The Guru Local Report: Turnovers Bedevil Temple in Loss to ECU; Its Ivy Chaos the Rest of Way; Saint Joe and La Salle Get A-10 Road Wins

 By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsgurux

PHILADELPHIA – Back on day one when Temple beat Atlantic 10 tournament champion George Mason in the season opener an energetic coach Diane Richardson stated “l hate losing in the semifinals of the American Conference tournament,” a reference to the one-bid only regard the NCAA women’s basketball tournament committee has traditionally treated the league and the reason to load the non-conference portion of the schedule with difficult challenges to be ready for the second portion of the season.

She also complimented her staff for recruiting players to solve some of the weaknesses in the rooster of 2024-25.

That was then and this is now on Saturday afternoon when the Owls (10-14, 4-8) dropped a 79-72 affair to East Carolina (19-7, 11-2) here at the Liacouras Center leaving them in ninth place one spot above the new 10th place cutoff to make the revised five-day event next month in Birmingham, Ala.

Once again turnovers plagued the effort with 24 committed against the second-place Pirates.

“ECU does have a tough defense, but I think our turnovers today were self-imposed, Richardson said. “Not making crisp passes, not going to meet the passes.”

She noted that her players need to move on to the next play after a  miscue where worry over a mistake leads to a second turnover.

Temple managed to stay even at the break 36-36 but then fell way behind 21-12 with ten minutes left, a period that saw another Owls rally that fell short.

Richardson also noted, “we need our bench to step up,” so the starting group can be rested more.

Anzhane Hutton and Kennedy Fauntleroy each scored 19 points with two other ECU players also in double figures.

Richardson said the team still needs a consistent four-quarter effort and play with more confidence.

Saniyah Craig scored 20 points, while Savannah Curry shot 6-for-8 from the field for a career-high 18 points, including two makes from deep, Kaylah Turner collected 14 and Tristen Taylor scored 10 for Temple.

Jaleesa Molina, who missed the last game with an ankle injury, played from the bench, scoring four points in 12 minutes.

South Florida was the overwhelming favorite preseason in the American but the Bulls are in fourth place after Jose Fernandez left to coach the WNBA’s Dallas Wings featuring rookie of the year Paige Bueckers and Villanova standout Maddy Siegrist and possessing the No. 1 pick again in April’s draft.

Teams in the city have made low-seeded runs to conference titles and although the American is considered wide-open, in the new format the bottom four play the first day, advancing to the next round where the five and six seeds have byes.

The third and fourth seeds get double byes to the quarter finals and the top two get passes straight to the semifinals.

But first Temple has to get there and the first attempt to finish the regular season with a kick starts Tuesday at Charlotte in North Carolina  at 6:30 p.m. (ESPN+).

Penn Falls at Columbia While Princeton Wins at Cornell

The Quakers (14-9, 4-6) are now on life support in returning to the four-team Ivy Madness, this year at Cornell in Ithaca, N.Y., after losing 69-56 to Columbia (17-6, 8-2), which got revenge for the recent loss at The Palestra and is tied for first with No. 24 Princeton (20-3, 8-2), which recovered from Friday’s loss to the Lions to win 59-38 at Cornell (8-15, 3-7).

The big damage of the night to the Quakers was not Columbia’s Riley Weiss with 21 points, Perri Page with 15 and reserve Mia Broom with 12 while Susie Rafiu had 10 rebounds.

While Penn’s Katie Collins had 22 points and Simone Sawyer scored 12 with eight points and reserve Abby Sharpe had her best night since an early season injury shooting 4-for-5 in 20 minutes making both three-point attempts, up in Providence, R.I., Brown (15-7, 7-3) pulled a 68-62 upset of Harvard (14-9, 7-3), moving into a third-place tie with the Crimson and No. 3 seed spot, both teams three games up on the Quakers and just a game behind the leaders.

It’s the wildest standings at this point in the season since the start of the Ivy tourney, maybe even overall, in terms of race for placement.

Grace Arnolie had 21 points for Brown while Ada Anamekwe scored 15 with nine rebounds, the same board total as Olivia Young.

Harvard’s Abigail Wright had 29 points and Karlee White had 16.

Princeton’s Madison St. Rose had 15 points while Skye Belker scored 12 and Fadima Tall had 11 points.

The Tigers next host Brown 5:30 p.m. (ESPN+) Saturday while Penn hosts Yale at 2 p.m. (ESPN+) the same day.

As of Sunday morning in the League the Net order is Princeton (47), Columbia (57), Harvard (65), Brown (118) and Penn (129).

A year after a historic three bids to the NCAA the only team with an at-large shot is Princeton, and that has gotten slimmer for the Tigers, likely to drop out of the AP Poll on Monday.

Penn must win its remaining four games Yale, Harvard, Dartmouth, and Brown as step one to survive while Harvard must lose its last four of Cornell, Penn, Princeton, and Columbia, or Brown must lose its last four of Princeton, Cornell, Columbia and Penn.

In either scenario, a dead heat goes to the other teams courtesy of a sweep of Cornell and a Penn split.

The only team Penn has a chance with a better Net if it comes to it is Brown.

La Salle and Saint Joseph’s Take A-10 Road Games

Down in Washington La Salle (14-11, 7-7) took a 67-52 win over George Washington (15-14, 5-9) while in the Midwest Saint Joseph’s (17-8, 8-6) won 63-50 at Loyola, Chicago (12-13, 8-6).

In a big showdown game Rhode Island (23-2, 14-0) continued its historic season winning 79-63 over George Mason (16-8, 11-2) and leads preseason favorite Richmond (22-4, 12-1), which has a makeup game Monday afternoon with George Mason.

Saint Joseph’s is in a three-way tie for fourth with the tiebreaker after Aleah Snead had 16 points, 12 boards and six assists in the Hawks’ win. They next host Duquesne at 7 p.m. Wednesday (ESPN+). Jill Jekot scored 13 points.

La Salle got 18 points and nine boards from Ashleigh O’Connor while Kiara Williams scored 14 points, Joan Quinn had 13 points and Aryss Macktoon pulled down 11 boards.

The Explorers next host Rhode Island Wednesday at 7 p.m. (ESPN+).

Lafayette Upsets Lehigh in the Patriot League

In the Patriot League rivalry game, Lafayette (9-16, 5-9) pulled a 73-59 upset of Lehigh (13-11, 9-5) at home in the Kirby Sports Center in Easton, Pa., as Talia Zurinski scored 19 points for the winning Lepoards, Teresa Kiewiet had 17 points, Haylie Adamski was 4-for-6 from deep and finished with 14 points.

Lehigh’s Lily Fandre had 20 points and Alana Reddy scored 14 points.

Navy and Army, the 1-2 punch with the Midshippmen the preseason pick, continued to win as Navy stayed two games in front of the Black Knights.

On Wednesday, Lafayette hosts Holy Cross at 6 p.m., and Lehigh hosts Navy the same time at Stabler Arena in Bethlehem, Pa., the same time, both games on ESPN+.

Rutgers Falls at Purdue; Rider Beats Marist; Delaware Loses to UTEP

In the Big Ten, Rutgers (9-16, 1-13) fell 72-57 at Purdue (12-13, 4-1) in West Lafayette, Ind.

Kiki Smith led four Boilermakers in double figures with 17 points, while

Nene Ndiaye was 4-for-5 from deep for the visiting Scarlet Knights and scored 25 points while Zachara Perkins scored 10.

Rutgers next is at Illinois, Tuesday, at 7 p.m., on the Big Ten Network.

Penn State (8-17), 1-13), the other Big Ten local and just one of two locals overall, hosts Northwestern at 4 p.m., also on the Big Ten Network.

The other is in the Big East, where Villanova, with a chance to clinch at least third, is at Creighton in Omaha, Nebraska, at 5 p.m. on TruTV.

The Wildcats are hosting No. 1 UConn on Wednesday at 7 p.m. on Peacock and as of Sunday mid-afternoon seats at Finneran Pavilion are still available.

Back to Saturday, down in Newark, Del., at the Bob Carpenter Center, Delaware (12-13, 6-7) dropped a 79-72 game in Conference USA to UTEP (11-13, 3-10).

In the loss, Ande’A Cherisier scored 17 points, Kailah Correa collected 16, and Lay Fontroy scored 14.

The Blue Hens next visit FIU Thursday in Florida at 11 a.m. on ESPN+.

In the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, Rider (6-19, 4-12) won 56-43 against visiting Marist (10-17, 7-10) at Alumni Gym in Lawrenceville, N.J., as Aliya McIver scored 19 points for the Broncs and Kristina Ekofo scored 17.

The Broncs next play Thursday at Canisius in Western New York at 6:30 p.m. on ESPN+.

At the top of the MAAC, two-time defending champion Fairfield (22-4, 16-1) avenged its home loss to Quinnipiac (21-5, 16-1), defeating the Bobcats 75-63 in Hamden, Conn., to create a knot in first and split in the series and likely championship showdown again next month in the conference tourney in Atlantic City, N.J.