City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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Every game on the college hoops calendar is picking up in intensity and meaning, as the postseason draws ever closer. That’s certainly the case for the 12 teams that make up the City 6, many of which are right in the thick of their conference races as February approaches.

Here’s a roundup of Wednesday night’s action, which saw three women’s teams and two men’s in action:

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WBB: Temple 68, Cincinnati 64

Tonya Cardoza and Co. continue to do well in the early part of the American Athletic Conference schedule. The Owls’ win was their fourth in their last five games, putting Temple (9-6, 4-1) in the mix of four one-loss teams at the top of the AAC, along with UCF, South Florida and SMU. 

After falling behind by six after one quarter and eight at halftime, the Owls battled back, closing the gap to three entering the final quarter, finally taking the lead back on their home court with less than four minutes to play. But it wasn’t until the final 30 seconds, when Mia Davis and Jasha Clinton each connected on a pair of free-throws — Clinton’s made it 68-63 with 10 seconds left — that the game was finally in hand.

Davis continued her march towards the program’s all-time scoring mark with a 22-point, six-rebound outing, shooting 5-of-6 from the floor and 12-of-14 from the charity stripe. Clinton added 14 and Caranda Perea added 10 points, including a pair of 3-pointers, in 14 minutes off the bench.

Temple goes on the road for the next two, playing at Memphis on Saturday and then at Central Florida on Monday before starting a three-game homestand.

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WBB: St. Bonaventure 61, La Salle 57 

The Explorers were in prime position to run their win streak to four straight, leading the Bonnies by six with 2:37 to go after a pair of Molly Masciantonio free-throws. But St. Bonaventure finished strong at home, scoring the last 10 points of the game to send La Salle home on the bus to think about what went wrong. 

Over the last two-plus minutes, La Salle (11-7, 4-2 A-10) was 0-5 with a turnover on its final six possessions. St. Bonaventure (10-8, 2-5), which got a 3-pointer and then jumper from Tori Harris to get within a point with 1:51 remaining, was 5-of-8 from the foul line over the final two minutes to close out the win.

The Explorers, who trailed by nine after one quarter and by five entering the fourth, were out-rebounded 45-38 but won the turnover battle, forcing 19 while giving it up just nine times. Kayla Spruill led the way for La Salle with 22 points, while Masciantonio added 11 as the other Explorer in double figures. Asianae Johnson led St. Bonaventure with 21 points; Harris and Taylor Napper added 13 apiece.

La Salle resumes play on Sunday with a 2 PM game at Duquesne (7-11, 2-4) before returning to Philadelphia to host Saint Joseph’s next Wednesday.
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MBB: Saint Joseph’s 72, Duquesne 61

All five Hawks’ starters were productive in this game of runs, which ended with St. Joe’s out-scoring Duquesne 19-7 over the final 8:30 to come out with a home win.

Jordan Hall led the way with an 18-point, 10-rebound, six-assist effort for St. Joe’s (9-10, 3-5 A-10), which led 38-27 at the midway point but saw Duquesne (6-11, 1-6) retake the lead five minutes into the second half. The two teams traded leads over the next seven minutes, before SJU put things away down the stretch.

Erik Reynolds II, Cameron Brown and Taylor Funk all had 13 points for St. Joe’s, while Ejike Obinna had 12, including six straight during that game-winning series; his dunk put SJU up 68-56 with 3:20 to play. 

As a team, SJU won the rebound battle (37-32) and shot 45.8% overall (27-of-59), including 12-of-26 (46.2%) from the 3-point arc. Both teams had 11 turnovers.

The Hawks will hit the road this weekend, traveling to Olean (N.Y.) to play St. Bonaventure (11-5, 3-2) as they search for their first back-to-back league wins of the season.

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WBB: Fordham 55, Saint Joseph’s 35

The young Hawks ran into a brick wall in the Bronx. 

St. Joe’s (6-11, 2-3 A-10) shot just 13-of-46 (28.3%) while turning it over 21 times, scoring a season low in points against one of the top defenses in the Atlantic 10. The Hawks held the Rams to under 40% from the floor, but couldn’t come up with consistent offense to capitalize on their own strong defense. 

Freshman forward Talya Brugler was the only St. Joe’s player in double figures, with 11 points on 4-9 shooting, along with six rebounds, two assists and a block; Brugler and fellow freshman forward Laila Fair (7 points) provided more than half of their team’s offense.

Fordham (13-5, 4-2) led 11-8 after one quarter and 22-10 at halftime, then used a big third quarter to go up 45-22 heading into the fourth, all but putting the game away with 10 minutes to play.

The Hawks, who’ve alternated wins and losses thus far in league play, play UMass at home on Saturday before a short trip to La Salle next Wednesday. 

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MBB: Massachusetts 77, La Salle 71

The Explorers looked like they were in control against the Minutemen, up 16 points early in the second half, but the second half flowed continually in UMass’ direction as La Salle lost for the seventh time in eight games.

La Salle (6-11, 1-6 A-10) went up 50-34 on a 3-pointer by Jhamir Brickus with 17 minutes left, the largest lead yet in a game the Explorers led almost the way to that point. UMass (9-10, 2-5), which came in having lost seven of its last nine games, used a 13-0 run at that point to close the gap, then took the lead for good on a Rich Kelly 3-pointer with 5:47 remaining.

Kelly paced UMass with 21 points on 7-13 shooting, while former Penn State forward Trent Buttrick added 16 points and six rebounds and T.J. Weeks had 11 points and 10 rebounds for a double-double. 

La Salle got 18 points from Josh Nickelberry, 16 from Jack Clark and 14 from Clifton Moore, but got crushed 44-27 on the glass, including a 17-7 UMass edge on the offensive glass, which allowed the Minutemen to shoot 26 free-throws (21 makes) to La Salle’s 11 (8 makes).

The Explorers go on the road for the next two, playing at Davidson on Saturday and at George Washington on Wednesday. 

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WBB: Columbia 61, Penn 56

The Quakers’ slide in the Ivy League continued, as a strong early defensive showing couldn’t hold the Lions for a full 40 minutes.

Penn (7-10, 2-3 Ivy) led 24-16 at the midway point, with Columbia star Abbey Hsu getting 10 points but not getting much help from her supporting cast. But the host Lions (14-3, 5-0) turned it on out of the locker rooms, scoring 23 points in the third quarter and 22 in the fourth, and the Quakers couldn’t keep up. 

Columbia shot 7-of-33 before halftime and 18-of-31 after it, finishing 25-of-65 (38.5%) for the game. Penn was just 19-of-64 (29.7%) from the floor, including 6-of-30 (20%) from 3-point range.

Mia Lakstigala led Penn with 18 points on 5-11 shooting (4-8), and Kayla Padilla had 14, though Columbia held the high-scoring Penn junior to 4-of-17 shooting and 1-of-8 from deep; Jordan Obi added 10 as the third member of the team in double figures.

The Quakers get their next three games at home, starting with Harvard on Saturday and then a rematch against Columbia next Friday.