The Guru Report: A Friday Sweep for Villanova. Saint Joseph’s, and La Salle While No. 9 UConn Downs Seton Hall and No. 2 Stanford Tops Cal

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

VILLANOVA, Pa. —  The band was finally back together again in its entirety Friday night as the saying goes and out here on the Main Line that meant beautiful music for the Villanova women in a revenge-gathering 71-56 victory at home over Providence in a Big East victory.

The last meeting with the Friars to open conference play up in Rhode Island in late December the Wildcats (10-6, 4-3 Big East) were without their floor leader Maddy Siegrist, who was in the early stages of missing six games with a hand injury.

It was quite different the second time around with the junior tuning out the opposition with 25 points, in the process doing some chart climbing on the program scoring chart passing Caroline Coyer with her first basket and then with her 15th point sliding past her own coach Denise Dillon on the way to a career total of 1,366.

While it was news for Nova Nation it was news to the native of Poughkeepsie, N.Y., who was unaware of where she stood until told of her status just before appearing for the postgame interview.

“I had no idea,” Siegrist gushed of her 12th place status. “Those are two really great players, so it’s an honor. I’m a little surprised about it.”

Dillon was unaware of the revision list until afterwards, herself, but smiled and said, “I’m glad to have her pass me, and I hope more of these players pass me. We’ll be doing pretty good for ourselves.

“That’s fantastic, she’s moving right along.”

The Wildcats moved quickly right along jumping on Providence (8-9, 3-5) at the outset and eventually reaching a differential of 24 points in the third period.

“It was the intensity of wanting this game back,” Dillon said, comparing the previous meeting. “The game up there was so bad. We didn’t have the energy. The energy was stale.It wasn’t lack of execution, it was not connecting. They all felt it, but nothing they could do about it.”

In this one, however, the defense allowed just one player scoring double figures Kylee Sheppard with 11 points.

“Maddy opened it up offensively,” Dillon said of Friday night’s fast start. “Brianna (Herlihy) brings some energy we didn’t have at DePaul last Friday, got it back against Marquette. It was them recognizing what they could bring and how they could impact the game when they’re out on the floor or not.”

Siegrist also had another double double with 10 rebounds, to make it her 28th in her career and 38th 20 or more points scored individually.

Herlihy grabbed 11 rebounds alongside her nine points, while Lior Garzon scored 9 and Kaitlyn Orihel scored eight.

“It was our revenge tour,” Siegrist said. “We lost by twenty there, so we knew coming in that we had to bring it right from the jump. We tried to keep our foot on the gas a little bit and for the most part we did.”

On Sunday at 1 p.m. Villanova gets a chance to balance out one more in the Big East set of series when Creighton visits.

“It’s really important,” Siegrist said of the climb in the standings. “You try not to look too far ahead, one game at a time. Beating Marquette (last Sunday) was big for us, beating these guys today, try to keep it rolling. Get as many wins as you can and finish off in the best position for postseason.”

Saint Joseph’s Wins at Saint Bonaventure: Having lost at home to La Salle on Monday, costing them a tie for the Big 5 title and a win in the Atlantic 10 standings, the Hawks on a makeup game trip to Olean, N.Y., Friday afternoon got one off the Bonnies, led by Mackenzie Smith with both a game and career-high 25 points.

The two teams traded runs in the first two quarters and ended up tied at the half 37-37.

The exchanges continued in the third period for Saint Joseph’s (6-10, 2-2 A-10) and the home folks (8-8, 0-5), who yet to win a game in the conference.

It was still anyone’s to win off a 61-61 deadlock with 5:21 left in regulation, but that time belonged to Saint Joseph’s, who outscored the Bonnies 16-9 to head to a winning finish.

Smith also had a career mark with eight rebounds, while grad student Katie Jekot scored 14 and dished seven assists. Freshman Talya Bruigler had a double double with 10 points and a game-high 10 boards. Another freshman, Laila Fair scored 10 on a 5-for-8 from the field in the late afternoon attraction.

The Hawks are now off until heading Wednesday to the Bronx to play Fordham in conference play. Penn will be in the neighborhood also playing an Ivy makeup game at Columbia on New York’s Upper West Side.

Fourth Quarter Finish Carried La Salle to a Win at George Mason: Second half performances have been kind to the Explorers recently, winning at Fordham, Saint Joseph’s on Monday afternoon, and now at George Mason Friday night all in the Atlantic 10.

In this one, a slim 14-12 third quarter and lopsided 21-9 final ten minutes were good enough to land a 63-53 win over the Patriots (6-10, 0-4 A-10) at their EagleBank Arena in Fairfax, Va.

Kayla Spruill scored 20 points, helped by four from deep, and grabbed eight rebounds for La Salle (10-6, 3-1), while Gabby Crawford scored 11, and six  each came from Amy Jacobs, Christina Kline, and Molly Masciantonio.

Crawford and Jacobs also each hit the boards, with the former picking up six rebounds while the latter had five.

Depth also paid off with a 26-2 advantage on scoring from the bench.

On Sunday, La Salle will be back home in the Tom Gola Arena for a conference game at 2 p.m. on ESPN+ hosting Richmond with the theme being Explorers vs. Pediatric Game presented by City View Pizza.

The event is dedicated to coach Mountain MacGillivray’s youngest daughter Emily recently diagnosed but happily now in remission. The event is also in partnership with the Be Positive Foundation.

Early arrivals can get an exclusive #ClinbWithEmily t-shirt. There will also be a 50/50 raffle, funds being donated director to the Be Positive Foundation to support the fight against pediatric cancer.

Nationally Noted: UConn Back in the Win Column: Elsewhere in the Big East, No. 9 UConn bounced back from its intersectional beat down at Oregon, returning home to overwhelm Seton Hall 71-38 in a Big East game at Gampel Pavilion on campus in Storrs.

The still short-handed Huskies (10-4, 5-0 Big East) won their 166th straight conference membership game and got a season sweep on Seton Hall (8-8, 3-5) as Olivia Nelson-Ododa had 17 points and 14 rebounds, while Dorka Juhasz had 12 points and nine rebounds, Nika Muhl had 11 points and seven rebounds and Evina Westbrook scored 13.

Sidney Cooks scored 10 for the Pirates.

The win was the 1,129th for Hall of Fame coach Geno Auriemma, still ten behind Stanford’s Hall of Famer, Tara VanDerveer’s Division I women’s record, which became 1,139 after the Cardinal’s win over California 97-74 in the PAC-12 in the weekend first of two with the Golden Bears, whose second will occur Sunday across the bay in Berkeley.

UConn goes to St. John’s in Queens, N.Y.

DePaul crushed host Butler 103-69 in a Big East game in Indianapolis as the winning Blue Demons (15-4, 7-1 Big East) closed out with an 18-0 run in the third quarter at Hinkle Fieldhouse.

DePaul, whose coach Doug Bruno was named a Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame finalist Thursday, has now scored a program record eight times 100 or more points.

Freshman sensation Aneesah Morrow had a career-high 33 points and 15 rebounds, five steals and four blocked shots for the visitors. She has 11 straight double doubles and 14 overall to lead the nation.

Sonya Morris added 18 points against the Bulldogs (1-14, 0-6).

In the PAC-12. Besides the Stanford win, No. 22 Colorado fell at Arizona State, 57-52, in overtime, while No. 10 Arizona topped visiting Utah 76-64. Oregon won at Washington, 68-61, but Oregon State at Washington State was postponed.

In the Missouri Valley league Drake beat visiting Northern Iowa 65-57.

Looking Ahead: Locally on Saturday in Division II, Chestnut Hill, the unbeaten Southern Division leader in the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC), hosts Post, likewise in the Northern Division at 1 p.m.

Penn in the Ivy League will be at Yale at 2 p.m. in New Haven, Conn., while Princeton, the league leader along with Columbia, will host Dartmouth.

In the American Athletic Conference, Temple visits South Florida at 3 p.m. on ESPN2 in Tampa for a league showdown, while in the Patriot, Lehigh will host Boston U. at 2 p.m. in Bethlehem, Pa.

Elsewhere in the Ivy League, Columbia will be at Brown at 2 p.m. on ESPN+, while in the Mid-American Conference Buffalo will be at Toledo at 2 p.m. on ESPN+, and Bowling Green will be at Ohio U. At 3:30 p.m. also on ESPN+.

No. 15 Texas will be at TCU at 2 p.m. in the Big 12.

Famers: Mentioned earlier about DePaul’s Doug Bruno, the other 11 finalists for this June’s Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame induction are former North Carolina State star, but nominated as a contributor for her long broadcast career Debbie Antonelli, who has emceed the inductions; Alice “Cookie” Barron, a veteran player nominee from her days on the Wayland Flying Queens; as a coach Evelyn Blalock at the junior college level; Illinois State player Cathy Boswell, who played on the 1984 Olympics; as a player, but who recently after serving as an assistant on the NBA San Antonio Spurs named coach of WNBA Las Vegas Becky Hammon; as a contributor Donna Lopiano, who was a Texas women’s athletics director and head of the Women’s Sports Foundation; official Lisa Mattingly; as a player but currently Old Dominion coach Delisha Milton-Jones; former Western Kentucky and Nebraska coach Paul Sanderford; and as a coach at Canyon High Bob Schnider; and as an international player, who starred in Australia and the WNBA and currently married to Diana Taurasi Penny Taylor.

And that’s the report for Saturday AM.