The Guru Report: Scoring Woes Doom Villanova and Penn While South Carolina and UConn Keep Pace At Top of the Poll

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

It was bleak Friday for Penn and Villanova involving the only two Guru D-I locals who played heading into the weekend and their next two coming up Sunday are anything but givens.

Neither were able to put a plentiful of points on the board, Penn, picked second in the Ivy League, losing on the road to Patriot contender Bucknell 62-46 in a game that totally got away down the stretch.

Villanova suffered a similar fate beginning Big East weekend competition away from home at Providence, where the Wildcats fell 66-47.

Penn had an hour head start on the night, tipping at 6 p.m. at the Bisons’ Sojka Pavilion in Lewisburg, Pa.

Most of the way it was anybody’s game with 12 lead changes and four ties until Bucknell (6-2) ran away at the finish to drop the Quakers’ season record to 4-4 and threatening to dip under .500 with a third straight loss Sunday when powerful Duke visits The Palestra at 1 p.m. on ESPN+

It was Bucknell’s fifth straight win, in this one led by Taylor O’Brien, who scored 19 points and grabbed 10 rebounds. Carly Krsul tied a personal best with 16 points and four blocked shots, while Cecelia Collins scored 14 points.

Kayla Padillia, among the seniors and junior rotating with four-game suspensions each over eight games for violating university policy, sat this one out as she did the Villanova and La Salle Big Five losses.

Freshman Sima Visockaite saw action and had her best outing shooting 7-for-11 and scoring 14 points and grabbing 10 rebounds for her first career double double.

Nikola Kovacikova, a senior who did play, and the only one from both teams the entire 40 minutes, had seven points, five rebounds, three assists, and a steal.

Michaela Stanfield, a sophomore, had a career high 10 points.

Stanfield and Visockaite, off the bench accounting for the all the points, produced the entire 24-point total on scoring by the subs.

The Quakers began to unravel in the third period, trailing by 10 at the halfway point and while they rallied within seven, a Bucknell 15-7 final period took care of the outcome.

Meanwhile, over in Villanova nation while the football team at home came out of the bye and took the second round over Holy Cross 21-16 of its NCAA playoff opener, the Wildcats women on the road found themselves with another of those surprise setbacks host Providence has delivered over the years.

In this one at Alumni Hall in Rhode Island,  the loss dropped Nova back below .500 at 3-4 plus 0-1 in the conference while the Friars improved to 4-4 besides the 1-0 league launch.

Providence had lost five straight to Villanova, dating to the 2018-19 season.

The Wildcats got off to a promising start, going ahead 13-8 after the first quarter of play.

However, star ‘Nova junior Maddy Siegrist continued to be sidelined with a hand injury.

Three minutes into the second quarter Providence went up a point on Megan Huerter’s shot from beyond the arc. But after that, neither team could cause separation with gaps in the offense, and the half ended with the home team up by a field goal, 24-22.

Brianna Herlihy was the lone Wildcat with any efficiency on offense for the night, scoring 20 points, and coach Denise Dillon’s squad entered the final ten minutes trailing 41-32.

There was still a chance to rescue this one as they had done against Lehigh on Wednesday night moving to within striking distance trailing 43-40.

But Providence then launched a 7-0 run stopped by a pair of foul shots by Bella Runyan.

However, the Friars got hot again with a 13-3 run to finish off for the win.

Providence’s. Alyssa Geary had a double double of 18 points and 13 rebounds, and the team outrebounded the visitors 43-29, while shooting 22-for-46 for 48 percent from the floor.

The series reached 80 games, the longest of any in the history of the Villanova program.

On Sunday, Villanova will be at Creighton in Omaha, Nebraska for a 2 p.m. tip on the Big East Digital on Flohoops network.

Locals Looking Ahead: Coming up the rest of the weekend for the local group not yet mentioned, on Saturday, Drexel visits America East contender Maine at 12 p.m. on ESPN3, La Salle visits St. Francis (Pa.) at 4 p.m. on NEC Front Row, Rider, looking for a second straight win, visits Army at West Point, N.Y., at 1 p.m., on ESPN+ and Saint Joseph’s tried to snap a 6-game losing streak hosting Ivy playoff contender Yale on Hawk Hill at Hagan Arena at 2 p.m. on ESPN+.

On Sunday, besides the two games already mentioned, Ivy favorite Princeton visits Atlantic 10 contender Fordham at 1 p.m. on ESPN+, Rutgers launches Big Ten play with a five-game overall losing streak, hosting No. 8 Maryland at 2 p.m. on the Big Ten Network, Temple is in Pittsburgh looking for a third straight win visiting former Atlantic 10 days rival Duquesne at 1 p.m., while on Monday, Penn State launches its Big Ten season visiting No. 6 Indiana, a number likely to drop Monday morning, at 6 p.m. on the Big Ten Network.

Nationally Noting: On Friday, Dawn Staley’s top-ranked South Carolina squad took its turn as part of the Southeastern Conference/Big 12 challenge and stayed unbeaten with a 65-44 win at home over Kansas State to go 9-0 helped by Laeticia Amihere filling in for the injured Destanni Henderson by scoring 11 points, dealing seven assists, grabbing seven rebounds and blocking five shots.

“I thought LA played great,” said Staley. “She had the pulse of the game.

Aliyah Boston had 21 points, 17 rebounds, and four blocked shots, going against the Wildcats’ Ayoka Lee.

Kansas State (7-2) is now 0-14 playing teams ranked No. 1, though a clump of those are probably derived from Big 12 competition with Baylor.

Of Amihere, Wildcats coach Jeff Mitte said, “She really pressed the issue early tonight.” 

Boston in her past six games has averaged 20 points and 10 rebounds, including a career-best 29 points and 13-of-13 from the field.

Lee, who came into the game averaging 24 points and 13 rebounds, got into early foul trouble and finished with 14 points and six rebounds.

The Gamecocks’ schedule ramps up again after previously winning The Battle 4 Atlantis in the Bahamas, facing a Maryland visit, trip to Duke, and a visit from Stanford.

South Carolina tied a record for team blocks against Kansas State with 16.

Kamillia Cardoso, the Syracuse transfer to the Gamecocks, had 11 points and 10 rebounds.

Meanwhile, over in the Big East, DePaul routed Butler 101-64 in the Blue Demons’ conference opener at home in Wintrust Arena in Chicago. 

Deja Church has a game-high 19 points for the Blue Demons (6-2), while Lexi Held had 16 points, and transfer Kierra Collier had 14 points.

Aneesah Morrow had 13 points and six rebounds and four steals, while Sonya Morris scored 10 against Butler (0-7).

Meanwhile, Paige Bueckers had 23 points, nine rebounds, seven assists, and five steals, and No. 2 (tied) UConn in first game since loss to South Carolina won 74-49 at Seton Hall (3-3) in a Big East opener at renovated Walsh Gym in South Orange, N.J.

The win put Hall of Fame coach Geno Auriemma at 1,123 in career numbers, moving him back within seven of Stanford’s Tara VanDerveer (1,130), whose defending NCAA champions are on a long break for finals.

UConn (4-1) also got 17 points from Christyn Williams, 12 from Aaliyah Edwards, and and 10 from Olivia Nelson-Ododa.

The Pirates’ Lauren Park-Lane scored 20, Mya Jackson scored 14, and Sidney Cooks scored 13.

Freshman Azzi Fudd is sidelined for at least two weeks with a right-foot injury for the Huskies.

Prior to the game, Seton Hall announced the suspension of second-leading scorer Andra Espinoza-Hunter for one game for violating team rules.

She had previously played at Mississippi State and Connecticut.

On Sunday, Connecticut hosts No. 24 Notre Dame on campus at the Storrs’ Gampel Pavilion.

Two other scores of note on a light Friday schedule in which outcomes will be part of profiles for at-large aspirants, Alabama (7-2) of the Southeastern Conference took a 77-67 at home in Coleman Coliseum victory over Houston (3-5) of the American Athletic Conference.

Middle Tennessee at home beat Mercer 59-49.

On Saturday, in terms of national tracking, Mississippi State is at Oklahoma at 3 p.m. while Missouri is at Baylor at 8 as part of the SEC/Big 12 Challenge.

On Sunday, the challenge continues with Texas at Texas A&M at 4 p.m., while Georgia outside the challenge hosts Georgia Tech at noon.

Other challenge games have Oklahoma State at Auburn, Vanderbilt at Kansas, and Florida at TCU.

And that’s the report.