The Guru Report: Perretta Gets 750th as Villanova Tops Princeton; Drexel Extends Win Streak Defensing La Salle

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

VILLANOVA, Pa. – There are many signature moments in what is now veteran Villanova women’s basketball coach Harry Perretta’s collection of 750 victories and overall record.

Foremost perhaps is the one for the Big East championship in 2003 that brought an end to the then-NCAA record 70-game win streak by the University of Connecticut.

Add to the pile the few that came right after, enabling the Wildcats to become the first Big Five women’s team to advance to the NCAA’s Elite Eight stage of the tournament.

Then there’s the the run to the AIAW Final Four in 1982.

And there are many more as well as some on the other side of the ledger that prevented the number to arrive sooner in his 41 seasons on the Main Line such as Saturday’s fourth-quarter meltdown in Florida that led to a setback to Virginia Tech.

However the timeline has run, put the whole shebang together and No. 750 hit the career log Wednesday night in the form of a 67-46 win over defending Ivy champion Princeton at home in Finneran Pavilion, impressive in most situations given the program that Courtney Banghart has built.

But soon after the update became ready to be applied on the next pre-game set of notes referring to Perretta’s record (750-465), he was quick to be the first to place a virtual asterisk on this one, the fourth straight the Wildcats (4-2) has owned over the Tigers (1-7), making them 12-7 in the non-conference series between the two.

“I feel sorry for them,” he said of the vastly depleted lineup that also includes reigning Ivy player of the year Bella Alerie among the missing (broken shoulder). “I thought our defense was good but it’s hard to tell when three of their best players aren’t playing. But I thought it was good against the team they put out there tonight.”

For that matter, put an asterisk on Princeton’s now seven-game losing streak after a season-opening rout at nearby Rider, a slide that hasn’t happened since the first of Banghart’s 12 seasons. The loss also became her 100th against 233 victories and six Ivy titles.

“We were able to stay in front of them, which has been a problem for us (against other teams) and we shot the ball half-decent and moved the ball half-decent,” Perretta said of the Wildcats’ improvement from the two losses in Florida. “But it’s just hard to tell (playing) a team that is depleted.

“I’ve been in that position. I know what it’s like,” Perretta continued.

 “You try to play against teams when you’re depleted. It’s hard. I think she’s doing a good job getting the other kids ready, trying to get the other kids back.” He continued.

“Look, we were 3-8 when we had injuries and we finished with 20 wins when we got the kids back. My point is when they get the kids back and relatively soon, then you can go from there.”

On a night that Kelly Jekot struggled, shooting 2-for-12 from the field and scoring four points after a pre-game season average of  18.4 points per game, the Wildcats got a game-high 17 points from graduate student Adriana Hahn as she shot 7-for-11 from the field, including 3-of-6 three-pointers, while Mary Gedaka had a double double of 15 points and 12 rebounds, and Jannah Tucker and reserve Bridget Herlihy each scored nine points.

“I think we did well with the adjustments we had to make,” Hahn said. “Princeton switched everything. We had a mistmatch down low or we had a mismatch on the perimeter guarding the posts, we had really good open threes or good cuts to the basket.

“We rebounded the ball better (39-32) than down in Florida. We got outrebounded bad. We did a really good job with that tonight. I think our defense was better and we didn’t send the other team to the free throw line a ton. So I think we’re adjusting as a team.”

Gabrielle Rush was the lone Tiger in double figures with 13 points and also she grabbed eight rebounds, but Carlie Littlefield, who was averaging 15.1 points per game, was held to five.

“We played two very athletic teams in Florida,” Perretta referred to an uncharacteristic number of turnovers, “and they forced us into a lot of turnovers. We’re just not good against athletic pressure.

“I was excited we got close to 16-18 points from our bench and we had not been getting that at all in past games. So we changed our starting lineup and brought Bridget in off the bench. Mary does an excellent job inside, she shoot’s a high-percentage shot and that’s important.”

Next up is a visit to Saint Joseph’s Sunday for the season’s second Big Five game, going against the Hawks at 2 p.m. in Hagan Arena. Villanova has a win over La Salle, while Saint Joseph’s is 0-2 with losses to Temple and Penn.

A year ago the Wildcats surprisingly set records for a lopsided outcome in the series when the game was played next door in the smaller Jake Nevin Field House while Finneran was undergoing a renovation.

Though that edition of the Hawks was more veteran than will be Sunday’s group, which hosts Columbia (1st ever meeting) Thursday night at 7 and has struggled, Perretta is not assuming any advantage.

“It’s a Big Five game,” he said. “You saw the La Salle game here at home. Everybody thought we were going to win by 30, we struggled to win the game.

“I know what it’s like, I’ve been around for 40 years. I don’t care if it’s five against zero down there. It is what it is.” 

While Villanova will be on Hawk Hill, Princeton will be back home Sunday in Jadwin Gym, hosting Davidson.

Drexel Extends Win Streak With Triumph at La Salle

The Dragons have now gone 12 quarters or three straight games holding the lead all the way after winning at La Salle 58-43 at the Explorers’ Tom Gola Arena as they used their top-ranked defense to offset a tough night of ball control committing 19 turnovers.

They are limiting opponents to a 43.0 points per game cumulative scoring average.

Drexel (5-1) has not lost since the season opener, a narrow finish, against Quinnipiac, then the No. 1 ranked mid-major. Two city teams are now in the victims column and a third local game, a big one, will be played Dec. 21 in a neighborhood scrum when Penn comes three blocks up 33rd Street from the Palestra to resume a series at 11:30 a.m. in the Daskalakis Athletic Center.

Bailey Greenberg, the reigning player of the week in the Colonial Athletic Association, has been the Dragons’ top scorer each game and Wednesday night was no difference with her total of 19 points. She also had nine rebounds.

Freshman Keishana Washington had 14 points and shot 6-for-11 from the field against La Salle (0-6), still looking for its first win under new head coach Mountain MacGillivray. 

It was just the second home game of the season for the Explorers who will visit No. 9 Oregon State on Saturday ( 3p.m. EST) on the Pac-12 network before visiting Penn next Wednesday at The Palestra.

Aubree Brown scored 11, making it the first time this season Drexel has had three players score in double figures in a game.

Niki Metzel had a career-high 10 rebounds to go with her six points for the visitors.

A 6-0 run helped La Salle stay in contention though Drexel went to the break ahead 30-23.

The Dragons inched ahead to a 10-point lead at the end of three quarters, having held La Salle to two points in the first 8 minutes, 17 seconds of the third.

No one on La Salle scored in double figures with Jeryn Reese getting a team-high seven points while Deja King, Janay Sanders, and Shayla Sweeney each scored six. 

The Dragons are on break from game nights but not the classroom until a week from Friday when they will visit Riverdale in suburban New York to play in the Manhattan College Holiday Tournament, playing the host Jaspers at 7 p.m. 

The opponents are predetermined each of the two days so Drexel on Saturday, Dec. 9, will face Wright State at 3:30 p.m.

Rider Tops NJIT

Back home in Alumni Gymnasium from a dusting Sunday from Boston College in the title game of the Hawk Classic, a short road trip away at Saint Joseph’s, the Broncs bounced back with a 67-46 win over NJIT in a non-conference game in Lawrenceville, N.J.

Stella Johnson, who got the program’s first-ever triple double earlier this month in the last home game, got 22 points in this one along with eight assists, five steals and three assists, while Lea Favre had  20 points, shooting 10-for-16 from the field.

Leading 30-23 at the half, Rider (3-4) stayed in front and pulled away down the stretch against the Highlanders (1-7).

“To force 26 turnovers is a good step for us,” said Rider coach Lynn Milligan. “Everything is a progression for us. If we continue to grow together then we will be where we need to be when we need to be there.”

The Broncs belong to the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.

Rider next hosts Navy at 2 p.m. on Sunday.

Rutgers Falls to Virginia Tech in Big-10/ACC Challenge

It’s that time early in the season when two of the Power Five conference women’s teams match up against each other. Therefore, if you want to say Rutgers got another test traveling with a Big Ten flag to Virginia Tech, the answer is yes the Scarlet Knights did and the outcome was no better than the bulk of the recent weekend spent at the Vancouver Showcase in Canada’s British Columbia.

Leading early, the Scarlet Knights once again succumbed to a rally, this one by unbeaten Virginia Tech, which took a 67-51 victory at home in Cassell Coliseum in Blacksburg.

Taylor Emery scored 22 for the Hokies (8-0), while Kendyl Brooks scored 11. She is the daughter of coach Kenny Brooks, who previously was the longtime coach of James Madison. Regan Magarity had nine points and a game-high 14 rebounds.

Sierra Calhoun scored 14 for Rutgers (5-3), while Charise Wilson scored 11.

Rutgers shook off an 8-0 run by the home team to be knotted 31-31 at the half.

The Hokies answered an early Scarlet Knights lead in the third with a 12-3 run to hold a slight 47-43 lead heading into the fourth and final period.

Virginia Tech then got the Knights on both ends building a 16-point lead and holding them to a pair of field goals and eight points.

Rutgers is now off until a trip to Harvard a week from Saturday in Cambridge, Mass.

Nationally Speaking: UConn Completes Its Notre Dame Prep at the Expense of DePaul

If anything, DePaul coach Doug Bruno would be the person to go to analyze this Sunday’s 1 vs. 2 showdown when Notre Dame hosts Connecticut in their first meeting since the host Irish’s NCAA Semifinals upset in overtime of the Huskies on Arike Ogunbowale’s shot last April.

His Blue Demons have played both the top-ranked Irish and second-ranked Huskies in the last 11 days, the second of which occurred Wednesday night in a 99-63 loss to Connecticut (6-0) in the XL Center in Hartford.

DePaul (4-3), which had to be a bit tired after playing a three-day Thanksgiving weekend tourney that included a buzzer-beating loss to No. 12 Syracuse, used to see the top two teams regularly when all three were members of the old Big East.

The Demons are part of the reconfigured Big East, devoid of the other two, and are now the defending champions.

On Wednesday, as in the recent loss to Notre Dame, Bruno’s team started out competitively, until the opposition flexed its talent, which is not to say DePaul is empty-handed.

A strong run by UConn occurred as DePaul went dry after staying within a point with 4:21 left in the first period. Then the kaboom as the Huskies went on a 16-0 run to the end of the first quarter and an overwhelming 40-18 lead at the half.

It was the Demons’ fifth game in seven days.

Katie Lou Samuelson had 24 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists for the Huskies, while DePaul’s Ashton Millender scored 15, Dee Bekelja scored eight, and Kelly Campbell, Lexi Held and Sonya Morris each scored seven points.

“Part of playing on Sunday was playing today and playing as well as we could to prepare ourselves,” Samuelson said. “We really focused on this game.”

DePaul, which visits Villanova early in the their home-and-home portion of the Big East schedule, has lost 16 straight to UConn since winning the first game in the series in 1983. 

Notre Dame has one more piece of business, hosting No. 14 Iowa Thursday night before the Huskies come calling Sunday.

DePaul, by the way, next hosts Temple Monday at 11 a.m. (12 p.m. EST) in Chicago, the last of a six-game road trip for the Owls before returning home Dec. 6 to host Iona.

Thursday night’s other national game of note has No. 12 Syracuse visiting No. 20 Minnesota in the first major coaching test for former WNBA great Lindsay Whelan at her alma mater in Minneapolis.

Locally, Thursday, besides Saint Joseph’s hosting Columbia, the other game on the slate is Penn State, trying to shake off its recent upset home loss to Stony Brook, visiting Florida State as part of the Big Ten/ACC challenge as is the Syracuse/Minnesota game.

This is now the finals period where not a lot of games occur until a short burst before the holiday break.

And that’s the report.