The Guru NCAAW Report: No. 6 LSU Nips No. 16 Tennessee While No. 13 Georgia Tech; No. 14 Duke; No. 9 Oklahoma all Upset; Penn State Falls Just Short of Big Ten Win

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

And then there were three and barely almost two.

That’s the number of Division I team’s remaining unbeaten following Thursday’s wild activity, especially in the Atlantic Coast and Southeastern Conferences that had their shares of overtime games and upsets.

In the marquee attraction of the night, No. 6 LSU in the SEC edged No. 16 Tennessee 89-86 at Food City Center in Knoxville on Kailyn Gilbert’s layup with one second remaining in regulation enabling the Tigers (18-0, 3-0) to continue with a perfect record.

It was the second straight narrow loss for the Lady Vols (13-2, 1-2), who fell by one point to then-No. 9 Oklahoma at home on Sunday.

Zee Spearman missed at the very finish with a short shot that would have sent the game in overtime if it had gone through the hoop.

LSU’s Aneesah Morrow had 23 points and 21 rebounds, while Gilbert scored 22, Flau’Jae Johnson scored 20, and Mikaylah Williams scored 16.

Tennessee got 25 points from Jewel Spear and Talaysia Cooper scored 24, with Ruby Whitehorn and Samara Spencer each scoring 10.

The Tigers had shot up to an 18-point lead in the second quarter.

LSU hosts Vanderbilt in Baton Rouge on Monday a day after Tennessee visits Arkansas in Fayetteville.

LSU and Mississippi State are the only programs to win at Tennessee’s arena three straight times.

“She’s made shots like that several times this year,” said LSU Hall of Fame coach Kim Mulkey of Gilbert’s game-winner. “With an unconventional lineup tonight, very, very, small, and I think it was effective.”

Said first year Tennessee coach Kim Caldwell, “Another tough one. Same story, right? Not boxing out. Not putting four quarters together, foul shots. Same thing. It’s a really hard pill to swallow.

“So, when you think about it, we’re three points from being a top five team in the country. I don’t think that’s a positive. We don’t want moral victories. We don’t want people telling us, ‘You’re so close, you’re so close,’ it’s our job to get it done.”

In the ACC, No. 13 Georgia Tech didn’t have an escape like LSU, the Yellow Jackets at home in Atlanta took their first loss ending their best start ever by falling to Virginia Tech 105-94 in double overtime.

The other two unbeaten teams are in the Big Ten in No. 1 UCLA and No. 9 Ohio State, who were both idle.

The Yellow Jackets’ ultimate demise came in the second period when Lani White scored six of her 20 points for the Hokies (11-4, 2-2).

In regulation, Georgia Tech (15-1, 3-1) scored the last four points for an 80-80 tie to force the first overtime and then forced the second off an offensive rebound that resulted in a buzzer-beating trey from Rusne Augustinaite to create a 92-all deadlock.

The Hokies opened the second extra session on an 8-0 run, four by White, to take control.

Carleigh Wenzel had 24 points and a career-high 10 assists for Virginia Tech, while Rose Micheaux had 20 points and 12 boards.

Carys Baker and Matilda Ekh each scored 17 points for the visitors.

Georgia Tech’s Kara Dunn collected 31 points with ten rebounds, Tonie Morgan had a career-high 28 points, but freshman standout Dani Carnegie was reduced to six minutes due to an injury.

In the parade of ACC upsets, No. 19 North Carolina (14-3, 2-2) lost a 16-point lead to No. 14 Duke (12-4, 3-1) before coming back with a 53-46 overtime win in Chapel Hill over the cold shooting Blue Devils.

In the extra period, Courtney Banghart’s winning Tar Heels made 10 of 14 foul shots in the overtime.

Alyssa Ustby had 10 points and 11 boards for UNC, which just shot 32 percent from the field and had a season-high 26 turnovers.

The Blue Devils got 10 points from Ashlon Jackson.

UNC hosts Boston College Sunday while Duke will be at Virginia in Charlottesville.

In late night games, Eastern Time, out west, No. 24 California (15-2, 3-1) at home at Haas Pavilion in Berkeley, upended No. 21 NC State 78-71.

Marta Suarez had 17 points and 12 boards for California, while Ionna Krimili scored 15, and Michelle Onyiah scored 15 points with 10 boards.

Kayla Williams had 15 points, six assists, and five boards.

The Wolfpack (11-4, 3-1) got 21 points from Aziaha James, while Tilda Trygger had 19 points and 10 rebounds.

Stanford (9-6, 1-3), meanwhile, new to the ACC with California out of the former Pac-12 this season, and SMU out of The American Athletic Conference, upset Florida State 89-84, at home in Maples Pavilion.

 Brooke Demetre had 24 points for the Cardinal, as did Ta’Niya Latson, the nation’s leading scorer, for the visiting Seminoles (13-3, 3-1).

On Sunday, Cal hosts Florida State, while Stanford hosts NC State the same day at 3 p.m. on ESPN.

No. 3 Notre Dame (13-2, 4-0) stayed the course with an 100-64 win over visiting Wake Forest as Merchantville’s Hannah Hidalgo scored 23 with six steals for the Fighting Irish at home in South Bend. Pitt transfer Liatu King had 17 points, Sonia Citron scored 16, and Olivia Miles collected 13 points with nine assists.

The Fighting Irish have won all 13 games in the series with Wake Forest (7-8, 0-4).

Notre Dame is at Virginia Tech Sunday in Blacksburg.

SMU beat host Syracuse 72-71 in overtime.

Back in the SEC, Mississippi State stunned visiting No. Oklahoma 81-77 as Jerkaila Jordan scored 24 for the Bulldogs (14-3, 1-2), 18 in the second half, in the game in Starkville.

Oregon State transfer Raegan Beers had 19 points and 10 boards for the Sooners (13-3, 1-2), who came over with No. 5 Texas from the Big 12 this season.

The Longhorns (16-1, 3-0) had little problems with No. 18 Alabama (15-2, 2-1) in the home game in Moody Center in Austin as Madison Booker scored 21 points in 18 minutes for Texas, while Taylor Jones had 11 points and 12 boards.

No one for the Crimson Tide scored in double figures.

Alabama is at Ole Miss, which recently fell out of the AP Women’s Poll, on Sunday, while Texas has a showdown at No. 2 South Carolina in Columbia.

The reigning national champion Gamecocks (15-1, 3-0) cruised at home to a 90-49 win over Texas A&M (8-7, 1-2) as Joyce Edwards led the way with 19 points and 10 boards.

No. 15 Kentucky (14-1, 3-0) on the road won 71-55 over Florida in Gainesville as Georgia Amoore had 18 points and four steals for the Wildcats, while Dazia Lawrence scored 14.

In the Big Ten, Illinois stunned No. 24 Iowa 62-57 at home in Champagne as Kendall Bostic scored 17 points for the winners (12-4, 2-3) with 14 boards, and Genesis Bryant had seven of her 12 points in the final period.

Iowa (12-4, 2-3), which lost to Maryland, has lost two straight in the conference for the first time since Dec. 1, 2022.

Hannah Stuelke had 18 points and 13 boards for the Hawkeyes, while Villanova transfer Lucy Olsen scored 16 with five assists.

The visitors were 8-17 from the line while committing 18 turnovers.

In the MAAC, its now quickly settled to a two-team race between defending champion Fairfield (10-3, 4-0), which won 72-50 at Iona in New Rochelle, N.Y., as Kaety L’Amoreaux scored 16 for the Stags, and Quinnipiac (13-1, 5-0), which won earlier in the day at Siena 69-51.

The Local Scene

Just two teams played, Rider (2-11, 0-4), yet to win in the MAAC this season, fell at home in Alumni Gym in Lawrenceville, N.J. To Canisius 63-43.

The Golden Griffins are not much better standings-wise to the Broncs, at 2-12 and 1-3.

“It came down to us not making enough shots,” said veteran Rider coach Lynn Milligan. “Defensively, we were locked in. Credit to Canisius, they had a couple of kids step up, make some big threes. We forced 26 turnovers but only scored 43 points.”

Mariona Cos-Morales scored 12 points for the Broncs, who next host Niagara on Saturday at 2 p.m. (ESPN+).

In the other game, Penn State got close to its first Big Ten win of the season, but not close enough, losing to new member Oregon 63-61 at home in the Bryce Jordan Center in State College, though trailing by 17 earlier in the fourth quarter.

Gabby Elliott scored 26 for the Lady Lions (9-7, 0-5), whose setback occurred hours earlier before the football team fell in the last seconds 30-27 to Notre Dame in a national semifinal football playoff game at the Orange Bowl in Miami.

Alli Campbell had 13 points and six boards, while Talayah Walker had 10 points and six boards. Gracie Merkle had 11 rebounds.

Oregon (12-4, 3-2) scored with a second left in regulation to win it.

It was the first meeting between the two programs.

Penn State now heads West to play at No. 4 Southern Cal at 8 p.m. Sunday in the Galen Center in Los Angeles on the B1G network and then Wednesday goes across town to No. 1 UCLA at Pauley Pavilion at 9:30 p.m. on Peacock.

The only team playing Friday night is Delaware hosting North Carolina A&T in a Coastal Athletic Association game in the Bob Carpenter Center in Newark at 6:30 p.m. on FloSports.

On Saturday, locally, not mentioned in this post, in the Ivy League, Princeton, the preseason favorite, hosts Harvard, voted third, at 2 p.m., while Penn at the same time hosts Dartmouth at The Palestra, both on ESPN+.

Villanova has a Big East visit to Marquette in Milwaukee at 3 p.m. on FloSports.

In the Patriot League, Lafayette is at defending champion Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass., at 2 p.m. (ESPN+), the same time and network Temple will appear hosting Tulsa at the Liacouras Center in the American Athletic Conference.

La Salle at 1 p.m. (ESPN+) visits Dayton in the Atlantic 10.

On Sunday, at 2 p.m., Saint Joseph’s will try to bounce back from Wednesday’s home loss to Duquesne, going for a sweep in the Atlantic 10 visiting VCU in Richmond on ESPN+.

Drexel at 2 p.m. on FloSports has a CAA meeting at Hofstra on Hempstead, Long Island; Nebraska at 2 p.m. makes a Big Ten visit on the B1G to Rutgers at the Jersey Mike’s Arena in Piscataway, N.J., while Lehigh in the Patriot League at 1 p.m. (ESPN+) visits Army at West Point, N.Y.

And that’s the report.

 

 

 

The Guru NCAAW Report: Villanova and Temple Prevail While Saint Joseph’s Shocked by Visiting Duquesne; No. 4 Southern Cal Tops No. 8 Maryland in Big Ten Battle

Guru note: Updated with details on the locals and nationals

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

The conference season hit full throttle Wednesday night with upsets locally and nationally – the unbeaten teams in the latter reduced to four with a threat to drop one more Thursday.

On the local front the stunner was Saint Joseph’s upset loss at home to Duquesne, 67-64, with a margin larger than the finish most of the night.

In the Patriot League, Colgate won at Lehigh 70-66 while Bucknell romped at Lafayette 64-48.

Rutgers, which again did not play freshman Kiymoni McMiller fell, at Minnesota 76-50.

But Temple rallied for a 75-69 win at Florida Atlantic in the American Athletic Conference while Villanova gave vintage performance in a thumping Big East 77-62 win at Georgetown.

On Thursday night in the MAAC, Rider hosts Canisius at 6 p.m. (ESPN+) and Penn State in the Big Ten, hosts Oregon at 5 p.m. on the B1G+.

In the MAAC Thursday involving the 1-2 punch, defending champion Fairfield (9-3, 3-0) is at Iona (6-8, 4-0) at 6 p.m. (ESPN+) while Quinnipiac (13-1, 5-0) in an already completed game beat host Sienna 69-51 in suburban Albany (N.Y.) as Karson Martin scored 14 points, Jackie Grisdale and Gal Raviv scored 13 and Anna Foley scored 10 on the Saints (6-8, 3-2).

Nationally, in the top 10 in a Big Ten battle, No. 4 Southern Cal (15-1) eluded an upset by No. 8 Maryland in College Park, winning 79-74 as JuJu Watkins scored 21 to drop the Terrapins (14-1) from the teams with perfect records.

Elsewhere in the Big Ten, No. 9 Ohio State (15-0) rallied at No. 25 Michigan (10-5) to win 84-77 while Nebraska, which had been ranked earlier, at home took down No. 20 Michigan State 85-80.

No. 7 Connecticut (14-2) had little problem playing visiting Xavier without Paige Bueckers winning 81-27 in the Big East.

In the Big 12, No. 12 Kansas State crushed newly ranked No. 22 Utah 71-47 on the road, while No. 11 TCU prevailed 80-73 at Kansas 80-73, No. 17 West Virginia won 89-53 at Texas Tech, but Baylor (13-3) went into overtime on the road to win at Arizona 81-76.

In the SEC Thursday night No. 6 LSU (17-0) is at No. 16 Tennessee (13-1) at 6:30 p.m.; No. 2 South Carolina hosts Texas A&M at 5 p.m. on ESPN2, at the same time No. 15 Kentucky is at Florida on the SEC Network, No. 10 Oklahoma is at Mississippi State at 7:30 p.m., and No. 5 Texas (15-1) hosts No. 18 Alabama at 8 p.m.

In the ACC Thursday No. 3 Notre Dame hosts Wake Forest at 5 p.m.; No. 13 Georgia Tech (15-0) hosts Virginia Tech at 7 p.m.; No. 14 Duke has a neighborhood battle at No. 19 North Carolina at 7 p.m. on the ACC Network, and No. 21 NC State is at No. 24 California at 10 p.m.

The Local Scene

In the Villanova game at McDonough Arena in the nation’s capital, the Wildcats (8-8, 2-2 Big East) shot 55.4 percent from the field and 50 percent (7-14) from beyond the arc.

Maddie Webber scored 19 points, Danae Carter scored 15 with seven boards, Jaliyah Green scored 13 with five rebounds, and Maddie Burke scored 11.

Lara Edmanson returned from the injured list shooting 4-7 and collecting nine points and five assists but freshman standout Jasmine Boscoe did not play.

Georgetown (8-7, 1-3) got 35 points from Kelsey Ransom.

Villanova is at Marquette Saturday in Milwaukee at 3 p.m. (FloSports).

In the Temple game in a battle of Owls in Boca Raton at the Eleanor R. Baldwin Arena, after Florida Atlantic (9-7, 1-2 AAC) tied it to force overtime, the visitors (9-6, 3-1), who had a 13-point lead in the third period, took over on the shoulders of substitute Kaylah Turner, who had five from deep and a career-high 25 points overall.

Temple on Saturday hosts Tulsa at the Liacouras Center at 2 p.m. (ESPN+).

Meanwhile, at Saint Joseph’s where the Hawks had risen on the ability to force the opposition to limit all three of their weapons, Duquesne (10-5, 1-3) did so in Hagan Arena on a night the shooting was as cold indoors as the weather outside.

Elsewhere in the A-10, preseason favorite Richmond, who was upset last week by Fordham, rallied at home in the Robins Center to nip George Mason, 88-86.

Maggie Doogan, a native of Broomall, Pa., had a career-high 37 points for the winning Spiders (12-5, 3-1) over the Patriots (12-3, 2-2).

Richmond (12-5, 3-1) on Sunday is at Davidson (9-7, 4-0), another upper tier team in the A-10, at 3 p.m. (ESPN+).

Saint Joseph’s (12-3, 3-1) saw Talya Bruglar (seven points), Laura Ziegler (nine points, 13 boards), and Mackenzie Smith (nine points) reduced to a combined total of 25 points, though some compensation came off the bench with Aleah Snead scoring 10 points and Rhian Stokes scoring eight.

The big freeze came in the third period when the Hawks were 2-for-12, both late in the period.

“We talked at halftime about getting more movement, then reverted back to what we were doing in the first quarter, which was really disappointing,” said Saint Joseph’s coach Cindy Griffin. “We got open shots, we missed them. When you go 6 of 14 from the foul line you can't win close games.

“Snead did an unbelievable job defensively and did a great job offensively as well,” Griffin said. “Rhian put us in position down the stretch to get us to within reach.”

Megan McConnell had six steals and 19 points with eight boards and five assists. Mackenzie Blackford had 13 points while Kiandra Browne and Jerri Kiaku each scored 10 with Browne also grabbing nine rebounds.

Saint Joseph’s heads to Richmond, Va., Sunday at 2 p.m. (ESPN+) going for a sweep of VCU.

“You want these (tough losses) games early rather than late, so that you have time to recover and learn from them,” Griffin said. “We’ll better starting tomorrow.”

In the Lehigh (11-4, 2-1) loss, ending a five-game win streak, Maddie Albrecht scored 21 for the host Mountain Hawks while Gracyn Lovette scored 14 at Stabler Arena in Bethlehem, Pa., against Colgate (11-5, 1-2). Next up is a visit to Army Sunday at 1 p.m. (ESPN+) at West Point, N.Y.

Lafayette (4-10, 1-2) couldn’t get anyone scoring double digits against visiting Bucknell (7-7, 2-1) in the home game at Kirby Sports Arena in Easton, Pa.

Next up is a Saturday visit to defending champion Holy Cross Saturday at 2 p.m. (ESPN+) in Worcester, Mass.

The Crusaders (9-5, 2-1) lost 67-56 Wednesday at Navy (11-3, 3-0) in Annapolis, Md.  

Kyah Smith had 15 points, five boards, two assists, and two steals for the Mids while Simone Foreman had 22 points and 13 boards for the visitors.

Rutgers (8-8, 0-5), still looking for its first conference win, got 28 points and 12 rebounds, including her 1,000th career point against Minnesota (16-1, 4-1) in Williams Arena in Minneapolis.

Next up is a Sunday visit at Jersey Mike’s Arena in Piscataway, N.J. at 2 p.m. from Nebraska.

The National Scene

In the USC-Maryland game it was close all the way but for the losing Terrapins, (14-1, 4-1) for now they proved still belong in a second seed, third seed, NCAA conversation pending other key league games to come.

Watkins had 21 points before fouling out for the Trojans (15-1, 5-0) in the last minute, while Kiki Iriafen added 21 also.

Maryland was up seven in the final period before USC rallied in the first meeting between the two since 1995.

Shyanne Sellers scored 26 for the Terrapins, Villanova transfer Christina Dalce had 15 points and 12 boards, and Rutgers transfer Kaylene Smikle scored 16 off 6-of-21 from the field.

Southern Cal hosts Penn State Sunday while Maryland visits Wisconsin on Saturday.

In the Ohio State game, Jaloni Cambridge scored 22 of her 29 points in the second half to help the No. 9 Buckeyes (15-0, 4-0) rally on the road against No. 25 Michigan (10-5, 1-3), which led by 16 in the first half in Ann Arbor.

Chance Gray had 16 points and Cotie McMahon added 13 for the visitors.

Olivia Olson had 20 for the Wolverines, who are at Purdue Saturday before Ohio State hosts Oregon Sunday.

Nebraska (12-4, 3-2) got a career-high 28 from Alexis Markowski in the home win over No. 20 Michigan State (12-3, 3-3) at Pinnacle Bank Arena in Lincoln.

Julia Ayrault scored 21 for Michigan State, which hosts Washington Sunday, the same day the Cornhuskers visit Rutgers.

No. 23 Iowa (12-3, 2-2) on Thursday is at Illinois (11-4, 1-3), which recently lost both Makira Cook and Gretchan Dolan to season-ending injuries.

In the Big East, though Paige Bueckers sat out No. 7 Connecticut’s romp in Hartford over Xavier after a knee injury in the recent win at Villanova, Azzi Fudd had the Huskies (14-2, 5-0) rolling with 18 of her 23 points in the first half against the Musketeers (5-10, 0-4) as Hall of Fame coach Geno Auriemma extended his NCAA combined men’s/women’s record win total to 1227.

Freshman Sarah Strong had all 15 of her points in the first half with seven boards and five steals while Allie Ziebell had 15 of her 17 points in the second half.

Xavier, a former A-10 power, has lost 45 straight Big East games.

UConn is at Georgetown Saturday.

In the Big 12 in the game with two ranked teams No. 12 Kansas State (16-1, 4-0) ruined No. 22 Utah’s return to the rankings with a 71-47 road win in Salt Lake City or the Utes (12-3, 3-1), one of four teams with Colorado, Arizona, and Arizona State moving over from the former PAC-12 this season.

Colorado and Utah are previous PAC-12 members.

Serena Sundell scored 15 for the winning Wildcats while Ayoka Lee had 14 and now has 2,450 career points, good enough for inclusion in the top 100 NCAA scorers.

Gianna Kneepens had 12 points to lead Utah, which hosts Houston Saturday, while Kansas State plays at BYU, which joined the conference last season.

No. 11 TCU (16-1, 4-0) got 30 points and 14 rebounds from Sedona Prince in the Horned Frogs’ win at Kansas (11-4, 1-3) in Lawrence, while Hailey Van Lith scored 19 with six assists. The visitors are at Texas Tech Saturday.

JJ Quinerly had 17 of her 21 points in the first half for No. 17 West Virginia (13-2, 3-1) in a 89-53 road win in Lubbock over Texas Tech (12-5, 1-3). The Mountaineers are at Oklahoma State on Saturday.

Baylor (13-3, 3-0) won 81-76 at Arizona (11-6, 2-2) in overtime in Tucson as Jada Walker scored 16 for the Bears and Darianna Littlepage-Buggs had 15 points and 11 boards.