Guru’s WBB March Madness - II: Delaware Advances to WNIT Semifinal With 77-70 Win Over Villanova in Regional Final

By Cathy Bongiovi 

 

 The Delaware Blue Hens are going to Memphis!  

 

Delaware defeated regional rival Villanova, 77-70, in the Charlotte Regional Final of the Women’s NIT at Bojangles Coliseum on Monday evening.

 

The Blue Hens advance to the WNIT semifinals and a Friday 5 p.m. date against Rice, which brought a stunning end to the previous unbeaten season of Cal Baptist, 79-55.

The other semifinal  at 8 p.m. at My Town Movers Fieldhouse in Collierville, Tenn., will feature Ole Miss, which beat Colorado, 65-56, against  Northern Iowa, which beat Saint Louis, 58-50.

WNIT officials announced earlier Monday that a lImited public sale of tickets will go on sale Tuesday, available for purchase on the WNIT website http://www.womensnit.com 

By beating the Wildcats, it’s the first time the regular season Colonial Athletic Association champion Blue Hens have triumphed over two opponents each from the Big East and Atlantic Coast Conference in the same season.

 

“Overall, phenomenal team effort. To come in without our starting point guard, Paris McBride, who's been our leader all year, and for our freshman Tyi ‘Showtime’ Skinner to step up and play how she did and to lead us is phenomenal,” said UD head coach Natasha Adair, the CAA Coach of the Year. 

 

“I have so many emotions right now, but this is who we are. We play together, we compete together, we fight together.” 

 

The WNIT championship game is slated for Sunday, March 28, at 1 PM CT/Noon ET. All WNIT games will be streamed on FloHoops.

 

Delaware (24-4) was led by junior guard Jasmine Dickey, the CAA Player of the Year, and freshman guard Tyi Skinner with 22 points each.  

The 22 points were a career-high for Skinner, who played all 40 minutes.

 

Redshirt junior forward Ty Battle notched her 19^th double-double, the most in the nation, with 17 points and a game-high 14 rebounds. She was a perfect 5-for-5 from the charity stripe.

 

“We played Delaware basketball from the tip to the final buzzer, and it was a group effort,” Adair said.

 

Overall, Delaware shot 38.8 percent from the field (26-67), including a 50.0 percent in the fourth quarter. The Blue Hens went 22-of-28 from the line.

 UD out-rebounded the Wildcats, 38-37. Delaware forced 14 VU turnovers while committing eight. 

 

For the Wildcats (17-7), five players netted double-digit scoring. Senior forward Brianna Herlihy and sophomore forward Madison Siegrist led with 15 point apiece. 

 

Senior guard Sarah Mortensen and freshman guard Bella Runyan added 12 points each, and freshman forward Lior Garzon came off the bench for 10 points.

 

Delaware took control of the first quarter, jumping out to a five-point lead, 14-9, on a layup by Dickey.

 The Wildcats patiently worked their way back, tying the game at 16-16. UD held a one-point edge, 18-17, after the first stanza.

 

In the second quarter, Villanova led by as many as seven points, 29-22.  The Blue Hens regained control following an 8-0 run, 30-29.  

 

Just one point separated the squads at halftime as Villanova led, 31-30.

 

In the third quarter, the Wildcats went up by five points several times. 

UD utilized a 7-0 run to retake the lead, 47-45, and held a two-point edge after three, 52-50.

  

Villanova tied the game at 55-55 early in the fourth quarter.

 Delaware went on a 10-3 run to go ahead by seven, 65-58, as Siegrist fouled out of the game with 3:30 remaining. 

 

UD went up by 10 points, 72-62, before pulling out the seven-point victory.

Ironically, Delaware gained a measure of revenge, breaking an 11-game losing streak to Villanova first-year coach Denise Dillon, previously at Drexel.

The Blue Hens broke the same streak against Drexel with a sweep during the season, but the Dragons nine days ago topped Delaware in the CAA title game and advanced to their second NCAA appearance where they fell to Georgia earlier Monday in a first-round game in San Antonio, Texas.

Dickey was named MVP of the region and was joined on the all-tournament team by Skinner, Herlihy, Siegrist, Sam Breen of UMass, which won the consolation title over Ohio 95-71, and Clemson’s Delicia Washington. Breen had 27 points and nine rebounds in her final game.

 

“Postseason is a grind, every possession is gold,” Adair said.

 “And I am just so proud of our group and how they represent not only what we do, they represent Delaware basketball, and just our whole university and our community.”

Other WNIT Regional Results

Fort Worth

Rice (21-4) out of Conference - USA finally solved the season-long run of Western Athletic Conference champion Cal Baptist jumping to a 9-0 start on the Lancers and never trailing to take the Fort Worth Region title in Texas 79-55.

The Owls (21-4), who will meet Delaware in Memphis, got 20 points and five assists from Lauren Schwartz while Nancy Mulkey had 16 points, eight rebounds and five blocked shots.

Caitlyn Harper had 14 points for the Lancers (26-1) who were allowed within the WAC to compete for the conference title but being in the third of a four-year transition to Division l were ineligible for the NCAA tourney. utah Valley was sent and fell to overall No. 1 seed Stanford Sunday night.

The consolation championship in Fort Worth went to Houston (17-8) which edged Arizona State 50-48 as the Cougars held the Sun Devils ( 12-12) to two points in the final 6:52 of the fourth quarter.

Rockford

Northern Iowa (17-12) gained the title in Illinois, using nine shots from deep and holding Saint Louis (14-5), the third place team in the Atlantic 10, to 33 points in the second half. 

Kam Finley had 14 points for the winners, while Bre Gunnels had 10 points, 11 rebounds, and a career-high five blocked shots.

The Billikens’ Brooke Flowers had 16 points and 17 rebounds, while Ciaja Harbison scored 18 points.

The Rockford consolation title went to Drake beating Bowling Green, 78-68 as the Bulldogs (18-12) got 16 points and eight rebounds from Maggie Blair behind Grace Berg with 17 points and 12 rebounds. The team had nine blocked shots. 

Madison Parker had 14 points for Bowling Green (21-8).

Memphis

Ole Miss (14-11) took an 18-point lead and then had to withstand a Colorado rally before winning 65-56 to return to Memphis for the weekend finals. Donetta Johnson had 15 points for the Rebels while Maryland transfer Shakira Austin had 12 points and 10 rebounds, and Madison Scott had 11 points and 12 rebounds. 

Frida Formann had 19 points for Colorado (12-11).

The Memphis consolation crown went to UT Martin (22-6) edging Illinois State 64-59 as Maddie Waldrop scored 24 points and grabbed eight rebounds and Chelsey Perry scored 18.

DeAnna Wilson had 12 points while Juliunn Redmond and  Mary Crompton each scored 11 for Illinois State (16-9).