The Guru NCAAW Report: Shock City As No. 5 UCLA Blasts No. 1 South Carolina; Villanova Dropped by UNC in the Tropics; Princeton Beats Rutgers to Sweep ‘Jersey Series

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

Through early Sunday afternoon the No. 5 UCLA women had never beaten a team ranked No. 1 by the Associated Press in 20 meetings nor had the Bruins ever made it to the top.

The year they won their national title in 1978 voting for the season had already been completed.

Several hours later, however, one of those facts had changed with a stunning 77-62 upset of defending NCAA champion and No. 1 ranked South Carolina in Pauley Pavilion in Los Angeles.

The size of the triumph by the Bruins (5-0) was such that it is likely with the stroke of noon on Monday and the arrival of the new AP poll for the week the nationwide media panel of voters will have also updated the other fact.

“I don’t mean to be boring, but I really don’t care who’s ranked at what point,” said UCLA coach Cori Close. “I just want us to learn the lessons that this game taught us and I want us to fall more in love with the process of what it takes to become great.”

“We ran into a buzz saw today,” said Hall of Fame Gamecocks coach Dawn Staley.

In terms of earthquake measurement this would be at least an eight on the Richter scale.

South Carolina (5-1) had just set a new program record with its 43rd straight victory and had won 33 straight on the road, third longest in Division I history, dating back to an SEC setback on Dec. 20, 2021 at Missouri.

“My message (to her players) was just ‘this is what we usually do to teams,’” Staley said with a slight laugh. “When you’re on the receiving end of it you know you got beat by a great team, executing, that was beautiful basketball by UCLA, beautiful on both sides.

“I’m on the opposite side of it but you can’t help but love up on it because it was fluid on both sides of the ball, they wanted it, I thought our kids fought, but we ran into a buzz saw today.”

Londynn Jones scored 15 points for UCLA off a perfect 5-for-5 from deep while freshman reserve Eliana Aarnisalo scored 13, and three other Bruins were also in double figures, Lauren Betts had a double double 11 points and 14 boards, Kiki Rice also scored 11, and Gabriela Jaquez off the bench was the third player collecting 11 points.

The Gamecocks’ Te-Hina Paopao had 18 points, including a perfect 4-4 from beyond the arc, while reserve Tessa Johnson scored 14.

UCLA’s best wins in terms of opponents came in the former PAC-12 wars beating Oregon in 2019 and Stanford in 2008 but both teams were ranked No. 2.

It was the second straight day for a major upset in the City of Angels, No. 6 Notre Dame handling No. 3 Southern Cal 74-61 at the Galen Center matching last year’s two prized freshmen in Trojan award winner JuJu Watkins and the Irish’s Hannah Hidalgo from Merchantville (N.J.) across the Delaware River in suburban Philadelphia.

The UCLA lead was by as many as 23 points though the final total made it the largest loss by an AP No. 1 since January 2020 when Baylor beat UConn by 16.

Staley’s troops, whose last loss was the Caitlin Clark-led Iowa upset in the 2023 national semifinals, hadn’t been terrorized this bad since the 2019 Sweet 16.

“There just was never a doubt, and we prepared like we expected to win,” Close said. “It’s Nov. 24. Am I proud of our team? Yes. But this is just the beginning, and we just can’t get tired of doing things right.”

The Local Scene

Villanova climbed up against the elite level of the Power Four and weren’t ready for prime time, losing a semifinal to No. 16 North Carolina 53-36 in the Battle 4 Atlantis Tourney in the Bahamas.

The Wildcats (4-2) will get another chance Monday afternoon at 2:30 p.m. (ESPNU) in the game for third when they meet Baylor, which was No. 18 on Sunday but will likely be lower in the new AP Poll out at noon after being upset by Indiana 73-62.

Villanova and the Bears met two years ago in the semifinals of the Gulf Coast Showcase Tourney when the opposition was ranked No. 21. The ‘Cats fell 75-70 but went on to land in the Sweet 16 and finish in the Top 10.

That edition, however, featured Maddy Siegriest, who became the new ‘Nova legend drafted third overall by the Dallas Wings after busting all of Shelly Pennefather’s program records and many more.

There were also two more key elements in Lucy Olsen, third in the nation in scoring last season but now still averaging plenty with 17.3 points as the roster replacement for the graduated Caitlin Clark at Iowa (6-0) while Christina Dalce is at a near double-double at 10.3 points and 9.3 rebounds at Maryland (6-0), both schools in the Big Ten.

The Tar Heels (5-1), whose only loss was recently to No. 2 Connecticut, rang off a 10-3 run on the Wildcats midway through the first period for a 17-7 lead, ‘Nova shooting 3-13 while UNC, coached by Princeton program-builder Courtney Banghart, was 7-16, including 3-5 from deep.

It got worse from there at 30-18 at the half and 44-23 after three, a quarter in which the Wildcats were 0-7 from the field.

Maddie Webber got three of her four from deep in the final period to finish with 12 points for the Wildcats while Lara Edmanson had 11 points and seven boards.

Alyssa Ustby and Lexi Donarski each scored 14 points for the Tar Heels.

In the consolation bracket, Columbia (5-2) got 22 points from Riley Weiss to beat Southern Miss 85-66 while Ball State (5-1) beat Texas A&M 75-62, the losers will play for seventh place Monday, the winners for fifth.

Villanova will then be off until traveling for the Holy War Sunday down the road to Saint Joseph’s at Hagan Arena but don’t be rushing yet to put all your money on the Hawks, who were waiting to learn the conditions of Emma Boslet and Kayleigh Griffin, who both had injuries in the one-point overtime loss at Utah Friday night.

Saint Joseph’s has a game Wednesday hosting Saint Francis, Pa., at 3 p.m.

Up North, Princeton, the Ivy tournament champion, who shared the regular season crown with Columbia, is coping so far with the season-ending ACL injury to Madison Saint Rose, winning a second game since her loss with a 66-49 victory at Rutgers (4-2) after downing Seton Hall to sweep the annual Central Jersey round-robin.

The Tigers (4-2), who are at Temple, 5 p.m., Tuesday, got career efforts in the game at Jersey Mike’s Arena in Piscataway from Ashley Chea with 20 points and nine boards and Fadima Tall with a first double double of 11 points and 10 boards. Skye Belker had 13 points.

Defensively, Princeton owned the boards 46-33 and held Destiny Adams, third in the nation with a 25.2 average, to four points at 2-5 from the floor.

Though Adams was shut down, Kyomi McMiller scored 27 for a career high.

Rutgers next is hosting the Battle of the Banks, one of a slew of Thanksgiving Tourneys this week, playing Marquette at 2 p.m. Friday and Georgia Southern, the same time Saturday in a pre-determined format setting both days.

Rider fell at VCU 75-60 in Richmond.

The Broncs (1-4) got a game-high 18 from La Salle transfer Gabby Turco while Timaya Lewis-Eutsey scored 15 and Valentina Ojeda had 12 for VCU (3-2).

Rider is off until traveling to Boston U. Sunday at 1 p.m.

In the only other game involving a local, Delaware (1-4) lost 60-53 at Providence (3-3), the Blue Hens got 12 points from Ande’A Cherisier, while Tara Cousins and reserve Alieghya Bartholomew each scored 11 points.

Grace Efosa had 14 points and reserve Mackayla Scarlett scored 11 for the winning Friars.

Delaware next goes to the Big Easy tourney this weekend playing Tarleton State Friday and Evansville Saturday in the Fleur de Lis division in New Orleans.

National Highlights

In the WBCA Showcase at ESPN’s Wide World of Sports in Orlando, Fla., No. 25 Louisville edged South Florida 64-60 as Olivia Cochran and Imari Berry each scored 13 points for the Cardinals (4-2) while Victoria Blasigh scored 19, Carla Brito had 11, and Sammie Puisis had 10 for USF (4-3), the American Conference favorites.

Audi Crooks got the game-winner at the buzzer to finish with 33 for No. 8 Iowa State (5-1) in an 80-78 triumph over visiting Drake (2-3) to escape a second-straight upset. Katie Dinnebier had 39 for the Bulldogs.

Harvard (7-1) got 25 points from Harmoni Turner in a 72-62 win at Illinois State.

Looking Ahead

Villanova is the only local playing Monday.

No. 2 Connecticut plays Oregon State in the Baha Mar women’s tourney at 7:30 p.m. on FloHoops, while Duke meets Kansas State in the Ball Dawgs Classic at 3p.m. on FloHoops, with Oklahoma and DePaul playing at 5:30 p.m.

Oregon and Georgia Tech meet in the Hawaii North Shore Showcase at 7 p.m. on Baller TV.