The Guru Report: Villanova Continues Mastery of La Salle While Saint Joseph’s Gets First Win

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

VILLANOVA, Pa. — On the surface, nothing much was new about the Villanova women’s 81-68 victory over La Salle Tuesday night in Finneran Pavilion in the first Big Five game of the season for both teams unless one is discussing the recent arena renovation.

In the City Series round robin, the Wildcats (3-0, 1-0 Big Five) have owned the competition between these two programs. The win over the Explorers (0-5, 0-1) was the tenth straight dating back to La Salle’s last win, 67-62 in overtime on Nov. 14, 2008.

Overall, veteran coach Harry Perretta’s group is now 39-9 playing the Explorers and is also looking ready to challenge again for the Big Five trophy the Wildcats shared last season with Penn thanks to a rare narrow upset by the Quakers over Villanova next door in the bandbox Jake Nevin Field House during the construction of Finneran.

Villanova is now 25-5 over its last 30 Big Five games and is 116-39 all-told, which is best among the locals, who joined the men’s competition in 1980.

But the talk from both sides afterwards was not of the Wildcats, picked third in the Big East, dominance but rather the first glimpse of of hope for the future of the La Salle women’s program under new coach Mountain MacGillivray, a previous longtime associate head coach at Quinnipiac, the resident power in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.

Perretta was quick to note the play of the opposition that dogged his squad all night until the final quarter.

“You asked for a typical Big Five game, that was it,” Perretta chuckled. “As ugly as can be.

“They’re doing a great job with that team. They’re developing their players, they’re getting them all playing time and they are going to be decent in the future,” he continued.

“We didn’t pass the ball as well as we could have but their defense was better, they rebounded the ball, they made shots — that’s the thing they haven’t been doing, but they made shots. They almost scored 70 on us and when you’re scoring 70, we’re lucky we scored the ball.”

As for MacGillivray, whose coaching career began as an assistant at Archbishop Carroll, there was plenty of upside to feel good despite he has yet to get his first head coaching victory after five games.

“It’s the best we played all year,” he said. “I hope we can keep it up. It was under 10 (points) the whole time until we played to win at the end. So we gambled at their place because they’re really good and I’m thrilled with the effort, thrilled with the effort.

“You’re never happy about not getting a win, but my kids are focused over getting better every day and today, we got better.”

In some ways, the start under MacGillivray is remindful of Mike McLaughlin’s first year at Penn in which the Quakers won only two games, the second of which came at the very end, but veteran observers still noted a marked change from the way the older players had performed in the past.

As for the stats, Villanova mainstays Kelly Jekot, Adriana Hahn, and Jannah Tucker each connected with a trio of 3-pointers, with Jekot finishing overall, scoring 19 points, Hahn scoring 15, dishing six assists, and grabbing three steals, while Tucker had nine points and Mary Gedaka scored 16. Bridget Herlihy grabbed eight rebounds.

“We had a little bit improvement on the bench,” Perretta said. “We got some points from Grace Stant (9) and we got three from Cameron Onken, but Brianna (Herlihy) did not score tonight (3 points) and Bridget (her sister) only scored two. So we need more points off the bench.”

The 17 points La Salle got in the first period was a season high. Shalina Miller also had her season best with 15 points while Jeryn Reese scored 10, and freshman Janay Sanders, off her first start, had nine points.

The undersized Explorers also outrebounded the Wildcats 47-32 and Reese had a career-tying high with eight off the glass. Shayla Sweeney, another freshman, in her first start had seven rebounds.

Villanova after Thanksgiving, heads to Orlando, Fla., for a pair of predetermined games this weekend playing Virginia Tech on Saturday and then host UCF on Sunday. The Wildcats return next Wednesday to host defending Ivy champion Princeton. 

La Salle is off for eight days before hosting Drexel Wednesday in a resumption of that local series which will be played at the Explorers’ Tom Gola Arena.

Saint Joseph’s Breaks Into The Win Column

Following opening losses to three locals in Temple, Drexel, and Penn, the Hawks got their first triumph of the season at the expense of a somewhat local homecoming as Saint Joseph’s topped Niagara 68-54 at home in Hagan Arena.

The Purple Eagles (1-4) are coached by Jada Pierce, a former West Chester star who previously was a Saint Joseph’s assistant to Cindy Griffin and also was on the staff at Delaware and was head coach at Cheyney among other stops.

Struggling to score in previous games, even this one was somewhat dicey with a lead reduced to a point in the fourth before the Hawks pulled away at the finish making 7-of-8 foul shots.

Alyssa Monaghan poured down 22 points for the winners while sister senior Michala Clay gained her first double double with 10 points and 10 rebounds. Freshman Katie Mayock had her best game in her fledgling collegiate career, scoring 12 points and grabbing six rebounds.

Kristalyn Baisden in her first start of the year scored 12 points as a fourth Hawk scoring in double figures. 

Helping Saint Joseph’s getting some spacing from its slim lead, Mayock and Baisden each beat the shot clock on back-to-back possessions for a 57-50 lead.

Jai Morre had 14 points for Niagara.

Saint Joseph’s stays home this weekend to host some familiar faces in the annual Hawk Classic.

Griffin’s team will host Rider at noon Saturday with the Broncs coached by former Griffin assistant head coach Lynn Milligan and former Drexel assistant Pam Durkin.

Rider won its first game of the season last Saturday in which Stella Johnson got the program’s first ever triple double.

The other game on Saturday at 2 p.m. features Loyola of Maryland coached by former Griffin assistant Joe Logan played against Boston College led by first-year coach Joanna Bernabei-McNamee, who previously coached at Albany (N.Y.).

One of her assistants is Women’s Basketball Hall of Famer Yolanda Griffin, who starred in the WNBA.

The third place and championship games will be Sunday afternoon.

Delaware Wins the Battle of State Rivals

Coming out of the Preseason WNIT from last week where the Blue Hens won the second consolation round after dropping their first two games, Delaware traveled to Delaware State in Dover and topped the Hornets 85-77 in Memorial Hall.

Abby Gonzales’ previous achieved high Saturday night against Nicholls was bettered by a point to 21 fueled by five three-pointers while dealing eight assists. Gadson Lefft had 15 points and six rebounds in the game that was tightly contested through the first half when Delaware State held the lead at the break.

But Lefft’s nine straight points in the third enabled the Blue Hens to get a grip on the outcome. 

Bailey Kargo had 15 points and Makeda Nicholas scored 12, grabbed three steals.

Delaware’s 26 assists were the most for the visitors since dishing 27 against Delaware State on December 10, 1992. The Blue Hens are a perfect 11-0 in the series with the Hornets, who opened the season in a loss at Temple.

After Thanksgiving, on Friday Delaware will be in Boca Raton, Fla., playing in FAU’s tournament, opening against Bradley at 2:30 p.m. On Saturday the Blue Hens will meet either host FAU or Lafayette.

Father Versus Daughter Night

It was the battle of the Lochners Tuesday night as Lafayette hosted Saint Peter’s out of Jersey City.

The Leopards staff under Kia Damon-Olson includes Tom Lochner, a former La Salle head coach who assisted former Delaware coach Tina Martin during the Elena Delle Donne era.

The Pea Hens roster has Lochner’s daughter junior Sammy.

In this one daughter’s team knew best, though others determined the outcome in the closing minute when after the Leopards erased a deficit by forcing a 60-60 tie in regulation with 12 seconds left, Zoe Pero hit a pair of foul shots to send the game in the way of the Pea Hens 62-60 to hit Lafayette (3-1) with its first loss. Pero had stolen the ball after the Leopards had gained possession off a foul.

Briyanah Richardson had a game and career high 28 points for the visitors (3-2) while Natalie Kucowski, who played in the Philly summer league, had 17 points and 14 rebounds for the Leopards.

Lochner did not score, shooting 0-for-4 for St. Peter’s.

Nationally Speaking: Texas A&M and Minnesota Coast to Victories

Only two ranked teams played and both scored easy wins with No. 20 Texas A&M cruising over host Little Rock 61-40 while No. 23 Minnesota at home routed Arkansas-Pine Bluff 84-42 to keep first-year coach Lindsay whelan unbeaten at 3-0.

In the A&M game, Aaliyah Wilson had 20 points for the Aggies.

Looking Ahead: Penn State Hosts North Dakota

Only one game for the locals on Wednesday before Thanksgiving with Penn State, in its first contest after rallying Sunday at home over Princeton in overtime, hosts North Dakota at 2 p.m. in the Bryce Jordan Center.

On Thursday, Rutgers at 4-0 ramps up the schedule with an appearance in the first Vancouver Showcase when the Scarlet Knights play Drake, but on Friday they could meet defending champion Notre Dame, which meets Gonzaga on Thursday.

On the other side of the bracket, South Carolina opens with ETSU while Western Kentucky meets Oregon State.

On Friday, Temple plays Radford in Miami and then sees the host Hurricanes on Saturday. 

In the Cancun Tourney Princeton sees DePaul on Thursday, Syracuse on Friday, and Kansas State on Saturday.

Drexel opens in Vermont’s tourney Friday playing Siena and the either the host Catamounts or Wagner on Saturday.

We already mentioned Delaware in the FAU tourney Friday and Saturday.

Also on Saturday, besides the already-mentioned Hawk Classic, Penn visits Navy at the Academy in Annapolis, Md., and then stays to play Maine Sunday.

As mentioned at the top, Villanova opens against Virginia Tech in UCF’s tournament in Orlando on Saturday and then the hosts on Sunday. 

Penn State on Sunday hosts Stony Brook in a single game.

And that’s the report.