’s scoring leader with a 30.3 average before the game.

“That was a phenomenal win for us,” Delle Donne said. “Defensively, we were incredible tonight. Akeema (Richards) was able to guard their best player (Alisha Andrews who scored six points, well below her 13.8 average and hounded into five turnovers). And everyone else on help side and I just thought our defense was phenomenal and that makes our offense go and it really got our transition game going well.

“We also wanted to play two strong halves,” she said. “My shot was really off tonight – I don’t think I could have thrown it in the ocean if I tried, but everyone else was stepping up and really getting open and (coming off screens) I thought I was able to find those people since they were hitting their shots.”

Delle Donne, who last week set the Blue Hens’ all-time career mark in just over half the time the previous mark was established, now has 1,748 points – just 13 away from hitting the Top 10 in all-time career scoring in the CAA.

James Madison’s Meredith Alexander, who scored 1,760, holds the 10^th spot behind frontrunner Dawn Evans, who graduated last season from JMU as the all-time CAA leader at 2,667 career points.

Former Blue Hens men’s star and current men’s assistant coach Mke Pegues holds the combined men’s-women’s career record at Delaware at 1,030, just 272 above Delle Donne, who still has 14 games left in the regular season.

Delaware next heads to Northeastern in Boston on Sunday afternoon.

Meanwhile, Drexel (7-7, 3-1) stayed tied for third with idle Virginia Commonwealth (10-5, 3-1) and a game behind frontrunners Delaware and Hofstra (12-3, 4-0) in gaining the Dragons’ first-ever regular-season win at James Madison (11-4, 2-2) since becoming a member of the CAA for the 2001-02 season.

In March 2009 when the JMU Convocation Center was the site of the CAA tournament leading to an automatic berth in the 64-team NCAA field, Drexel won it all.

The Dragons created history, ending Old Dominion’s 17-year rule of the CAA tournament with a win over the Lady Monarchs in the semifinals and then the next day finished the job with a win over the host Duchesses for the championship.

Philadelphia-area all-time scoring leader Gabriela Marginean, who graduated two seasons ago from Drexel, dominated those two wins.

On Thursday night it was junior Hollie Mershon, the graduate of Archbishop Carroll who had a career-high 27 points.

It was the most points JMU has yielded to any individual opponent this season.

Kamile Nacickaite was also in double figures for Drexel, scoring 15 points as the Dragons snapped a 17-game home win streak by JMU, who fell into a fifth-place tie with idle Old Dominion (5-11, 2-2) and Towson (11-4, 2-2).

Towson topped visiting William & Mary, 77-75, as senior Sheree Ledbetter scored the winning basket with four-tenths of a second left in regulation.

The Dragons won this game playing Villanova-style basketball – the alma mater of Dillon – holding the ball until the shot clock entered single digits before going for the basket.

Drexel, which trailed 25-18 at the break, pulled away in the second half with a sizzling 58.3 percent over the final 20 minutes and also took care of the basketball with a season-low eight turnovers.

Defensively, the Dragons limited JMU to just three points – all by Jasmine Gill – over the final 7:36. Lauren Whitehurst scored a team-high 14 points for the Duchesses.

Drexel returns home Sunday to host Georgia State at 2 p.m. at the Daskalakis Athletic Center.

In another CAA game of note, Hofstra stayed locked in first with Delaware by beating Georgia State 80-67 at home in Hempstead, N.Y., on Long Island.

Shante Evans, the Henderson High graduate out of West Chester in suburban Philadelphia, had her seventh straight double double with 26 points and 12 rebounds for the Pride, whose 4-0 conference start is their best since becoming a member for the 2001-02 season.

Nicole Capurso scored 10 points.

Kendra Long had a team-high 19 points for the Panthers (6-9, 0-4), who will still be looking for their first conference win Sunday when they visit Drexel.

Hofstra next travels to Norfolk, Va., Sunday to play Old Dominion.

Elsewhere in the CAA, Towson’s narrow win, its fourth overall in the last 10 seconds, dropped William & Mary to 8-7 overall and 1-3 in the CAA, as the Tigers snapped a two-game losing streak at the hands of Drexel and Delaware.

"I'm proud of the way we responded,” Towson coach Joe Matthews said. “You can't simulate [late game situations] in practice. This league is full of close games and our team is really confident that if we have the ball at the end of the game we can find a way to win."

Tysha Paye’s layup with six seconds tied the game at 75-75 for William & Mary before Tanisha McTiller whipped the ball inside to Ledbetter for the game-winner.

McTiller finished with a career-high 23 points for Towson, which travels to James Madison Sunday after remaining unbeaten at home at 7-0.

The Tigers will host Delaware next Thursday.

In the only other game on the CAA schedule, Northeastern at home beat George Mason 58-54 for the first conference win of the season by the Huskies (3-12, 1-3).

Penn State Dominates Michigan

Maggie Lucas, the sophomore scoring sensation out of Germantown Academy and Narberth in suburban Philadelphia, scored 22 points – her ninth 20-point game of the season, to spur Penn State to a 78-63 win over Michigan (13-4, 2-2) in a Big Ten game at home in the Bryce Jordan Center.

The Lady Lions (12-4, 2-2) fell out of the AP Poll for the first time this season but clung to No. 25 in the USA Today/ESPN coaches poll.

Lucas has 55 points in her last two games.

Zhaque Gray scored 15 points for Penn State while Alex Bentley, the preseason conference player of the year, had 12 points, a team-best six assists and also had four steals.

Nikki Greene grabbed nine rebounds for the Lady Lions and Mia Nickson had eight rebounds.

Penn State will be looking for revenge for one of its two conference losses Sunday when it travels to former Big 12 member and newcomer Nebraska, which outlasted host Wisconsin 75-69.

The No. 15 Cornhuskers (15-1, 4-0 Big Ten) got 28 points from Lindsey Moore against the Badgers (5-12, 1-4), who got 20 point from Taylor Wurtz.

“There’s no panic in her game,” new Wisconsin coach Bobbie Kelsey, a former Stanford assistant at Kelsey’s alma mater, said of Moore’s night. “We can learn a lot from her game.”

Nebraska has rallied in each of its four conference wins.

In two other Big Ten games involving ranked teams, No. 17 Purdue topped host Minnesota 72-55, while No. 11 Ohio State beat visiting Northwestern 82-72.

In the win by Purdue (14-3, 4-0 Big Ten), the Boilermakers’ Brittany Rayburn tied an NCAA record with 12 three-pointers and finished with 38 points against the Gophers (10-8, 2-2) in Minneapolis.

LSU’s Corneilia Gayden set the original record in 1995.

“It was timing,” according to Purdue coach Sharon Versyp. “Every time (Minnesota) made a run, I called a play to set her up coming off the backside. Our post players make great screens and you have to have a great passer who makes a great pass. As I always say, `Passers make shooters.’”

Minnesota coach Pam Borton spoke of the job Rayburn did against her team: “She’s a great player, a great shooter. I though her teammates did a great job setting screens for her to get open and she just couldn’t miss. She could not miss tonight.”

Rayburn sizzled with a 12-for-16 effort beyond the arc.

Ohio State’s Tayler Hill had 19 of her 24 points in the second half as the Buckeyes (16-1, 3-1) stopped the Wildcats (11-6, 1-3) in Columbus.

Samantha Prahlis helped Ohio State recover from the weekend loss to Michigan in Ann Arbor by scoring 20 points against Northwestern, which got 20 points from Danielle Diamant.

In the only other conference game scheduled, Michigan State (12-5, 4-0) cruised over visiting Indiana 67-47 as the Hoosiers fell to 5-13 overall and stayed winless in the Big 10 at 0-4.

Looking Ahead

On Friday night the Guru will be tweeting on @womhoopsguru from Princeton in the Tigers’ Ivy contest at home against Cornell at 7 p.m. in Jadwin Gym.

-- Mel

Guru's National Roundup: Upsets Strike Maryland and Tennessee

2012-01-13T08:51:00.003-05:00

(Guru’s note. There are two other nu posts above this. Directly above is the local roundup highlighting Delaware, Drexel, and Penn State games and all associated CAA and Big Ten action. The post above that is a discussion with UNCW coach and former WNBA great Cynthia Cooper-Dyke about Delaware’s Elena Delle Done. Material in game action in this post drawn on team and wire reports.)

By Mel Greenberg

The women’s basketball season was hit a by a few tremors Thursday night in results bound to scramble the next ranking in the Associated Press women’s poll as well as create more suspense in races involving many major conference standings.

No. 5 Maryland’s loss at No. 13 Miami left just top-ranked Baylor and No. 14 Wis.-Green Bay as the remaining two unbeaten teams in Division I.

No. 6 Tennessee departed with a long win streak in the Southeastern Conference, losing at No. 9 Kentucky, while in another SEC game, the return of both coach Dawn Staley and South Carolina to the poll at No. 24 may be short-lived following a loss at LSU.

There were impressive individual performances in the Big 10, which are covered in the local roundup post, which also has Delaware, Hofstra and Drexel gaining key Colonial Athletic Association wins.

North Carolina had stayed in the poll and even moved up a few spots despite the loss at home to Maryland on Sunday but the Tar Heels could be bumped out quickly after an ACC loss to unranked Clemson.

Gonzaga out in the West held serve in the West Coast Conference following the Zags’ return to the poll for the first time this season, while in the PAC-12 newcomers Colorado and Utah were roughed up by longtime members California and Stanford.

As they say on ESPN, let’s go to the tape and we’ll start in the Atlantic Coast Conference:

After winning two rounds of survivor over the weekend in rallying from 20 points in the second half at home to beat Georgia Tech and then barely getting into overtime to win at North Carolina, No. 5 Maryland was felled by a group of Hurricanes, specifically No. 13 Miami 75-63 in Coral Gables, Fla., to fall from the unbeaten column as well as take a key hit from an ACC power favored to win the automatic bid in March.

Riquana Williams, who was one of the stars in a nonconference rally in overtime against visiting Rutgers, came up big again, scoring 34 points for the Hurricanes (16-1, 3-1 ACC) as the Terrapins (16-1, 3-1) experienced their first scoring draught of the season.

They had been leading the nation in scoring at 84.4 points per game.

“They really got after it,” said Maryland’s Alyssa Thomas, the star of the two previous wins and reigning ACC player of the week. “We knew they were physical and like to put their hands on you and make it tough on you. At times it was hard to get to the basket.”

Thomas was hounded into eight turnovers though she scored 18 points.

It was Miami’s first-ever win over a Top Five team.

Maryland coach Brenda Frese praised Williams’ performance which helped keep the Hurricanes’ home win streak extended to 34 games.

“We really had no answer. She was unstoppable. She was definitely in a zone.”

In another ACC game involving a ranked team, unranked Clemson took down No. 22 North Carolina 52-47 putting the Tar Heels in danger of losing two straight when they face No. 3 Connecticut on the road Monday night in a nonconference matchup.

The loss at home in Chapel Hill denied veteran coach Sylvia Hatchell her 600^th win.

Quinyotta Pettaway had 16 points and 12 rebounds for the Tigers (5-10, 1-3 ACC) in the startling upset while Tierra Ruffin-Pratt and Chay Shagog each scored 11 points for North Carolina 12-4, 2-2).

Idle Duke took over first place in the ACC and could move up two spots in the poll from seventh if the Blue Devils beat unranked Florida State Friday night.

Elsewhere in the ACC, Virginia (14-4, 2-2) gained the 800^th win in the program’s storied history beating Virginia Tech 52-39 at home in Charlottesville as Ariana Moorer scored her 1000^th point.

The Hokies fell to 6-11overall and 2-2 in the conference.

The home team won in two other ACC games with Georgia Tech topping Wake Forest 71-67 and North Carolina State beating Boston College 80-57.

SEC Becomes Wide Open

A’dia Mathies, who won the first-ever United States Basketball Writers Association national women’s player of the week last month, scored with 4.2 seconds left and finished with a career-high 34 points for No. 9 Kentucky (15-2, 4-0 SEC) in a 61-60 win at home before a sellout crowd in Lexington over Tennessee (12-4, 3-1) that stopped a 36-game win streak in the conference by the Lady Vols.

Glory Johnson had 17 points for Tennessee.

In three other games involving SEC teams in the AP poll No. 19 Georgia at home in Athens beat Florida 61-55; unranked LSU in Baton Rouge clipped visiting No. 24 South Carolina 58-48, and in Nashville, Tenn., No. 25 Vanderbilt beat Auburn 66-58.

Anne Marie Armstrong and Khaalidah Miller each scored 19 points for Georgia (14-3, 3-1 SEC) which nearly blew a 15-point lead to Florida (11-6, 1-3).

LSU (13-3, 4-0), which fell out of the poll early in the season, got 14 points from LaSondra Barrett against the Gamecocks (`14-3, 3-1), who got 13 points from Aleighsa Welch off the bench.

South Carolina had not been ranked since the final poll of the 2002-03 season while Gamecocks coach Dawn Staley had previously guided Temple to a national ranking in the middle of the last decade.

Christina Foggie tied a career-high with 27 points for Vanderbilt (14-2, 2-1) in its win over Auburn (9-8, 1-3), which got 14 points from Tyrese Tanner.

In two other SEC games, host Mississippi beat Arkansas, 60-54, and visiting Mississippi State beat Alabama 66-61.

Phoenix Still Risen

In the Midwest, No. 14 Wisconsin-Green Bay on the road easily handled Wright State 68-50 in Fairborn, Ohio, in a Horizon League contest to stay perfect at 14-0 overall and 4-0 in the league.

Julie Wojta had 22 points for the Phoenix and a career-high 17 rebounds against the Raiders (11-6, 4-1), who were forced into 31 turnovers.

Wis.-Green Bay has been ranked ahead of Delaware 1-2 in the mid-major poll.

Stanford Sister Act Stops Utah

The Bay-Area sister schools of California and Stanford are making their first visits this week to Pac-12 newcomers Utah, formerly with the Mountain West, and Colorado, formerly with the Big 12.

The sister of act of Nnemkadi and Chiney Oguwmike took care of business for No. 4 Stanford (14-1, 5-0 Pac-12) in a 62-43 victory over Utah (8-7, 1-3) as Nnemkadi scored 18 points and grabbed 13 rebounds, while Chiney had 11 points and 14 rebounds.

Iwalani Rodrigues had 16 points for Utah.

Meanwhile California won in Boulder over Colorado 68-55 as the Bears went on a 17-0 run in the final seven minutes after previously trailing the Buffs (13-2, 2-2) by 12 points with 12 left in the game.

Layshia Clarendon had 18 points for Cal (12-5, 3-2), who will complete the inaugural visits to the newcomers on Sunday going to Utah while Stanford drops by Colorado.

Chucky Jeffery scored 21 points for Colorado.

In two other Pac-12 games, Oregon got 17 points from freshman Lexi Petersen and also used 10 three-pointers to down visiting Arizona 87-73 in Eugene to move to 10-7 overall and 2-3 in the conference. Erin Butler had career highs of 23 points and seven three-pointers for the Wildcats (12-4, 1-3).

Oregon State did its part for a sweep of the northwest teams over the desert partners beating Arizona State 56-51 at home in Corvallis as Sage Indendi had 11 points for the Beavers (11-5, 2-3), who rallied from a nine-point, second-half deficit.

The Beavers ended a 18-game losing streak to the Sun Devils (10-5, 1-3), who got 11 points each from Jada Blackwell and Kali Bennett.

Zig Unnecessary For Zags

No. 23 Gonzaga (15-2, 4-0) at home in Spokane, Wash., extended its West Coast Conference string of victories to 34 straight by beating San Francisco 87-52 as Kayla Standish scored 20 points.

Rheina Ale had 16 points for the Dons (3-15, 1-4), who have lost 12 straight to the Zags.

-- Mel