The Guru Report - Local Edition: CAA Weekend Sweep By Drexel and Delaware; Rutgers Losing Streak Snapped; Villanova Upset; Landmark Win for Saint Joseph’s

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

Maddy Siegrist continued to do her thing on a busy Super Bowl Sunday afternoon for both locals and nationals but Villanova as a team was unable to continue theirs being upset 72-60 in a Big East game at Seton Hall ending a nine-game winning streak at Walsh Gym in South Orange, N.J.

The game was the fifth in 10 days for the Wildcats (17-7, 11-4 Big East), and at the end of a week in which coach Denise Dillon’s group won at No. 8 Connecticut in Hartford to snap the Huskies’ 169 combo conference win streak dating to 2013 and then Friday at home gaining a sweep of Marquette with a last second push to overtime to take over the rest of the way.

Siegrist continued her string of 30+ games adding one more against the Pirates (13-10, 8-7) by scoring 31 points and grabbing 11 rebounds.

But a 23-10 second quarter from Seton Hall provided the heft to go on and gain a split on the season after ‘Nova had won a narrow one earlier back in Finneran Pavilion.

It looked early on that the Wildcats would maintain their winning ways and hold newly-acquired second place when they jumped to a 14-7 lead at the outset before the Pirates reversed both teams’ fortunes.

Seton Hall even had its own answer to Siegrist, in Lauren Park-Lane, who scored 33 points, while Sidney Cooks scored 18 and grabbed 10 rebounds, and Andra Espinoza-Hunter scored 11.

Brianna Herlihy scored 14 for Villanova, and Lior Garzon returned from a one-game absence when she hurt her foot in the postgame celebration at UConn but scored just four points on a 2-for-11 game from the field.

While details will be on the national blog in a split report this time around, it was a wild day in the conference with UConn breaking away in the fourth quarter to win at Marquette 72-58 in Milwaukee and DePaul managed to recover from a wipeout by UConn Friday night to win a scoring slugfest 105-104 at Georgetown in double overtime.

In the four-team logjam in the Big East standings behind the Huskies, which has just the loss to the Wildcats, Creighton (18-7, 13-4 Big East) moves to second 0.5 behind first, DePaul (20-7, 12-4), which is at ‘Nova at 2 p.m. next Sunday, is third a game behind first and a half-game behind second; the Wildcats are fourth, 1.5 behind first, 1 behind second and a half-game behind third, while Marquette in fifth is 2.5 behind first and a game behind Villanova.

The only game missing from a postponed/makeup list is the originally scheduled visit from UConn last month.

Siegrist is now the sixth player in the program’s history to reach 1,600 points, her total now at 1,606. The native of Poughkeepsie, N.Y., is now 16 points behind Lisa Angelotti (1,622) at fifth, 28 points behind Lisa Ortlip (1,634) at fourth, and 53 behind Trish Juhline (1,659) in third, attainable this season. The late Nancy Bernhardt is second (2,018), and the legendary Shelly Pennefather (2,408) leads the list.

She has reached 30 or more points eight times this season, five in the last six games, and 16 overall at Villanova. The Wildcats were 4-1 at the end of the tough stretch in which they also had a five-game win streak snapped at Seton Hall in the series between the two.

Drexel and Delaware Completed Weekend Sweep: The Dragons and Blue Hens completed their two-game trip to the north end of the Colonial Athletic Association without a loss as Drexel topped host Northeastern 61-46 in Boston for a season sweep while Delaware won at Hofstra 71-58 in Hempstead, N.Y.

The duo are tied for first with Drexel having beaten Delaware in Philadelphia last month when both were the remaining teams unbeaten in conference play, They meet again Sunday at 1 p.m. at Delaware’s Bob Carpenter Center in Newark. 

The Dragons before preparing for the one-hour trip south will host annual conference contender James Madison Wednesday at 5 p.m. Wednesday at home at the Dasklalakis Athletic Center in a makeup from a postponed game that was originally scheduled at the start of conference play.

The Dukes are headed for the Sun Belt Conference after this season and the CAA is punishing them by banning them from the conference tournament as well as hosting it, moving the event next month to Drexel.

They fell to Towson 87-67 at home in Harrisonburg, Va., at the Atlantic Union Bank Center Sunday, enabling the Tigers (18-5, 9-3 CAA) to stay close to the duo at the top. 

The Towson bench in completing a season sweep of the series outscored JMU 49-4 and dominated the boards 41-25, which was a season low for the home team (11-11, 7-4).

Kyle Kornegay-Lucas scored 20 points and grabbed 10 rebounds for the Tigers.

In Sunday’s win by Drexel (19-3, 11-1 CAA) at the Cabot Center, Keishana Washington scored 19 points, Tessa Brugler scored 14, Hannah NiHill scored 10 and dealt six assists, and Jasmine Valentine grabbed 13 rebounds, while Maura Hendrixson grabbed seven rebounds and Kate Connolly grabbed six.

Katie May scored 15 and grabbed seven rebounds for the Huskies (12-10, 6-6) and Kendall Currence scored 10 and grabbed eight rebounds.

Defense was the name of the game for the visitors, outscoring Northeastern 28-11 across the second and third quarters, holding the home team to just two points in the second.

The Huskies were smothered into 3-for-30 from the field in that stretch.

Meanwhile, Delaware (18-5, 12-1) completed a sweep of Hofstra (5-14, 2-9) at the host Pride’s David S. Mach Sports and Exhibition Complex for the Blue Hens’ eighth straight win and also 14 straight in the series.

Jasmine Dickey continued her assault on the nets for the Blue Hens, the reigning USBWA national player of the week scoring 36 points, while Ty Skinner scored 12, and Ty Battle grabbed 10 rebounds.

Rosi Nicholson scored 16 for Hofstra and Jaylen Hines scored 15.

Landmark Win for Saint Joseph’s: The Hawks on the road beat host George Mason 50-45 in Fairfax, Va., and in picking up an A-10 win it became the program’s overall 850th triumph. 

Saint Joseph’s (9-14, 5-6 A-10) didn’t pull away to near the end, entering the final quarter tied 33-33. The Hawks jumped on a five-point lead on the Patriots (8-15, 2-9) in the first five minutes of the period, GMU then trimmed it to three points at 42-39 before the visitors used an 8-6 run to the end to emerge with the victory.

Freshman Tayla Brugler scored 14 points for Saint Joseph’s, while Olivia Mullins scored nine and grabbed six rebounds. Freshman Laila Fair scored nine and grabbed five rebounds. She went 3-of-5 form the field, and 3-of-3 from the line.

The coaching group putting together the 850 wins begins with Ellen Ryan, on to Theresa Grentz, Rene Portland, Jim Foster, Stephanie Gaitley, and Cindy Griffin, who also played for the Hawks.

Saint Joseph’s heads to St. Louis Wednesday, the school and city, to play the Billikens at 8 p.m.

La Salle, meanwhile, didn’t fare as well in A-10 play in the Explorers’ trip to Richmond, the team and city at the Robins Center in Virginia, losing to the Spiders 75-58.

The home team owned a lopsided 24-12 opening quarter, gained a lead of two more for the half, and then went 25-17 in the third before La Salle (12-11, 5-6 A-10) won the fourth quarter 16-11.

Turnovers bedeviled the Explorers at the outset, enabling Richmond (14-11, 5-7) jump to a 10-0 lead, yield three to the visitors, then go on a run for nine more and a 19-3 lead.

Kayla Spruill scored 19 for La Salle, shooting 8-for-10 from the field, while Jaye Haynes scored 10.

La Salle is back in Tom Gola Arena Wednesday, hosting Davidson at 6 p.m.

Rutgers Snaps Big Ten Winless Streak Beating Penn State: A 28-13 fourth quarter carried the Scarlet Knights to their first conference win of the season, topping the longtime rival Lady Lions 71-62 at home in Jersey Mike’s Arena in Piscsataway, N.J., for a season split in the series.

Few could see the outburst coming, considering Penn State (9-15, 3-11 Big Ten) won the first three periods for a 49-43 lead heading into the final period.

Rutgers (8-17, 1-12) was still behind 56-53 with four minutes left when the Knights exploded for a 14-0 run to reach the last minute with a 67-56 lead.

Osh Brown had 20 points and 11 rebounds for the home team, while Lasha Petree scored 17, Victoria Morris scored 12, and Sayawni scored 11.

The Knights had their most productive game of the season at the line shooting 24-for-29. They also hit for nine from deep.

Brown lead the NCAA in active career double doubles with 58. 

“We’re number one in a stat in the league that I hate,” said Rutgers interim coach Tim Eatman, while C. Vivian Stringer is taking the year off. “Not getting shots blocked. So that means you’re not drawing any contact. So if you’re not drawing contact, you’re not getting fouled. So today we got it inside and went to the line 29 times. But we got to make it a conscience effort to get it in there.”

Penn State’s Leilani Kapinus had a career-high 23 points and 12 rebounds for her first career double double, the first by a freshman in the program in four seasons. Makenna Marisa scored 15, while Anna Camden scored nine.

Rutgers leads the all-time series 30-19, including 11-2 in regular season Big Ten play. They met home-and-home when both were in the Atlantic 10 and also in non-conference when Rutgers was in the Big East.

Both are off until Thursday when Penn State is back home in the Bryce Jordan Center hosting Nebraska at 7 p.m. in State College on the B1G+ while Rutgers visits Minnesota at 8 p.m. in Minneapolis at Williams Arena also on B1G+.

And that is the local roundup with the national recaps not far behind — in fact will be right above this post by the time many of you are reading.