Guru’s WBB Report: Villanova Overwhelmed by Marquette While No. 6 Stanford and No. 24 West Virginia Win But Texas Upset at Oklahoma State

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

With the Temple trip to No. 13 South Florida in the American Athletic Conference postponed due to COVID-19 protocol procedures on the part of the host Bulls, that left Villanova hosting Marquette Wednesday night as the only local in action in a Big East game that resulted with a lot of inaction on the part of the Wildcats in Finneran Pavilion.

The Golden Eagles shook off the short notice of the schedule rearrangement and plane ride from their campus in Milwaukee and zipped their way to a thunderous 95-77 victory that wasn’t that close.

Marquette, which has a league-high seven road wins under second-year coach and former Notre Dame star Megan Duffy, erupted from the outset with a 27-14 opening quarter, hitting 12 of 18 shots, and though Villanova held the opposition at bay the next period, a 30-15 third period became the finishing touch with at least winning the quarter was achieved in the final period with the Wildcats holding a 23-15 advantage.

“At the start of the game, we didn’t come in ready and they took full advantage,” said Villanova first-year coach and former Wildcats star Denise Dillon, who previously coached Drexel down in West Philadelphia for 17 seasons. “You’re climbing uphill to keep pace with what they were doing. It makes for a long night.”

With the numerous teams in the Big East that have been hit by the coronavirus causing cancellations, postponements, and short-notice reshuffles, in some instances, Wednesday night did not go on the books until Sunday, replacing an original Wildcats matchup with Xavier.

Marquette (10-2, 7-1 Big East) was able to dominate the inside outscoring the home team 46-34 in the paint.

“It was an area of focus,” Dillon noted. “I said to our group as hard as it can be to match up with our three in Maddy (Siegrist), Sarah (Mortensen), and Brianna (Herlihy), that would be the biggest challenge for us against Marquette, asking those three to make it as hard as possible to work in the post, to front, and looking to double. But we certainly did not execute the game plan.”

Selena Lott lead the Golden Eagles’ attack, scoring 27 points, including her 1,000th career point, shooting 8-for-17 from the field, including 5-of-7 from down deep, while also dealing 11 assists. All five Marquette starters collected points in double figures, with Camryn Taylor scoring 16, Chloe Marotta registering 13, Jordan King scoring 12, and Lauren Van Kleunen scoring 10.

Villanova’s Maddy Siegrist and Brianna Herlihy combined for 38 points, each collecting 19, while Sarah Mortensen scored 13, and freshman Bella Runyan scored eight. The Wildcats (9-3, 4-3) also got six from reserve Samantha Carangi, who had not played for a while due to a foot injury and the team’s 19-day shutdown that ended with a comeback win in overtime at home against St. John’s in overtime Monday night.

Two of the bigger team offensive threats in the league, each connected with 10 three-pointers.

But don’t bring up the play in the previous game and short turnaround to Dillon as a potential justification for the letdown.

“These kids want to play,” she said. “And don’t talk about the short time between games. If things in the league were normal, we’d be playing on Friday and Sunday with one day in between. On defense, we have some work to do. And we can’t have some playing well one night and others the next. We need everybody together and develop consistency.”

The one positive was getting the game in, bringing the Wildcats’ overall total to 12, one short of the special low minimum requirement of 13 games to be eligible for this year’s NCAA tournament, all of which will be played likely in Texas, mostly near San Antonio, where the Women’s Final Four was originally selected for this season.

“Yeah, well, we didn’t take advantage of it,” Dillon said of the games count.

While it was just Villanova’s third overall loss, one could say it was the Wildcats’ first clunker, considering the other two were to conference heavyweights  No. 3 Connecticut at home, and No. 18 DePaul on the road in Chicago.

Marquette is considered one of the better teams in the league and if one wanted to be philosophical, one could count this loss as a stand-in for the return UConn game at the Huskies’ Gampel Pavilion, which likely won’t be replaced because the calendar is becoming devoid of dates. 

In fact anything that goes off the books in the league moving forward will be difficult to replace, heading into the Big East tournament, still set for early March at the Mohegan Sun near New London, Conn.

Villanova next heads to Butler in Indianapolis on Sunday at noon.

The National Scene: Unlike Thursday night, just ahead, there wasn’t a bunch going, though in the Big 12 West Virginia lived up to its return to the rankings, the No. 24 Mountaineers taking a 73-53 win over host Texas Tech at the Red Raiders’ United Supermarkets Arena in Lubbock. Texas, however, which ended a rankings run last week, was upset at Oklahoma State, 68-51, in Stillwater.

Out West, maybe it was the news that with a loosening of COVID-19 protocols for Santa Clara County in Northern California, No. 6 Stanford will be allowed to return home for the first time since Dec. 1, but, nevertheless, the Cardinal slammed host Washington State, 71-49 in a PAC-12 game in Pullman, to extend their perfect record in the series to 68-0.

In the win by West Virginia (12-2, 6-2 Big 12), Kysre Gondrezick scored 24 points on the strength of 4-of-5 three-pointers for the visitors, while Esmery Martinez had 16, Jasmine Carson scored 12, Kari Niblack scored 10, while Blessing Ejiofor grabbed 10 rebounds, and Niblack and Martinez each pulled down nine against the Red Raiders (8-8, 3-7), who got 18 points and 10 rebounds from Vivian Gray.

The Mountaineers, who are at TCU Ssaturday, have won seven straight.

In the Texas game in Gallagher-Iba Arena, the host Cowgirls (11-5, 7-3 Big 12), snapping a 12-game losing streak in the series, got 21 points and 15 rebounds from Natasha Mack, who was 8-for-16 from the field and also blocked six shots, while Ja’Mee Asberry scored 18 and dealt five assists, and Lauren Fields scored 13.

Charlie Collier had a Division I-leading 11th double double for the Longhorns (11-4, 5-3), scoring 10 and grabbing 17 rebounds, while Karisma Ortiz and Joanne Allen-Taylor each scored 11 points. She has grabbed 56 rebounds over the last three games for an 18.7 average.

Calling his team “soft,” first-year coach Vic Schaefer, who left a dominate Mississippi State program to revive the Longhorns, expressed displeasure over the Texas defense.

"Against a team like this, that is physical, that's aggressive, that plays hard, we struggled," he said. "It's been that way all year. It won't always been like this. But this is who we are right now. Having a competitive spirit is not something you can teach or instill or ingrain. You are who you are."

Texas next hosts Texas Tech Saturday night at home in the Frank Erwin Center in Austin, while Oklahoma State heads to Kansas to play the Jayhawks at 4 p.m. on Saturday in Lawrence.

In the Stanford game, Lexi Hull and Kiana Williams each scored 17 points for the visiting Cardinal (13-2, 10-2 PAC-12), while Cameron Brink had 12 points and 14 rebounds and blocked five shots, and  dealt five assists, and Haley Jones scored 10.

Coach Tara VanDerveer, who passed the late and legendary Tennessee coach Pat Summitt last month, extended her Division I all-time women’s victory total to 1,107 victories. No. 3 Connecticut’s Geno Auriemma, who also passed Summitt earlier this month to move into second, has 1,101 victories heading into Thursday night’s game at Arkansas.

Prior to Wednesday night, in wins and losses, Washington State (8-5, 6-5) in wins and losses had become a thorn in the side of PAC-12 opponents, sweeping Oregon State, for one, and upsetting then-No. 7 Arizona in overtime to earn a first-ever ranking in the Associated Press women’s poll. Unfortunately, the Cougars lasted a week, dropping their next two on the road in overtime at Southern Cal, and then at then-No. 8 UCLA, making them the first team in the conference to play three straight games beyond regulation.

In this one, however, it was over quickly, though since Wednesday was a special makeup from the original schedule at Stanford, the two teams will come right back Friday in Beasley Coliseum and play again at 3 p.m. in the regularly scheduled game. It’s the first time since 1988 the Cardinal is playing the same opponent in consecutive games.

 "I think we just got beat by a really good team,” Cougars coach Kamie Ethridge, said. “They taught us a lot about what some of the best teams in the country look, and play, like. 

“They're resilient at what they do, and obviously we got off to a bad start in the first quarter, and even worse in the second quarter. We turned the ball over and let them dictate things a bit. I think we got a little rattled. When you let (Stanford) score 44 points in a half, you're not going to beat them.

 “They are a good team and they're long and hard to guard. They really make the game hard and we didn't respond well tonight."

Stanford will finish the weekend Sunday at Washington in Seattle, and then will finally be in the Cardinal’s real home in Maples Pavilion next weekend hosting Colorado on Friday and Utah on Sunday.

"Our team is ecstatic,” VanDerveer said. “We have been living in a hotel since basically November.

"The wear and tear on people, the being in hotels and being on buses, practicing in high school gyms, no power in the gym and it is dark. No other team except for maybe our men's team has been dealing with what we are dealing with and we are absolutely thrilled to go back to Maples and it is just we want to play well this weekend so we can be back in our gym and enjoy it."

Meanwhile, in Washington State’s first attempt to end the perfect drought against Stanford, Ula Motuga had 10 points and 10 rebounds for a double double, while Johanna Teder scored 12. But sensational freshman Charlisse Leger-Walker was held to six points and seven rebounds.

“Our defense really stepped it up,” VanDerveer noted. “That was really key for us.’

Looking Ahead: Locally, Penn State is at Illinois at 7 in the Big Ten, but the Rutgers-hosting No. 7 Maryland is postponed, the seventh game the host Scarlet Knights have had delayed by COVID-19 protocol details. The Terrapins, coming off a two-point loss at No. 14 Ohio State, instead will host Michigan State at 4 p.m. on the Big Ten Network at the  XFINITY Center in College Park.

Nationally, in a game scheduled recently No. 3 Connecticut will visit No. 19 Arkansas at 6 p.m. on ESPN2.

“Anyone not willing to schedule anyone, at anyplace, at anywhere, at anytime this season, if do-able, there’s something wrong with you,” Connecticut coach Geno Auriemma said earlier this week.

The game has become an advance homecoming for Huskies star Christyn Williams, who originally thought next season would be that event. Auriemma said it’s possible that game could still happen but that “we lost four games we have to make up, contractually, and we others coming on the schedule, so we’ll see.”

The Southeastern Conference, loaded with ranked teams, besides, Arkansas, has a reunion of sorts with No. 4 South Carolina and coach Dawn Staley heading to No. 21 Mississippi State and first-year coach Nikki McCray-Penson, Staley’s assistant for 10 seasons with the Gamecocks before heading to Old Dominion the past three seasons prior to being hired to replace Vic Schaefer, who is now at Texas.

No. 15 Kentucky hosts Alabama, while No. 20 Tennessee hosts Mississippi, No. 22 Georgia hosts LSU, and No. 6 Texas A&M visits Auburn.

In the Big Ten, besides games already mentioned, No. 23 Northwestern visits Iowa, Ohio State visits No. 15 Indiana, the fourth straight ranked team in the conference the Buckeyes have faced.

In the Atlantic Coast Conference, No. 2 N.C. State visits Virginia Tech having just escaped them at home Sunday by two points, while No. 1 Louisville hosts North Carolina.

No. 18 Gonzaga visits Pacific in the West Coast Conference.