The Guru’s Local/National NCAAW Roundup: Unrivaled Sets Pro Women’s Basketball Attendance Record Here While in College Ball Drexel Wins and Princeton and Penn Suffer Losses

 By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsgurux

PHILADELPHIA — A gut feeling several months ago by Unrivaled president Alex Bazzell, the husband of WNBA Minnesota Lynx star Napheesa Collier, a former UConn great, was proven the right feeling here Friday night at the Xfinity Mobile Center about where to take the 3-x3 winter league out of Miami to a one-stop tour to play a regular season doubleheader.

An energized and packed sellout arena of 21,490 became the highest attended pro women’s basketball event, eclipsing the 20,711 set in the WNBA on Sept. 19, 2024, between the Caitlin Clark-led Indiana Fever and Washington Mystics.

The building, then known as the First Union Center, drew a then record 20,060 at the women’s collegiate level both nights when the city hosted the NCAA Women’s Final Four, won by Connecticut over Tennessee with area schools Rutgers and Penn State, as upset eighth winners, also in the semifinals.

The number shattered the building record for any event, including the pro men’s or women’s basketball record 21,305 when Michael Jordan came to town for the last time as a Chicago Bull for an NBA visit to the 76ers.

The arena’s best number was for a rock concert when 21,424 came for the Backstreet Boys ‘Into the Millennium’ Tour on September 29, 1999.

The Friday night twin bill pitted Breeze BC at Phantom BC, which featured on the latter hometown star and Saint Joseph’s alum Natasha Cloud, and in the nightcap, Rose BC, featuring locally-produced Kahleah Copper, who went on to star at Rutgers, in the WNBA and on the record eighth gold-medal winning U.S. Olympic Team, playing the Lunar Owls BC.

The crowd was not limited to people in the Delaware Valley with several attendees introduced during timeout portions coming from Michigan and Arkansas.

The games, that began at 7:30 p.m. and ended at 11 p.m. with the building still full, were aired on TNT, truTV, and HBO Max, though all the national broadcast networks had representatives to chronicle the scene.

The local news stations all had reporters here and the Philadelphia Inquirer assigned five staffers, the most for a women’s basketball event since going all-in when times were better when the Final Four came to town.

“I’d never thought I’d see this,” said Saint Joseph’s veteran coach Cindy Griffin, who had expectations of growth to a decent level, but never the mega energy that was in the building.

Temple coach Diane Richardson, who wanted her team here, got some shuffling done on the Owls’ slate, which had her players head right for the airport to New Orleans to play Tulane tomorrow, with the Green Wave and American Conference cooperating and moving the tip time from the afternoon to 7:30 p.m. ET on ESPN+.

Most of the national outlets covering women’s basketball had staffers here, who got some news of the stalemated WNBA labor negotiations resuming Monday in a face-to-face meeting.

It was also a taste of the future with an expansion WNBA team, that won a bidding war with a price of $250 million, coming here in 2030.

The crowd included Robin Roberts, anchor of Good Morning America; comedian Leslie Jones, retired NFL Eagles star Jason Kelce and his wife, Kylie, 76ers guard Kyle Lowry, comedian Wanda Sykes, who was a force leading the push to land a WNBA team, while  having an ongoing season with her No. 3 South Carolina squad in the Southeastern Conference didn’t stop North Philly’s and Gamecocks coach Dawn Staley from showing up and dancing in her seat with a big smile when the cameras homed in on her.

Cloud and Copper drew the loudest cheers until the cameras targeted Staley. It would not be surprising to see her down the road becoming the franchise’s top executive once it gets organized.

“I was shocked when someone said, ‘coach is here,” said Alaiyah Boston, a former Gamecocks great who plays with Clark on Indiana. I went over and gave her a hug.”

The evening was billed as Philly Is Unrivaled 2026 with Xfinity as the sponsor.

“It was unbelievable,” Collier, a league co-founder with WNBA and former UConn great Breanna Stewart, told ESPN’s Alexa Phillippou of the scene. “You could feel the love tonight. I’m so glad we came here. I just can’t explain it more than I was just so filled with joy. It was amazing.”

Next season one of the two NCAA Women’s regional semifinals and finals will be here in the arena.

Phantom beat Breeze 71-68 in a competitive first game while Lunar Owls handled Rose 85-75 in the nightcap.

“It was just what women’s basketball deserves,” said Rose coach Nola Henry.

The last women’s pro basketball event in the city was when the Rage under the now defunct ABL was a franchise moved from Richmond and played a season and two months lasting till 1998 when the league went bankrupt.

The Collegiate Local/National Scene

The success of the stop by the two-year-old Unrivaled pro women’s basketball league was the perfect antidote to overcome a dour night on an overall lite schedule, especially on the local side.

Penn, poised to continue to make up for an 0-3 start in the Ivy League, had a dreadful first half in The Palestra against Cornell, which is the host in Ithaca, N.Y., in March of this season’s four-team each, men and women, Ivy Madness sending the winners to the NCAA tournament.

The Quakers (12-7, 2-4) rallied but fell short to the Big Red (8-11, 3-3), who ended a 16-game losing streak in the series with a 62-58 victory, the first over Penn since February 6, 2015.

Cornell also has a win over Columbia giving the visitors two key potential tiebreaks if needed by the end of the regular season.

Additionally, there’s no easy road just ahead for Penn, which hosts Columbia Saturday at 5 p.m. and then next weekend goes to Princeton.

The Lions will be coming to The Palestra with Friday night’s upset on the road at Princeton to move with the Tigers in a tie for first.

Penn is now sixth with its back against the proverbial wall.

This is one, a team right with us on our court, that we needed to find a way to get it,” said Penn longtime coach Mike McLaughlin. “And now we have a difficult task, Columbia coming in, and Princeton again. It’s going to put us against the wall, and now we have to find a way.”

Penn almost rallied successfully finishing the third quarter from a 16-point deficit on a 12-0 run.

“It was 6:50, I wrote it on the board,” McLaughlin said. “I told them the time, 6:50 left in the third and we’re down sixteen. Let’s try to get this to a mangeable number in the next five minutes. And we finished the quarter on a 12-zero run.”

In the fourth quarter, Simone Sawyer’s shot got Penn within a point, 55-54, but the visitors struck back with a make from deep and a foul shot to lead 59-54.

“I thought when they got their lead, our pressure did affect them,” McLaughlin said. “It helped us. We just couldn’t get it out of the gate. We just didn’t defend well enough.”

Mataya Gayle tied a game-high with 20 points for the home team, while Katie Collins had 13 points and 12 rebounds, while Saniah Caldwell dealt six assists.

Cornell’s Emily Pape matched Gayle with 20 points, while Rachael Knaus scored 18 points.

Meanwhile, Princeton, which had been leading a charmed life with strong fourth quarters failed to continue the string and fell to a team that has bedeviled the Tigers in recent seasons, the most recent now Columbia’s 73-67 win in Jadwin Gym on the road in Central New Jersey.

Perri Page led the Lions (14-5, 5-1) with 23 points, 14 claimed in the second half. Columbia now has two wins against AP ranked teams, both over Princeton, the earlier when the Tigers were 25th in 2023-24.

The home team (17-2, 5-1) had the third longest win streak at 15 when the game got under way.

Riley Weiss, who set the Columbia record with 40 points last week, scored just 12 and fouled out with 8:46 left in regulation.

Princeton’s Madison St. Rose and Olivia Hutcherson each scored 17 points and Skye Belker scored 16.

St. Rose left in the third quarter with an injury and stayed sidelined.

On a switch in opponents Saturday, Penn hosting Columbia at 5 p.m. (ESPN+) and Princeton hosting Cornell at the same time on ESPN+.

Drexel (12-7, 5-3) had the lone local victory, a 56-53 Coastal Athletic Association triumph at Monmouth (13-6, 6-2) in West Long Branch, N.J.

It was a narrow differential at the finish, the Dragons connecting on four foul shots in the final minute.

Amaris Baker led the visitors with a game-high 18 points, shooting 6-for-12 from the field. Laine McGurk scored 15 on six made shots from the field, three being from beyond the arc.

Drexel last won at Monmouth in 2020 before the host Hawks became a CAA member.

The Dragons next move to Northeastern at 1 p.m. (FloCollege) in Boston on Sunday.

Delaware (9-11, 3-5), in a CUSA contest moved from Thursday due to snow conditions, fell 79-54 to Missouri State (13-7, 5-2), ending a three-game win streak.

Safi Kolliegbo had 20 points, 14 in the third period, while Ande’a Cherisier had 16 points and nine board while getting two of the six team blocks.

The visitors thrived in the final quarter outscoring the hens 26-12.

The Blue Hens next host Florida International on Sunday at 4 p.m. on ESPN+, moving from Saturday due to weather-related travel conditions.

There was one lone national game of note, two ranked teams in the SEC going at it, moved to a neutral site in Birmingham, Ala., because of the weather and No. 17 Ole Miss, which was the home team in icy Oxford in the original schedule, topped No. 5 Vanderbilt 83-75 as Cotie McMahon scored 27 points for the Rebels (18-4, 5-2) while Christeen Iwuala scored 18 points with 14 boards.

It was the second straight loss for Vanderbilt (20-2, 6-2), which had its best start until losing Sunday to No. 3 South Carolina.

The visiting Commodores got 29 points from Mikayla Blakes while Aubrey Galvan scored 18.

Vanderbilt hosts Florida Sunday and Ole Miss will play Auburn in Birmingham on Monday.

Looking Ahead Locally and Nationally

On Saturday, besides the Temple game at Tulane already mentioned and the two Ivy games, the local list has La Salle is at Duquesne at 2 p.m. (ESPN+) in the Atlantic 10, while DePaul in the Big East visits Villanova at 2 p.m. (ESPN+) in Finneran Pavilion.

In the Patriot League, Lehigh is at Colgate in Hamilion, N.Y.  2 p.m. (ESPN+) and Lafayette hosts American at 2 p.m. (ESPN+) in the Kirby Sports Center in Easton, Pa.

Nationally, among ranked teams for Saturday, besides Princeton hosting Cornell, Oregon in the Big Ten visits No. 16 Maryland at 5 p.m. (BTN) in College Park at the XFINITY Center.

In the Patriot League Army is at Holy Cross at 2 p.m. (ESPN+) in Worcester, Mass.

In the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, Quinnipiac, having won the first-place showdown with Fairfield, hosts Merrimack at 2 p.m. on ESPN+ in Hamden, Conn., while Fairfield is at Sacred Heart in a crosstown game at 2 p.m. (ESPN+).

Iowa State in the Big 12 is at home in Ames, hosting UCF at 3 p.m. (ESPN+).

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Guru’s Local/National NCAAW Roundup: Quinnipac Wins MAAC Showdown at Fairfield; While Tennessee and Iowa Lose in Conference Upsets

  

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsgurux

Three stunning results, two in the ranking sector, highlighted a busy night Thursday, though, locally, the one team in action fell, which was Rider at home in a Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) game at Alumni Gym in Lawrenceville, N.J., beaten 70-59 by Mount St. Mary’s (10-11, 6-6).

The loss by the Broncs (4-17, 2-10) saw a career night by Belgium player Kristina Ekofo of Brussels with 32 points go to waste.

The game was tight into the third period in which the visitors held a 34-33 lead before extending the one-point advantage with an 18-8 run to take the lead the rest of the way.

“We were really good offensively, and that’s been an area of struggle for us recently, so I think we showed tremendous improvement on the offensive end, but our defense went the other way tonight,” said first-year coach Jackie Hartzell, spending her first year running a Division I program.

“They’re a really good team, and we had some lapses tonight, and a good team is going to make you pay. Obviously, Kris was a major positive tonight. We were consistent tonight, so now it’s just cleaning it up defensively.”

Of her game, Ekofo said, “We just executed the game plan. I was where I was supposed to be and whenever I was open, I was just taking my shots. My (basketball) IQ has gotten better, playing with my teammates, and being less selfish as a player.”

The top of the MAAC was where one of the surprises occurred, in a battle of two teams with clean conference records, Quinnipiac (17-4, 12-0) shocked Fairfield 72-58, though many would not consider it an upset considering the Bobcats ended a two-year perfect perfect conference streak by the two-time defending champions, though the fact this one came at the home of the Stags (17-4, 11-1) was worthy of being an eyebrow raiser.

Furthermore, Quinnipiac has held its own in the wake of first-year Gal Raviv of Israel, the MAAC’s combo freshman and player of the year, transferring to the Power 4 Atlantic Coast Conference member Miami.

Karson Martin led the visitors with 19 points, sizzling 7-for-10 from the field, and 3-for-4 from deep.

Ella O’Donnell scored 19 points, shooting 6-for-9 from the floor, while Ella Ryan scored 11 points.

The game was nationally televised on ESPNU.

Quinnipiac, which is back home in nearby Hamden, Saturday, hosting Merrimack , at 2 p.m. (ESPN+), for a long time has been under the helm of Delran’s (N.J.) Trish Sacca Fabbri in suburban Philadelphia.

Fairfield has turned it around under one of the bright young mentors in Carly Thibault DuDonis, the daughter of former WNBA coach Mike Thibault, now in charge of the Belgium national team, and is the sister of Eric, who had been the WNBA Washington coach after his dad retired but held the GM position for several seasons and is now on the staff of Cheryl Reeve of the Minnesota Lynx.

Fairfield had won 21 straight games at home and is now 56-2 in recent games against MAAC opposition.

Cyanne Coe scored 14 points, shooting 7-for-9 for the Stags in the game at Leo D. Mahoney Arena, while Jillian Huerter scored 11, while Kaety L’Amoreaux and reserve Lauren Beach each scored 10 points and Meghan Andersen had eight points and eight rebounds.

Fairfield Saturday is at crosstown rival Sacred Heart at 2 p.m. (ESPN+) and Rider is off a week before hosting Manhattan next Wednesday at 6 p.m. (ESPN+).

Ironically, one of Thibault’s previous stops was at Mississippi State, which Thursday night was involved in triggering one of the two other upsets Thursday winning 77-62 in the Southeastern Conference at No. 15 Tennessee (14-4, 6-1), which is next heading to No. 1 UConn Sunday in Hartford.

Kharyssa Richardson scored 21 points, shooting 9-for-11 from the floor, for Mississippi State (16-6, 3-5) while Trayanna Crisp scored 15 points with five rebounds and three steals, Madison Francis had 12 points and10 rebounds and Favour Nwaedozi scored 11 with 14 rebounds and a pair of steals.

The loss by Tennessee (14-4, 6-1) in the SEC comes just ahead yo Hartford Sunday to face No. 1 and defending champion Uconn (22-0) being the last team to beat the Huskies last season.

The Lady Vols’ Talaysia Cooper had 19 points, freshman Mia Pauldo had 13 points with four steals and Janiah Barker scored 10 with six boards.

The visiting Bulldogs had a 50-31 rebounding advantage and bested the home folks in transition 35-11.

Mississippi State on Sunday hosts Missouri.

Over in the Big Ten, No. 8 Iowa (18-3, 9-1) on the way to a showdown for sole possession of first place in the Big Ten, facing No. 2 in Pauley Pavilion on Sunday will now be fighting to get back to a tie after being upended in the Hawkeyes’ first stop in Los Angeles, losing 81-69 to a Southern Cal (12-9, 4-6) team at the Galen Center that had been struggling recently with reigning national player of the JuJu Watkins rehabbing all season from an ACL knee injury suffered in the NCAA tournament.

The Trojans are now 4-4 against ranked opponents, losing two straight recently and 1-6 in that span.

The Hawkeyes had been off to a 9-0 start in the Big Ten, their best since 1996 long before the recently concluded Caitlin Clark era in Iowa City.

Kara Dunn had 25 points for the Trojans in the victory while freshman Jazzy Davidson had 21 points and eight assists, Londynn Jones scored 17.

Iowa’s Journey Houston scored 16 points with eight rebounds as a reserve.

USC never trailed and next host Rutgers Sunday, a team with just one win in the Big Ten, a narrow road victory over longtime rival Penn State, which is winless in conference play as is Indiana.

The Hoosiers (11-11, 0-10) fell Thursday, losing 95-67 at home to No. 8 Michigan (18-3, 9-1), now tied for second with Iowa, the first loss to Wolverines in Bloomington since February, 2014.

Michigan’s Olivia Olson scored 27 points; Mia Holloway scored 17 in the win and the Wolverines’ Syla Swords had a career-high five five steals as the winners converted 23 turnovers into 34 points.

Maya Makalusky led Indiana with 17 points as the Hoosiers went 0-8 in January.

Michigan Sunday is at local rival No. 13 Michigan State Sunday while Indiana the same hosts Northwestern, a team with just two Big Ten wins and whose longtime coach and Father Judge grad growing up in Northeast Philadelphia is Joe McKeown, who announced his impending retirement in advance of the start of the season.

Michigan State (19-2, 8-2) easily won 86-65 at Purdue (11-10, 3-7) in West Lafayette, Ind., being led by Grace VanSlooten with 17 points, while Kennedy Blair scored 15 points.

It was a season-high in scoring in a conference game this season for the victors.

Elsewhere in the Big Ten, No. 11 Ohio State (19-3, 8-2) won at home in Columbus, beating Wisconsin 81-58 as Jaloni Cambridge scored 21 of her 29 points in the second half against the Badgers (13-9, 5-6).

The Buckeyes next host on Sunday Nebraska, which fell out of the Associated Press women’s poll Sunday.

In the Atlantic Coast Conference, No. 7 Louisville (20-3, 10-0), tied with No. 20 Duke, gained a road win and overall 13th straight, tagging host Stanford (15-7, 4-5) with its third straight loss as Saint Joseph’s transfer Laura Ziegler scored 22 points with 11 rebounds in the Cardinals’ 84-66 victory.

Stanford (15-7, 4-5) was led by Courtney Ogden with 16 points.

Louisville is at Cal Sunday while Stanford hosts Notre Dame.

Duke (15-6, 10-0) kept pace with Louisville, whom the Blue Devils meet next week, winning 74-58 at Miami in Coral Gables, Fla., for its 12th straight triumph as Toby Fournier scored 23 points and Tamair added 18 against the Hurricanes (12-9, 4-6), who got 21 points from Ra Shaya Kyle while Quinnipiac transfer Gal Raviv scored 16 points.

The visitors next host Wake Forest Sunday while Miami on Sunday greets Syracuse.

Virginia won in triple overtime 109-103 at Wake Forest in Winston-Salem, N.C.

N.C. State won easily 106-84 at Boston College, while California won 80-69 over visiting Notre Dame in Berkeley, Calif.

South Jersey’s Hannah Hidalgo, a reigning All-American, scored 22 points for the Fighting Irish in the loss, while Cal’s Lulu Twidale scored a team-leading 19 points.

Elsewhere in the SEC, which set an AP Women’s Poll record in the rankings’ 50th anniversary season this week with 10 members listed, No. 3 South Carolina (21-2, 7-1) won 81-51 at Auburn (13-9, 2-6) as Joyce Edwards scored 20 points and Tessa Johnson scored 13 for the visiting Gamecocks who next are Texas A&M on Monday.

No. 8 LSU (20-2, 6-2) shook off a slow start at home in Baton Rouge to beat visiting Arkansas 92-70 as Flaujae Johnson scored 17 points with Mikaylah Williams also scoring the same total.

The Tigers hosts Alabama Sunday after the No. 24 Crimson Tidem won Thursday night at No. 23 Georgia.

Essence Cody scored 16, shooting 6-for-7 from the field for Alabama in the win in Athens, while Ta’Mia Scott added 13 (19-3, 5-3), while Georgia (18-4, 4-4) got 13 points from Mia Woolfolk.

The win gave the visitors the longest streak in program history in the series at 5-0.

Alabama is at LSU Sunday while Georgia hosts Tennessee on Thursday after the Vols’ Sunday visit to UConn.

No. 4 Texas (20-2, 5-2) playing in front of a crowd that included Shaquille O’Neal in Gainesville, Fla., got 24 points from Madison Booker, and Aaliyah Crump scored 14 in a 88-68 win at Florida (13-10m, 1-7).

The Longhorns next hosts No. 10 Oklahoma Sunday while Florida is at No. 5 Vanderbilt.

Oklahoma (17-4, 5-3) got 16 points from Payton Verhulst and 14 from freshman Aaliyah Chavez while Raegan Beers and Shara Williams each scored in an 85-58 win over visiting Texas A&M (8-9, 1-7), which hosts South Carolina Sunday.

In the Big 12, the lone ranked team who played, No. 12 TCU (20-2, 8-1) got 20 points and six assists barely dodging an upset loss in a 79-77 home win over Kansas (13-9, 3-7) in Fort Worth, Texas, in which the Horned Frogs never trailed.

Freshman Jaliya Davis scored 29 for the visiting Jayhawks with nine rebounds while S’Mya Nichols scored 24 points.

Texas Tech Sunday is at No. 21 TCU.

Seton Hall won 58-52 at Georgetown to move into a second place Villanova that holds the tiebreaker in the Big East while in the Northeast Conference defending champion FDU beat visiting Stonehill 78-54 to stay perfect in league play with a two-game lead over Long Island.

In the Big West, Hawai’i at home beat UC Irvine 55-50.

Looking Ahead

Locally, on a night the largest crowd to see a professional women’s basketball game in Philadelphia when Unrivaled plays a doubleheader in front of a sellout crowd at the Xfinity Mobile Center, in the Ivy League, Penn hosts Cornell at 6 p.m. (ESPN+) at The Palestra while No. 19 Princeton hosts Columbia in Jadwin Gym at 6 p.m., the first meeting since the visiting Lions ended the Tigers string of first place finishes.

The Penn game is also on NBC Sports Philadelphia + while the Princeton game is on ESPN+.

Drexel, in the Coastal Athletic Association, visits Monmouth at West Long Branch, N.J., at 7 p.m. (FloCollege).

Delaware, in a CUSA game moved one day each due to weather effects, this weekend, the Blue Hens at home at the Bob Carpenter Center Friday night, begin the two games hosting Missouri State at 7 p.m. (ESPN+).

Nationally, in the Ivy League on a lite night overall schedule, Dartmouth hosts Brown at 6 p.m. while Harvard hosts Yale at 7 p.m., both on ESPN+, while in the SEC in a game off weather moved to Birmingham, Ala., at 3 p.m. (SECN+) No. 5 Vanderbilt meets No. 17 Ole Miss at 3 p.m.