The Guru Local Report: Garzon Powers Villanova to 55-39 Win at Saint Joseph’s in Big Five Opener While Temple, Drexel and La Salle Gain Victories

By Mel Greenberg @womhoosguru

PHILADELPHIA —  Since some key national games are still being played Saturday night as of this writing, to get things done the Guru gives you a split local/national report.

The Big Five competition returned to its former self, with games against each other not counting in the local standings a year ago due to Penn’s shutdown for COVID-19 precautions ordered by the Ivy presidents.

Right off the bat the opener featured one of the great rivalries with Villanova shaking off the right hand-injury benching star Maddy Siegrist and powering its way to a 55-39 victory over Saint Joseph’s at the Hawks’ Hagan Arena.

It was the sixth straight win in the series by the Wildcats, who got their first season triumph, having lost the home opener to Ivy favorite Princeton and  moving on to lopsided loss at then-No. 4 Maryland, which has since moved up a spot.

Though Siegrist, a double double machine was out of the lineup, sophomore import Lior Garzon, an Israeli, admirably supplied the juice with a career day,  busting her previous 18-point milestone with 26, shooting 8-for-15 from the field and 9-for-10 from the line.

The connected field goals were a high for Garzon, as were her made foul shots. Her three assists also tied a mark.

She even had the thrill of her mother in the arena watching her perform, being unable to come overseas a year ago because of COVID-19 caused restrictions.

Garzon, drawing media attention around her in the postgame interviews, deferred her performance to the Wildcats as a whole, saying, “It was a team win today. “We all stepped up to take Maddy’s spot.”

Villanova coach Denise Dillon, who played many of these encounters at her alma mater and coached against the Hawks in Philly 6 games in her long run at Drexel before returning to the Main Line last season to succeed the retired Harry Perretta had her squad apply the defense brakes, limiting the Hawks (1-3) to 25 percent shooting from the field and allowing just one connected shot from the floor in the final period.

Brianna Herlihy matched her high on the boards, grabbing 12 rebounds.

Dillon credited Bella Runyan for keying the defense with three of Villanova’s 11 steals.

Saint Joseph’s freshman Mackenzie Smith had eight points, while newcomer Tayla Bruger, whose sister plays for Drexel, grabbed eight rebounds.

“From the offensive standpoint, we have to have our head up and know what’s going on around us, see the open guy, and get some easy baskets,” veteran Hawks coach Cindy Griffin said.

Dillon noted the impact of foreign players such as Garzon who have been impacts on the Villanova roster.

“She is an incredibly smart basketball player,” Dillon said, later noting the gritty decision made to come to the states. “She can play any position because she understands what we’re looking to do and why we’re doing it.

“We’ve had a tough start but we put that schedule together for a reason.”

Nova comes right back on Monday, visiting Penn at The Palestra in another City Series game, one that in the past has come near the end of the Big Five round robin. 

But the Quakers this season begin a revamped format in the Ivy race where not every weekend is going to be Friday-Saturday affair in the back end of the schedule, except the rivalry games with Princeton 

up the road.

Talking about Garzon making the decision to forego the national team and come to Nova and bond with the other Wildcats, Dillon said, “She had a lot of outs, but I always feel if an individual makes a decision they’re going to going to really grow,” Dillon said. “I think you saw last year she had a really nice one. She came close to being on the all (Big East) rookie team.

“I’ve coach a lot of international players and they come to the states to play basketball. They’re excellent in the classroom, they’re here for school and basketball.”

Saint Joseph’s this weekend will be down in the Houston suburb of Katy, playing three predetermined opponent rounds in the Van Chancellor Tournament, named for the Hall of Famer who coach Ole Miss., the WNBA four-time champion Houston Comets, and the 2004 USA Gold Medal Olympic champions.

The Hawks on Friday will meet C-USA favorite and legendary program Old Dominion at noon in Texas, followed on Saturday against Stetson of the ASun conference at noon, and wrapping up Sunday, playing Ball State at 2:30 p.m.

Temple Bounces Back Beating Bucknell: After letting one get away during the week, the Owls recovered Saturday afternoon and topped Patriot League power Bucknell 59-46 at home in McGonigle Hall using their best shooting performance to date, firing seven three-balls from beyond the arc.

Tiarra East had a career-high 16 points in her freshman season. Grad student Mia Davis combined with Kyra Wood to grab 19 of 41 Temple rebounds.

The lack of defense had been the focus of veteran Temple coach Tonya Cardoza following the loss to St. John’s but the Owls got their act together in this one.

Davis had 14 points, and Jasha Clinton scored nine, as did Jiselle Thomas.

Temple outrebounded the Bison (1-2) 41-30.

Bucknell’sTaylor O’Brien had 13 points and nine rebounds and Carly Krsul scored 12.

On Tuesday night, Ivy favorite Princeton visits McGonigle at 7.

Drexel Rallies at Md.-Eastern Shore as Nihill Gets 1,000th Point: The Dragons keep finding ways to avert disaster down the stretch, the latest on the road Saturday in Princess Anne, Md., grabbing a gritty 65-60 win over the host Hawks.

It was the third straight Drexel (3-1) win after the narrow opening night loss at home to Marist in the Daskalakis Athletic Center. A 19-12 differential in the final quarter produced the victory over UMES (2-2) as Tessa Brugler had another key performance, scoring 16 points, helped by 8-for-10 from the line, while grabbing 11 rebounds.

Grad senior Hannah Nihill scored 15, including her 1,000th, becoming the 26th member of the Drexel club, while Keishana Washington scored 13, and Mariah Leonard had 10 points and 14 rebounds.

The home team’s Brooklyn Bailey scored 12, and Mahogany Lester scored 10, while Angelique Taylor was also in double figures with 12 points.

“I think it was one of those games where you knew it would be a tough place to play and for us to come away with a road win like this, I think it shows that, with where we were during the game,” said second year coach Amy Mallon.

“We kept our head on straight. That’s whatI expect from this group to do with our leadership, but it was tough. We finished the game like an experienced team should, so I’m very proud of the effort.”

Drexel’s holiday travel has the Dragons heading to the University of San Diego’s Dana on Mission Bay Holiday Tournament, on Friday playing Nebraska at 7 p.m., and on Saturday playing the winner of the Fresno State/San Diego contest or the loser if Drexel doesn’t prevail against the Huskers.

 La Salle Dominates Niagara: The Explorers reached a season-high in points and shooting at 44.6 percent in grabbing a home 83-71 win over Niagara of the MAAC at the Tom Gola Arena at Trumark Center.

This time the Explorers (2-2) did not let a big lead get away, being up 17 in the third quarter.

The visitors (2-3) got 24 points from Angel Parker, but held the rest of the Purple Eagles in check by comparison.

On their side of the statistics, coach Mountain MacGillivray’s group got 15 each from Kayla Spruill and Claire Jacobs, while Jordan Lewis off the bench scored 16.

The Explorers overcame committing 27 turnovers.

La Salle is now 9-0 on Niagara continuing its perfect record in the series.

Next up is a visit from Lafayette of the Patriot League Tuesday at 6 p.m. One of the Leopards assistants is former Explorers coach Tom Lochner, who also was on the Delaware staff when ElenaDelle Donne was doing her thing for the Blue Hens.

This weekend, t he Explorers will also be visiting SEC power Kentucky.

Rider Falls to St. Francis of Brooklyn:  The visiting Terriers took out their frustration from the home pounding by Penn last week to upset Rider 74-62 at the Broncs’ Alumni Gymnasium in Lawrenceville, N.J., dropping the home team to 0-3. 

It was St. Francis’ first win following three straight losses.

In this one the opposition were able to find answers every time the Broncs made a move.

“I’m disappointed in the loss,” said veteran Rider coach Lynn Milligan. “The bottom line is I didn’t have my team ready and I’m going to work to correct that. 

“Falling behind has been a pattern, but we’re going to fix it.”

Two players tried to explain the problems. “We get within ourselves, rather than reaching out to our teammates for help,” said sophomore guard Makayla Firebaugh. “We need to learn to look to others for help and keep our heads up.”

Junior forward Victoria Toomey added, “We have to come out with energy. Just coming out of the locker room and being ready to play as soon as the ball goes us.”

Lenaejha Evans scored 13 points off Rider’s bench, while grabbing a career-high eight rebounds. Raphaela Toussaint, who was in foul trouble early, managed to finish with 10 points. She also grabbed six rebounds.

This weekend the Broncs head to Lehigh upstate in Bethlehem to play in the annual Christmas City Tournament, facing the host Mountain Hawks while Columbia and Missouri beat in the other game.

The following day the winners will meet for the championship while the losers will play for third.

Princeton Win Streak Snapped by Rhode Island: The Tigers’ nation-leading 25-game win streak that was revived after the Ivy favorites returned to active duty following the league shutdown last season is no more due to the work of the rising Atlantic 10 power Rhode Island, which hosted Princeton in Kingston.

The 61-53 loss wasted a career performance from Abby Meyers, who scored 22 points, one more than her previous milestone set recently in the season-opening win at Villanova.

Ellie Mitchell also had a career best grabbing 15 rebounds, one more than a Valentines Day Ivy win at Yale during the 2020 end of the season.

Things looked to be going the usual Princeton way until the home team exploded on an 11-0 run.

The Rams (5-0) launched another strike, 8-0, in the third.

But coach Carla Berube still had the Tigers (3-1) in contention, ahead 35-34 with the 10-minute fourth quarter left to play.

However, that was the last hurrah with the Tammi Reiss-coached URI bunch taking over and closing out the triumph.

URI’s Emmanuelle Tahane scored 16 points and grabbed 19 rebounds, while Marie-Paule Foppossi scored 13, Chanelle Williams scored 11, and substitute Dolly Cairns scored 15.

The Rams on Tuesday will be hosting Ivy contender Harvard, which saw an 18-point lead at Rutgers at the start of the fourth quarter dissolve into an overtime narrow loss while the same night at seven Princeton returns to the city visiting Temple at 7 in McGonigle Hall.

The Ivy favorites will be back in January to meet Penn, picked second, at The Palestra, and the two Ivy powers at the end of the regular season will meet at Princeton’s Jadwin Gym.

Looking Ahead:  On Sunday, Delaware off its lopsided win at Delaware State Friday night will be host Charlotte at the Blue Hens’ Bob Carpenter Center in Newark at 1 p.m.

Penn State visits Clemson at 2 p.m. on the ACC network in Columbia, while the Delaware game is on Flohoops. Lehigh, which won lopsided Friday, is back in Stabler Arena hosting Merrimack. 

As mentioned, Penn hosts Villanova in a Big Five game Monday night, the first formal City Series game since the 2020 season due to the Ivy pause.

And that’s the local report.