Scranton's elite defense shows up in Florida, Baldwin Wallace snaps Carnegie Mellon's win streak
A look at some takeaways from the last couple days, plus notes from around the nation from yesterday's D3 WBB action
Welcome to the last day of 2024. The calendar year might be coming to close but the intensity of this season is only getting started. The last couple days of classics and tournaments certainly showed us that, and I’ll take a look at a few of my takeaways, along with some notes from around the nation and today’s games to watch in this edition of The Scoop on D3 Women’s Hoops.
Scranton’s defense is elite
They say that defense travels. and it certainly did for No. 4 Scranton this past week, going over 1,000 miles with them to Daytona Beach, Florida. The back-to-back defensive clinics from the Lady Royals were truly impressive as they beat both Bethel (MN) and Colby, and those wins benefitted Scranton as I put together my updated Top 25 this morning. They held both below 50 points, marking the 9th and 10th times this season (in 11 total games) that a Scranton opponent scored fewer than 50. It didn’t come as a surprise, considering Scranton is the nation’s No. 1 scoring defense, allowing just 41.2 PPG through an 11-0 start. But against a Bethel team that ranks #64 nationally in offensive efficiency, Scranton flat-out dominated. The Lady Royals held Bethel to just 4 first-quarter points, 17 points in the entire first half, and a mere 24 points through three quarters. Scranton forced 26 turnovers to add to it, smothering any kind of rhythm for Bethel on offense. And remember, Bethel is a Top 30 Massey team! I won’t jump too far ahead, but Scranton is putting up some performances that make me think the Lady Royals have a shot to contend with NYU down the road.
Another strong second half, another big win for No. 20 Baldwin Wallace
No. 19 Carnegie Mellon went nearly the first two months of the season without a loss, but ran into a Baldwin Wallace team yesterday that held nothing back. The Yellow Jackets have had some games where they shoot it well from 3-point range but to go 12-of-24 against CMU’s defense yesterday was big. Especially since five of those came in the first four minutes of the third quarter, taking BW from a 34-30 deficit to a 39-34 lead. Once the score flipped, the Yellow Jackets pulled further away, eventually leading by 9 as the fourth-quarter began. When the buzzer sounded on their 70-51 win over the 19th-ranked Tartans, BW had outscored CMU, 46-22, over the final two quarters. Is there a better second-half team in the country right now? Going back to the 51-44 win over Ohio Northern to open the OAC schedule—five games ago—BW has outscored every opponent in the second half. And in three of those, including Sunday and Monday’s wins over Alma and CMU, BW trailed at halftime. I’m not sure exactly what Cheri Harrer and her coaching staff have said to turn things around in these games, but it’s obviously working. There was no stopping BW once the 3s began falling in the third quarter against CMU.
Should Concordia (MN) enter back into the national/Top 25 conversation?
After Concordia took four straight losses in late November/early December, I dropped them off my Top 25 ballot fairly quickly. A 3-4 record (with only 2 D3 wins) wasn’t anywhere close to good enough for consideration. But then they went out to Lexington, Kentucky, and pulled off a tremendous 73-62 win over No. 14 Washington & Lee, following that with an 80-54 beatdown of Case Western Reserve in Monday’s championship game at the Transylvania tournament. I’ll be the first to say that the results of one weekend, good or bad, shouldn’t carry a team’s entire resume. But it was a significant step in the right direction for the Cobbers, who averaged 19.5 assists, shot 74% at the FT line, and 47% from 3-point range over their two wins in the Bluegrass state, looking far more like the team we all expected to see from the beginning of this season. Carlee Sieben led the charge with 44 points, an 11-of-13 mark at the FT line, and 9 assists, as she continued a pretty solid senior season.
Around the Nation
W&L tallied 28 assists in Monday’s 81-60 win over Transylvania, which was the most in a single game in program history since the 2018-19 season, and one shy of the program record.
UW-Whitewater avoided an upset bid at home against Calvin, narrowly winning, 46-43. UWW’s Mallory Oloffson scored on a layup with 1:39 left, and after the two sides traded turnovers, Calvin had two chances to cut into the deficit but didn’t convert. UWW is 2-0 in one-possession games this season.
Johns Hopkins went 2-0 in Florida, picking up quality wins over Vassar and Denison as the Blue Jays improved to 8-2. Macie Feldman tallied back-to-back 10+ rebound performances, with 21 total.
I’ll keep saying it: the HCAC is going to be a league to watch. Franklin, now 9-2, went 2-0 at the Sewanee Classic the past two days and beat Centre for the first time in program history on Monday. Jordan Coon averaged 22 PPG, including 27 pts against Sewanee on Sunday.
Sarina McDowell lifted Nazareth to a buzzer-beating 69-67 win over Hartford, scoring with eight-tenths of a second left off an inbounds lob pass from Katie MacLachlan. Nazareth is now 6-2.
Today’s Games to Watch (all times ET)
UW-Platteville at No. 2 Wartburg, 12 pm
Ohio Northern at Ohio Wesleyan, 12 pm
Middlebury at Springfield, 1 pm
Ithaca at Tufts, 3 pm
UW-Stout at Bethel, 4 pm