The Guru Report: Villanova Upsets No. 23 Oregon State In First Meeting While No. 1 South Carolina and No. 7 Louisville Turn Back No. 8 Maryland and No. 14 Kentucky in Jimmy V Games

Note: Parts of the overall report are drawn on school email and website, plus wire service reports.

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

VILLANOVA, Pa. - The first time was the charm for the Villanova Wildcats Sunday afternoon with junior Maddy Siegrist completing a smashing second straight game in her return this week from a hand injury as the home team upset No. No. 23 Oregon State 56-52 in Finneran Pavilion.

The two programs had never met. 

Three other locals played with Penn State and Rutgers stepping outside the Big Ten in their respective home arenas to notch victories and in the case of Rutgers finally stopping a slide that had reached to six games. 

A sweep on the day was prevented just to the north where Rider got sunk at home by Navy 73-59 in a game by the host Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference rep in its Alumni Gymnasium in Lawrenceville, N.J. against the visitors from the Patriot League.

Nationally, on a day with plenty of attractions, the highlight was two powerhouse games comprising an ESPN Jimmy V doubleheader in separate locals featuring No. 1 South Carolina staying unbeaten by turning aside No. 8 Maryland 66-59 at home in Colonial Life Arena in Columbia while just before in what was also a key in-state collision, No. 7 Louisville at home at the KFC Yum! Center outlasted No. 14 Kentucky 64-58.

Home is where the heart is so we start in the Philly Burbs where Villanova had great ball control and after the scoring via field goals had ceased for Denise Dillion’s squad with 5:26 left in regulation when the Wildcats (5-5) seemed poised to break the game open, they refused to be overcome to gain their first victory over a PAC-12 school since deep in the 1980s.

“We didn’t get ahead of ourselves, and we didn’t get behind ourselves,” Dillon said. “They stayed really locked into the possession we were apart of at that time.

“The touches were crucial. One of those possessions Brooke (Mullin) getting a touch on a pass. Little things like that add up. They mean a lot.

And so do the big things, so after Maddy Siegrist had missed six games with a hand injury and then returned on Wednesday with a 36-point performance in a win at James Madison, the native of Poughkeepsie (N.Y.) poured in 28 points in this one and grabbed nine rebounds.

“It’s a really big one for this group,” Dillon said. “They felt good about the matchup. When they have that sense and make a decision to stick with the game plan, and doing what’s necessary to put yourself in position to pull off a win.

Retired longtime Wildcats coach Harry Perretta was at the game and managed to maintain his seat when Ellie Mack, a redshirt senior transfer from Bucknell and high school alum from Conestoga High just up the road nailed a three to bring the Beavers (5-2) within a point 53-52 in the final minute.

But at the 49-second mark, Siegrist rejected a shot by Kennedy Brown going for the lead and Oregon State committed a turnover chasing the possession.

Brianna Herlihy got fouled with 22.5 left and canned both free throws for a three-point advantage and setting up potentially at worst overtime if the Beavers hit from deep.

But Mullin hampered a pass.

Mack then missed a shot going for broke to tie the game and Mullin got the rebound.

A contingent of Conestoga-associated athletes were at the game as was Drexel transfer from Bucknell Tessa Brugler and her sister Talya, a freshman at Saint Joseph’s.

Shots were hard to come by, Siegrist notwithstanding, but Dillon and her staff were pleased with the work done on the Oregon State guards, limited to 3-for-24 from the field.

“Their posts are great,” Siegrist said of the opposition. “They’re just big girls. We knew we were going to get outmatched, so we wanted to try and force them off the blocks and make them take tougher shots.”

Villanova shutout the Beavers 17-0 on points off turnovers, forcing 15 miscues, while the Wildcats committed just three.

“You don’t realize that when you’re playing,” Siegrist said, pleasantly surprised on the low number on the part of Villanova. “Against a good team like this you have to capitalize your possessions because we didn’t get a ton of offensive rebounds.”

The boxscore reflected that statistic, Villanova being dominated 50-32.

Oregon State’s Jelena Mitrovic had career highs of 14 points and 13 rebounds, while Taya Corosdale had 10 points and 11 boards. Mack, in her hometown appearance, had 11 points, six of which came from a pair of three-balls.

Besides Siegrist, Villanova’s Herlihy had 10 points and a career-high 14 rebounds.

“Against a big team like Oregon State I knew we would be in trouble, but I felt we put forth effort to give ourselves some extra possessions.”

Taylor Jones, the opposition’s 6-foot-4 sophomore did not play.

Alluding to that situation, Siegrist’s recent absence, and several notable ones elsewhere such as the injuries on UConn, including sophomore Paige Bueckers, Dillon said, “I tell the team when you go out there, the only thing you need to focus is your team is the team for this season that is on the floor for that game. And you need to do your best with what you have.”

Villanova is off until Dec. 21 when the Wildcats travel to La Salle at 1 p.m. for the next Big Five game, their last for the season and owning a 2-1 mark. La Salle will come in at 1-0, the only team left who could go 4-0 and win the City Series outright.

Penn State Knocks Youngstown State From the Unbeaten: And now there are only 10 overall unbeaten Division I teams following the Lady Lions’ 78-58 win over Youngstown State at home in the Bryce Jordan Center in State College to drop the Penguins to 8-1 while moving up to 6-5.

Freshman guard Leilani Kapinus had a career-best 20 points, shooting 9-of-14 from the field while also grabbing seven rebounds, dealing four assists, and rejecting three shots, and grabbing a pair of steals.

Anna Camden had her second career double double with 14 points and 10 rebounds, while Makenna Marisa had 12 points and Shay Hagans had nine points and a career best six steals. Ali Brighm off the bench had eight points and eight rebounds.

As a team, PSU had 10 rejected shots.

Across three quarters the Lady Lions did not allow a field goal, a stretch of 19 minutes, 29 seconds.

Three Penguins each scored nine points — Lindsey Mack, Malia Magestro, and Chelsea Olson.

“We have been talking over the last six games, how our assists numbers have gone down,” said Penn State coach Carolyn Kieger. “I think that has been a key contributor to our struggles on the offensive end the last couple of games, but to see us get back in that positive assist turnover ratio was huge for us.”

Penn State is idle until Saturday when the Lady Lions travel to play Duquesne in Pittsburgh.

Rutgers Ends Six-Game Slide in Win Over Delaware State: Whatever works and in this situation playing and keeping a team winless in the MEAC’s Delaware State (0-8) did the trick to give the Scarlet Knights a 74-36 triumph over the Hornets in the Scarlet Knights’ Jersey Mike’s Arena.

The entire 16-member roster saw action and 13 scored at least a point while 14 grabbed at least one rebound.

Depth was a large part of the ticket with the Rutgers (5-7) bench outscoring the Hornets’ 51-9.

Awa Sidibe had 15 points off 5-5 from the field including 1-1 deep, and 4-for-5 on the foul line. Sakima Walker had 11 points and seven rebounds, while Tyia Singleton, Osh Brown, and Chyna Cornwell each scoring eight points.

Defensively, Rutgers owned the board 40-20, while the team assisted on 24 of 30 shots. The squad set a season low on making just 11 turnovers and in points comparison off the miscues, Rutgers owned that stat, also, 21-2.

Sidible got eight of her points in the opening period and the team launched several runs into the half 

The score was 33-16, and it kept growing from there.

It’s the third time this season the Scarlet Knights’ bench outscored the entire opposition squad.

Rutgers stays out of Big Ten waters on the second outing, hosting Central Connecticut State at 7 on Tuesday on the Big Ten plus streaming network.

Navy Sinks Rider:  A 13-8 advantage after one period didn’t hold up long as Navy outscored the Broncs in each of the next three periods on the way to a 73-59 victory. 

Though the Broncs still held a slim 23-22 edge at the break, the Midshipwomen made it 51-36 the rest of the way.

The Navy bunch snapped a five-game losing streak to improve to 3-7 while Rider is now 2-7.

“I thought Navy dis a great job and we did not,” Rider veteran coach Lynn Milligan said of the way the game evolved in the second half. “We wrapped up the non-conference season obviously not the way we wanted to and we’ve got to, between now and Saturday, become a better basketball team. We’ve got to make sure that we are putting things behind us, learning from the mistakes we made, and being ready to open MAAC play.

“I think we tried to execute the game plan. I just don’t think at certain times we did a really good job of it.

“I thought Navy did a good job in the second half of changing up their defenses. I thought we had too many turnovers in the second half and gave them some easy buckets on their defense. So we have to do a better job.”

Navy is 6-0 in the series. The Midshipmen’s Jennifer Coleman just missed a triple double, scoring 27 points, grabbing 12 rebounds, and dealing nine assists.

Rider’s Lenaejha Evans had 18 points, while Mikayla Firebaugh had 15 points, and Jessika Schiffer scored 11.

Navy’s depth had a lopsided advantage, outscoring the Broncs. 24-4.

Rider gets into MAAC play in the deep end of the pool, opening at home Saturday at 2 p.m. hosting Quinnipiac, the conference favorite.

The National Scene

South Carolina Darts Through Another Obstacle: It was a 1-8 rankings match in part two of the nationally televised Jimmy V doubleheader but had not Maryland suffered some illness and injury on their Thanksgiving weekend trip to the tropics, perhaps the numbers would have been closer.

But to the unbeaten Gamecocks, their goal is to keep winning and beat the talent they are facing, no matter what the other team’s ranking number is, or, in some cases, even has one.

Zia Cooke scored 20 points to propel a 66-59 victory for South Carolina (10-0), it’s fourth over a top 10-ranked opponent with another nationally-ranked opponent in the near future when the Gamecocks meet No. 19 Duke.

Aliyah Boston had 16 points and 16 rebounds, while Brea Beal scored 10 and grabbed 10 rebounds. Laeticia Amihere pulled down eight off the boards.

Maryland’s Angel Reese scored 20 and grabbed 10 rebounds, while Ashley Owusu had 11 points for the Terrapins (9-3).

The visitors seemed headed to turning the momentum their way, trailing 53-47 in the fourth quarter and launching an 8-0 run and two-point lead.

The Terrapins hadn’t beaten a No. 1 ranked team since belonging to the Atlantic Coast Conference and doing so over North Carolina in 2006.

Boston had a season-high seven blocks. Cooke also scored her 1,000th career point as did Boston.

South Carolina had 61 rebounds, fourth most in a single game since Staley took over the program prior to the 2008-09 season.

The Gamecocks play at Duke this week on Dec. 15 on the ACC Network and then on Dec. 21 No. 4 Stanford visits at 7 p.m. on Dec. 21. UConn comes visiting for the regularly scheduled meeting early in 2022.

“Obviously, they respected our post players,” South Carolina coach Dawn Staley said. “They pressed us a lot more to slow us down. We really couldn’t find a good pace.

“We knew the game was going to be won on rebounding and the last three minutes is where we won the game.”

Said Maryland coach Brenda Frese, “A great game between two really, really good teams. 

“Really proud of our team’s fight to come into this building and compete the way we did for 40 minutes. This is why I built this schedule., which was to prepare us for March,” Frese said.

“To be in these battles and this kind of intensity and this kind of energy. Our team has really grown up. A terrific response.  You see Faith (Masonius) and Katie (Benzan) since the Bahamas — the energy for us. Angel just showed why she’s one of the best big guards in the country. She was a really had matchup. She really drew a lot of fouls, made a lot of great plays for us. Disappointed to not get the win, but proud of our fight.

The Terps next visit Coppin State, Dec. 21, in Baltimore.

Louisville Sprints to Finish to Edge Kentucky: No. 7 Louisville in what had been a tight game, outscored No. 14 Kentucky 11-4 in the final 3 minutes, 47 seconds to break away to a 64-58 win at the winning Cardinals KFC Yum! Center in the first part of the two-site ESPN Jimmy V doubleheader.

Three Louisville players scored in double figures led by Chelsea Hall with 15 points.

“It was a great team effort,” Cardinals coach Jeff Walz said. “It was a really good basketball game. Not saying it was pretty, but the effort was good.”

Louisville was one the last five games in the annual in-state rivalry in the Blue Grass State that was connected this year to the annual set of games involving fundraising in the fight against cancer.

Hailey Van Lith and Ahlana Smith, both added 13 points each to the attack. 

Furthermore, Emily Engstler had 10 rebounds.

Louisville used a 10-2 third quarter run after the break to create some separation from the Wildcats.

“We knew that coming out in the second half we wanted to stop them,” Hall said. “We focused on three stops in a row and we did that.”

The winners gained 21 points from 21 Kentucky turnovers.

The Wildcats’ Rhyne Howard, a contender for national player of the year, had nine points and connected on just one attempt from beyond the arc.

“I thought we competed,” Walz said. “I thought we did a great job just trying to grind things out. We continue to get down a stance and try and guard.”

Kentucky wasn’t done, however, and took a one-point lead in the last quarter with three minutes left in regulation when Smith started the winning finish, hitting a jump shot in the paint.

“(Walz) told us from the jump it would come down to the wire … I felt like we did that,” she said. “We kept our composure.”

Prior to Louisville’ game next Sunday against Connecticut at the Mohegan Sun in Connecticut, the Cardinals will host Eastern Kentucky Thursday.

TCU Upsets Texas A&M:  Besides the Villanova upset of No. 23 Oregon State, TCU in Fort Worth, Texas, upset No. 18 Texas A&M 87-75 as Lauren Heard scored 33 points and Aja Holmes topped her personal best by two points, scoring 22 points. Heard’s total included a program second-best with 18 foul shots made, including 13 in the fourth quarter.

The Horned Frogs (4-4) launched a 10-0 run at the game’s outset and never trailed.

TCU had lost eight straight to the Aggies (9-2).

Kayla Wells had 20 points for the Aggies, while Qadashah Hoppie had 17 points as a substitute, Jordan Nixon scored 13 and dealt seven helpers, and Sydney Robie scored 10.

“I don’t got any excuses,” said Women’s Hall of Fame coach Gary Blair, who will retire from the Aggies at the end of this season. “We got beat by a team that played better.”

A&M will host Rice on Sunday at 3 p.m.

Other Results to Note: No. 4 Stanford topped visiting Pacific 91-62 to increase Tara VanDerveer’s Division I women’s coaching win record to 1,131. UC Davis visits Wednesday before traveling to play at No.9 Tennessee and No. 1 South Carolina. … In a Big Ten Conference match between ranked teams, No. 10 Indiana beat No. 20 Ohio State, 86-66 while No. 15 Iowa State just got past Northern Iowa, 70-69. No. 6 Arizona looking to jump into the Top 5 won, as did No. 22 Notre Dame, No. 9 Tennessee, No. 2 N.C. State, No. 24 LSU, No. 13 Michigan, and rallying late No. 17 South Florida 64-57 over previous ranked VCU 74-67.

Rhode Island clipped Maine, 45-44; while Creighton beat Arizona State 69-62; and West Virginia on the road beat James Madison 75-68 in overtime.

And that’s the report.