The Guru’s NCAAW Report: Rutgers Reaches 7-Year Scoring High Demolishing Indiana State

 By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsgurux

PISCATAWAY, N.J. – For those that lived the days of Theresa Grentz building Rutgers as a national power or after Grentz left for Illinois, the arrival of C. Vivian Stringer from Iowa, taking the torch and guiding the jump to the original Big East glory days seeking to make the competition more than a UConn conference, the words of first-year coach Gary Redus II Sunday afternoon almost seemed biblical here at Jersey Mikes Arena after the home team obliterated Indiana State 107-76, the scoring eruption a seven-year high dating to 2019 while the visiting team dropped to 0-3.

“I’m just trying to make Rutgers be Rutgers,” he said giving a general picture of his recruiting prowess because he could not yet officially speak about the reported commitment from No. 15 prospect Ashley MacCalla, who in announcing her decision for her collegiate career said, “I chose Rutgers because I felt like that was the best play for me to grow and develop,” she said to ESPN.

“I also felt like I would have the best chance to get on the floor early as a freshman and be able to continue to build confidence in myself. I want the ability to make a direct impact and the room to make mistakes. And I just had the best connection with the coaches all around.”

Soon after taking the reins as the fourth fulltime coach in Rutgers history after coming from LSU as the chief recruiter for Hall of Famer Kim Mulkey, Redus managed to land the twin sister combination of Mya and Mia Pauldo from the talent drain evacuating Tennessee and back to their hometown where Mia in week one has shown to be a magnetic appeal for others.

Having scored 21 and 22 points in opening wins over LIU and La Salle, Pauldo from nearby Paterson, N.J. torched the nets for a career-high 33 points and tied an arena mark shooting 16-for-17 on the line.

Unhappy with the way La Salle kept getting back into Wednesday’s game here every time the Scarlet Knights appeared ready to turn the affair into a rout, the defensive effort brought the joy he desired on the way to a third straight win.

All five starters reached doubler figures, two others gaining 20+ totals in Zachara Perkins just one off her career high with 22 points but also nailing four shots beyond the arc and registering six blocks.

Jaylah Lampley connected with four from beyond the arc and enjoyed a career day with 20 points, while Lauryn Swann had 15, her most in a Rutgers uniform, while Tara Daye scored 12 points.

Redus’ energy is bringing a different personality to the postgame podium and Mia spoke how catching it is after surviving La Salle.

“It's been everything I envisioned and more,” she said. “He was real energetic the first call he had with me and my sister, and he’s been that since day one.

“He let me and my sister know right away that he wanted us to bring that TBC tour back,” Mya said Wednesday. “That got out attention because me and my sister are a package deal and we want to play on the court zn d play on the team together.

For a while these games can be considered a shakedown cruise because the front end of the season in recent years with mostly lackluster competition have caused misreads based on what happened once the Big Ten started showing up.

But this team has the making that if its possible could beat those teams occupying the Banks.

The thing to do is circle the dates in a few weeks when a trip down Route 1 provides a visit to perennial Ivy power Princeton and just beyond the first of the heavy hitting, nationally ranked Big Ten gauntlets in Ohio State.

Losses don’t necessarily mean its just another false read this time around. But if wins come early it means the ship of state is ready to start rising from the floor of the conference.

“If we play together we can become very dangerous,” said one of the scoring starters. “We’ll be able to beat anybody.”

Next up Wednesday at 7 p.m. is a visit from nearby Monmouth, the preseason pick to win the Coastal Athletic Association.

How About Those Ivies

Penn (3-0) followed up the Quakers’ buzzer beating win at Drexel with a solid 72-56 win at MEAC contender Norfolk State (1-2) as Mataya Gayle went 6-for-10 from the field, highlighted by a pair of three-pointers for 18 points, while freshman Rachel Thatcher continued to wow with 13 points on a sizzling 6-for-7 from the field, Brooke Suttle scored 12, Katie Collins collected 10 and reserve Gabriela Kelley scored 11 on a day Tina Njike after her game-winner 48 hours earlier, bought just two shots in 12 attempts.

Defense was the name of the game getting Penn 21 points off turnovers while yielding just seven to the opposition.

Clemisha Prackett had 18 points with eight boards for Norfolk State.

Next up is a visit Thursday from Longwood.

Meanwhile Ivy favorite Princeton rallied to give the locals a second straight daily sweep defeating Murray State 76-74 while Columbia thumped Belmont 84-64 to give the Ivy League a perfect four-game record in the Opening Statement eight team MTE event in Richmond and Nashville.

The Atlantic 10 got a nice win as Rhode Island gained an 82-63 upset of American Conference favorite South Florida though the league called it even with Rice in overtime edging Richmond 73-60.

Helping the fourth quarter rally by Princeton, Skye Belker finished with a career-high 28 points while Olivia Hutcherson had a likewise effort with 22 points for her best with 10-for-12 from the floor.

Fadima Tall, off to a hot start on the season, added 15 points and eight boards to the Tiger attack.

Princeton hosts Villanova Tuesday in Jadwin Gym at 7 p.m.

Columbia got 13 fourth-quarter points and 28 overall from Riley Weiss in the Lions’ win while Fliss Henderson double doubled again with 11 points and 13 boards.

Next up is a visit from No. 5 Michigan Thursday, the game in New York a homecoming for Kim Barnes Arico, who previously coached St. John’s before getting the coaching job with the Wolverines.

America East Tops Metro

Completing the opening week series of games in the challenge between the America East and Metro, formerly known as the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, the AEC followed its 7-2 start Thursday and Friday by going 7-2 on Sunday for a lopsided 14-4 outcome.

Defending Metro champion Fairfield was the one bright spot completing a two-game sweep after winning 74-50 at home over AEC contender Vermont.

South Carolina and Kentucky Win the Ally Tipoff; Juju Powers USC

In the Ally Tipoff in Charlotte, N.C., No. 1 South Carolina got a second ranked win on opening week defeating No. 12 North Carolina 84-39, the Tar Heels coming to The Palestra Saturday to face Penn; while No. 14 Kentucky won 93-78 over No. 25 NC State.

In the triumph by Dawn Staley’s Gamecocks (2-0) Chloe Kitts had 17 points and 10 boards, while Joyce Edwards had 15 points.

UNC was led by Nyla Brooks with 13 points.

In her 3rd collegiate game, Ajsa Sivka had 32 points for Kentucky in the Wildcats win matching a program record with eight 3-pointers while Clara Strack added 24 points with eight boards.

Khamil Pierre scored 34 for the Wolfpack.

Out west, Juju Watkins, looking good as new after missing a season due to a knee injury at the end of her season in 2025 that saw her named national player of the year poured 32 points with 16 rebounds as No. 3 Southern Cal at home thumped Utah State 118-40.

Bouncing back from an off game in No. 2 UConn’s loss at No. 5 Michigan, reigning national player of the year Sarah Strong got 26 of her career-high 39 to lead the host Huskies to a 91-79 win over No. 10 Iowa at the campus Gampel Pavilion in Storrs.

Blanca Quinonez added 21 points for UConn, which retired Azzi Fudd’s jersey.

All the other ranked teams that played Sunday against unranked teams stayed perfect in those games enabling the season outcome in those matchups also equivalent.

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.