The Guru’s NCAAW Report: Temple Defensive Pressure Leads to Win Over Navy While La Salle and Saint Joseph’s Make the Day a 3-0 Sweep

 By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsgurux

PHILADELPHIA – In various ways the Big 5 went 3-0 Saturday afternoon here at Temple, up Broad Street at La Salle and over at Saint Joseph’s while Penn State has almost gone the equivalent in the other direction, following Monday’s opening one-point home loss to Cleveland State by dropping a 76-53 visit to Cincinnati.

Let’s start here in the Liacouras Athletic Center with Temple (1-1) which sank Patriot League preseason favorite Navy 97-77 by doing the one thing the Owls lacked in Monday’s opening loss at George Mason, especially if it was against the place where the nation’s warriors on the high seas are trained.

“We played defense, today, which we didn’t Monday so I’m happy,” said Temple coach Diane Richardson.

And after four seasons of promoting her “equal opportunity offense,” comes a brand where games are one and it was spicy but spelled Spic-EE, the double Es standing for “Energy and Effort,” explained Kaylah Turner, who led the American Conference with a 16.4 scoring average her junior season.

“And it just means having a lot of energy and effort on defense, and at the end of the day you might not get every steal, but pressuring other teams is what our priority is.”

Pressure was putting it mildly because it was downright suffocating and perhaps the first time this week massive turnover was used in a sentence not part of discussing the midterm elections.

Temple forced 33 turnovers and while it could be a program record, that is unknown since that stat has not been kept in the archives.

A 20-point win described as a steal might be outlandish except that the Owls pulled 17 thefts of the Midshipmen (1-1) and forced the same total in errant passes.

Navy coach Tim Taylor knew what hit his team, saying “we needed that. We’ll be better for it.

“If you were looking at the stats of the game in most of the categories, you would think we won the game until you get to the turnovers and the 43 points they got.”

Taking a loss to George Mason in the opener is not shameful by name but considering the Patriots are in the upper echelon of consideration in the Atlantic 10 it became a missed opportunity in having a notch collected for resume consumption with any eye to one of the eight new berths in the 76-team NCAA tournament.

No such miscue happened Saturday and there is reason for optimism because the Owls have scorers and most important, the way Richardson feels, also depth to rest the starters.

One of the additions is sphomore guard Shayla Smith, who was a prized prospect at Audenried High, who has come home after languishing at Penn State and had a career high 23 points, shooting 10-for-15 from the floor, with five boards and five steals in 21 minutes of action.

“I know it felt great for me, and I’m sure it felt great for everybody on the team,” Smith said. “We needed that, especially coming off last week.”

“She’s back,” Richardson reacted to the answer with a big smile.

Turner added 17 points, Talia Logwood scored 15, and Ariana Mereidy had a personal best 11 points.

Discussing the philosophy Richardson said, “They need to understand that defense turns into offense. I know we can score, and we have a lot of scorers. But we’ve got to be able to play defense.

“We can’t get into a game where we’re allowing too many scorers to go and we’re not getting stops. This just shows them what the coaching staff has been talking all preseason.”

Zanai Barnett-Gay, the Patriot League preseason player of the year who has collected several national players of the week awards in prior seasons from the United States Basketball Writers Association (USBWA) had 18 points, while the rest of the squad was kept in port by the Owls, who next play their first Big 5 pod game Wednesday at La Salle.

Saint Joseph’s Overwhelm Kutztown

In a game that enabled the Hawks to pass around plenty of court time in their season-opening 95-27 win at home in Hagan Arena, they showed two deadly weapons in Gabby Casey, who was 6-for-8 from the field with three 3-pointers to collect 19 points in 19 minutes while Deja Evans, the former Drexel star picked up in the portal, was a perfect 8-for-8 for 16 point and five boards in 21 minutes of activity.

Don’t start knocking Saint Joseph’s schedule because in a few weeks the Hawks will be traveling to a Thanksgiving tourney playing No. 3 Southern Cal and prized WNBA prospect Juju Watkins.

Next up, however, on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. on ESPN+ Saint Joseph’s will visit the Cincinnati team that handled Penn State, an opponent the Hawks will visit on November 22 to return last season’s visit to Hawk Hill.

In Saturday’s game, new coach and alum Tanisha Wright was still looking for her first victory coaching the Lady Lions.

Devyn Quigley got 19 points, her second game in double digit, making it at least one engine running for PSU. She was the sole player for the visitors in double figures, the next being Enjulina Gonzalez with nine points shooting 3-of-four from the field.

Cristen Carter grabbed 12 rebounds.

The Bearcats’ CaliyahDeVillasee scored 13 points on 5-for-10 from the field, while Joya Crawford and Dee Alexander each scored 12 points and Jade Jones scored 10 with eught rebounds, a board total matched by teammate Nomi Bensen.

Penn State visits Dayton of the Atlantic 10 Monday at 7 p.m. on ESPN+.

La Salle Takes Home Opener with a Surging Finish

Tied 59-59 late in the game, the Explorers bolted on a 10-2 run the rest of the way to down Loyola, Md., 69-61.

Croatian Vivien Nejasmic, a transfer from Xavier, scored a game-high 17 points for La Salle, while freshman Tiana Thompson scored 15, Joan Quinn had six of her eight in the decisive fourth quarter, and Amiya Moses grabbed a game-high 13 rebounds.

Like Temple in the Owls’ win, La Salle had a big defensive stand, forcing 25 turnovers to mine 28 points.

Consider that interesting in that the two schools meet Wednesday in their Big 5 Pod game.

La Salle was coming off a season-opening loss at Rutgers in which the Explorers competed but couldn’t pull the upset.

“It was nice to get a home win and being able to find a way being gritty at the end,” said La Salle coach Mountain MacGillivray. “We continued to fight. We found other ways to execute. This is the next step. We had 30-some days of practices and this team is very competitive and process driven.

“We had three starters who were out for major parts of the game. We were able to find a way to win without them,” he said, alluding to the contribution from his newcomers.

Top 25 Still Dominating

The unbeaten string among the Association Press preseason Top 25 not playing ranked opposition beginning in the season opener in Rome last Sunday when No. 13 Notre Dame played Villanova continued with three more games Saturday.

No. 17 Minnesota won 87-79 at Marquette, No. 23 Illinois topped Southern U 99-28 at home, and No. 6 Texas came up with a 91-29 win over Northern Colorado.

In Minnesota’s home win, the Golden Gophers (2-0) won 87-79 over Marquette (1-1) on the road in Milwaukee as Grace Grocholski connected with five 3-pointers and 25 points and 11 boards.

Leah Harmon made a key shot from the perimeter late in the game to send Minnesota on to a victory after Marquette rallied from a 14-point deficit late in the third quarter to within 78-73 within the two-minute mark in the fourth.

Illinois routed SWAC favorite Southern U. (0-2) at home 99-28 as the Illini (2-0) were led by Cearah Parchment connecting with four 3-pointers and scoring 18 points.

No. 6 Texas (2-0) at home in Austin won 91-29 over Northern Colorado (1-1) as all-American Madison Booker scored 30 points and moved into third on the ‘Horns career scoring list.

Elsewhere High Point won 78-71 at Ball State, the Big South contender topping the Mid-American contender on the road.

St. John’s at home in Queens romped 102-33 over Wagner (1-2).

Looking Ahead

Rutgers will look to move to 3-0 opening week when the Scarlet Knights host Indiana State Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m. on B1G+ while Penn (2-0) after its buzzer-beating win Friday at Drexel in the Big 5 opener for all six teams heads to MEAC contender Norfolk State Sunday.

New Rutgers coach Gary Redus II is making headway on the recruiting trail, Friday, picking up Ashley MacCalla, the No. 15 recruit out of Springfield, Va., telling ESPN “I chose Rutgers because I felt like that was the best place for me to grow and develop.”

No. 2 UConn will host No. 10 Iowa at 2 p.m. on FS1 as the Huskies look to bounce back over Thursday’s loss at Michigan while retiring Azzi Fudd’s jersey.

No. 20 Maryland hosts nearby George Mason at 1 p.m. on B1G+ while in the Ally Tipoff in Charlotte, N.C. at 3 p.m. on ESPN2 No. 14 Kentucky plays No. 25 NC State followed by No. 1 South Carolina meeting No. 12 North Carolina at 5:30 p.m. on ESPN.

No. 7 Louisville visits Ohio Valley favorite Southern Indiana at 4 p.m. on ESPN+, while the night wraps at 8 on the Big Ten Network when Southern Cal hosts Utah State.

Earlier in the day the challenge between the Metro formerly the MAAC and America East has nine games, the event started Thursday with the AEC jumping to a 7-1 lead.

The four-conference Opening Statement with double headers involving teams from the Ivy, Atlantic 10, American and Missouri Valley played in Richmond, Va., and Nashville, Tenn., has the Richmond twin bill involving Princeton meeting Murray State at noon on ESPN+ and Richmond facing Rice at 2:30 p.m. on ESPN+ while in Nashville South Florida and Rhode Island play at 1 p.m. on ESPN+ before Columbia plays Belmont at 3:30 p.m. on ESPN+.

The Ivy (Princeton and Columbia) and American (South Florida and Rice) are 2-0 each off Thursday while the Atlantic 10 (Richmond and Rhode Island) and Missouri Valley (Murray State and Belmont) are both 0-2.

 

The Guru’s NCAAW Report: Njike’s Buzzer-Beater Gives Penn Big 5 Win at Drexel; AP Ranked Teams Still Perfect Against Unranked Opponents

 By Mel Greenberg - @womhoopsgurux

PHILADELPHIA – An instant finish at Drexel’s Daskalakis Athletic Center made Penn’s dynamic 71-70 triumph three blocks from home Friday afternoon a Big 5 instant women’s classic.

Years from now more Quakers fans than the capacity of the Dragons’ arena will say they were there at a game Penn rallied to go up five in the fourth and then with four seconds left in regulation, approached heartbreak on a Drexel 15-foot pull up jumper from Laine McGurk to fall a point behind but wait!

Spaniard Julia Garcia Roig used the Dragons’ foul to give as the seconds whittled down to one.

Plenty of time as Mataya Gayle under Penn’s basket threw a high arching pass 16 feet away to inside the top of the key to center Tina Njike who bobbled it and then made a hail-Mary flick through the net just ahead of the game clock.

For those who remember the yesteryear intro of ABC’s Wide World of Sports it was a joy of victory, agony of defeat moment, horror on the faces of the home team which actually were the visitors – we’ll get to that – as the entire Penn delegation poured onto the court in celebration, however missing the officials proclaiming a review of the clock and heading to the replay screen.

For several seconds fear and hope in the stands switched sides, Penn leary of misplaced giddiness, Drexel looking for a signal of survival.

The answer followed as the official stepped away and pointed to Penn, now 2-0 including Tuesday’s pummeling of Swarthmore in the season and home opener while Drexel falls to 1-1 having secured an impressive home and season opening win over Marist.

“… We had the monitor on the sideline, so I felt pretty confident that the shot got off,” said Penn coach Mike McLaughlin. “It's the shot we wanted, a play we run in certain situations. And like (Njike) said, she fumble it, which was great athleticism by her to be able to catch and shoot the ball.”

For the first time in the three-year history of the current tournament style format Penn will at least be guaranteed the third-place game and have a chance to go for the title matchup by winning Nov. 18 at Saint Joseph’s, the unanimous Atlantic 10 coaches’ choice to finish first.

In parlance of midterm election analysis this game got redistricted and Penn won in a place that in the last cycle 12 months ago the Quakers, picked fourth in the Ivy League this season, were run out of the building.

This season’s first of the two-pods, two-games format leading to December 6 and the Big 5 Classic triple header that will be held in Penn’s building was set for the Palestra on Friday but on Thursday the unusual humidity in the local weather caused the floor to get wet and create unsafe playing positions.

The game was moved nearby up 33rd street here causing such oddities as Penn’s public address announcer on the call as well as the stat crew of the red and blue working the game.

“Credit our people for moving quickly to make it possible, both teams wanted this game played today,” said Drexel coach Amy Mallon.

Meanwhile, Njike after making her first game-winner was in a mild state of shock responding when asked to take the media through the deciding finish.

“Honestly, I’m still in shock. I still can’t believe what happened,” the room reacting with laughter.

“We’ve been through that play a lot in practice, and we actually talked about that exact same position happening in practice, so I'm just glad that it went in. I fumbled it a little bit but I'm happy it all worked out in the end.”

Njike had 19 points and seven boards, a place Penn ruled with 15 on the offensive glass to help own the paint 54-34 in taking a 69-52 advantage on shots, offsetting an off game from the perimeter going 3-of-17 on 3-point action.

“Just across the board, a tremendous college basketball game,” McLaughlin said. “I was super proud to find a way to win that game, ebbs and flows at the end, but our level of experience and confidence showed up at the end.

 “I love what Tina did, I love the ball went in at the end, but regardless we executed and were fortunate the ball went in.”

Freshman Rachel Thatcher had another productive game in the backcourt scoring 14 points with seven rebounds and four assists, Brooke Suttle scored 13, Gayle had 10 while Katie Collins had eight points and nine rebounds.

Drexel’s McGurk led the team with 21 points and eight boards, Bria Watkins scored 14, and Roig had 10 points and nine assists.

“I guess you have to say that’s what’s Big 5 basketball’s all about,” Mallon said. “That game was just a great one for everyone to watch, two teams that really competed down to the last second.

“Unfortunately, today it didn’t go our way. It was exciting, but not for us. Again, Penn’s a well-coached team, they’re going to win at lot more games, on the other end from our team you saw a lot of good things we’re going to build on.”

Penn heads to Tidewater country Sunday playing at Mideast contender Norfolk State at 2 p.m. on the MEAC streaming network, Drexel is at Virginia of the ACC Wednesday.

Ivies Make Opening Statement

As teams at Mid-Major level seek ways to enhance profiles to take advantage of eight new slots in the expanded 76-team NCAA tournament by the best of those leagues last season meeting each other in challenges, the Ivies, American, Atlantic 10, and Missouri Valley are competing, two teams, two games, each this weekend in Richmond, Va., and Nashville, Tenn. in an event labelled the Opening Statement.

The two Ivy schools, Columbia and local based Princeton, are off to a 2-0 start at the expense of the Atlantic 10.

In Richmond, Princeton went to 2-0 on the season, winning 65-57 over the host Spiders while in Nashville, Columbia, also 2-0, handled Rhode Island 76-62.

South Florida nipped host Belmont 60-66 in Nashville, while Rice in Richmond won 69-64 over Murray State giving the American a 2-0 sweep of the MVC.

On Sunday, Rice (2-0) meets Richmond (1-1) while Columbia (2-0) plays Belmont (2-0), Princeton) plays Murray State (1-1), and South Florida (2-0) plays Rhode Island (0-2).

In the Princeton win, another big performance from Fadima Tall for the Tigers, who host Villanova Tuesday, occurred with 27 points and 10 rebounds while Ashley Chea scored 13 points.

The Spiders got 17 points from Ally Sweeney while Arisa Ihara scored 13 points.

In the Columbia- Rhode Island game, both teams had balanced attacks, the winning Lions getting 13 each from Mary Stevenson, Mia Broom, and Fliss Henderson, who also had 12 rebounds, while Riley Weiss scored 11 points.

The Rams’ Martina Borrellas scored 14 with nine boards.

In a single game in the Metro-America East competition defending Metro (MAAC) champion Fairfield won its season and home opener 90-63 over Binghamton (0-2) as preseason player of the year Kaety L’Amoreaux had 23 points and 10 assists.

The America East got off to a 7-1 start Thursday with nine more games to be played Sunday.

In regular games played Thursday and Friday by the local Patriot League duo, Lafayette (1-1) won its home opener 88-34 over Wagner (1-1) at the Kirby Sports Center in Easton, Pa., as Haylie Adamski scored 24 points and reserve Johari Hall had 18 for the Leopards while Ryann Jennings had 19 points for Lehigh in a 75-67 road loss at CAA favorite Monmouth (2-0), paced by Gigi Gamble’s 28 points.

National Scores of Note

Teams ranked in the preseason AP Poll continued to be perfect in non-head-to-head games, but on Thursday in the second of those other types this week, No. 5 Michigan got its biggest ranked win in program history pulling away in its season opener at home to upset No. 2 UConn 77-66 in Ann Arbor as Te’Yala Delfosse had a career-high 22 points and Olivia Olson scored 19.

It was the first Top 5 meeting ever for AP Top 25 teams at the Crisler Center.

Reigning national player of the year Sarah Strong, in foul trouble early, scored 13 points for UConn, snapping a 39-straight regular season win streak and dropping the second game on the schedule for the first time since 2004.

“We wouldn’t have scheduled the schedule that we have if we didn't anticipate that there’d be losses, so it's not about it's not about the loss,” said Hall of Fame coach Geno Auriemma.

“It's just disappointing to see how some of our players reacted when it was time to step up and make plays. If we did what we wanted to do and it didn't work, but we didn't even attempt to do the things that we had said must be done today and that's the most disappointing part.”

Freshman Jovana Popovic had 25 points for the visitors, who host No. 10 Iowa Sunday.

On Friday No. 13 Notre Dame in its home opener after beating Villanova in Rome Sunday easily won 123-40 over Stonehill (0-2) while No. 22 Oklahoma State (2-0) got 22 points from Florida transfer Liv McGill and Iowa State transfer Audi Crooks had 14 points and 11 boards at home in Stillwater in a 92-38 win over Morgan State (1-2).

Elsewhere, South Dakota, a Summit Conference contender, won 68-56 at home over Southland contender UT Rio Grande; MEAC favorite Howard (1-1) at home won 76-69 over CAA contender Elon (1-1); Memphis (2-0) at home upset Middle Tennessee (1-1), a C USA contender; Big Sky contender Idaho (2-0) won over visiting Pac-12 pick Gonzaga 86-75, the Zags dropping to 1-1); and Mountain West favorite UNLV (1-1) winning 69-51 over American contender UTSA (0-1).

Looking Ahead

Three locals in home openers today have La Salle (0-1) tipping at noon in the John E. Glaser Arena against Loyola, Md.; Saint Joseph’s on Hawk Hill opens the season at 1 p.m. at Hagan Arena against D2- Kutztown; and Temple (0-1) at 2 p.m. in the Liacouras Center opens against Patriot favorite Navy.

All three games are on ESPN+.

Penn State (0-1) at 2 p.m. is at Cincinnati, also on ESPN+.

On Sunday, the only other local game not mentioned has Rutgers (2-0) hosting Indiana State at 2 p.m. in Jersey Mike’s Arena on B1G+.

Nationally, in the Ally Tipoff in Charlotte, N.C., No. 14 Kentucky meets No. 25 NC State at 3 p.m. on ESPN2 before No. 1 South Carolina meets No. 12 North Carolina at 5:30 p.m. on ESPN.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Guru’s NCAAW Report: Rutgers Fends Visiting La Salle Challenge While Drexel and Penn Set for Season’s First Big Five Showdown

 By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsgurux

PISCATAWAY, N.J. — We’re covering the last two nights beginning with what would be a wash here Wednesday in that both Rutgers, under first-year coach Gary Redus II, the former recruiting head for Kim Mulkey at LSU, and visiting LaSalle are two of the Guru’s 13 local Division I programs.

So, while coaches don’t like moral victories as opposed to the real ones, still both teams got positives out of the home team’s 75-62 triumph over the Explorers, who dropped their season opener at Jersey Mikes Arena, while Rutgers is now 2-0, making Redus the only of four coaches in the program’s history to have a perfect record.

The previous three were a pair of Hall of Famers in Theresa Grentz and C. Vivian Stringer, followed by Coquese Washington.

Redus, having been part of the SEC, and preceded here to the Banks out of Tigers country by president William F. Tate IV and athletic director Keli Zinn, had the attraction and name recognition to cash in on the Tennessee roster emigration last spring and bring home the twin sister 5-6 guard combo of Mya and Mia Pauldo, who hail from nearby Paterson.

Mia has been explosive off the outset registering her second straight 20+ game, this one for a game-high 22 with six assists, three rebounds and a pair of steals.

Supplementing the attack were Jaylah Lampley with 11 points while Zennia Thomas scored 10, and Zachara Perkins and Tara Daye each grabbed 11 boards.

So, what did La Salle get out of it?

Enough to have the headline in the Rutgers website refer to the win as “hold off” La Salle, a type of game in the Stringer years that despite a win might take a bit for the postgame appearance in the press room due to immediate extended rehash between coach and players.

“I’m enjoying the job,” he told reporters after the opener.

And La Salle did not quit, several times when it looked like Rutgers was about to hit the pedal and make the outcome appear similar to what the Democrats did two nights ago in the mid-terms. The Explorers rallied to within single digits as late as in the final period.

“Gary’s doing a good job and they’re going to be better,” La Salle coach Mountain MacGillivray said.

In fact, the new era started last summer, Rutgers winning a tournament, the FISU America Games in Argentina.

“We won the turnover battle against a team that’s going to turn over a bunch of opponents,” he said.

“But we needed to put the ball in the hole,” MacGillivray said of the 20-59 33.9 percent from the floor, the exception Joan Quinn, the only player for La Salle in double figures with her 20 points and 10-for-10 from the line.

“And you can’t go 17-for-32 at the line in a game we lost by 13 points,” he noted what might be labelled as a missed opportunity to have reversed the outcome.

“They just had to play with more energy and more effort,” Redus said of his players coming more to life in the second half. “It shouldn’t take a half to do it because the very best teams, they’re going to come out in the very beginning of the game and punch you in the mouth.”

And in the powerful Big Ten, a whole lot of punching was going on once Rutgers entered conference play in recent seasons after looking promising early on the season schedule.

Next up for Rutgers is Sunday when Indiana State visits while La Salle moves to its home opener Saturday at the John E. Glaser Arena.

Hens Pecked by Hokies

The only other local game on Wednesday’s slate involved Delaware on the road suffering a lopsided 101-53 loss at Virginia Tech, now 2-0.

Fifth-year transfer Frances Ulysse had a team high 18 points for the Blue Hens, while Saniyah Littlejohn debuted with 10 points and Kendall Scott scored 10.

Delaware went the Tennessee route in multiple newcomers, 11 players made their first Hens appearances.

The Blue Hens, in their second year in Conference USA, return in their next game Monday to their days in the Coastal Athletic Association, playing formal rival and nearby Towson in suburban Baltimore, Md.

Penn Blasts Swarthmore

In the only local game Tuesday the Quakers in their season opener in The Palestra tuned up for bigger fish at home Friday by routing Division III Swarthmore 110-27 in a game that will not count in resume building for at-large bids to the NCAA tournament.

The Quakers also did their part in beginning of the 100th anniversary of their Palestra, which on January 11 will include a star-studded night when the Philadelphia Sportswriters Association moves their annual awards dinner from nearby Cherry Hill, N.J., to the venue once labelled The Cathedral of Basketball by yours truly’s Temple classmate Dick “Hoops,” Weiss, the national men’s basketball journalist who will receive the Stan Hochman Award that evening.

Still, it was a great shakedown for Penn to host their nearby neighbors up 33rd Street Drexel, who had an outstanding opener Monday and make the two-block trip down the street for the overall Big 5 opener, tipping off at 1 p.m.

While Tina Njike leading with 14 points, Esse Ogbevire scored 12, Christina Pham had 11, and Ava Jones scored 10, the excitement in the house was over the play of freshman Rachel Thatcher.

Mataya Gayle beamed talking about her backcourt mate and also noted that former Ivy freshman of the year begins the senior countdown to her final game in The Palestra.

She’d like that to be winning the Ivy Madness four-team championship leading to the NCAA tournament, but Penn goes into the season picked fourth behind the usual trio of highly-regarded opponents in defending champion Princeton, under new coach Lauren Goselin, Columbia, and Harvard.

Taking advantage of their nearby proximity, the Dragons and Quakers often go against each other in each other’s arenas in the summer.

“Oh, yeah we’ve met, they’re a good group,” Gayle said, “but we’re out to win Friday.”

Motivation is the lopsided night Drexel delivered up the street last season in the Daskalakis Athletic Center.

Besides this being the lone Big 5 home game in Penn’s pod that includes the other game at Saint Joseph’s, the Big 5 Classic tripleheader at Villanova the last two seasons will be at The Palestra Sunday, Dec. 6.

The local card the rest of the week has Lafayette hosting Wagner Thursday night in the Leopards’ home opener at 8:30 p.m. in the Kirby Sports Arena in Easton, Pa., the Penn game while Lehigh at 6 p.m. is at Monmouth Friday; La Salle’s home opener is hosting Loyola, Md., at noon, is part of a Saturday slate that has Saint Joseph’s hosting Kutztown in the Hawks’ season and home opener at Hagan Arena at 1 p.m., Temple’s home opener in the Liacouras Center against Patriot favorite Navy at 2 p.m.; and Penn State at Cincinnati at 2 p.m.

Sunday is the Rutgers game at 2 and Penn traveling to MEAC contender Norfolk State in Virginia at 2 p.m.

The National Slate

Ranked teams continued to be perfect the last two nights on mostly soft schedules, No. 4 Duke winning its season opener at home Tuesday against Horizon favorite Green Bay, while TCU at home opened its season with a 99-43 romp hosting Oral Roberts, and No. 24 West Virginia at home in Morgantown gaining a narrow escape over Rhode Island.

On Wednesday in five blowouts all at home, No. 6 Texas topped FDU 85-65, No. 8 Vanderbilt rolled100-42 over Queens at home in Nashville, Tenn., No. 7 Louisville in its Yum! Center beat Stetson 87-35, and No. 25 NC State in Raleigh routed Campbell 80-45.

In Duke’s Tuesday win, Arianna Roberson had 15 points and four blocked shots for the Blue Devils, matched by teammate Riley Nelson with 15.

Big news in that win was the absence of Toby Fournier, a preseason All-ACC of whom coach Kara Lawson said had a lower leg injury with no timetable yet for a return.

In West Virginia’s narrow win over Rhode Island, Gia Cooke had a personal best 28 points for the Mountaineers.

West Virginia is fourth in the Big 12 preseason poll.

Laura Somfai had 17 points and 10 boards in TCU’s rout.

On Wednesday, All-American Madison Booker had 24 points on Texas in the Longhorns win; Vanderbilt’s win featured a program record 73 points in the first half, Central New Jersey’s Mikayla Blakes, a preseason All-American, getting 22 of her 24 points in the effort; Louisville forced Stetson into 30 turnovers while imari Berry scored 16 points for the Cardinals; Cearah Pearchment had 22 points and Berry Wallace had 21 and both each grabbed 11 boards for the winning Illini; and Khamil Pierre had 21 points and 11 boards for N.C. State while Zoe Brooks scored 16 for N.C. State in the Wolfpack win.

Upset City

On Wednesday, Cal Baptist, which moved from the WAC, now rebranded as the UAC, stung host Oregon State, 79-77, Lauren Olsen scoring 22 for the winners against the Beavers, now back in the new rebuilt Pac-12 after spending two seasons in the West Coast Conference with Washington State after the former PAC-12 version imploded with the rest of the league members heading either to the Big Ten, Big 12, or Atlantic Coast Conferences.

Noted

Stanford got to 1-1 on a 87-54 home win in Maples Pavilion over West Coast contender Saint Mary’s, the Cardinal getting 22 points from Hailee Swain, while Grand Canyon of the Mountain West, picked second behind UNLV, won at home 77-55 over SWAC past power Jackson State.

Looking Ahead Nationally

Another conference challenge series occurs Thursday night with eight games involving members of the America East and Metro, renamed from the MAAC, highlighted by Maureen Magarity, daughter of retired Army coach Bill Magarity, a native Philadelphian, returning to the coaching ranks at Vermont in the AEC after leaving Holy Cross several years ago.

The opposition Quinnipiac will be playing its first game following last season’s longtime coach Tricia Fabbri announcing her retirement in March.

The highlight game of the night comes between two ranked teams as No. 2 Uconn visits fifth ranked Michigan in Ann Arbor, the Wolverines nearly rallying for an upset in the early season a year ago over the host Huskies at the Mohegan Sun, the past home of the former WNBA Connecticut Sun, which has relocated to Houston, for next season, the new name but former name Comets won the first four league titles from 1997-2000 led by the trio of Sheryl Swoopes, Cynthia Cooper, and Tina Thompson, all since inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass., following their retirements.

“Neither of us are the same teams as a year ago,” said UConn Hall of Fame coach Geno Auriemma, who lost Azzi Fudd to graduation and No. 1 pick in the WNBA by Houston, but still keeps reigning national player of the year Sarah Strong, whose mom was Harvard All-American Allison Feaster.