The Guru’s March Madness Report Day Nine: Drexel Advances to CAA Semifinals Against Upset Winner Hofstra While No. 23 Princeton Meets Narrow Winner Harvard for Ivy Crown; Vermont Repeats as America East Champs

 By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsgurux

No. 23 Princeton (25-3) and Drexel took care of business in their first steps in their respective conference tournaments Friday and even had some help in the big picture scenario making three area teams still alive to join presumed Villanova to hear their names called Sunday night at 8 p.m. on ESPN when the NCAA 68-team field is announced.

After waiting for the single-game round one to be completed Wednesday and a day of four round two affairs on Thursday, and three games ahead of getting back in action in quarterfinal play Friday night in the Coastal Athletic Association event at the WNBA Washington Mystics’ CareFirst Arena, three-seed Drexel (21-9) held its own heading into the final period with a five-point lead and then erupted on a 14-2 run to dominate No. 6 Elon 68-53 and head to Saturday’s semifinals for the ninth time in the past decade playing in the 4:30 p.m. second contest.

As for the help, instead of meeting No. 2 Campbell, who beat the Dragons in their lone meeting early in the conference portion of the season, Drexel will face 10th seed Hofstra (10-21), which became the lowest seed in the history of the tourney to reach the semifinals through upsetting the Camels 55-50.

A word of caution, though, low seeds have had success in recent seasons becoming bracket busters, including Drexel, which two years ago took the title as a No. 7 seed.

There almost was even more help, No. 1 seed Charleston (25-5) barely dodged an upset strike from eighth seed and defending tourney champion William & Mary, 58-55, winning the game against the Tribe (17-14) on the strength of Sophia Tougas’ career day beyond the ark with six makes for all 18 of her points while Taryn Barbot, the conference player of the year, with 17 points, four boards, and five assists.

An upset of the Cougars seemed ready to happen when William & Mary’s Natalie Fox scored to bring the Tribe within three with 1:31 left in regulation.

But that was to be William & Mary’s final points the contest.

In the 2 p.m. semifinal game, Charleston will face fourth-seed Stony Brook (18-14) which defended fifth-seed Monmouth 51-45, ending the Hawks’ season at 20-11, though its possible a bid could come from the WNIT.

In Hofstra’s win, Alarice Gooden scored 14 points, Emma Von Essen scored 11 points, and Chloe Sterling scored 10.

In Drexel’s win, All-CAA guard Amaris Baker led the way with 16 points while freshman Bria Watkins scored 13 points, grabbed six boards and swiped four steals.

The Dragons forced the Phoenix into 22 turnovers leading to 30 points.

“I can’t be more pleased with this group today,” said Drexel coach Amy Mallon. “This first game when you come out, there’s just so much tension, and I was just happy with the bench, the way they came in.

“And that’s what you need this time of the season and our two freshman and Molly Rullo scoring when we needed them to.”

I couldn’t have done it without my team, the way they came through with their passes, their stops, their steals,” Watkins said. “They motivate me to keep going.”

“The big thing,” Mallon said of how the game evolved, “we talked about what we need to do on the defensive end, obviously we were struggling a little bit. We came out, we started moving the ball. We were taking quick shots. We were waiting to see the open player,” she continued.

“I think our patience at times became part of our defense and we did a great job moving the ball and everyone getting good looks.

“That’s how we play and when we’re doing that good things happen for our team.”

Princeton Routs Brown; Harvard Edges Columbia for an Overtime Upset

Bubble teams elsewhere were buoyed with No. 1 seed Princeton in the Ivy Madness semifinals at Cornell’s Newman Arena in Ithaca, N.Y., easily jumping to a 21-3 first-quarter lead and handling No. 4 Brown 65-51, since the belief is a Tigers title win avoids a bid steal and two-team entry following the three advancing last year.

That was caused when when three-seed Harvard beat Columbia for the championship, and in game two Friday night the Crimson dealt the Lions more heartache with a 67-65 win in overtime presenting Princeton in Saturday’s championship with the lesser of two evils, having been swept by Columbia during the season.

Madison St. Rose led the nationally ranked Tigers with18 points against the Bears (16-11), while Ashley Chea scored 12, and Fadima Tall and Skye Belker each scored 11 points. Olivia Hutcherson had eight points and nine rebounds.

“You know, it’s about survive and advance this time of year, and like I said, really, really proud of my group for, yeah, getting this victory and playing in the championship tomorrow,” said Princeton coach Carla Berube.

Off the way the Tigers exploded from the outset, St. Rose, said the team needed to avoid a bad start and Brown making it a tough game.

“We really made sure that in this game we had a good start, and I feel like we were really sharing the ball,” she said. “We were executing what we needed to execute, and we were playing Princeton basketball, and like everything was just running really smoothly.”

At one point during the Tigers press conference, Berube quipped of the next game that would yield their title game opponent, “We hope it goes into triple overtime. That’d be nice.”

That didn’t happen, but the sense of her wish did in a battle all the way between Harvard (18-10) and Columbia (20-8).

The winning Crimson were led by Abigail Wright with 18 points, Karlee White added 16 points, and Saniyah Glenn scored 12.

The Columbia loss wasted an heroic effort by Riley Weiss, the Ivy player of the year, who carried the Lions on her shoulders scoring 25 points, shooting 9-for-18 from the field and 4-8 from deep while Mia Broom scored 12 and Susie Raifu scored 10 points.

Down eight late in regulation, Columbia closed to force the extra period which ended when with Weiss taking a shot, the official blowing the whistle calling a foul on Harvard but then going to the monitor revealed the call was made after time expired.

“I mean, we knew it was going to be a heavyweight match, all right, between these two teams,” said Harvard coach Carrie Moore. “Every time we play them, it is like this and this time of the year, you know, I wouldn’t expect anything less.

“A little déjà vu moment, because, you know, championship game here last year, you know, they also had a shot to tie it. I feel like we’ve really prepped all year long to learn how to finish basketball games. We weren’t great all year long, but we are finishing basketball games at the right time and just couldn’t be more proud to be their coach.”

“You just have to have a consistency in how you do things,” said Columbia coach Megan Griffith, who is a native of King of Prussia. That’s been our problem all year. We just have a lack of maturity that allows us to be as consistent as possible and show up throughout the game and not just in crunch time of a game.

“Not being able to execute on that last play was really hard. Just another player making another mistake. It’s a play you’ve run a million times in practice and the only thing I can do is … I haven’t taught them well enough. You just have to eat that, because as their coach, for us to move on, I’ll carry the burden so we can be better the rest of March.”

Columbia is hopeful of a WBIT bid, the Ivies don’t allow teams to go to the WNIT, which the Lions went to the title game several years ago before the NCAA introduced the former tournament.

The 24-team field will be revealed on ESPN+ at 9 p.m.

The other local still in play is Lehigh in the Patriot League, the fourth seed, which Sunday afternoon at noon will attempt to repeat the title playing at Holy Cross.

The National Scene: Vermont Repeats as America East Champs

The Catamounts at home in Burlington as the No. 1 seed became the 19th team over the back end of the current two weeks to claim one of the 31 automatic qualifiers easily beating No. 2 seed Maine 61-43, initially falling behind 9-2 and then reversing direction with a 12-2 run to end the first period.

Nikola Priede repeated her Most Outstanding Player honor averaging 17.3 points, 6.0 rebounds, and 3.3 blocks in Vermont’s three games, all at home as the top seed.

Against Maine, she had 14 points, eight boards, and a pair of blocks.

In other action Friday, another No. 1 seed was taken down, the 11th so far, though a few from Power 4 leagues have no worries.

In the Big West, Hawaii in overtime upset UC Irvine, the regular season champ, and will play Saturday for the title at 6 p.m. on ESPN+ against UC San Diego, one of eight championship games day, including the Ivy League.

In the other six, Toledo will play Miami of Ohio in the Mid-American in Cleveland at 11 a.m. on CBSSN. The SWAC at 1 p.m. on ESPNU will have Southern playing Alabama State.

At 3:30 p.m. the WAC in Las Vegas will be contested between Abilene Christian and top seed Cal Baptist, while at 4 p.m. top seed Howard and Norfolk State will play for the MEAC crown on ESPNEWS.

Louisiana Tech, the top seed, meets Missouri State at 5:30 p.m. on CBSSN for the crown in Conference USA, while the American will be between top seed Rice and UTSA at 9:30 p.m. on ESPNU.

On Sunday, besides the Patriot, the Northeast Conference at noon on ESPNU will feature Long Island U at top seed, defending champion, and host FDU, coached by former Villanova star Stephanie Gaitley.

Saturday’s CAA semifinal winners will play at 2 p.m. on CBSSN, the same time the Missouri Valley Conference championship will air on ESPN2.

  

 

 

 

 

 

The Guru’s March Madness Local/National Day 8 Report: Lehigh Upsets Navy in Patriot Semifinals and Holy Cross Downs Army; Stephen F. Austin Upsets McNeese for Southland Crown

By Mel Greenberg @winhoopsgurux

The military 1-2 punch in the Patriot League most of the season got taken down in the semifinals Thursday night by the duo which had been the recent reps to the NCAA tournament.

Fourth seed Lehigh (17-13), the defending champions and one of the Guru locals still in play to join Villanova, considered a lock, stunned top-seed Navy 81-76 in overtime on the road in the Midshipmen’s home court Alumni Hall in Annapolis, Md., while second seed Holy Cross (22-9) edged third seed Army 61-55 on the winning Crusaders’ home court in Worcester, Mass.

Holy Cross and Army (24-7) tied for second behind Navy (22-8) but Holy Cross had the tiebreaker and as a result of the victory will host Lehigh Sunday at noon (CBSSN) for the NCAA automatic qualifier several hours before the 68-team national bracket is revealed at 8 p.m. on ESPN.

As the No. 1 seed Navy is entitled to join the WBIT whose field will be announced later Sunday.

Lehigh is coached by former Princeton standout Addie Micir, while in 2023 and 2024 former coach Maureen Magarity guided Holy Cross to titles. The Mountain Hawks under former coach Sue Troyan pulled a series of upsets in 2021 when the entire NCAA tourney was held in San Antonio, Texas, because of the Covid pandemic.

In the win over Navy, Leia Edwards had a career-high 25 points, shooting 6-12 from the field, including 5-7 from deep, and also grabbed a personal best 16 rebounds while Belle Bramer also set a career best with 22 points and had seven rebounds.

The career-night parade for the Mountain Hawks also included a matching 19 points from Gracyn Lovette, who was 7-for-11 while also equaling her best on 3-pointers shooting 4-8 beyond the arc.

Lehigh was nearly perfect from distance shooting 13-for-14 just one off the season high on makes which occurred several times.

“We reminded Belle that if they were going to leave her open, shoot it, and she took that to heart,” said Micir, whose father Pancho played quarterback at Penn in football.

“We just said, keep defending, keep rebounding, and let our offense flow. I thought we did a good job with that.”

There were 11 lead changes.

Zanai Barnett-Gay, the Patriot player of the year, led Navy with 29 points, nine rebounds and seven assists while Zoe Mesuch had 18 points propelled by five makes from distance.

The home team built a 21-15 lead after the first quarter but trailing 31-22 with five minutes till the half Lehigh erupted on a 15-5 run to go in front 37-36 at the break.

Whitney Lind had 14 points for the visitors.

Lehigh, whose men’s team won the Patriot League, was poised to take it in regulation, overcoming what became 22 turnovers in the game and leading 72-65 with 3:30 left but Navy launched a 7-0 rally with Barnett-Gay finishing with a layup to send it into overtime.

Her score with 1:26 left in the extra period put the Mids up but Edwards nailed a long shot from the corner to put the Mountain Hawks up 78-76 and they held on to complete the upset.

“We showed so much toughness, heart and grit out there tonight,” said Navy coach Tim Taylor, a former assistant at Virginia. “This is such a resilient bunch of kids 3 right now, it's really hard.

“The regular season title wasn't our goal, this team wanted to get to the NCAA tournament, and they wanted to do it for the seniors. Hats off to Lehigh, they played a great game and made the shots when they had to.”

During the season, Lehigh forfeited the game at Navy due to illnesses and won the game at Stabler Arena in Bethlehem, Pa.  The Mountain Hawks swept the series with the Crusaders.

In the win over Army at the Hart Center, Mary-Elizabeth Donnelly had a game-high 17 points, propelled by 3-for-4 from deep, while Plymouth Whitemarsh grad Kaitlyn Flanagan had eight of her 13 points in the first half, including a buzzer-beater before the break for a six point lead.

Meg Cahalan added 11 points with six assists.

Camryn Tade scored 13 points for the visiting Black Knights, under first-year coach Katie Kuester, a former Saint Joseph’s star and associate head coach.

Hawks head coach Cindy Griffin’s daughter Hannah, who had a 3-pointer shooting 1-2 from distance plays for Holy Cross.

Drexel to Face Elon in CAA Quarterfinals

The third-seeded Dragons, who had a double-bye, learned of who they’ll play at 8:30 p.m. Friday night when Elon (16-15) rallied from a ten-point deficit in the fourth quarter Thursday in Round 2 of the Coastal Athletic Association tourney in Washington, D.C., at CareFirst Arena, home of the WNBA Washington Mystics, to beat Hampton, 67-62, behind Quinizia Fulmore’s game-high 22 points.

“We fought through a lot of adversity to come back and I’m really proud of our inside play,” said Elon coach Charlotte Smith, a former North Carolina star. “We felt like we had an advantage in the paint.”

In the three other games, eight-seed William & Mary beat nine-seed North Carolina A&T 61-58 and will play top-seed Charleston at noon; fifth-seed Monmouth won 72-61 over 13th seed UNCW and will play four-seed Stony Brook at 2:30 p.m.; and 10th seed Hofstra nipped seventh seed Towson 72-71 and will play second seed Campbell at 6 p.m., all games on FloCollege.

No. 23 Princeton Readies for Ivy Madness

Riding a five-game win streak Princeton nipped Columbia, which swept the Tigers, for first when the Lions fell last Saturday to Harvard, who they’ll face again at 7:30 p.m. Friday after Princeton faces four-seed Brown at 4:30 p.m., both games on ESPN+.

The winners meet Saturday at 5:30 p.m. and bubble teams are focused here because Princeton winning would preclude another Ivy and prevent a bid steal.

The National Scene Upset in the Southland While America East on the Line

The slick move McNeese pulled after last season landed just short of its objective Thursday when three seed Stephen F. Austin pulled a 71-59 upset to claim the Southland crown and NCAA automatic qualifier.

In the Southland at Lake Charles, La., at Townsley Law Arena, Myka Perry had 21 points for SFA to be named most outstanding player.

McNeese is the ninth No. 1 to fail to win its conference tourney though its moot where South Carolina and TCU are concerned since both are locks for at-large NCAA bids.

Teams holding No. 1 not making the NCAA get automatic placement in the 24-team WBIT, also run by the NCAA.

The WNIT gives auto bids to the highest conference seed not taken by the other two tourneys except the Ivies, who decline to send a representative.

Having last appeared in the NCAA 14 years ago, in the offseason McNeese hired Ayla Guzzardo, the coach from Southeastern, the 2025 Southland regular season champs who were 19-1 in league play and she brought eight players through the portal, and her new team went 21-1in league play (Southeastern was 4-18) including a third best 21 straight nationally behind unbeaten UConn and No. 2 UCLA.

Navy, mentioned at the top of this post, North Dakota in the Summit Conference, San Diego State in the Mountain West and Chattanooga in the Southern are No. 1s going elsewhere and in the Atlantic 10 defending tournament champ George Mason tied for first but was a No. 2 losing to No. 1 Rhode Island but likely to be bypassed by preseason favorite Richmond.

The list could grow considering 13 conferences the next three days have to crown champs, beginning Friday when top seed Vermont hosts second seed Maine and the remainder still have their No. 1s alive.

No.1s in semifinals Friday has Rice meeting North Texas in the American; UC Irvine meeting Hawaii in the Big West; La Tech meeting Liberty in CUSA; Howard meeting Coppin State in the MEAC; Murray State meeting Indiana State in the Missouri Valley; Alabama A&M playing Southern in the SWAC; and Cal Baptist playing Tarleton in the WAC.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Guru’s March Madness Report - Day 7: Temple Eliminated in American 59-51 by UTSA; Delaware Falls in CUSA to Top Seed La Tech; Idaho Wins Big Sky

 By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsgurux

 Poor shooting led to Temple’s demise in round two of the American Conference Tournament in Birmingham, Ala., the seventh-seed Owls (15-17) losing 59-51 Wednesday afternoon to sixth seed UTSA (15-15) and with a sub .500 record besides elimination from a shot at the automatic qualifier to the NCAA tournament that comes with the conference championship, invites to the WBIT and WNIT are also off the table.

Unlike the last two seasons where Temple had strong finishes and advanced to the conference semifinals giving hope of something to build on next time around turnovers were a major obstacle down the stretch to drag the Owls to a lower seed.

UTSA in Thursday’s quarterfinals will face preseason favorite South Florida which is seeded third.

Holding a one-point lead at the half Temple suffered a major collapse in the third quarter shooting 14.3 percent from the field that included six blanks from distance.

The Owls also suffered on the boards, UTSA dominating 44-27.

“It’s a tough way to lose our game and end our season,” said Temple coach Diane Richardson. “There were some things we pointed out in the locker room, and it was a tough loss, tough loss for us. And we’ll go back and go home and get ready for the next one.”

Back in the opening weeks of the season Richardson was upbeat over a challenging non-conference schedule to prepare her team for a deep run knowing the American is a one-bid situation regarding the NCAA tournament.

One positive is there are no seniors which improves the experience factor if no key players enter the portal or suffer injuries over the summer.

“I think we still have a very talented team,” Richardson said. “We’ve had some ups and downs, and we’ve had some injuries this year, but I stand by my team.

“I know we didn’t have any seniors, so the experience portion of it, but I still stand by my kids and I think we have a very good team, and we’ll be ready for next year.”

Eight seed Delaware (13-19) went down quickly in round two of Conference USA in Huntsville, Ala., in its debut season playing top seed Louisiana Tech (25-5), suffering lopsided scoring to the opposition the first three quarters and ultimately a 72-43 wipeout.

No one scored in double figures for the Fighting Blue Hens, Trinity Vance and Ande’a Cherisier just missing with nine points each.

In the Guru’s group of 13 locals, Villanova, despite its blowout loss to No. 1 UConn in the Big East championship, is considered a lock to have its name called Sunday night when the 68-team NCAA field is announced at 8 p.m. on ESPN.

Drexel, the third seed in the Coastal Athletic Association tourney in Washington, has a double bye into Friday night’s quarterfinals, playing the fourth and last game at 8:30 p.m. against an opponent to be determined Thursday between Hampton and Elon.

The Dragons, if they don’t earn an NCAA automatic bid, could land in the WNIT.

No. 23 Princeton, the top seed in the Ivy League, plays four-seed Brown Friday at Cornell in Ithaca, N.Y., and advancing to Saturday’s title game against Columbia or Harvard should be enough to gain an at large bid if the Tigers don’t win another title.

In the Patriot League semifinals Thursday night, Lehigh is at Navy while Army is at Holy Cross with the highest surviving seed hosting Sunday’s noon championship.

Saint Joseph’s is under consideration from both the WBIT and WNIT while La Salle is under consideration by the WNIT.

On Wednesday, top seed Idaho beat Montana State 60-57 to win the Big Sky title, on Thursday Stephen F. Austin and McNeese will play for the Southland crown, and on Friday Maine and host Vermont will vie for the America East title bringing the total to 19 champions securing NCAA bids.

On Saturday eight more conferences will crown champions leaving the remaining four to do so Sunday afternoon.