Guru’s WBB Report: Siegrist Powers Villanova to Narrow Win at Quinnipiac

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

 

If conferences gave out sophomore of the week awards, Villanova’s Maddy Siegrist would be off to earning them in the Big East the way she monopolized the freshman honor all last season on the way to the big rookie award at the finish.

 

The native of upstate New York had her second straight monster effort out of two in 2020-21, scoring a game-high 25 points, the last two of which with nine seconds left in regulation came by way of two foul shots, as the Wildcats held on for a 63-60 non-conference win at Quinnipiac Sunday afternoon at the Bobcats’ Peoples United Center in Hamden, Conn.

 

Siegrist also grabbed 10 rebounds for her second straight double double out of the gate while the scoring column in 17 of her 33 career collegiate games has seen her score 20 or more points dating to last season when she broke freshman marks on the Main Line held by the immortal Shelly Pennefather that existed for decades.

 

Villanova is now 2-0 under new coach and alum Denise Dillon on the heels of Wednesday’s home-opener easier to achieve triumph over nearby Rider in Finneran Pavilion.

 

The opposition coach Sunday is no stranger to Dillon, having gone against MAAC power Quinnipiac coached by Delran(N.J.)’s Trish Sacca Fabbri during Dillon’s long-running Drexel era.

 

Sunday’s game was cobbled off what is now becoming an ongoing national preoccupation in the men’s and women’s collegiate world called the Covid-19 shuffle in which teams on a daily basis are poised with scrambling for new opponents on the fly when their originally intended foe gets quarantined off someone landing a positive test for the virus.

 

In all, 18 women’s game on Sunday’s Division I card were either postponed or cancelled.

 

Swapping from the summer schedule, Manhattan, coached by former Villanova assistant Heather Vulin, was suppose to play the Wildcats Saturday afternoon until the Jaspers got hit with a no-go off a tier one member of the program getting informed of a positive result.

 

Meanwhile, the same day, Quinnipiac was set to meet in-state and national power Connecticut at the Mohegan Sun bubblevillemen’s and women’s setup near New London, Conn., in a tournament also involving nationally-ranked Mississippi State and Maine.

 

But a week ago Monday, the Huskies reported a positive result and are now going through lockdown procedures, forcing Quinnipiac to scramble and hence the two programs hooked upafter the Bobcats had found another replacement to win their opener last week against Providence.

 

So much for the background.

 

As for the basketball, the way it went Sunday was along the lines of countless scenarios in the 42-year coaching era of Wildcats legend Harry Perretta in which key individual performances were notable but some scoring droughts along the way allowed the other side to stay involved until the end to rally or lose.

 

In this one, Villanova jumped to an 11-0 lead and never trailed, though several times squandered almost all of the advantage and was in danger of doing so near the end until Siegrist’s free throws saved the day.

 

Minutes earlier a three-ball from Miami transfer Sarah Mortensen had given the Wildcats a 54-45 lead with 7 minutes, 30 seconds left in regulation before Quinnipiac began a claw back taking advantage of a three-minute drought to move within a point after consecutive threes from Sajada Bonner.

 

Finally, Villanova used back-to-back shots from Mortensen andfreshman Bella Runyan, the daughter of former NFL Philadelphia Eagle Jon Runyan for a six-points advantage with two minutes left.

 

Then another drought until Siegrist got the Wildcats to victory lane, though Quinnipiac had a chance to launch a potential game-tying three that failed.

 

Villanova shared the ball well in this one, getting 21 assists on 26 baskets.

 

Mortensen finished with 16, her best with the Wildcats, while Briana Herlihy had 10 points and seven rebounds. Runyan dealt six assists in the early phase of her collegiate career while Sam Carangi dealt three.

 

Mackenzie DeWeese topped Quinnipiac with 16 points, 11 rebounds, and three steals.

 

Having gotten two non-conference game in the books through all the chaos — Temple became a no-go along the way and Saint Joseph’s, currently in quarantine mode, will come along later if the schools can arrange it — Villanova now looks to Friday night’s Big East opener against defending champion DePaul at home.

 

The ‘Cats were the only local in play Sunday, while Monday has La Salle opening its home and season slate, meeting Towson at the Tom Gola Arena at 4 p.m. and Penn State in its second game, both at home, will host nearby Saint Francis, Pa., at 6 p.m. in the Bryce Jordan Center in State College.

 

National highlights: In the bubble jam in Estero, Fla., No. 12 Maryland bounced back from Saturday’s upset loss to No. 24 Missouri State by beating No. 14 Arkansas 115-96 as the Terrapins set a program record scoring against a ranked opponent paced by Harvard transfer Katie Benzan, who had eight three-balls and tied a career high with 28 points. 

 

Destiny Slocum, a former Terrapins star, had had 16 for the Razorbacks.

 

“This was a terrific response by our team today,” Maryland veteran head coach Brenda Frese said. “They were locked in. You can see where the talent is on our team.”

 

Meanwhile, Missouri State turned around from the Maryland upset and was the sole ranked team to get upset, losing to Wake Forest 68-59.

 

Top-ranked South Carolina held off No. 21 Gonzaga 79-72 in the Bad Mowers Classic in Sioux Falls, S.D., as Destanni Henderson had a career high 23 points and Zia Cooke had 16 for the Gamecocks while Jenn Wirth led three players in double figures for the Zags, scoring 16 points.

 

Follow closely on this one, after being upset on the road on last week, No. 22 Notre Dame turned around and thumped Miami (Ohio) in the Irish home opener 88-68 giving new coach and alum Niele Ivey her first win as Destinee Walker scored 24 points and Maddy Westbeld scored 19. Anya People had a double double of 14 points and 11 rebounds.

 

Peyton Scott had 18 for the visitors while Katie Davidson had 16 points and 10 rebounds.

 

However, going into the weekend, the Irish had Duquesne on the schedule but the Dukes ended up at No. 20 Ohio State’s season opener in Columbus won by the Buckeyes 82-47 as JacySheldon scored 20 points.

 

No. 23 Syracuse won its opener at defending regular season America East champion Stony Brook, taking a 50-39 victory on Long Island, the game notable for the return of Tiana Mangakahia, who scored a team high 16 points, grabbing 7 rebounds, dealing three assists and and grabbing 4 steals after missing last season fighting breast cancer.

 

Syracuse next will host Philadelphia suburban Division II power Lincoln Wednesday at 6 p.m.

 

No. 6 Mississippi State, which lost out on the bubbleville tourney at Mohegan when Uconn got sidelined, opened at home 88-58 over Jackson State giving new coach Nikki McCray-Penson, formerly at Old Dominion, her first win with her new team.

 

As for the former coach, Vic Schaefer was down in Austin guiding Texas to a 106-69 win over North Texas as Charli Collier scored 44 points, the fourth highest total in program history.

 

Elsewhere, new Duke coach Kara Lawson went to 2-0 with the Blue Devils’ 83-56 home win over Western Carolina as the winners tied a school record with 13 three-pointers. 

 

North Carolina coach Courtney Banghart made it 3-0 with a lopsided 95-70 ome over High Point while No. 7 Arizona took its season opener in Tucson at home, beating Northern Arizona 76-63, its only non-conference foe, as Cate Reese scored a game-high 21 points and Aari McDonald scored 16.

 

“My teammates this year are making my job so much easier,” McDonald said. “I can focus on other things, like I can can communicate, I can lockdown on defense.

 

Coach Adia Barnes praised Reese, saying, “I thought she played really well. I’m not surprised at all. She played today like she does every day in practice.”

 

McDonald has scored in double figures in 67 straight games, which leads the nation.

 

And that’s the report.