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+.

      

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Guru’s Local/National NCAAW Roundup: Blakes Leads No. 5 Vanderbilt to Upset of No. 4 Texas; TCU Upsets Host Baylor; Tennessee Routs Missouri and Former Coach

 By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsgurux

As daylight breaks on Friday, it’s the traditional date of Lincoln’s birthday, but the basketball fireworks that went off on the national scene Thursday night, certainly made it a Fourth of July experience.

That begins in the Southeastern Conference where No. 5 Vanderbilt (24-2, 10-2) at home in Nashville decisively beat No. 4 Texas 86-70 just three days after the Commodores extinguished No. 10 Oklahoma 102-86 also at home.

They matched their 10-2 record in the SEC all the way back to the 2008-09 season and the win is the highest over a ranked opponent since a conference win at home over No. 3 Auburn in 2009.

As Vandy bolts its way into making a stronger case to be on the top line of four No. 1 seeds when the NCAA tournament bracket is unveiled next month, so too has Mikayla Blakes forced her way into the national player of the  year discussion.

Following the sophomore out of Somerville, N.J., scoring 34 points in the win over the Sooners, Blakes, the reigning USBWA national freshman of the year, torched the Longhorns (23-3, 9-3) for 34 more, making her way into the nation’s scoring leader with a 26.2 average, her fourth straight 30+ game and ninth this season.

She is the first played this century in the SEC to have four-straight scoring games in the 30s. She’s the 21st NCAA D-1 player to do it since 1999-00 and her 45-game streak of double digit performances is the third longest active streak.

Aubrey Galvan added 18 points with eight boards for the Commodores while Madison Booker scored 20 with eight rebounds for Texas and Breya Cunningham had 14 points for the visitors.

The Longhorns were on top early and then Vanderbilt took over at the midpoint of the first.

Once again, postgame coaching comments from the defeated side were uttered with statements not seemed likely earlier in the season.

On Sunday, it was Tennessee second-year coach Kim Caldwell referring to a quitters mentality after her Lady Vols fell at No. 3 South Carolina with the worst loss by differential in the program’s stories history, though things were a lot more positive in their game Thursday against visiting Missouri.

In Nashville, Texas veteran coach Vic Schaefer at the podium,  “I’ve had my butt beaten before when you’ve done it as long as I have, it’s not the first time, it’s the first time at Texas where I feel my team was out-toughed, the other team played harder, and just quite frankly, we had no heart.

“My staff and I were frustrated we’re coaching that,” he continued. “Effort, energy, and focus, that’s a given, man, it used to come with a scholarship. Now it comes with hundreds of thousands of dollars and I’m fixing to call my (athletic director) and say ‘I’m sorry.’ Because I am.

“That’s not the way you represent the University of Texas. I wear it. I’m accountable. That’s my team, but it’s so disappointing. It’s probably the softest team I’ve had in years.”

It was 7-4 early against Vandy, which then went on a 14-0 run in Memorial Gymnasium to go on and lead 27-15 going into the second quarter off an offensive attack that saw coach Shea Ralph’s team shoot 9-of-12 from the field, including 4 makes from deep in 5 tries.

It was plus 26 midway through the third before Texas moved within 11 with 2:15 left in regulation.

Ironically, Ralph is a former UConn star and assistant coach while Blakes and former Huskies sensation Paige Bueckers, the reigning WNBA rookie of the year, are the only NCAA D-1 players to have three straight 30-point games against ranked opponents.

“It’s broken record time,” Ralph said. “I’m proud of my team. This is what we came here to do. I love that we’re starting to get some momentum in terms of recognition, and this room is full, which is amazing to see.

“We don’t look ahead to March. We look ahead to Friday, tomorrow, then Saturday’s road trip, and then Sunday’s game. We just take it one day at a time.”

Vanderbilt is at Georgia at noon Sunday in Athens on the SEC Network.

Texas is at No. 22 Tennessee Sunday in Knoxville where the Lady Vols (16-6, 8-2) rolled over Missouri 98-53 in an SEC game marking the return of former Tennessee coach and player Kellie Harper guiding the Tigers (16-11, 4-8).

The two coaches gave each other a warm embrace before the game.

Then Tennessee went to work led by Janiah Barker with 22 points and eight rebounds. Talaysia Cooper added 17 points and four steals.

Alyssa Latham sizzled with 7-for-10 from the field  and 15 points, Nya Robertson scored 14, and Deniya Prawl had her first career double-double with 13 points and a career-high 10 rebounds.

Grace Slaughter scored 10 for Missouri, which is off until hosting Auburn next Thursday.

“We wanted a response, this is a good start,” said Caldwell of the game and turnaround performance from the South Carolina game, though Sunday’s game on ABC will be more telling from both sides considering Texas as the opponent.

“Everything was electric today,” Latham said. “When you see your teammates diving on the floor, you want to do as well. This was a team effort for sure.”

“They absorbed it pretty quick,” Caldwell said of team’s response to Sunday’s comments. “We had an off-day and by then we were moving on.

“Forty minutes was pretty important, that we didn’t come out (after the break), get lax and see the score and start taking shots that were not in our offense.”

The night’s other big upset among ranked teams occurred in the Big 12 where Notre Dame transfer Olivia Miles had a career-high 40 points, aided by 10 made shots from deep to lead No. 17 TCU (22-4, 10-3) to an 83-67 road  victory at No. 12 Baylor (21-5, 10-3) in Waco, Texas.

Miles was especially explosive in the third period shooting 7-for-9 from beyond the arc and scoring 23 of the Horned Frogs’ 25 points in the period which began with the visitors holding a slim four-point lead.

Per ESPN, she is the first Division I player in the last 25 years to connect with 10 3-pointers on the road against a ranked opponent and had the most points in any quarter since former Iowa star Caitlin Clark on Feb. 15, 2024.

California transfer Marta Suarez added 27 points with six boards for TCU.

Baylor’s Taliah Scott had 22 points, including the 1,000th of her career.

TCU in Fort Worth on Sunday hosts No. 19 West Virginia while Baylor visits UCF.

The other ranked teams Thursday all won though Oklahoma (18-6, 6-5) needed a second half rally to win its SEC contest, 81-74 over visiting Florida (15-12, 3-9).

Zya Vann scored 18 points for the  Sooners, while Peyton Verhulst had 16 points and nine rebounds.

Aaliyah Chavez added 16 points with seven assists and was a perfect 10-for-10 on the line.

Sarah Williams for the hosts scored eight points, including her 1,000th.

Florida’s Liv McGill had 29 points, seven boards and seven assists for the visiting Gators, who next visit Mississippi State Thursday while Oklahoma is at No. 23 Alabama on Sunday.

Elsewhere in SEC, games with ranked teams, No. 18 Kentucky (19-7, 6-6) got 19 points each from Asia Boone and Tonie Morgan in a 75-55 triumph over visiting Texas A&M (10-10, 2-9) in Lexington and next host No. 14 Ole Miss on Sunday the same day Texas A&M hosts Auburn  in College Station.

Ole Miss (20-5, 7-3) also had an easy time at home in Oxford as Ohio State transfer Cotie McMahon scored 21 points with five assists in an 80-57 win over Arkansas (11-15, 0-11), yet to win a conference game this season.

In the Atlantic Coast Conference No. 21 North Carolina (21-5, 10-3) at home in Chapel Hill romped 94-42 over SMU (8-17, 1-12) as Courtney Banghart, combined with her previous job at Ivy power Princeton, reached 400 career wins, one of 48 active coaches in Division I to reach that milestone.

Lanie Grant scored 15 points and Indya Nivar scored 14 for the Tar Heels, now on an eight-game win streak.

SMU in Texas hosts Pittsburgh Sunday while UNC has a major showdown the same day with No. 11 Duke in nearby Durham, N.C. The Blue Devils have won 15 straight games.

In the other ACC game with a ranked team saw No. 9 Louisville (23-4, 13-1) win 86-67 over visiting Wake Forest (13-13, 3-11) as Saint Joseph’s transfer Laura Ziegler scored 13 points and Tajianna Roberts collect 12 points.

On Sunday Louisville hosts Florida State while next Thursday Wake Forest hosts Notre Dame.

In another game of note in the ACC, Virginia Tech won79-67 at Stanford.

In the Big Ten, No. 7 Michigan (21-4, 12-2) won 80-58 at Northwestern (8-16, 2-11) in Evanston, Ill., as Oliva Olson scored 21 points with eight rebounds and seven assists, though the Wolverines needed to rally from a seven-point deficit in the third quarter.

Syla Swords added 16 points and Kendall Duley scored 12 for the visitors.

On Sunday Michigan is hosting in-state rival No. 13 Michigan State, while Northwestern is at Penn State.

Out West, Southern Cal (16-8, 8-6) at home in the Galen Center in Los Angeles won 79-73  over Indiana (14-12, 3-11) as freshman Jazzy Davidson had 24 points and six rebounds for the host Trojans and Maya Makalusky was 5-for-10 from distance to aid a 29-point finish for the Hoosiers.

There were several overtimes on the night, also.

In the Metro Atlantic Conference (MAAC) Merrimack won 77-72 at Marist in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. In the ACC, Clemson at home edged Georgia Tech 67-65 in double overtime.

South Dakota at home in double overtime beat Kansas City 70-65, in the Big Sky, Northern Arizona won 88-80 at Portland State, while in the Big West UC Davis went for triple overtime beating UC San Diego 88-80.

In the MAAC, the two leaders continued winning, both easily, Quinnipiac 62-40 at home in Hamden, Conn., beating Siena 62-40, as Ella O’Donnell led two other Bobcats (21-4, 16-0) in double figures with 14 points and nine rebounds to stay perfect in league competition, while two-time defending champion Fairfield (21-4, 15-1), whose only loss was at home to Quinnipiac, won 69-43 at Mount St. Mary’s as Meghan Andersen was 5-for-9 from deep and scored 17 points Jillian Huerter scored 15 points with five from distance.

The two wins sets up Saturday’s second showdown when Fairfield visits Quinnipiac at 4 p.m. on ESPN+.

The Local Scene

The importance of the night caused a flip in the normal order of the daily report, but back in the Big Ten, Penn State (8-17, 1-13) threatened an upset early at No. 20 Maryland (20-6, 8-6) in the XFINITY Center in College Park but the Terrapins ultimately took control for an 81-62 victory as Oluchi Okananwa scored 15 points, Addi Mack scored 13, and Saylor Poffenbarger and Mir McLain each scored 10 points.

Rutgers transfer Kiyoni McMiller had her third straight game scoring 30 or more points, exactly at 30, shooting 12 of 26 from the field.

Maryland became the fifth conference team joining No. 2 UCLA, No. 7 Michigan, No. 8 Ohio State, and No. 13 Michigan State with 20 or more wins.

Penn State hosts Northwestern Sunday while Maryland is at No. 8 Ohio State in Columbus, the same day.

In the MAAC, Rider (5-19, 3-12) lost a tough one at home at Alumni Gym, in Lawrenceville, N.J., falling 42-40 in a low-scoring affair to Saint Peter’s, wasting Alena Cofield’s first career double-double with 10 points and 12 rebounds, as the winners swept the two games.

“Our effort was really good, we did a great job of rebounding the ball, and we played like we wanted to win, but unfortunately not enough shots fell our way,” said first-year coach Jackie Hartzell.

“We just couldn’t put the  ball in the basket, and we couldn’t get stops down the stretch when we needed them. We had 17 second-chance points and 20 offensive rebounds, you expect to win the game.”

On Saturday, Rider hosts Marist at 1 p.m. on ESPN+.

In Conference USA, in the night’s only other local game, Delaware (12-12, 6-5) at home in the Bob Carpenter Center in Newark, picked up a 65-62 win over New Mexico State (8-16, 4-8), a triumph a few days later after retired sensation Elena Delle Donne was announced as a finalist for the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.

The Wilmington native has already been announced as an inductee in this year’s Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in Knoxville, Tenn., in June.

In Delaware’s Thursday night win, Ande’a Cherisier had 18 points with 10 rebounds for the Fightin’ Blue Hen, while Trinity Vance had 12 points, shooting 40 percent from beyond the arc, and Lay Fantroy had nine points, five boards and and four steals.

The winners next stay home Saturday on Valentine’s Day hosting UTEP at noon on ESPN+.

Looking Ahead

On Friday night, the action is all local and limited, as Drexel in a Coastal Athletic Association game at the Daskalakis Athletic Center hosts Elon at 6 p.m. on FloCollege, while in the Ivy League, No. 24 Princeton, the only ranked team playing, looks to avenge its only recent league loss visiting Columbia at Levien Gym off Broadway on New York City’s Upper West Side at 6 p.m. (ESPN+), the same time Penn will look to avenge its recent league loss to Cornell, visiting the Red Raiders in Newman Arena on ESPN+ in Ithaca, N.Y., site of this season’s four-team Ivy Madness tournament next month.

On Saturday in the Ivies, the two locals switch road stops, Penn at Columbia, looking to sweep the series, at 5 p.m. (ESPN+), while Princeton is at Cornell at the same time, also on ESPN+.

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+).

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.

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.