The Guru Report: ‘Nova Falls in OT to DePaul; Wins by Rutgers, Rider, Saint Joseph’s, Drexel

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

VILLANOVA — A tough loss here erased what might have otherwise been not a terrible weekend in the Big East for the Villanova women’s basketball team.

The ongoing recent domination of Drexel against Delaware continued in their regional rivalry within the Colonial Athletic Association.

Saint Joseph’s finally got to experience daylight within the Atlantic 10 while La Salle’s struggles remained.

Rider’s bright start in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference is still alive.

And Rutgers remains all alone on top of the Big Ten and likely looking at a national ranking when the next vote is announced Monday after a near miss a week ago.

To wrap up Saturday among the locals Temple fell at Houston and Penn State beat Illinois.

Finally, for one other element of note in the area, Division II Jefferson remains unbeaten at 17-0 and holding a No. 7 ranking.

Now on to the specifics beginning here in Finneran Pavilion with the Wildcats, who were playing the second of two of the high-rent district conference teams in DePaul Sunday afternoon and were looking to come back from Friday’s drubbing by Marquette to emerge with a split.

For most of the day coach Harry Perretta’s squad seemed on the way to replicate last season’s upset of the Blue Demons, though that one was a high-scoring attack next door in Jake Nevin Field House, which the Wildcats reverted as their home court during the renovation of their on-going arena.

In fact, the defense held DePaul to seven points in the second period, the second lowest for the visitors this season.

But after Kelly Jekot gave Villanova a 55-52 lead with 1 minute, 5 seconds left in regulation, DePaul answered 17 seconds later on Mart’e Grays’ three-ball, the Wildcats’ Jannah Tucker failed to bang home a game-winner and the Blue Demons took over in the extra period for a 66-59 victory.

Thus the Wildcats (10-6, 2-4 Big East) are on a three-game losing streak and there is no relief ahead with a key Big Five game outside the conference coming Wednesday night when they travel to center city to meet Penn in The Palestra.

“The bottom line is you have to play good defense and make crucial shots,” Perretta said afterwards. “We did not do that today.”

The loss wasted a stellar performance by Mary Gedaka, who had 18 of her game-high 22 points in the first half, shooting 11-for-15 overall from the field.

Ditto for Jekot, who scored 17 points, while Bridget Herlihy had nine points, four assists, three rebounds, and a pair of blocks.

DePaul (12-5, 3-2) got 14 points from Chante Stonewall and a double double of 12 points and 10 rebounds from Grays. Ashton Millender scored 12, Rebekah Dahlman had 11, while Kelly Campbell grabbed 12 rebounds.

The win enabled DePaul to stay tied for third with Seton Hall in the early going two games behind the dual first-place deadlock between No. 15 Marquette and surprising Butler, which are both unbeaten in league play at 5-0.

Villanova fell to a three-way sixth place tie with Georgetown, their traveling partner who they visit in Washington on Saturday, and Providence.

“Once the game goes into overtime, at that point we were in trouble because they are the more experienced team,” Perretta said.

Wednesday’s game at Penn is a major confrontation, unlike the earlier years, just as last month when the Quakers men in The Palestra upset the Wildcats  for the first time in 16 years to end a 25-game ownership of Big Five games by the Mainliners.

The Villanova women will go into the contest at 3-0 with a win giving the Wildcats the City Series round robin outright at 3-0.

A year ago next door, Penn won a narrow, exciting game in upset fashion 79-77 on Anna Ross’ last-second shot for the Quakers to gain their first series triumph since 2001 and only second between the two schools.

But in a rarity, Penn is likely the favorite Wedneday off the Quakers’ play to date that most recently saw them take the Ivy opener, a road visit to defending champion and preseason favorite Princeton.

The 11-day layoff since then might be the best thing working for the Wildcats, though it will be Villanova’s third game in six days.

Penn’s win a year ago allowed the Quakers to share the local bragging rights at 3-1 with Villanova, the second time ever the once Big Five doormats have been able to get a piece of the hardware.

A Quakers win clinches another shared title that would be three-way if they lose the following Wednesday at home to Temple. But win Wednesday and it will be the first time they have ever been 3-0 and thus an ensuing win over the Owls brings a first-ever outright crown to the program.

“It’s a Big Five game and all the Big Five games we’ve played have been very close,” Perretta said. “I don’t expect anything different.”

Rutgers Wins At Nebraska To Stay Unbeaten Enjoying Best Start Ever in the Big Ten

There’s a lot to like about the Scarlet Knights’ return to relevancy so far, especially after last season’s promising start collapsed in a major slide that took them out of the NCAA tournament and delayed Hall of Fame coach C. Vivian Stringer’s 1000th career win until early November.

Later that month, however, it looked like more of the same, when Rutgers gave up leads to suffer upset losses to Drake and Gonzaga in the Vancouver Showcase in Canada and soon thereafter took its third setback at Virginia Tech in the Big Ten/ACC challenge.

Since then, however, the Scarlet Knights claimed a huge upset at then-No. 4 and conference/regional rival Maryland and have now won eight straight after Sunday’s 62-56 triumph at Nebraska at the Pinnacle Bank Arena in Lincoln.

Furthermore, they’ve been able to shake off comebacks by the opposition such as the Cornhuskers (7-9, 2-3 Big Ten) pulled to tie the game at 52-52 in the fourth quarter before righting themselves with a 10-4 closeout.

Nebraska had rallied reeling eight straight points on a 10-2 run to tie the game.

In conference, which Rutgers (13-3, 5-0) joined in 2014-15 after a long stint in the old Big East and a transitional year in the American Athletic Conference, Stringer’s team is now off to its best start.

The Scarlet Knights, which just missed returning to the rankings last week, is likely to return Monday with three teams in the bottom five taking upset losses. Just a year ago in early January they got back to the AP Poll for the first time since March 2, 2015, but lasted just two weeks as the slide accelerated.

In Sunday’s game Ciani Cryor scored 13 points and Charise Wilson scored 12, combing also to go 6-for-9 on long-range shots from beyond the arc.

Caitlin Jenkins had a game-high 12 rebounds.

Nebraska reserve Leigha Brown scored 18 and Taylor Kissinger scored 11.

An important week ahead has Purdue, always a thorn, visiting Wednesday at 7 p.m. followed by No. 23 Michigan State dropping by on Sunday.

Drexel Domination of Delaware Continues

It’s billed as a game in the Colonial Athletic Association but when Drexel and Delaware, located an hour apart, tangle it’s always much more and most times the outcome goes to the wire.

That part in the recent history didn’t hold up Sunday in the first of the annual home-and-home as Drexel traveled to the Blue Hens’ Bob Carpenter Center in Newark and took a 57-40 victory.

It was the first conference win of the season for the Dragons (9-5, 1-2 CAA) after dropping two a week ago at home with an upset loss to Towson and followed with a setback to preseason favorite James Madison.

Freshman Maura Hendrixson had a career day for Drexel with 16 points, of which 14 came in the second half, while also grabbing five steals as the Dragons’ defense held Delaware (5-10, 0-3) to a season-low in points and forced 16 turnovers.

They have won eight straight in the series, matching a run in from 1996-99, while also are unbeaten, a first, in terms of wining their first five true road games. A loss to Wright State was at Manhattan.

Aubree Brown had 12 points and 10 rebounds, her second career double double, and dealt six assists.

With a 21-12 halftime lead, Hendrixson helped the Dragons pull away with three of her four 3-pointers.

Makeda Nicholas had a game-high 11 rebounds for Delaware while Bailey Kargo scored 12 points.

Drexel stays on the road next weekend visiting Northeastern on Friday at 7 in Boston before venturing south on the way home Sunday to visit Hofstra on Long Island in Hempstead, N.Y.

“Again, I’m just disappointed,” said Delaware coach Natasha Adair. “We had another opportunity at home, which is so important, especially in league play to protect home court. The defensive side of the ball has been ok for us. It’s just executing on the offensive end.”

As Drexel’s traveling partner, the Blue Hens travel next weekend in reverse order, visiting Hofstra Friday at 11:30 a.m. at the Mack Sports Complex, and then at Northeastern Sunday at 2 in the Cabot Center.

Rider Still Perfect in the MAAC

So far, the rugged non-conference schedule for Rider is paying off for the Broncos at the outset of their competition in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.

The latest success is a 55-52 win at Siena in the Saints’ Alumni Recreation Center in Loudonville, N.Y., near Albany, that brought an end to the home team’s three-game win streak.

Stella Johnson, the reigning MAAC player of the week, scored a game-high 25 points for the Broncs (7-7, 3-0 MAAC) while also grabbing seven rebounds and four steals, blocking three shots and dealing three assists.

Amari Johnson had 17 points, six rebounds and four steals as Rider held Siena to six points in the second quarter though the Saints (7-8, 3-1) had a chance to tie at the finish but couldn’t convert.

“Every time we come up here it’s a battle,” said Rider coach Lynn Milligan. “We expected a physical game and knew we had to come up here and defend a really good team with a lot of scorers. For the most part, we did just that. It’s a road MAAC win. We’ll take it.

“We had our best switching defensive players in the game at the end. They understood what they had to do. They got a three off, but it was contested and we came down with it. These are situations we practice a lot and I liked our execution.”

The slim differential has become the norm in the series with the last five decided by four or less points with Rider claiming three victories in those games.

It’s both the first time in program history as well as under Milligan that the Broncs have jumped to a 3-0 start in the conference.

Rider stays on the road Wednesday visiting Iona in New Rochelle, N.Y., at 7 looking for a fifth straight in the series after sweeps the last two seasons.

Saint Joseph’s Explodes over St. Bonaventure to Snap Four-Game Skid

A balanced effort with a three-pronged attack from Saint Joseph’s seniors Alyssa Monaghan, Kristalyn Baisden and sophomore Lula Roig led the Hawks to a 66-41 win over Saint Bonaventure in an Atlantic 10 game played at home at Hagan Arena.

The triumph by the Hawks (5-11, 1-2 Atlantic 10) snapped a four-game losing streak in which they failed to reach 50 points in any of those contests.

The defense did its job holding the Bonnies (4-12, 1-2) to 33 percent from the floor.

Saint Joseph’s roared from the outset shooting 8-for-13, including 4-for-6 in the first quarter.

Alyssa Monaghan, who reached her 1,000th career point in Wednesday’s loss here to St. Louis, had 19 points, while Baisden scored 16, and Roig 12.

Whisper Fisher and Monaghan each grabbed seven rebounds while freshman Katie Mayock, who had been a starter, blocked three shots as did Fisher.

Deja Francis was the only Bonnies player in double figures, scoring 10 points.

“It was nice to see our dual senior backcourt do a nice job today,” said Saint Joseph’s coach Cindy Griffin. “Making shots. We just haven’t been consistent making shots and it puts a lot of pressure on our defense, which has been standing strong.

“But we were waiting for our offense to turn around and we did that today.”

Next up the Hawks visit Duquesne in Pittsburgh Wednesday and then will host La Salle in the first of two meetings with the Explorers on Sunday.

La Salle Overcome by Late UMass Burst

A closely-fought contest got away from La Salle at the finish and the Explorers fell to Massachusetts 74-60 in an Atlantic 10 game at home at the Tom Gola Arena.

The Minutewomen (10-7, 2-1 A-10) held a slim 53-50 lead after three periods before outscoring the home team 21-10 over the final 10 minutes.

Freshman Janay Sanders had 10 points and eight assists for La Salle (3-14, 0-3) besides grabbing six rebounds while Rayshel Brown had 14 points and Michelle Nicholls scored 11. Shalina Miller had nine points, eight rebounds and also blocked three shots and grabbed four steals.

Jessica George had 17 points, Hailey Leidel scored 16 and completed a double double with 10 rebounds, while Asia McCoy scored 11 and reserve Jessica Nelson had 10 for UMass.

Defending conference tournament champion George Washington will visit Wednesday at 5 p.m. before the men play in a doubleheader between the two schools. Then the Explorers head to Hawk Hill on Sunday.

Saturday Action: Temple Falls at Houston While Penn State Tops Illinois

To round up the weekend, which was actually on the front end, Penn State gained a Big Ten victory beating Illinois 62-48, while Temple’s skid continued, this time losing at Houston 78-65 in the American Athletic Conference.

In the Lady Lions win at the Bryce Jordan Center in State College, Penn State (9-7, 2-3 Big Ten) rallied from a nine-point deficit to a 16-0 run over the second and third periods to take control.

Alisia Smith had a double double with 14 points and 11 rebounds, while Teniya Page scored 13 and Siyeh Frazier had 11 points.

Alex Wittinger had a game-high 19 points, and Arieal Scott scored 10 for the Illini (9-7, 1-4).

“The second half started with our defense,” said Penn State coach Coquese Washington. “I felt like they got a little too comfortable early in the game offensively.”

Next up is a visit from Ohio State on Thursday at 7 p.m.

Temple (4-11, 0-3 AAC), meanwhile, fought back from several runs by the Cougars (8-8, 2-1) before Houston burst from an early tie in the fourth quarter to seal the victory.

Mia Davis had 19 points for the Owls, while Alliya Butts had 16 points, four assists, and three steals. Desiree Oliver added eight points and four assists.

Julia Blackshell-Fair had 15 points for Houston, while Dorian Branch, Octavia Barnes, and Myyah West each scored 11, and Angela Harris had 10 points.

Temple next visits Cincinnati Wednesday while Connecticut visits Sunday in the Liacouras Center at 1 p.m.

D2 Jefferson Still Unbeaten

Jefferson University is still perfect on the season and making history with the Rams’ overall unbeaten streak at 17-0 after beating Post 77-54 Saturday at home at the Gallagher Center in a Central Atlantic Collegiate Game.

Alynna Williams is now the 34th player to collect 1,000 points in program history.

Speaking of history, Jefferson (17-0, 8-0 CACC) is ranked seventh in the D2SIDA Media Poll, highest ever, and 12th in the WBCA coaches poll.

In Saturday’s game in the win over Post (6-8, 3-4), the Rams, who as a unit were runnerup to CACC rival USciences in the Philly Summer League for their only loss, exploded with a 29-9 opening quarter to take quick control.

The Rams recently beat the Devils in their first meeting in a close game to avenge the summer loss.

On Saturday, Caitlyn Cunningham shot 9-of-16 from the field, scoring a game-high 24 points to tie a career mark. Williams had 11 points, four assists, and one rebound and a steal. Jessica Kaminski had 17 points and nine rebounds with three assists, shooting 5-for-7 from the floor. Beverly Kum had 11 points, nine rebounds, two assists and a steal.

Defensively, Jefferson forced 19 turnovers and are perfect in the series with Post at 19-0 as coach Tom Shirley gained his 765th win of which 616 are with the Rams.

On Wednesday Georgian Court will visit at 6 p.m.

Nationally Noted: Tigers Tale at Towson

In the CAA, Towson is off to a 4-0 start after beating Hofstra 92-68 at home on Sunday as Kionna Jeter had 29 points and seven steals for the Tigers (10-5, 4-0) and Maia Lee had a career-high 14 rebounds. The 10 overall wins are the fastest compiled since the 2011-12 season.

Katie Samuelson reached her 2,000th career point for Connecticut in the Huskies’ 63-46 win in the AAC over USF at home in Storrs. She finished with 19 and is the 10th player in the program to attain the milestone. The team continues to be perfect all-time in conference play. Unlike some recent games in the series, the injury-depleted Bulls (10-7, 1-2) led most of the first half. UConn (14-1, 3-0) is likely to move up to No. 2 behind Notre Dame.

No. 8 North Carolina State (17-0, 4-0 ACC), the last unbeaten Division I team, stayed perfect winning 66-38 at Virginia in Charlottesville to continue the best start in program history.

Clemson upset No. 33 Florida State 57-45 in an ACC game in Tallahassee after the Seminoles had just returned to the AP poll for the first time this season.

Georgia rallied to upset No. 13 Tennessee 66-62 at home in Athens as the Lady Vols (12-4, 1-3) are on a three game losing streak for the first time in 33 years. They had never lost three straight SEC games.

Mississippi ambushed No. 16 Kentucky 66-49 on the road at Memorial Coliseum in Lexington.

California was upset again this weekend in the Pac-12, with the No. 24 Bears losing 62-61 at No. 19 Arizona State despite 21 points and 16 rebounds from Kristine Anigwe. Kianna Ibis had 26 points for the Sun Devils at Wells Fargo Arena in Tempe.

The Bears (10-5, 1-3 PAC-12) have lost four of five and the deal-breaker was a foul shot by Reili Richardson with 4.6 seconds left in regulation for Arizona State (12-4, 3-2).

Oregon, Oregon State and Stanford are still unbeaten in the conference.

And that’s the report.