Daily Briefing — Nov. 26, 2021: N.C. State, Stanford notch top-5 wins

(All times in Eastern)

Watch List, Friday, Nov. 26

Must-watch

#7 Stanford v. #18 USF, Noon, FloHoops (Baha Mar Hoops Pink Flamingo Classic)

RV* Notre Dame v. RV Georgia, 4:30 p.m., FloHoops (Daytona Beach Invitational)

Michigan v. Oregon St., 6:45 p.m., FloHoops (Daytona Beach Invitational)

Good games

#24 Virginia Tech v. Missouri State, 10 a.m., FloHoops (San Juan Shootout)

#9 Arizona v. RV DePaul, 3:15 p.m., ESPN3 (Paradise Jam)

#23 Texas A&M v. South Dakota, 8 p.m., ESPN (Paradise Jam)

Also watchable

None

Sickos games

Rutgers v. Vanderbilt, 1 p.m., ESPN3 (Paradise Jam)

Pac-12 or Big Ten on national television (or national streaming)

See Good games, Sickos games

Thursday, Nov. 25 recap: At the Brink of greatness

#2 Maryland, #5 N.C. State: The Wolfpack beat the Terps, 78-60. Maryland remained without off-ball guard Katie Benzan, wing Diamond Miller, and big Faith Masonius, three of their usual eight-player rotation, including two starters. Benzan and Masonius are still out with undisclosed illness, while Miller’s knee soreness — reaggravated on Monday — leaves her doubtful tomorrow. Without those two bigger players, Maryland was outrebounded by N.C. State, 47-34.

The Wolfpack were led by two double-doubles: center Elissa Cunane’s 20 points on 8-9 shooting and 10 rebounds (five offensive), and wing Jakia Brown-Turner’s 12 points on 6-17 FG (0-4 3pt.), game-high 11 rebounds (four offensive), four turnovers; point guard Diamond Johnson had 17 points on 7-of-17 from the field and 3-of-8 from three, eight rebounds, five assists, and four steals against three turnovers; point guard Raina Perez notched 11 points on 4-8 shooting (2-5 3pt.), four rebounds, and four assists; combo forward Jada Boyd made her season debut, scoring seven points on a perfect 3-3 FG with two rebounds and four turnovers in 10 minutes. Big Angel Reese once again led the Terps, with a game-high 24 points on 9-14 shooting (1-2 3pt., 5-7 FT), nine rebounds, two steals, and four turnovers; point guard Ashley Owusu had 14 points on 5-17 from the field, five assists, and four turnovers; combo guard Shyanne Sellers notched 12 points on 5-15 FG (2-8 3pt.), four rebounds, and three assists.

#4 Indiana, #7 Stanford: The Cardinal beat the Hoosiers, 69-66. Center Cameron Brink had 21 points on 10-24 FG (1-6 FT), 22 rebounds (seven offensive), five assists, and five blocks against five turnovers — that’s the first 20-point/20-rebound/5-assist/5-block since 2016 and just the third in the Her Hoop Stats era (since 2009); center Fran Belibi scored 14 points off the bench on 6-11 from the field with five rebounds and two assists in 18 minutes; after missing Sunday’s win over Gonzaga, point wing Haley Jones played 22 minutes off the bench, with eight points on 3-8 shooting and five rebounds on the lowest usage rate of her career; wing Lacie Hull notched seven on 2-4 FG (1-2 3pt.) and eight rebounds. Guard Ali Patberg scored 19 points on 7-14 shooting (1-3 3pt.); wing Nicole Cardaño-Hillary notched 18 points on 5-for-10 from the field and 3-of-5 from three (5-8 FT), eight rebounds, and three steals; guard Grace Berger had 12 points on 4-19 FG (4-6 FT), six rebounds, seven assists, and four steals; bigs Aleksa Gulbe and Mackenzie Holmes combined for 14 points on 6-25 shooting (1-4 3pt. by Gulbe), 15 rebounds (six offensive), four steals, and eight fouls.

The Daily Briefing Cameron Brink Foul Watch: Two fouls in 32 minutes today; 2.4 fouls per 40 minutes (28th percentile), 5.4% foul percentage (25th percentile, per Her Hoop Stats) for the season.

#6 Baylor: 68-45 win over Fordham. The Rams actually led by six with 32 seconds left in the first half, and then the Bears blew them out 48-21 in the second half. Baylor may not be what it was a couple of years ago, but, folks? Fordham’s a good team — played Notre Dame well-ish, beat Michigan State, etc. The Bears are getting close to eliteness. They’re getting there!

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Baylor big NaLyssa Smith notched a double-double on a game-high 19 points on 8-16 from the field (0-1 3pt.) and 15 rebounds (five offensive) against six turnovers; point guard Jordan Lewis had 15 points on 6-9 FG (1-3 3pt.), six assists, and two steals; off-ball guard Ja’Mee Asberry and combo guard Sarah Andrews combined for 20 points on 8-of-14 from the field and 4-of-6 from three, three assists, and just one turnovers, with Andrews adding three steals; center Queen Egbo scored two points on 0-9 FG with eight rebounds. Fordham point guard Kendell Heremaia had to be helped off the court midway through the fourth quarter, unable to put weight on her left leg, though she hopes to be healthy for Friday’s game — she still had a team-high 14 points (4-8 FG, 3-6 3pt.) with six rebounds; combo guard Anna DeWolfe had 10 points on 4-15 shooting (2-7 3pt.), seven rebounds, three assists, two steals, and eight turnovers.

The Daily Briefing Baylor Three-Point-Shooting Watch: 6-for-15, 40.0% today; 31-for-112, 27.7% for the season (38th percentile, per Her Hoop Stats).

#9 Arizona: 48-46 win over Vanderbilt. The Wildcats led for zero minutes and zero seconds, only winning on a buzzer-beating circus layup from point guard Shaina Pellington. The teams combined for 51 turnovers, while the Commodores out-rebounded Arizona by 11. This is technically a transitive loss for the Wildcats to Little Rock and Middle Tennessee State, which, uhhh…

Wing Sam Thomas scored a game-high 13 points on 5-10 shooting (3-7 3pt.) with two steals; center Ariyah Copeland notched 11 points on 5-8 FG, six rebounds, and three turnovers off the bench; off-ball guard Helena Pueyo had one bench point on 0-4 shooting (0-3 3pt.), five assists, five steals, and five turnovers; combo guard Bendu Yeaney went scoreless while 0-for-4 from the field with four turnovers. Off-ball guard Demi Washington led Vanderbilt with 10 points on 5-6 FG with two steals; point guard Iyana Moore — the consensus^{^} No. 101 freshman in the country — joined Washington at a team-high 10 points, on 3-7 shooting (3-4 3pt.), with two steals and three turnovers.

#17 Florida State:  61-54 loss to BYU. The Noles allowed the first points to the Cougars, and trailed for all 39 subsequent minutes. Florida State committed 25 turnovers while shooting 37.5% from the field and 4-for-16 from three. Point guard Shaylee Gonzales led BYU with 24 points on 7-16 shooting (0-3 3pt., 10-11 FT), four rebounds, five assists, and three turnovers. Off-ball guard Sammie Puisis had her first game with more than two threes and hit her first two-pointer for the Noles, finishing with a team-high 16 points on 6-for-11 from the field and 4-for-8 from three; wing Morgan Jones notched a 12-point, 10-rebound double-double on 4-11 FG (4-6 FT).

#22 West Virginia: 65-57 win over Purdue. The Mountaineers beat the Boilermakers by half as much as Dayton did, despite a mostly healthy lineup. Make of that what you will. Point guard Kirsten Deans had a game-high 12 points — yeah, it was that kind of game — on 4-12 shooting (1-3 3pt.), four rebounds, six assists, and two steals.

#23 Texas A&M: 57-46 win over Pitt. The Panthers committed 24 turnovers, while both teams shot 29% from the field — despite the Aggies taking 25 (twenty-five!!) more attempts. Neither team reached double-digits until the early second quarter, and Texas A&M didn’t take its consequential lead until the mid-fourth. Against the projected second-worst team in the ACC. “Make of that,” etc.

Aggie point guard Jordan Nixon had 12 points on 5-12 shooting (2-6 3pt.), four rebounds, and three assists; point guard Destiny Pitts notched 12 points on 4-of-14 from the field and 2-of-8 from three and eight rebounds while fouling out; point wing Kayla Wells scored 10 points on 3-10 FG (2-3 3pt.) with five assists. Pitt was led by point guard Dayshanette Harris’ game-high 16 bench points on 4-9 from the field (0-2 3pt., 8-11 FT) with three turnovers.

The Daily Briefing Texas A&M Wells/Nixon/Pitts Watch: combined share of Aggies’ scoring — 55.0%; assists — 59.3%; turnovers — 45.0%; steals — 29.7%; combined 48.3% FG%, 47.8% 3P%, 1.42 assist-to-turnover ratio.

RV Washington State: 62-47 win over Miami. The Hurricanes had a one-point lead a possession into the second half, and then got held to eight points in that third quarter. Cougar combo guard Johanna Teder scored a game-high 15 points on 6-10 from the field (2-6 3pt.) with six rebounds, four steals, and six turnovers; combo guard Charlisse Leger-Walker had a double-double with 13 points (5-12 FG) and a career-high 15 rebounds (five offensive), five assists, three steals, and six turnovers; center Bella Murekatete notched 12 points on 4-8 shooting, six rebounds (three offensive), four blocks, and four turnovers.

RV DePaul: 77-74 win over Rutgers. Point guard Lexi Held led the Blue Demons with 16 points on 5-15 shooting (4-9 3pt.), five assists, two steals, and no fouls; off-ball guard Deja Church had 12 points on 4-12 FG (0-5 3pt.), four rebounds, three assists, and five turnovers; point guard Kierra Collier notched 14 bench points on 5-8 from the field (4-7 3pt.), six rebounds (three offensive), and three fouls. Scarlett Knight center Oshlynn Brown had a 20-point, 20-rebound double-double on 9-15 FG with 12 offensive rebounds, two blocks, and six turnovers.

Blown Leads

None!

*Receiving Votes

^Consensus rankings are drawn from an aggregation of ESPN, Blue Star, Prep Girls, ASGR, and Prospects Nation