Guru Report: Villanova Tops St. Joes While No. 6

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

VILLANOVA, Pa. – Severely depleted to just six players, Villanova’s ongoing win streak in the Big Five series with Saint Joseph’s seemed ready to end at last on Saturday afternoon, especially after the Wildcats trailed the Hawks 20-11 after the first quarter here at home at Finneran Pavillion on the Main Line.

But Villanova still had its two main engines in freshman Maddy Siegrist and Mary Gedaka while veteran Harry Perretta seemed energized enough to be ready to double up his career and coach another 42 seasons rather than retire after this one has concluded.

Though the Hawks still had their shot at winning with a 32-26 lead with 7 minutes, 24 seconds left in the third quarter, the Wildcats turned the tide with an overall 23-19 in the period and went on to a 60-44 triumph to take their opening Big Five game of the season.

It was the fifth straight triumph in the series with Saint Joseph’s (4-5), which is now 1-2 in the round robin having beaten Temple and lost to Penn and Villanova, which in this one outscored the Hawks 49-24 across the final three periods.

Elsewhere, it was one of the better afternoons for those of the Guru’s local D-1s who played, though in two games it was a head-to-head matchup here and up in central New Jersey where Rider came off a two-week layoff to thump La Salle, while Temple fell at home to No. 6 South Carolina in another Dawn Staley homecoming but the Owls extended the Gamecocks until the fourth quarter.

Penn did a hat dance on the Hatters of Stetson at home in The Palestra, Delaware won at Robert Morris , while Princeton kept rolling winning at Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference favorite Marist.

Penn State is idle until visiting Princeton Saturday while on Sunday Rutgers will host Towson, the reigning Colonial Athletic Association tournament champs, and Drexel, which fell to Towson in the closing minute of that title game last March, will visit Bucknell.

Here, of course, Perretta was pleased to see his Wildcats (4-4) bounce back from Wednesday’s tough and narrow loss at Drexel in overtime in the closing seconds of the extra period.

“Yeah, we had to play walk-ons and everything else,” he said afterwards of the game here. “Just try to take it one day at a time. I really wanted to get this one because we go to Temple (Tuesday, 5 p.m., in McGonigle Hall) next and they are going to be a difficult match up for us.

“I still feel bad about that game at Drexel because I didn’t put Mary in the right position at the end. Like I said, just one day at a time.”

Siegrist, who has scored 20 or more points in five of her eight games, had 23 in this one, shooting 10-for-19 from the field, including connecting with three 3-pointers while grabbing eight rebounds.

 Gedaka came through with 19 points, shooting 8-for-16 from the field.

Cameron Onken had career highs in playing all 40 minutes of eight points, seven assists, and 13 rebounds while Bridget Herlihy had 11 rebounds and blocked four shots, making it 10 blocks overall in her last two games.

Saint Joseph’s freshman Claire Melia from Ireland had a double-double of 22 points and 15 rebounds while Lula Roig grabbed 13 rebounds.

The Hawks are off for finals now until Dec. 20, opening against Harvard of the Ivy League in Florida Atlantic University’s tournament in Boca Roton.

Saint Joseph’s last City Series game will be at La Salle, Jan. 26, the first of a two-game home-and-home with the Explorers that are part of both teams’ Atlantic 10 schedule.

Villanova, which claimed another local crown with a 4-0 sweep last season, is a Big Five best 120-39 in Big Five competition and 29-5 in its last 34 games in the City Series.

Redshirt freshman Kenzie Gardler and sophomore Sam Carangi were both sidelined for Villanova with injuries.

Temple Finally Subdued in Fourth Quarter by Sixth-Ranked South Carolina

PHILADELPHIA - Even if it was a little less ado than two seasons ago when former Temple coach Dawn Staley brought South Carolina to town as the defending NCAA champions next door at the Liacouras Center, its still a big deal when the local legend, also now the USA Olympic coach, comes home.

The Owls, however, coached by Tony Cardoza, her successor since 2008 and former Virginia teammate, made the event a bigger deal by playing one of their better games against high-powered teams in recent seasons.

Though missing promising newcomer Ashley Jones, a Neumann-Goretti grad and transfer from West Virginia, with an injury, Temple drew notice on scoreboards across the country, leading by one point late in the third period before falling off in the fourth, though still making it a competitive 78-71 final by South Carolina (9-1) in McGonigle Hall before a lively crowd of 1,802.

The Gamecocks had recently upset then-No. 2 and defending champion Baylor down in the tropics over Thanksgiving and among an array of young talent, offer Aliyah Boston, a native of St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, who is currently the reigning national freshman of the week with the United States Basketball Writers Association.

Though missing Jones with a concussion suffered Wednesday in the win at Towson, Temple’s sophomore Marissa Mackins had a career-high 26 points, including 5-of-9  3-pointers, though she committed 9 turnovers, while Mia Davis had a double-double of 14 points and 13 rebounds, and Lena Niang had a double-double of 10 points and 11 rebounds for the Owls (5-5).

Temple next hosts Villanova in its second Big Five game of the season at 5 p.m. in McGonigle Hall.

The Owls battled on the boards and won that phase, 50-46 against one of the powers of the Southeastern Conference.

Tyasha Harris, one of South Carolina’s senior leaders, had 21 points, dealt seven assists, and grabbed four steals, while Mikiah Hebert Harrigan had 15 points, Destanni Henderson had 12 off the bench, and Boston and Brea Beal each scored 10.

The visitors led by 12 early in the second period, still lead by 11 a few minutes later, before Temple surged to move within four at the half.

It then stayed close most of the rest of the way with Temple taking several leads until the Owls missed key shots in the fourth to allow South Carolina into safer territory to avoid another upset such as its recent one suffered to nationally-ranked Indiana in the tourney in St. Thomas.

Despite the loss, Cardoza was ecstatic over her team’s performance, though it gave enough pause to might have been earlier in previous games.

“For the first time, we focused and listened, but it won’t mean anything if we don’t play like this moving forward,” the Temple coach said.

“We took what they gave us and took advantage. This is the first time we stayed focus as long as we did,” Cardoza referenced some previous games in which her squad strayed from the game plan, only playing well in certain segments.

“We did that against all those all-Americans.”

As for Staley, who sees her group as still looking for its identity, “At the end, we made plays when we needed to make plays,” she said. “Temple played extremely well.”

Apparently, word had gone out earlier that this series will continue as long as both coaches are still at their present schools, barring other situations that might temporarily cause a halt.

Staley cited the leadership in the play of Harris and other upper classmen.

“Freshmen are going to be freshmen at times,” she said after the Gamecocks kept their perfect record in the series, improving to 5-0. “The upperclassmen made plays when they needed to. That’s why you can’t afford not to have experience on the basketball court.”

That was felt with a dip last season in the wake of the graduation of A’ja Wilson, now with the WNBA Las Vegas Aces. Now there’s a new group ready to create a new era of success.

Penn Pulverizes Stetson

The Quakers’ best start in program history continued with Penn’s 81-41 victory over Stetson at The Palestra.

Penn has won all its games by wide margins except in the lone and recent loss at Duke.

In this one coach Mike McLaughlin’s group (7-1) connected with 14 three-balls and forced 27 turnovers, both program highs in his 12 seasons with the program.

Freshman Kayla Padilla had 24 points, her fifth of eight games scoring 20 or more points, while Phoebe Sterba scored 15, and Emily Anderson shot 5-of-6 from the field to score 10 points.

Stetson (4-5) of the ASUN Conference got 16 points from Day’Neshia Banks while the Hatters in the second quarter were outscored 20-4 by the Quakers.

Penn is now off until its neighborhood war, hosting Drexel from up the street at The Palestra on Dec. 20 at 11:30 a.m. 

The Big Five standings, at the moment, are Penn 2-0, Villanova 1-0, Saint Joseph’s 1-2, Temple 0-1, and La Salle 0-1.

Rider Handles La Salle

The Broncs had been sitting around two weeks since Stella Johnson’s explosive 40 and 39 points in a split outcome in Florida at the MAAC/ASUN challenge.

Apparently, rust didn’t gather in the interim, as Rider rode to a 70-43 win over La Salle at home in Alumni Gym in Lawrenceville, N.J.

The Exlorers (6-4) were coming off a Big Five home loss Wednesday night to Penn.

Johnson in this one got 22 points for the Broncs (4-2), along with nine assists, nine rebounds, five steals, two blocks and committing just one turnover.

Amari Johnson had 14 points and 11 rebounds for the home team while Lea Favre scored 12, shooting 6-for-7 from the field.

“With the two-week layoff, we started the game how we wanted to,” said Rider veteran coach Lynn Milligan. “We focused a lot on defense, the last two weeks.”

The Broncs, who forced 18 turnovers and blocked seven shots, have won three straight games in the series.

Deja King was the only scorer in double figures for the visitors with 12 points while Jordon Lewis grabbed 11 rebounds.

Rider is off until visiting Georgetown on Saturday while La Salle, which has lost three straight games in back of a five-game win streak, is off a stretch until visiting Drexel, Dec. 17 at 11:30 a.m. for a Philly Six game.

Princeton Streak Continues Streaking by Winning at Marist

The Tigers are certainly keeping pace with their Ivy rivals to the south after taking a 62-50 triumph at MAAC favorite Marist under new coach Carla Berube.

A 19-3 streak in the second half got the job done at the Red Foxes’ McCann Arena in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., below Albany.

Princeton (7-1) had trailed by a point at 34-33 with 2:19 left in the third period before launching its explosive run.

Carlie Littlefield had 19 points, Julia Cunningham scored 14, and Ellie Mitchell grabbed 13 rebounds, but reigning Ivy player of the year Bella Alarie did not play.

She has missed several games with nagging injuries.

Rebekah Hand had 18 points, Grace Vander Weide scored 11, and Alana Gilmer had 10 points and 10 rebounds.

Princeton will host Hartford on Tuesday at 5 p.m. at Jadwin Gym and then greets Penn State Saturday at 3 p.m.

Delaware Takes a Road Win

The Blue Hens recovered from their recent home loss, taking a lead in the second quarter and holding on for a 73-62 triumph at Robert Morris in Moon Township, Pa.

Abby Gonzales had 16 points for Delaware (3-5), while Samone DeFrese had 15 points, and Nicole Enabosi, the 2018 Colonial Athletic Association player of the year, in one of her better performances since missing last season with an injury, had 13 points and 13 rebounds.

Dahome Forgues had 14 points to top the host Colonials (4-4).

“It’s will versus desire. And our will had to be greater today and it was from start to finish,” said Delaware coach Natasha Adair. “It was a great homecoming for Abby, our senior point guard, and a great team win.”

The Blue Hens are now off until next Sunday when they visit Gardner-Webb in in Boiling Springs, N.C. 

Small Colleges: Lincoln Setting Records and Holy Family Wins Again

Off to their best start in program history, the Lincoln Lions defeated host Livingstone College 68-61 in Salisbury, N.C., as Joy Morton and Bryanna Brown each scored a pair of field goals to hold off the home team’s rally.

Lincoln (8-1, 3-0 CIAA) is currently ranked fifth in the Atlantic Region media poll. Livingstone fell to 3-4 overall and 1-2 in the league.

All five Lions starters scored in double figures as Kwanza Murray scored all 16 points in the second half, Alisia Machado had 12 points and 11 rebounds, DeAshia Young scored 14, and Brown and Skydashah Patterson each scored 10.

Lincoln next hosts Claflin University in a non-conference game Thursday at 5:30 p.m.

Meanwhile, Holy Family made it a 2-0 start in the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference, winning 76-58 at Wilmington U. in Delaware.

The Tigers are 4-3 overall while Wilmington is winless, 0-8 overall and 0-2 in the CACC.

Holy Family connected on 12 threes, of which four came from Elizabeth Radley, who scored 14, while Mia Ehling had 11 points, Moe Moore scored 12, and Megan Hughes had 10 points.

Next up is a non-conference visit Sunday to Bentley in Waltham, Mass.

USciences used a 23-7 second period to help gain a 60-45 CACC win at home over Georgian Court in Bobby Morgan Arena after the Devils’ earlier conference opening upset loss at Holy Family on Tuesday.

Kendell Keyes had a career-high 18 points off the bench for the winning Devils (7-3, 1-1 CACC) while Irisa Ye scored 14, and Jordan Vitelli scored 11.

USciences becomes idle for finals until resuming play a week from Wednesday at Goldey Beacom.

Safiyyah Lee had 10 points for Georgian Court (1-5, 0-2).

Looking Ahead: UConn and Notre Dame Together Again But Not Quite The Same 

Besides the two locals playing, Rutgers hosting Towson at 2 and Drexel at Bucknell, there are several national games of interest.

Unranked Notre Dame visits No. 4 Connecticut at 4 p.m. at the Huskies’ campus Gampel Pavilion with the Irish in a struggle since graduating all five starters from the national runnersup to eligibility in the WNBA last summer.

Meanwhile Texas, also unranked, visits No. 17 Tennessee, recently returned to the rankings, while West Virginia is at No. 10 Mississippi State, South Dakota State is at No. 3 Oregon, and Minnesota is at George Washington.

And that’s the report.