Guru’s WBB Report: Delaware Wins While Villanova and Penn State Fall to Ranked Teams

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

After being postponed out of a weekend pair with Charleston in the Colonial Athletic Association, Delaware landed in Beantown, formally known as Boston, Monday afternoon, to start a pair of back-to-backs with Northeastern and grabbed the opener over the Huskies with a lopsided 86-59 victory. The two will play again Tuesday at 1 p.m. in the Cabot Center.

Meanwhile, over in the Big East, Villanova, which had been idle since its Dec. 22nd home loss to No. 3 Connecticut, following Saturday’s home postponement with Georgetown due to Covid-19 issues got quickly shipped to No. 20 DePaul and fell to the Blue Demons 94-82 in Chicago while over in the Big Ten, Penn State lost at No. 16 Ohio State 82-69 in the Value City Arena in Columbus.

In the win by Delaware (4-1, 1-0 CAA), five Blue Hens scored in double figures for the first time since in five seasons.

Freshman Ty Skinner collected 16 points, Chyna Latimer nailed four three-balls on the way to 14 points, Jewel Smalls in her second game wearing the Blue Hens colors, launched three beyond the arc toward 11 points, Ty Battle double doubled with 13 points and a game-high 14 rebounds, while Jasmine Dickey scored 13.

Mide Oriyomi scored 20 for Northeastern (0-3, 0-1).

Delaware defensively turned 21 turnovers into 34 points.

DePaul Tops Villanova: Five Blue Demons scored in double figures paced by Sonya Morris with 22 points in the game in the larger Wintrust Arena while Darrione Rogers, who had impressed in last week’s loss at UConn, scored 21 helped by 5-of-8 from deep for DePaul (6-3, 3-1 Big East). 

It was the first meeting between the two teams since the Wildcats (7-2, 2-2) pulled an upset in the final home game of former coach Harry Perretta, who retired at the end of his 42nd season.

On Monday, Maddie Siegrist scored 31 points and grabbed nine rebounds, Sarah Mortensen scored 17, reserve Lior Garzon scored 14, and Brianna Herlihy scored 10.

Siegrist hit the 30 mark for the third time this season.

In the ongoing schedule shuffle Villanova heads to Seton Hall for a 1 p.m. game Wednesday at Walsh Gym in South Orange, N.J., then comes home to Finneran Pavilion Saturday to host Xavier at 1 p.m. instead of going to Marquette. Both games are on the Flohoops Big East Digital Network.

Penn State Handled by Ohio State: A rally fell short  after the Lady Lions (3-4, 0-4 Big Ten) trimmed  21-point deficit to single digits by the Buckeyes (5-0, 1-0), who played their first conference game. 

The visitors got 21 points and nine rebounds from Makenna Marisa, while former Villanovan Kelly Jekot scored 19, and Niya Beverly scored 14.

Madison Greene double doubled for the home team with 24 points and 10 rebounds while Jacy Sheldon scored 21, and Braxtin Miller scored 10.

Penn State is back in the Bryce Jordan Center Thursday hosting No. 19 Indiana at 6 p.m. in State College.

In other scores of note Monday, in the MAAC, Quinnipiac at home beat Marist 59-55 in overtime, while in a ranked battle within the Big Ten, No. 12 Maryland at home topped No. 19 Indiana 84-80 in College Park as Diamond Miller and Ashley Oswusu each scored 20 for the Terrapins (7-1, 3-0 Big Ten) while Indiana (5-2, 3-1) got 26 points from Grace Berger.

“It looked like a high-level Big Ten game,” Maryland coach Brenda Frese said.

No. 5 South Carolina in the SEC won at Alabama 77-60 as Destanni Henderson scored 20 for the Gamecocks (7-1, 2-0 SEC) on the road in Tuscaloosa against the Crimson Tide (8-1, 1-1)

Looking Ahead: On Wednesday besides the ‘Nova game, Temple visits East Carolina in the AAC at 6 p.m. while on Thursday in the highlight of the season No. 3 Connecticut visits No. 6 Baylor at 8:30 p.m.on ESPN in the Ferrell Center in Waco.

And that’s the report.