Guru’s WBB March Madness — III: Villanova Beats Florida and Advances Against a Foe of Familiarity in WNIT Charlotte Region Final

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

Villanova arrived at the Charlotte Region of the WNIT with no intent to produce a rallying cry to show the NCAA women’s basketball tournament committee what a mistake it made not picking the Wildcats as one of the at-large choices for the revamped setup that gets under way Sunday at noon in San Antonio, Texas.

For first-year coach Denise Dillon’s group, it has been more of an embrace of each other and love of the game to win one and play one more.

So far, it’s working well as her squad followed up Friday’s opening wipeout of UMass by eliminating Florida 77-57 to advance to Monday’s 7 p.m. final in North Carolina against a team located within an hour of the campus in Delaware, the regular-season champion of the Colonial Athletic Association.

What the pairing for the Philadelphia region does is guarantee an area school will be making its way to Memphis next weekend for the WNIT semifinals and final.

Dillon, now back at her alma mater, has been there and done that when it comes to playing the Blue Hens and succeeding in the WNIT.

In 2013, following a tough loss in the CAA title game to the Elena Delle Donne-led Delaware squad, Dillon, who went against the Blue Hens regularly, got Drexel back into emotional shape and guided the Dragons against Power 5 opponents all the way to the WNIT championship.

“So far, you look and see Delaware playing Clemson and us playing Florida and it does feel almost the same and you wonder what kind of teams we’re going to see next,” Dillon said in a phone chat afterwards.

On Saturday night, besides the in-person scouting, there’s no mystery about the next opponent for Villanova (17-6) in Bojangles Coliseum.

As recently as last season, Dillon took Drexel against Delaware minimally twice annually and when she left her job of 17 mostly quality runs 12 months ago, her win streak over the Blue Hens had reached 11.

That got snapped this season on a two-game sweep by Natasha Adair’s outfit but a week ago the Dragons delivered a payback under Dillon’s successor and longtime associate head coach in Amy Mallon for the CAA tournament title and trip to the NCAA mass gathering where Drexel will open play Monday afternoon against Georgia.

Ironically, the radio and at times TV crew at Delaware of Matt Janus and Christine Koren Matta often make the brief trip I-95 and over the Blue Route to Finneran Pavilion where they serve as the Villanova duo on Big East TV packages.

“We know this much,” Koren Matta quipped in a text after Monday’s opponents were determined. “We’re not going to be spending a lot of time on prep work in the next 24 hours for our Delaware broadcast.”

Certainly, it doesn’t take much to determine the Villanova star in sophomore Maddie Siegrist, a finalist for the Katrina McClain national power forward award co-sponsored by the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass., and the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA).

Siegrist followed her 30-point game in the win over UMass by pouring 26 points and grabbing 11 rebounds against the Gators (12-14), shooting 9-for-20 against the field.

“Maddy is playing her best basketball right now,” Dillon said. “Not so much, the numbers, they continue to be there, but in the way she’s playing defense.

“But in this one, (freshman) Bella Runyon deserves a shoutout for the way she played.”

The daughter of former Eagles star Jon Runyon came off the bench to score 16 points on 4-of-5 from the field, including 2-of-3 from deep, and she also threw down 6-of-7 from the line.

Brianna Herlihy was also on target, connecting on 7-of-12 to account for all but one of her 15 points, while Sarah Mortensen was 4-of-8 with a made three for nine points, and freshman Lior Garzon from Israel off the bench scored eight. Herlihy and Siegrist each dealt five assists.

The lead changed just once and it reached as many as 20 points in the fourth quarter.

Florida, held to one point above the Gators’ season low, got 13 points from Kristina Moore, 12 from Danielle Rainey, and 10 from Kiara Smith.

Even with Siegrist doing her thing, this was a unified team win for Villanova, which created distance from Florida on a 21-11 second quarter. 

The Wildcats shot 44.6 percent from the field while limiting Florida to 17-of-50 for 34 percent and but one from deep. Ball control was outstanding with a season-low four while gaining a 20-2 advantage in points off turnovers.

Prior to the Villanova-Delaware game, the consolation championship will feature Ohio, which eliminated Fordham 81-65, against UMass, which ousted hometown Charlotte 81-75.

The Bobcats (15-9) got 23 points from Cece Hooks against the Rams (12-6) on the Atlantic 10.

Ohio will meet another A-10 squad in UMass (15-8), which eliminated hometown Charlotte (10-12) as as Sam Breen had 25 points and nine rebounds. 

In the other three regions on the winners’ sides, in the Fort Worth Region in Texas, Rice out of Conference-USA beat Fresno State 87-73 as the Owls (20-4) got 28 points and eight rebounds from Nancy Mulkey and Lauren Schwartz scored 20. Jasmine Smith had 15 points and 10 assists, while Haylee Swayze sealed the outcome with a three for an 81-73 lead with 1:12 left in regulation.

Hanna Cavinder scored 22 for Fresno State (17-11) and her twin sister Haley scored 21.

The nation’s sole unbeaten team will match up with Rice in the region championship in Cal Baptist, which eliminated San Francisco 90-82 as Britney Thomas scored 26 for the Lancers (26-0). The Western Athletic Conference champions are ineligible for the NCAA tournament, still being in transition to full Division I membership. 

Overcoming 22 turnovers as a team, CB also got 24 points and eight rebounds from Caitlyn Harper while Taylor Wu scored 12. They were also deadly from deep, connecting with 10 treys and also shooting 18-of-23 on free throw attempts.

Freshman Ioanna Krimili scored 30 for the Dons (16-11), who also got 22 from Lucie Hoskova, and 10 from Amalie Langer.

In the consolation championship of the region, Arizona State  earned a spot beating Missouri 50-39 as Jaddan Simmons had 18 points and seven rebounds for the Sun Devils (12-11).

They will face Houston (16-8), which advanced off a no-show by New Mexico (15-5), which after narrowly losing Friday to Cal Baptist withdrew due to injuries.

In the Memphis Region in Tennessee, also the host site for the national finals next weekend, Colorado (12-10) advanced eliminating Nebraska 75-71 shooting 49 percent from the field as Frida Formann scored 18 points and Charlotte Whittaker scored 15.

Sam Haiby had 20 for the Cornhuskers (13-13).

The Buffaloes will face Ole Miss, a 72-61 winner over Tulane using a 20-11 fourth quarter against the Green Wave (18-9) to enable the Rebels (13-11) to advance as former Maryland star Shakira Austin had 24 points and 13 rebounds.

The consolation game in Memphis will feature UT Martin (21-6), which got 37 points from Chelsea Perry in downing Louisiana 58-48, against Illinois State, a 68-62 winner over Samford as Juilunn Redmon scored 17 points for the Redbirds (16-8).

In the Rockford Region in Illinois, Northern Iowa edged Creighton 64-63 as Emerson Green hit a layup with four seconds left in regulation for the Panthers (16-12) to advance against Saint Louis, a 61-44 winner over Milwaukee (20-8).

Creighton (10-12) had gone ahead 63-62 on Tatum Remboa’s shot with 10 seconds left in regulation before Green’s game-winner. UNI got 20 points from Megan Maahs.

The Billikens (14-4) of the Atlantic 10 got a career-high 24 points from Rachel Kent, including six from deep.

Two upsets marked who advanced to the consolation championship in the Rockford Region as Bowling Green edged Dayton 77-76, extending the Flyers losing streak to three at the end of the season after going into the A-10 tourney as the No. 1 seed. 

Dayton (14-5) opened in this one on a 16-0 run. 

Fighting back near the end after squandering the early lead Araion Bradshaw scored to move within a point at 75-74 with 12 seconds left.

Bowling Green (21-7) then got a pair of free throws from Olivia Trice to get to 77 and she finished with 17 points and Nyla Hampton scored 16,.

Drake the came along and advance, beating DePaul 100-91 saddling the Blue Demons with a season-ending three-point losing streak that started with an upset loss to Villanova in overtime in the Big East quarterfinals.

The Bulldogs (17-12) used marksmanship from long range in connecting with 17 treys on DePaul (14-10).

Kierra Collier scored 21 for Drake, while Sonya Morris had 30 for DePaul, Deja Church had 23, and Lexi Held scored 18.

And that’s all your WNIT news, but not all your report news just yet.