Guru’s WBB Report: Rallies and Late Surges Carry Villanova and Saint Joseph’s to Victories While Stanford’s VanDerVeer Ties Summitt Win Mark

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

A key basket near the finish by Raven James enabled Villanova to make a rally from an early 11-point deficit stand up in the family reunion of sorts the Wildcats endured in a narrow 48-46 win over Drexel out on the Main Line at Finneran Pavilion Sunday afternoon to stay unbeaten while down the road on Hawk Hill Saint Joseph’s finally got to play a game and erased an early 18-point deficit to beat local Division II Lincoln University 72-64 in Hagan Arena. 

Out West Stanford Hall of Fame coach Tara VanDerveer matched the 1,098 all-time Division I women’s basketball win record of the late Tennessee coach Pat Summitt as the Cardinal traveled across the San Francisco Bay to meet PAC-12 rival California and beat the Golden Bears 83-38 while earlier in another PAC-12 local rivalry game, No. 8 Oregon traveled to No. 15 Oregon State in Corvallis and slammed the home team 79-59 to go 5-0 overall and 3-0 in conference play.

Stanford’s Fran Belibi in the lopsided contest became the eighth women’s player to dunk during a collegiate game and the first since Brittney Griner executed a slam in 2013 back when she played for Baylor.

VanDerveer can set the new record on Tuesday night when the top-ranked Cardinal meet Pacific on the road in a non-conference game.

Connecticut’s Geno Auriemma reached 1,092 victories Saturday when the Huskies finally opened their season, hosting UMass Lowell. 

Cameron Brink led Stanford (4-0, 2-0 PAC-12) with 16 points and seven rebounds. 

Cal (0-5, 0-2), coached by former Stanford player and assistant Charmin Smith, who also had a brief stint with the WNBA New York Liberty under former coach Katie Smith, got 10 points from Fatou Samb in the Battle of the Bay in Haas Pavilion.

“This is a very challenging season right now,” VanDerveer said on the postgame zoom call. “It would feel different if you were playing in front of a crowd or if my mom is there. There’s probably a side of me that just allows me to fly under the radar a little bit, and that’s OK.

“I would just like to dsay to everybody , basketball was invented as, always has been and always will be a great team sport. 

“Yes, this might be a record that has Tara VanDerveer’s name next to it but it is always about the athletic directors that hired me, gave me a chance, whether it’s been at Ohio State, Idaho or Stanford. It’s been about great, great, assistant coaches that have worked extremely hard for our program and it’s always about having great players,” she continued.

“My dad, who passed away over 20 years now, said, `You don’t win the Kentucky Derby on donkeys.’”

Meanwhile, Oregon has now won 24 straight over two seasons.

“This was really a good  victory,” Oregon coach Kelly Graves said. “The Beavers don’t usually lose like this here at home.”

Te-Hina Paopao had a career-high 22 points for the Ducks, while Taylor Mikesell scored 21.

Oregon State (3-2, 1-2)  got a team-high 14 points from Taylor Jones, while Jelena Mitrovic scored 11, and Savannah Samuel scored 10.

In another national game of note, the annual Tennessee-Texas showdown joined others on the shelf to be postponed if not cancelled when the No. 23 Longhorns who were to host in Austin came up with coronavirus contact tracing issues.

Nova Pays Back Drexel in Emotional Showdown: This one was circled on the calendar by both programs and a slew of area fans, forced to watch by remote because of crowd restrictions associated with avoiding COVID-19, beginning with last season’s closing seconds victory by host Drexel in overtime in a game that was a stop on veteran coach Harry Perretta’s retirement tour after guiding the program for 42 seasons.

And then it drew more focus in late March soon after Denise Dillon accepted the offer from her alma mater to succeed Perretta taking along with her Michelle Baker while Perretta aide Laura Kurz left her alma mater to hook up with Amy Mallon, who had been Dillon’s top aide for 17 seasons and was then named to succeed her with the Dragons.

Mallon, who graduated Saint Joseph’s, had served a stint under Perretta and actually coached Dillon for a season.

The combined rosters for the game were predominantly local and the Wildcats, paced by sophomore Maddy Siegrist and Bridget Herlihy, had been scoring a ton of points while off to a 5-0 start while Drexel paced by senior and Cardinal O’Hara grad Hannah Nihill came into the contest at 2-0. 

Nihill and ‘Nova’s Kenzie Gardler were one-time teammates in high school.

But if the event had an air of a family reunion it certainly was no picnic for either side, especially with Drexel  building an early 12-point lead and locking down Siegrist most of the way until she hit a critical three during the Wildcats’ late rally on the way to scoring 11 points.

The home team was missing Miami transfer Sarah Mortensen due to an injury so freshman Bella Runyon started in her place.

“I always said Amy Mallon’s defense is better than Denise Dillon’s offense,” the ‘Nova coach quipped about her lifelong friend.

Raven James, who finished with eight points for Villanova, snapped a tie for the game winner with 26 seconds left, that held when Drexel’s Keishana Washington had a potential three bounce off the rim as the game ended.

“You just had to make the adjustment,” she said. “They wanted us to shoot from the outside. “At that point I had to be ready to take that shot. “I remember explaining to the team we all have to be an option.”

The game was tied at the half after the Wildcats’ rally and then neither team could get much separation from each other the rest of the way.

“We had a defensive goal of 57 points,” Mallon said. “We got the defensive but unfortunately we didn’t get enough for the offensive.

“Obviously, a lot of emotions because you’re playing against your best friend you’ve known your whole career. Playing against her was really hard because you’re always rooting for each other.”

Washington had 16 points and nine rebounds for Drexel, while Nihill had 13, and Kate Connolly scored 11.

Herlihy had 13 points for the Wildcats, while Lior Garzon scored 10.

“My number one thing, I just couldn’t look down there. It’s a game you really hate to play. You just don’t want to play against your friend.”

“I thought it would be an ugly one, a game of possessions, and it was just that,” Dillon said. “You hate for anyone to lose that, especially the way Drexel played. They just missed a couple down the stretch.”

Villanova returns to the Big East Wednesday, visiting Providence, while the same night Drexel moves on to visit La Salle.

“It wasn’t an easy game to prepare for,” Dillon said. “You’re coaching against your former players and right hand person.”

Dillon is one game short of matching Perretta’s Villanova coaching career start at 7-0.

 

Saint Joe Comeback After Long Wait to Play: Knocked out of play and into quarantine from their original start of several weeks ago, the Hawks finally took the floor, meeting one of the better Division II teams in the area, and one that had played a bunch of games and exhibition games facing Division I competition, and fell 18 points behind early until mounting a comeback.

Alexis Santarelli, a transfer from Lafayette, had 15 points for Saint Joseph’s, while veteran Katie Jekot and Pitt transfer Alayna Gribble each scored 13, as did reserve and sophomore Gabby Smalls, and Kaliah Henderson scored 10.

Joy Morton had 18 points for the Lions (0-3), while Bryanna Brown scored 16, and Jade Young scored 10.

“Things were really hairy there to start the game. I thought we were really playing to fast to start the game and our kids were so jacked up to play,” said Cindy Griffin, now the dean of area Division I coaches in the wake of Perretta’s retirement and starting her 20th season. “We were missing a lot of looks. I loved the pace we were playing at, it just wasn’t favorable at the time.

“We were coming up with some empty possessions and giving up a lot on the other end. I thought we made some adjustments in the second half. We took some better shots and converted. We scored when we needed to and got stops when we needed to,” she continued.

“We do have some experience with our fifth-year seniors and Alexis really did a great job for us today. “She gave us composure in that first half.”

Trailing by four with 6:19 left in regulation, Jekot nailed her third three-ball of the contest and Smalls put the Hawks up 59-58 and they took it from there, closing on a 13-6 run to seal the win.

On Tuesday, Saint Joseph’s will host Monmouth at 2 p.m.

The Hawks following No. 3 Connecticut on Saturday, were among the remaining the Division I squads delayed because of protocols with COVID-19 and Hagan Arena was devoid of fans as has been the case in many arenas.

“Usually you have a couple of scrimmages and you kind of get all the nerves out,” Griffin said of enduring the delay. “As much as you can assimilate it in practice, until the uniforms are on and the refs are on the floor, it means something. It’s really bizarre. I think our kids have handled things like champions. I think they were very, very excited to play.

“But like the referee said, `You just don’t know when the next game is going to come. We’re going to prepare for it. We’re just blessed to be able to play. And we’ll take it, we’ll take it. There’s so many changes.

“What. We’ve learned through this whole thing is you just have to take care of your own team. Whatever team you’re going to play, you just have to make adjustments on the fly. We have kids 20, 21, who have played, not necessary at Saint Joe’s, but it helps us in this situation.

“We were coming off a year when we were so young and we needed gym time and we didn’t have that. They did a lot on their own and they came back and then the next challenge were the stops and starts. We just came off from a pause. We were putting practices together. Our kids had exams. I’m very proud. They stayed together and you say, I know what I know and I don’td know a whole lot so you just have to prepare yourself. We just want to get better and I do believe this team will get stronger as we go along.”

Meanwhile, there’s only one local game on the books Monday as Rutgers (2-0, Big Ten) hosts No. 14 Maryland  in a conference game in the Rutgers Athletic Center in Piscataway, N.J.

And that’s the report.