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

 By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsgurux

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

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

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

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

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

Rutgers Woes Continue

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

There were no local games Monday.

Villanova Wins Sixth Straight, Hosts No. 1 UConn Wednesday

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

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

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

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

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

She also had seven boards and five assists.

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

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

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

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

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

The National Scene

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

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

Latasha Lattimore added 14 points and 12 rebounds.

Tennessee’s Talaysia Cooper had 30 points.

The game was a reschedule caused by winter weather.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Guru Local Report: Turnovers Bedevil Temple in Loss to ECU; Its Ivy Chaos the Rest of Way; Saint Joe and La Salle Get A-10 Road Wins

 By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsgurux

PHILADELPHIA – Back on day one when Temple beat Atlantic 10 tournament champion George Mason in the season opener an energetic coach Diane Richardson stated “l hate losing in the semifinals of the American Conference tournament,” a reference to the one-bid only regard the NCAA women’s basketball tournament committee has traditionally treated the league and the reason to load the non-conference portion of the schedule with difficult challenges to be ready for the second portion of the season.

She also complimented her staff for recruiting players to solve some of the weaknesses in the rooster of 2024-25.

That was then and this is now on Saturday afternoon when the Owls (10-14, 4-8) dropped a 79-72 affair to East Carolina (19-7, 11-2) here at the Liacouras Center leaving them in ninth place one spot above the new 10th place cutoff to make the revised five-day event next month in Birmingham, Ala.

Once again turnovers plagued the effort with 24 committed against the second-place Pirates.

“ECU does have a tough defense, but I think our turnovers today were self-imposed, Richardson said. “Not making crisp passes, not going to meet the passes.”

She noted that her players need to move on to the next play after a  miscue where worry over a mistake leads to a second turnover.

Temple managed to stay even at the break 36-36 but then fell way behind 21-12 with ten minutes left, a period that saw another Owls rally that fell short.

Richardson also noted, “we need our bench to step up,” so the starting group can be rested more.

Anzhane Hutton and Kennedy Fauntleroy each scored 19 points with two other ECU players also in double figures.

Richardson said the team still needs a consistent four-quarter effort and play with more confidence.

Saniyah Craig scored 20 points, while Savannah Curry shot 6-for-8 from the field for a career-high 18 points, including two makes from deep, Kaylah Turner collected 14 and Tristen Taylor scored 10 for Temple.

Jaleesa Molina, who missed the last game with an ankle injury, played from the bench, scoring four points in 12 minutes.

South Florida was the overwhelming favorite preseason in the American but the Bulls are in fourth place after Jose Fernandez left to coach the WNBA’s Dallas Wings featuring rookie of the year Paige Bueckers and Villanova standout Maddy Siegrist and possessing the No. 1 pick again in April’s draft.

Teams in the city have made low-seeded runs to conference titles and although the American is considered wide-open, in the new format the bottom four play the first day, advancing to the next round where the five and six seeds have byes.

The third and fourth seeds get double byes to the quarter finals and the top two get passes straight to the semifinals.

But first Temple has to get there and the first attempt to finish the regular season with a kick starts Tuesday at Charlotte in North Carolina  at 6:30 p.m. (ESPN+).

Penn Falls at Columbia While Princeton Wins at Cornell

The Quakers (14-9, 4-6) are now on life support in returning to the four-team Ivy Madness, this year at Cornell in Ithaca, N.Y., after losing 69-56 to Columbia (17-6, 8-2), which got revenge for the recent loss at The Palestra and is tied for first with No. 24 Princeton (20-3, 8-2), which recovered from Friday’s loss to the Lions to win 59-38 at Cornell (8-15, 3-7).

The big damage of the night to the Quakers was not Columbia’s Riley Weiss with 21 points, Perri Page with 15 and reserve Mia Broom with 12 while Susie Rafiu had 10 rebounds.

While Penn’s Katie Collins had 22 points and Simone Sawyer scored 12 with eight points and reserve Abby Sharpe had her best night since an early season injury shooting 4-for-5 in 20 minutes making both three-point attempts, up in Providence, R.I., Brown (15-7, 7-3) pulled a 68-62 upset of Harvard (14-9, 7-3), moving into a third-place tie with the Crimson and No. 3 seed spot, both teams three games up on the Quakers and just a game behind the leaders.

It’s the wildest standings at this point in the season since the start of the Ivy tourney, maybe even overall, in terms of race for placement.

Grace Arnolie had 21 points for Brown while Ada Anamekwe scored 15 with nine rebounds, the same board total as Olivia Young.

Harvard’s Abigail Wright had 29 points and Karlee White had 16.

Princeton’s Madison St. Rose had 15 points while Skye Belker scored 12 and Fadima Tall had 11 points.

The Tigers next host Brown 5:30 p.m. (ESPN+) Saturday while Penn hosts Yale at 2 p.m. (ESPN+) the same day.

As of Sunday morning in the League the Net order is Princeton (47), Columbia (57), Harvard (65), Brown (118) and Penn (129).

A year after a historic three bids to the NCAA the only team with an at-large shot is Princeton, and that has gotten slimmer for the Tigers, likely to drop out of the AP Poll on Monday.

Penn must win its remaining four games Yale, Harvard, Dartmouth, and Brown as step one to survive while Harvard must lose its last four of Cornell, Penn, Princeton, and Columbia, or Brown must lose its last four of Princeton, Cornell, Columbia and Penn.

In either scenario, a dead heat goes to the other teams courtesy of a sweep of Cornell and a Penn split.

The only team Penn has a chance with a better Net if it comes to it is Brown.

La Salle and Saint Joseph’s Take A-10 Road Games

Down in Washington La Salle (14-11, 7-7) took a 67-52 win over George Washington (15-14, 5-9) while in the Midwest Saint Joseph’s (17-8, 8-6) won 63-50 at Loyola, Chicago (12-13, 8-6).

In a big showdown game Rhode Island (23-2, 14-0) continued its historic season winning 79-63 over George Mason (16-8, 11-2) and leads preseason favorite Richmond (22-4, 12-1), which has a makeup game Monday afternoon with George Mason.

Saint Joseph’s is in a three-way tie for fourth with the tiebreaker after Aleah Snead had 16 points, 12 boards and six assists in the Hawks’ win. They next host Duquesne at 7 p.m. Wednesday (ESPN+). Jill Jekot scored 13 points.

La Salle got 18 points and nine boards from Ashleigh O’Connor while Kiara Williams scored 14 points, Joan Quinn had 13 points and Aryss Macktoon pulled down 11 boards.

The Explorers next host Rhode Island Wednesday at 7 p.m. (ESPN+).

Lafayette Upsets Lehigh in the Patriot League

In the Patriot League rivalry game, Lafayette (9-16, 5-9) pulled a 73-59 upset of Lehigh (13-11, 9-5) at home in the Kirby Sports Center in Easton, Pa., as Talia Zurinski scored 19 points for the winning Lepoards, Teresa Kiewiet had 17 points, Haylie Adamski was 4-for-6 from deep and finished with 14 points.

Lehigh’s Lily Fandre had 20 points and Alana Reddy scored 14 points.

Navy and Army, the 1-2 punch with the Midshippmen the preseason pick, continued to win as Navy stayed two games in front of the Black Knights.

On Wednesday, Lafayette hosts Holy Cross at 6 p.m., and Lehigh hosts Navy the same time at Stabler Arena in Bethlehem, Pa., the same time, both games on ESPN+.

Rutgers Falls at Purdue; Rider Beats Marist; Delaware Loses to UTEP

In the Big Ten, Rutgers (9-16, 1-13) fell 72-57 at Purdue (12-13, 4-1) in West Lafayette, Ind.

Kiki Smith led four Boilermakers in double figures with 17 points, while

Nene Ndiaye was 4-for-5 from deep for the visiting Scarlet Knights and scored 25 points while Zachara Perkins scored 10.

Rutgers next is at Illinois, Tuesday, at 7 p.m., on the Big Ten Network.

Penn State (8-17), 1-13), the other Big Ten local and just one of two locals overall, hosts Northwestern at 4 p.m., also on the Big Ten Network.

The other is in the Big East, where Villanova, with a chance to clinch at least third, is at Creighton in Omaha, Nebraska, at 5 p.m. on TruTV.

The Wildcats are hosting No. 1 UConn on Wednesday at 7 p.m. on Peacock and as of Sunday mid-afternoon seats at Finneran Pavilion are still available.

Back to Saturday, down in Newark, Del., at the Bob Carpenter Center, Delaware (12-13, 6-7) dropped a 79-72 game in Conference USA to UTEP (11-13, 3-10).

In the loss, Ande’A Cherisier scored 17 points, Kailah Correa collected 16, and Lay Fontroy scored 14.

The Blue Hens next visit FIU Thursday in Florida at 11 a.m. on ESPN+.

In the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, Rider (6-19, 4-12) won 56-43 against visiting Marist (10-17, 7-10) at Alumni Gym in Lawrenceville, N.J., as Aliya McIver scored 19 points for the Broncs and Kristina Ekofo scored 17.

The Broncs next play Thursday at Canisius in Western New York at 6:30 p.m. on ESPN+.

At the top of the MAAC, two-time defending champion Fairfield (22-4, 16-1) avenged its home loss to Quinnipiac (21-5, 16-1), defeating the Bobcats 75-63 in Hamden, Conn., to create a knot in first and split in the series and likely championship showdown again next month in the conference tourney in Atlantic City, N.J.

The Guru’s Local/National NCAAW Roundup: Drexel Tops Elon; Penn Beats Host Cornell in Overtime; Columbia Sweeps No. 24 Princeton

 By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsgurux

There were only three games affecting the local and national scene, but all were quite impactful.

Drexel (15-8, 8-4) at home in the Daskalakis Athletic Center gained a 68-59 win over Elon (11-13, 6-6)  in a Coastal Athletic Association contest building a 53-36 lead after three quarters and then holding off the visitors who outscored the Dragons by eight in the final period.

Amariss Baker led the way shooting 9-for-16 from the field and scoring 27 points, while Deja Evans fired 5-of-8 to score 14 points helped by making all four attempts from the line along with seven rebounds.

Drexel, tied for fourth with Monmouth but holding the tiebreaker, has a bye Sunday and then travels to the Tidewater region in Virginia next weekend playing Hampton at 7 p.m. on Friday followed by a Sunday trip to William & Mary at 1 p.m. in Williamsburg. Both games will air on FloCollege.

Ivy Mayhem – Penn Gets Revenge on Cornell in OT; Princeton Swept at Columbia

Friday’s action saw Penn (14-8, 4-5) potentially doomed from the race for the annual four-team Ivy Madness next month, rotating to where the Quakers played Cornell (8-14, 3-6)  in Ithaca, N.Y., but coach Mike McLaughlin’s group used overtime to avenge a recent loss at The Palestra beating the Big Red 72-66.

Mataya Gayle scored 27 points, including her 1,000th career score, joining 26 others in program history who reached a similar milestone.

Penn dominated the boards 45-31, 20 on the offensive glass resulting in 26 second chance points and a 38-24 advantage in the paint.

Reserve Brooke Suttle scored 11 points with eight boards.

Penn came to life ending the third quarter on a 13-0 run, leading 52-46, but with the score tied at 62 with with 1:33 left in regulation neither team was able to gain the win.

In the extra period Simone Sawyer’s layup put the Quakers up four with 36 seconds and the visitors held on.

Penn on Saturday visits Columbia at 5 p.m. in  Levien Gym in New York City and for the second time the Quakers will meet the Lions (16-6, 7-2) coming off an upset of Princeton (19-3, 7-2) Friday night for a season sweep using a strong second half to tie the Tigers for first place.

Perri Page had a career-high 25 points with 10 rebounds for the winners who also got 23 points from Riley Weiss, 20 in the second half.

Fliss Henderson had 10 rebounds for the home team with eight points.

Princeton’s Fadima Tall scored 16 points and Olivia Hutcherson scored 12.

The loss is likely to cost the Tigers their place in the Associated Press women’s poll, celebrating its 50th anniversary season, whether they win or lose Saturday at Cornell 5 p.m.

Both Ivy games will air on ESPN+.

Penn is in 5th place two games behind Brown and the tourney cutoff.

Looking Ahead

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

In Conference USA, Delaware hosts UTEP at noon on ESPN+ at the Bob Carpenter Center in Newark.

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

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

Rider hosts Marist in a MAAC game at Alumni Gym at 1 p.m. on ESPN+.

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

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

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

A showdown in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference has first-place Quinnipiac home in Hamden, Conn., hosting two-time defending champion Fairfield at 4 p.m. on ESPN+.