Guru’s March Madness - II: Siegrist Propels Villanova to WNIT Opening Win Over UMass

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

Sophomore Maddy Siegrist rocketed up five slots to 20th on the all-time Villanova women’s scoring chart and the Wildcats roared off the first quarter launching pad to a 78-51 victory over UMass Friday night in the last of four quarterfinal games in the Charlotte Region of the WNIT.

First-year coach Denise Dillon’s group (16-6) moves into Saturday night’s semifinal at 8 p.m. against Florida (12-13) of the Southeastern Conference which withstood hometown Charlotte 66-65, sending the 49ers (10-11) of Conference-USA into the consolation semifinal against the Minutewomen (14-8) of the Atlantic 10.

Earlier, Delaware got the day going playing just as hot as Villanova with an easy 77-49 triumph over Fordham (12-5) in a game with details posted below this report by Cathy Bongiovi and moved to a Saturday semifinal game (5 p.m.) against Clemson (11-13), which edged Ohio 65-60.

Those winners will meet Monday at 7 p.m. for to right to represent the region in Memphis in the championship semifinals Friday at 5 p.m. with the championship set for next Sunday at 5 p.m.

The entire tournament is being aired on the Flohoops streaming service.

UMass, playing with just seven players, had made a Cinderella run to the title game of the Atlantic 10 tournament for an NCAA bid against hometown VCU in Richmond, lasting till the fourth quarter.

But after the Minutewomen received a WNIT invitation, Villanova, whose Big East run had ended in an overwhelming semifinals defeat to No. Connecticut, quickly cut off access to any more glass slippers with a 17-0 run during the first quarter.

Tied 8-8, the Wildcats began to put the opposition into the rear-view mirror, with three straight connecting 3s from beyond the arc by Siegrist, Kenzie Gardler, and freshman Lior Garzon from Israel.

Siegrist led the way on the night and finished with 32 points, 20 coming in the first half, shooting 13-of-18 from the field, including 5-of-6 from deep as the Katrina McClain national power forward finalist, reached 1,090 points for her career. 

Lior Garzon scored 13 for Villanova, sophomore Brooke Mullin, a niece of all-time St. John’s and NBA great Chris Mullin, tied a career-high with nine points and dealing a personal best five assists. Freshman Taliyah Medina scored eight points off the bench.

UMass got 14 points from Sam Breen and 10 from Destiny Philoxy.

Dillon is no stranger coaching in the WNIT, having led Drexel to the2013 title while Villanova is now 17-11 all-time in the tournament, with several previous deep runs under Harry Perretta in his 42 seasons guiding the Wildcats on the Main Line.

The Wildcats’ attack was reminiscent of a recent scorching they dealt at home in Finneran Pavilion down the stretch of the regular season.

In this one, Villanova, now 34-27 in postseason play combined with appearances in the NCAA, shot 28-for-55 for 50.9 percent from the field, including 13-of-24 for 54.2 on three-pointers.

The Wildcats were also 9-of-12 on the line while defensively limiting UMass to to 18-of-67 from the field for 26.9 percent, and shutting off three-point attempts entirely at 0-for-11, though the Minutewomen managed to go 15-of-23 on the line. Villanova also controlled the boards with a 43-37 rebounding mark.

Siegrist has now reached 30 points in six games this season and seven overall while in the series between the two schools, the Wildcats improved to 4-2.

In the other game on Villanova’s side of the bracket, Florida edged in front with 20 seconds left in regulation on a pair of foul shots from Brynn Farrell to make it 66-64.

 Given a chance to bring it back to a tie with 12 seconds remaining, Charlotte’s Jazmin Harris could make just one of two from the line, though the 49ers remained alive when the Gators’ Jordyn Merritt missed both free throws that would ensure at least an overtime.

The home team, however, couldn’t get a shot off before time expired.

The Gators, a past two-time WNIT finalist, avoided getting tripped up from 19 turnovers. Kiara Smith scored 21 points, Jordyn Merritt scored 17 points and grabbed 18 rebounds for a double double, and and Kristina Moore scored nine.

Charlotte’s Octavia Jett-Wilson scored 26 points and had eight rebounds, while Molina Williams scored 12, and Harris scored 10 with nine rebounds.

The 49ers were held to 31 percent from the field, but out-rebounded Florida on the offensive glass 18-8.

Elsewhere in the Region Brackets: In some other notable results and actions elsewhere in the other three regions, over in the Rockford Region in Illinois, DePaul, which had been ranked most of the season and is one of the powers of the Big East, got upset by Saint Louis 74-72 as the Billikens (13-4) broke from a comeback tie by the Blue Demons when Ciaja Harbison scored six straight points to move on to a semifinal game with Milwaukee (20-7), an easy 84-46 victor over Drake (16-11), runnerup in the Missouri Valley Conference tournament.

DePaul (14-9), which faded down the season stretch and was upset by Villanova in the Big East quarterfinals, will meet Drake (16-12) in a consolation game.

In the closing minutes, the Blue Demons had moved from a deep deficit on an 11-0 run to trail 63-60 with 5:32 left in Sonya Morris’ layup. They got closer at 68-67 on a pair of free throws from Darrione Rogers with 2:19 left.

Saint Louis responded with a shot by Harbison for a three-point lead and then Morris’ jumper tied it at 72-72 with 27 seconds left.

Harbison snapped it at the line and DePaul’s Morris, who had 28 points and 10 rebounds, missed a shot as time expired.

Mya Clark scored 20 for Saint Louis, which was third in the Atlantic 10, and Harbison scored 14, while Julia Martinez scored 11, and Myriama Smith Traore scored nine and grabbed 11 rebounds.

DePaul’s Rogers scored 18 points, and Lexi Held had 16.

In the other side of the Rockford bracket, Creighton of the Big East, rode long-range shooting on 9-of-17 from deep on the way to a 72-65 triumph over Bowling Green of the Mid-American Conference.

The Bluejays (10-11) will meet in a semifinal, Northern Iowa, an upset 70-56 winner over Dayton (14-4), the top seed of the Atlantic 10 conference which had gotten upset in the A-10 tourney in the semifinals by hometown VCU.

Kam Finley had 23 points for UNI (15-12), aided by five from deep, while Megan Maahs had nine points and eight rebounds.

The Flyers’ Makira Cook had 16 points and six rebounds.

In the Memphis Region, which is also the host venue for the WNIT national semifinals and finals, Ole Miss (12-11) easily topped Samford 64-45, to move into a semifinal against Tulane, a semifinalist in the American Athletic Conference tournament, which advanced as the Green Wave (18-8) beat Illinois State 75-67.

The other semifinal will match the PAC-12’s Colorado, a 68-45 winner over Louisiana, against the Big Ten’s Nebraska (13-12), which also easily got its win 72-46 over UT Martin.

In the Fort Worth Region in Texas, Rice of C-USA topped the PAC-12’s Arizona State 48-36 as Lauren Schwartz and Nancy Mulkey each scored 16 points, as the winners used an 18-5 fourth quarter finish to advance against Fresno State (17-10), which closed with a 9-0 run in the final 1 minute, 26 seconds, to rally 78-75 over Missouri (9-12) of the Southeastern Conference.

San Francisco of the West Coast Conference upset third-place Houston (16-8) of the AAC 71-63 as the Dons (16-10) got their first postseason win in 23 seasons since 1998.

Though beset with 21 turnovers, San Francisco got a career-high 23 points from Amalie Langer, while Lucie Hoskova scored 18, and Ionna Krimili, one of the nation’s top rookies, scored 14.

Cal Baptist (25-0) is still the nation’s lone unbeaten squad after the Western Athletic Conference champions narrowly beat New Mexico 90-85 to advance against San Francisco.

The Lancers, who were ineligible for the NCAA tournament because they are still in transition as a Division I member, rallied with 30 points in the third quarter to go ahead of the Lobos (15-5).

In the highest scoring game of the 16 opening round confrontations, Taylor Wu began the move to keep CBU from falling from unbeaten with a layup for an 80-77 lead with 4:01 left in regulation.

Britney Thomas kept it a three-point lead, 84-81, with 2:29 left, and an old-fashioned three-point play from Thomas exended it to 87-81 with 1:56 left.

Autumn Watts gave New Mexico its last hurrah moving closer at 87-83 with 1:08 left but the Lobos could not get closer.

Caitlyn Harper had 25 points for Cal Baptist, Thomas had 22 points and 10 rebounds, and Ane Olaeta had 11 points and dealt 14 of the Lancers’ 30 assists.

Jaedyn De La Cerda scored 28 for New Mexico and LaTascya Duff scored 20.

There are no details at the late hour it is, but apparently New Mexico pulled out of the tournament after the loss because the consolation bracket for Saturday’s round shows Houston, the intended opponent, moved to Monday’s consolation final against Saturday’s Arizona State-Missouri winner. In between the New Mexico and Houston placings is the phrase NO CONTEST.