The Guru Report: Siegrist and Washington Help Keep Villanova and Drexel Win Streaks In Tact; Stanford Turns Arizona Aside in Sole NCAA Title Reunion Game

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

VILLANOVA, Pa. — It was over quickly here Sunday afternoon at the Finneran Pavilion in a Big East game won by Villanova 82-57 over Xavier but watching the Wildcats’ Maddy Siegrist and Lior Garzon fire away, especially from deep, was enough to entertain the crowd besides the annual celebration of the school mascot’s birthday.

Garzon popped for 23 points, 15 coming from 5-for-10 beyond the arc while Siegrist reached 30 again, also helped by a deep connection of 4-for-8 for ‘Nova (13-6, 7-3 Big East) besides grabbing nine rebounds and dealing three assists.

Siegrist’s total brought the junior from Poughkeepsie (NY) to a career mark of 1,450, passing Alex Louin (1,432) into ninth place not far behind the program’s all-time 3-point sniper Adrianna Hahn, who is 53 points in front in eighth at 1,503.

Unlike Temple’s Mia Davis, who can bust the Owls’ long-standing career mark set by all-American Marilyn Stephens in 1984 as early as Monday night at UCF — she needs 25 — but certainly perhaps on the three-game home stand that begins Wednesday when Wichita State visits, Siegrist’s shot at Shelly Pennefather’s Wildcats mark of 2,408 will have to wait until next season.

But when she catches Hahn, she could potentially get to No. 3 Trish Juhline (1,659) with nine regular-season games remaining, plus at least one Big East tourney game, and one postseason tourney game averaging 19.0 and she currently is averaging 24.1 while missing six earlier games with a hand injury.

Meanwhile, when the Big East and Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) play the same day with the locals playing the same time, Villanova coach Denise Dillon still seeks a quick report of the news of her former longtime working affiliation at Drexel, which has been rolling since late November.

At the moment of Sunday’s inquiry, the Dragons’ win-loss status on the second part of the Southern weekend road trip was in doubt at William & Mary, heading for overtime at the Tribe’s Kaplan Arena in Williamsburg, Va.

Not to worry.

After missing closing chances to win in regulation, Keishana Washington, the MVP of last season’s CAA tourney won by Drexel, took care of business in double overtime reaching a total of 40 points for the game in a 75-67 triumph that was the 13th straight victory, three short of all-time total of 16.

Washington, who was 14-for-26, including five from deep, is the first Drexel (16-2, 8-0 CAA)  player to reach 40 since the region’s all-time scorer Gabriella Marginean got 40, she also has a 42 in her resume, on Old Dominion on February 12, 2009.

The CAA says Washington is the only conference player with a minimum of 10 games this season who has scored in double figures in all of hers, and the 40 are the second highest behind Jasmine Dickey’s 48.

Back at Villanova (13-6, 7-3 Big East), which has won 11 of 12, eight straight here, to finish that conversation, Dillon was able to work on building depth with six of seven reserves playing at least eight minutes.

Bella Runyon got the lion’s share with 30, while freshman Kaitlyn Orihel played 13, freshman Anahi-Lee Cauley played 12, freshman Zanai Jones played 11, and junior Kenzie Gardler and freshman Christina Dalce each played eight.

“The threes are opening the game up,” Dillon said. “I’m surprised (Xavier) stayed in the zone as long as they did.

“Understand that you can shoot them out of the zone, but we can shoot ourselves out if we're missing those shots and settling.

“It gave us a cushion enough to mix it up and get a lot of players in there, which is always the best.”

Nia Clark with 11 points, was the only player in double figures for Xavier (7-12, 2-8).

“Maddy has proven herself to be a consistent scorer,” Dillon said. “We need all of our players to be a threat, be an option. They’re understanding you are an impact player when you’re playing defendse.

“If we’re connected there, you’re making a difference in what happens on the offensive end.”

Dillon said, those that show themselves in practice are going to get rewarded with playing time.

On the game count, Villanova’s postponed game at Georgetown has been re-scheduled, No. 10 UConn’s visit here has yet to be.

On Friday, the Wildcats go to St. John’s at Lou Carneseca Arena in Queens at 7 p.m. and host Georgetown here next Sunday at 2 p.m.

 

Sitting in fifth in the Big East in a tight race behind UConn, which after the last-second win at DePaul, is perfect and 167-0 against American Athletic and Big East opponents beginning in 2013, the Wildcats have a loss to DePaul but a split with second-place Creighton and 1-0 in the two-game series with Marquette.

The first UConn game is in Hartford on Feb. 9.

Though the goal of the roundups, pending the day’s local and national news, is to highlight the locals first.

But since we’re here, elsewhere in the Big East, Marquette edged host St. John’s 70-65.

In a surprisingly somewhat close game, No. 10 UConn in a game moved to later and to Providence’s Alumni Hall because of the snow that hit New England, the Huskies won 69-61 before a sellout crowd of 1,500.

Christyn Williams, recently returned from COVID protocol absence, had 19 points and seven rebounds for the winning Huskies (13-4, 8-0) as Hall of Fame coach Geno Auriemma picked up his 1,132nd victory, nine behind Hall of Fame Stanford coach, whose NCAA Division I women’s record moved to 1,141 earlier in the day with the defending NCAA champions’ title reunion game in the PAC-12 hosting No. 8 Arizona, 75-69.

Reserve Evina Westbrook scored 13, Olivia Nelson-Ododa had 10 points and six rebounds, while freshman Carolina Ducharme, who scored the buzzer-beating game-winner at DePaul Wednesday night to keep the long-running conference win streak alive, scored 12.

Janai Croms shot 8-for-11, 3-of-4 beyond the arc, for 27 for the Friars (9-11, 4-7).

DePaul won at Seton Hall 85-65 at Walsh Gym in South Orange, N.J.

The Blue Demons (18-5, 10-2) had to fly Sunday because of weather-related cancellation of Saturday’s flight.

Sonya Morris had 26 points while freshman sensation Aneesah Morrow had 22 points and a career-high 27 rebounds, breaking the Big East record of 25 by UConn’s Peggy Walsh in 1986.

Deja Church had 20 points and Lexi Held had nine points and seven assists.

The Pirates (8-10, 3-7) had 32 points and 10 rebounds from Sydney Cooks. Lauren Park Lane scored 12.

Finishing up the Drexel part of this long-lead to the report, besides Washington’s monumental effort, Hannah Nihill had 12 points for the Dragons, while Mariah Leonard had 10 points and 11 rebounds.

William & Mary (6-12, 1-6) got 24 points from Riley Casey and 20 from Sydney Wagner.

In the second overtime, Washington had 13 of Drexel’s 17 points in the period.

Back in regulation, Drexel had a five-point lead after three quarters, but the Tribe came blasting out with a 10-4 run to go ahead.

Tessa Brugler got the lead back with two foul shots with 55 seconds left but William & Mary tied it with neither team being able to score in their last possessions.

Drexel is back home at the Daskalakis Athletic Center this weekend, hosting UNCW at 7 and Charleston on Sunday at 2, both carried on the Flohoops streaming service.

Delaware Completes a Road Sweep: Following last Sunday’s CAA loss at Drexel that left the Dragons the remaining conference unbeaten, the Blue Hens hit the road this past week with a makeup game won at UNCW on Wednesday, a triumph at William & Mary on Friday and on Sunday an 87-65 win at Elon (10-7, 2-5 CAA) in the Schar Center in North Carolina.

The triple wins came over a period of five days for Delaware (13-5, 7-1) to stay in the regular-season hunt, which the Blue Hens won last year before falling to the Dragons in the championship.

“The word on the board today was finish and they did it beautifully,” Delaware coach Natasha Adair said. “We have been talking about getting off to great starts and today was impressive.

“Everybody was on board, locked in and it was energy, effort, and defensive discipline the whole way,” she said, going on to praise everyone on the roster.

A 21-8 run in the second quarter got Delaware into safe harbor. The Blue Hens had a season-high 59 rebounds.

When Jasmine Dickey scored her 24th point, she moved into Delaware’s fifth place with 1,600 on the career scoring list headed by the legendary Elena Delle Donne, now with the WNBA Washington Mystics.

Dickey finished with 27 points and also grabbed 10 rebounds, while Ty Battle had 12 points and 15 rebounds, Jewel Smalls had 14 points, while Mikayla Pippin had her first double double with 11 points and 14 rebounds.

Reversing Drexel’s hosting this weekend, the Blue Hens will welcome Charleston to the Bob Carpenter Center in Newark on Friday at 7 p.m. and then UNCW on Sunday at 1 p.m.

In a big win in the CAA of note, Northeastern, which is showing major improvement, downed perennial but now lame duck power James Madison 62-50 for the Huskies’ (12-6, 6-3 CAA) first road win in conference play this season.

The Dukes (9-10, 5-3) are headed for the Sun Belt after this season, and as happened to Old Dominion when the Monarchs departed for C-USA, JMU is banned by the school presidents from all tournaments and additionally, their hosting rights for this season were given to Drexel.

Claudia Soriano had 19 points and five rebounds along with four assists and two steals. Katie May, an Archbishop Wood alum with ties to the La Salle Greenbergs family, had eight points, as did Gemima Motema.

“We’ve experienced a lot of things this season … to come out victorious in this setting was really awesome to see,” said first-year coach Bridgette Mitchell, a former Duke assistant and alum. “I’m really proud of the effort from my team.”

Towson stayed in the upper half of the standings fight, beating Hofstra 86-45 at home in SECU Arena, where the Tigers (15-4, 6-2 CAA) are unbeaten. This is the fastest the team in the NCAA era has reached 15 wins.

Aleah Nelson had 19 points and five assists, while Anissa Rivera had 11 points and 10 rebounds. Skye Williams and Allie Kubek each scored 10 points.

La Salle Falls at Duquesne: The Explorers trailed early and couldn’t overcome the home team, losing an Atlantic 10 contest to Duquesne 67-48 in Pittsburgh.

The visitors (11-8, 4-3 A-10) made a late run to move within 12 of the Dukes (9-11, 4-4), which answered with an 11-4 spurt in the final minutes to claim the win.

Gabby Crawford with 21 points off  9-of-11 from the field was the lone La Salle player in double figures. Molly Masciantonio dealt four assists.

La Salle is home Wednesday at 6 p.m. in the Tom Gola Arena to host Saint Joseph’s looking for a sweep of the Hawks after winning the first contest across town recently that also counted in the Big 5 giving the Explorers a 2-1 record behind Villanova’s tie-clinching 3-1.

La Salle and Temple could get to the same record by playing each other making up a postponed game from Dec. 29 though if the Owls won, they would also need to make up the Jan. 11th game against Penn at The Palestra.

Big Ten Blues Continuing for Rutgers and Penn State: So it was on Sunday, the latest twin tale of despair saw the Lady Lions up at their Bryce Jordan Center in State College fall to No. 17 Maryland 82-71, which, considering the roster of the Terrapins (15-6, 7-3 Big Ten), was at least respectful.

Makenna Marisa had 19 points for the home team (9-11, 3-7), while Kelly Jekot, who previously played at Villanova, scored 16. She was 6-of-11 from the field, and nailed four from deep.

Leilani Kapinus had 14 points and Penn State outscored the visitors 42-34 in the second half.

Credit hot shooting for the game, 59.2 percent from the field, best in a Big Ten game dating nine seasons to Feb. 20, 2013, shooting 61.1 percent at Illinois.

Going deeper into the details, the devil was in the turnovers, 24, gifting 23 points to Maryland.

Diamond Miller had 19 points for the Terrapins, while Chloe Bibby had 17 points and 10 rebounds, while Angel Reese had 16 points, and Mimi Collins subbing with 14.

Penn State heads next to Nebraska on Thursday at 8 on the Big Ten Network at the Huskers’ Pinacle Bank Arena. The Lady Lions are back Sunday, playing their Play4Kay Game at 2 p.m. against Northwestern.

Rutgers, meanwhile, is still looking for its first Big Ten triumph, losing at home in the Jersey Mike’s Arena in Piscataway, N.J., to Michigan State 61-45.

The skid looked like it might be broken early, the Scarlet Knights (7-15, 0-10 Big Ten) storming to a 12-point lead in the first quarter.

But the Spartans (12-8, 6-3) struck back in the next stanza 16-5 and stayed ahead, leaving Rutgers what’s left the rest of the season to build for next year since getting to .500 might be nil.

Of course stranger things have happened in the history of women’s collegiate basketball and, technically, until knocked out of the conference tourney in Indianapolis, they are still in play.

Ask retired Notre Dame coach and Hall of Famer Muffet McGraw about the time she led the Irish to a title in the old Midwestern Conference and a spot in the NCAA tourney with a losing record.

“This is payback when they should have taken us,” she quipped at the time referring to a season everyone but the committee liked the Irish as an at-large team.

As for the stats, Sunday, Rutgers’ Lasha Petree scored 15 and Shug Dickson scored 13 while Osh Brown scored 10.

Rutgers coach Tim Eatman noted the early foul trouble of Brown, who was a key part to the opening play before having to go to the bench.

“She’s a vital part of our game,” he said.

Rutgers is at Nebraska Tuesday at 8 p.m. in Lincon on the B1G+ network.

Saturday Sadness: Since there was no posting here on the overnight for a variety of small reasons, all four locals who played lost: Rider got blasted at home by Iona 63-40 in a Metro Atlantic Athletic Contest in Alumni Gym in Lawrenceville, N.J.; likewise Saint Joseph’s by one of the Atlantic 10 frontrunners in UMass, 74-48; and two real tough ones, Temple fell at Memphis 64-61 in the American Athletic Conference; and at a game we made it by staying overnight in Center City and the weather had eased before tipoff, at The Palestra, Penn fell in the fourth quarter to Harvard 70-63 in the Ivy League.

Of the ranked teams who played, in the Big 12, No. 13 Iowa State rolled at Texas Tech, 86-65; No. 11 Baylor likewise 87-54 at West Virginia; No. 25 Kansas State got past visiting TCU 63-54; but No. 18 Oklahoma knocked off visiting No.; 9 Texas 65-63, the second time the Longhorns found their way back into the Top 10 and then upset; and in the West Coast Conference, No. 16 BYU beat visiting San Francisco 99-58.

In two games in mid-majors of note, in the MAAC, visiting Quinnipiac rallied from a 25-point deficit to beat host Niagara 85-79, while Toledo continued to stay in the Mid-American regular season hunt, beating host Bowling Green 71-67.

Columbia heading for a showdown of unbeaten Ivy teams pending Friday night’s action, but still a showdown, topped host Dartmouth 65-46.

In the Rider game, which got moved to a nighttime start due to the weather, the losing streak reach four games for the Broncs (5-14, 3-7 MAAC), though the Gaels (5-10, 3-7) are not much better record-wise.

Raphaela Toussaint had 13 points and nine rebounds as the lone Rider player scoring in double figures.

“We didn’t get enough stops and we didn’t make any shots,” said veteran coach Lynn Milligan. “Communication on the offensive end was off and that’s what the result was.

“It’s not a lack of effort, it’s not a lack of preparation, we just need to make shots.”

Rider is off until Saturday when the Broncs travel to Marist, a past perennial power in the MAAC out of Poughkeepsie that has had its own struggles, though the squad did open the season on the road giving Drexel the first of the Dragons’ only two setbacks to date on the season.

Meanwhile, over at Saint Joseph’s,  the Hawks (6-12, 2-4 A-10) ran into a first-time, longtime, squad doing well in the conference in UMass (16-5, 4-3).

Gabby Smalls and Talya Brugler each scored 11 points for Saint Joseph’s, which next heads to La Salle, Wednesday. Katie Mayock had five rebounds.

Down South, if you were wishing for certain combinations to witness a longtime career-scoring record in person in the history of the Temple women’s program, they happened in reverse against Memphis in an American Athletic Conference game in Tennessee.

Needing 49 points to break Marilyn Stephens’ longtime mark set in 1984, Mia Stephens got a lot of them, 24 points to be exact, with 11 rebounds, but they went to waste because the Owls (9-8, 4-2 AAC) after taking a late lead in the fourth period were ruined by a pair of three-pointers from the Tigers (12-6, 3-4).

Aniya Gourdine scored 10 points, dealt six assists, and grabbed four rebounds for the Owls.

So in what will be the only local game Monday, at 3 p.m. Temple will be at conference leader UCF in Tampa on ESPN+

Unless the Owls have a comfortable lead or a large deficit late in the game, Davis is 25 points away so if she has a lot of them and it’s close … we’ll just have to see at that point if decisions have to be made.

At this stage, a chance to beat UCF must be played through, more so to compensate for the loss to Memphis.

That brings us down to Penn, which has had early struggles in the Ivies.

Until the game got inside the five minute mark, the Quakers (7-11, 2-4 Ivy), seemed capable of beating the Crimson (10-9, 4-3) in a game that with Yale appear in a three-way battle for the third and fourth slots in the conference tournament playoff field at Harvard in March.

In the short history of the event the top two slots have been a Princeton and Penn world. The Tigers are very much still there but the new sheriff in town right now is Columbia.

In Saturday’s game, Kayla Padilla scored the first 11 overall and went on to finish with 20, five assists, and four rebounds. Jordan Obi had 17, Kennedy Suttle had 13 and nine rebounds, while Mia Lakstigala also scored 13.

“I didn’t recognize, which team I had out there in the first half,” said longtime Harvard coach Kathy Delaney-Smith, who will retire at the end of the season. “What you saw out there were two very young teams battling.

“A lot of our (Ivy) games were on the road early so we’ll be helped or should be being home a lot the rest of the way.”

Harvard’s McKenzie Forbes scored 18, Annie Stritzel scored 12, Maggie McCarthy and Lola Mullaney each scored 11, Tess Sussman had nine points and 10 rebounds, and Harmoni Turner had nine points and 11 rebounds.

To hear Penn coach Mike McLaughlin afterwards, his comments recalled a loss at the end of his very first Quakers season on a road trip to Harvard and Dartmouth, then the rulers of the Ivies.

True, there have been tough losses in what became a great success story in the McLaughlin era but most of those were in equal head-to-head battles with well-armed rosters on both sides.

“They didn’t deserve this, they practiced so hard this week, we had great practices,” he said, glumly. “I blame myself, I have to find ways to rest them, they were fatigued in the fourth quarter, though maybe it was other things.”

The night after that long-ago trip on the very last day, Penn pulled an upset and it’s been uphill to high ground since.

So it comes down to a big game in a string of them Friday at 6 p.m. when Columbia visits, maybe Penn catches the Lions in a trap game heading to the first Princeton showdown Saturday.

But nothing is trapping Columbia so far.

On Saturday, the Lions (15-3, 6-0 Ivy)  used a 27-point third quarter to put away the Big Green (1-17, 0-6). 

Columbia has now won seven straight, tying the longest since joining Division I in 1986.

“I’m just really proud of the team,” said Columbia coach Megan Griffith, a native of King of Prussia, and an alum who previously spent a long stint on the staff of former Princeton coach Courtney Banghart. “We’re doing something we’ve never done before here and that’s really hard.

“We’re just learning as we go and I think we’re going to be ready to go for the second half of the league.”

Kaitlyn Davis got things going with a 7-for-7 start on the way to 20 points along with seven rebounds, two steals, two blocks, and an assist.

“Kaitlyn has been absolutely phenomenal, just a terror on both ends and wrapping up possessions for us,” Griffin said.

Abbey Hsu had 17 points and Jada Patrick scored 13 while Carly Rivera dealt six assists and grabbed six rebounds.

“We’re not satisfied,” Hsu said. “We’re just staying hungry for the next game. We want to play a complete game and we’re still striving to get there. We need to keep working on the small things.”

D2 Chestnut Hill Still Rolling: It may be a shorter trip to play Nyack College from the Southern Division of the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC) since the school located by the Tappan Zee Bridge in suburban New York City now plays its games in Jersey City at the John J. Moore Athletics and Fitness Center.

But the ride from suburban Philadelphia was still longer then the time it took for Chestnut Hill to rack up another conference win, defeating Nyack 82-64 for the Griffins’ 11th straight win.

Cassie Sebold had 15 points for the Griffins (17-3, 10-0 CACC), while Kaitlyn Carter scored 14. Bri Hewlett had 12 points and 16 rebounds for her second straight double double.

Lindsey Lane came close with 12 points and nine rebounds and Emily Chmiel off the bench in 17 minutes had 11 points and 13 rebounds for her eighth double double, tops in the CACC.

Lauren Crim scored 10, while Abbey Spratt had eight points and six rebounds. 

Chestnut Hill dominated the boards with 62 rebounds, 21 on the offensive glass.

Nyack (5-7, 4-3) got 22 points from Amani Levitan, while Carly Bolivar scored 14.

The Griffins stay on the road Wednesday heading to Goldey-Beacom in Wilmington, Del., at 6 p.m.

Nationally Noted: Except where ranked teams met each other, it was a clean sweep Sunday, but one of those head-to-heads brought together No. 8 Arizona and the team it lost to at the finish, No. 2 Stanford in the Cardinal’s Maples Pavilion 75-69.

Hall of Fame Stanford coach called Cameron Brink’s 25-point, 15-rebound effort with 3-blocked shots “a great game …Her best game is yet to come. You haven’t seen it yet.”

Reserve Jana Van Gytenbeek fired down six shots from deep for 18 points, helping to keep Stanford (16-3, 7-0 PAC-12) unbeaten in the conference.

The Cardinal has won eight straight since its non-conference 65-61 loss at No. 1 South Carolina (20-1, 8-1 SEC), which beat Florida 62-50 on the road in Gainesville, Sunday, as Alliyah Boston had 13 points and 19 rebounds.

Zia Cooke had 11 points in the 14th straight win in the series with the Gators (15-6, 6-3).

Back to an 18-league schedule in the PAC-12, Sunday’s game was the only regular season meeting of the two Western powerhouses in Stanford and Arizona on a night in which bobbleheads of VanDerveer were distributed.

Cate Reese scored 17 for the Wildcats (15-3, 5-3).

“Cameron did a really good job of asserting herself and just kind of bulldozing us,” said Arizona coach Adia Barnes. “I thought we had to be a lot more physical with her.

“Jana and Cameron killed us, together over 40 points. That can’t happen.”

Another showdown weekend lies ahead as on Friday Arizona is hosting No. 19  Oregon, which beat the Wildcats 68-66 in overtime earlier this month. Stanford on Thursday night will be at UCLA.

Oregon on Sunday at home in Matthew Knight Arena in Eugene beat Southern Cal 80-48.

The Trojans (9-9, 2-6) were playing with a shortened roster and without first-year coach Lindsay Gottlieb due to COVID protocols.

Nyara Sabally had 23 points and Endiya Rogers scored 17 for the Ducks (13-5, 5-1), who will make up a game  hosting Arizona State Tuesday afternoon at 5 p.m. EST on the Oregon livestream before playing at Arizona and Arizona State this weekend.

“I feel really good,” said Oregon coach Kelly Graves. “I thought we put together a great performance today, at both ends of the floor and in every phase, really … We shot it well from the perimeter, got points in the paint (and) I thought this was one of our best defensive efforts for 40 minutes.”

In the SEC, Mississippi State beat visiting Texas A&M 78-58 in a game between two unranked SEC teams that used to be in the Top 10. The visiting Aggies have been crashing and burning in recent weeks not that much more could be said for the home team.

Looking Ahead: As noted, locally, Monday, Temple is at UCF at 3 p.m., while nationally, No. 22 Ohio State hosts No. 23 Iowa and No. 7 Michigan hosts No. 6 Indiana in the Big Ten, the former at 9 p.m. on the Big Ten network, the latter at 7 on ESPN2. No. 4 Tennessee, coming off the upset loss at Auburn will host Arkansas at 7 on the SEC network.

On Tuesday, Rutgers is at Nebraska at 8 p.m., while No. 3 NC State visits No. 20 Notre Dame, No. 5 Louisville is at Miami, and No. 14 Georgia Tech is at No. 21 Duke all at 7 p.m. in the ACC on the ACCNX telecasts.