The Guru Report - Local and National Edition: No. 1 South Carolina Stunned by Kentucky in SEC Title Game While Villanova Faces UConn in Big East Final

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopguru

UNCASVILLE, Conn — In a gritty game with Seton Hall, second-seeded Villanova regrouped in time to turn back the Pirates and advance to face a revenge-seeking Huskies crowd on their home turf in Monday night’s Big East title game while Sunday afternoon’s shocker in a group of conference championships being claimed with NCAA bids, unranked Kentucky rallied from a 14-point fourth quarter deficit and scored before time expired to upset top-ranked South Carolina for the Southeastern Conference bid.

It is the second time this season an unranked team knocked off Dawn Staley’s South Carolina squad and while the Gamecocks (29-2) survived the first occurrence by another unranked SEC squad in Missouri, they likely won’t do so Monday afternoon when the next-to-the-last Associated Press women’s poll for the season is released.

Look for second ranked and defending NCAA champion Stanford, who claimed the Pac-12 title over sixth-seeded Utah in Las Vegas to be the new rankings leader, though South Carolina still looms as a championship threat and maybe still as the No. 1 overall seed this Sunday night when the expanded 68-team NCAA field is revealed at 8 p.m. on ESPN.

A little over a month ago, Kentucky had slid out of the AP women’s poll and remained quiet until recently when the Wildcats (19-11) launched what is now a 10-game winning streak to land the seventh seed in the Nashville tourney and took down Mississippi State, sixth-ranked LSU, 18th-ranked Tennessee, which had made it all the way to the top five for the first time in a long while, and then rallied and prevailed 64-62 on Dre-una Edwards’ three-point shot from deep. 

She finished with 27 points and nine rebounds on a team, whose star attraction has been Rhyne Howard, considered one of several to be the top pick in next month’s WNBA draft. Howard scored 18 points.

It’s the Wildcats’ first SEC crown in 40 seasons, dating to the first NCAA women’s tourney in 1982.

Kentucky is coached by former Tennessee star Kyra Elzy, who moved up and took over when longtime coach Matthew Mitchell resigned for health reasons at the outset of last season.

Prior to the SEC tournament this week loaded with ranked teams, Kentucky had been 1911 overall and 12-8 in the conference while the Gamecocks are 29-2 but 17-2 in the SEC.

In fact the Wildcats had not advanced this far in the SEC since 2014.

The loss ended the Gamecocks’ 18-game win streak and three-season run of SEC titles.

Kentucky finished the game on an 11-0 run. 

As the game near its end, Howard lost the ball with 18.3 left in regulation but when the usually reliable Zia Cooke went to the line, she missed both foul shots with 16.4 left, giving Kentucky a chance to leave town with all the glory.

The Gamecocks’ Aliyah Boston, now the nation’s consecutive double double leader, getting it 24 straight times, had 21 points and 11 rebounds, while Cooke had 15.

DePaul freshman Aneesah Morrow’s streak ending on just missing in the rebounds total grabbing nine in Saturday’s loss here to be eliminated. 

Elsewhere, claiming NCAA bids, Hall of Fame coach TaraVanDerveer claimed her Division I women’s record 1,152  victory and Stanford topped Utah 73-48 as Haley Jones scored 19, Cameron Brink scored 16, and Lexi Hull scored 15 for the Cardinal to win another Pac-12 Cardinal.

Third ranked and top seed NorthCarolina State handled upstart Miami 60-47 to win the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament for the third straight year.

Elisa Cunane scored 17 points for the winning Wolfpack and Kelsey Marshall scored 24 for the Hurricanes.

Iowa, ranked 12th, beat Indiana, ranked 14th, 74-67, to win the Big Ten tournament as Monika Czinano scored 30 for the winning Hawkeyes and Grace Berger scored 20 for the Hoosiers.

Fifth-ranked Baylor finished the regular season beating Texas Tech at home 82-57 to earn the top seed in this week’s Big 12 tourney. NaLyssa Smith scored 35 for the winning Bears.

Mercer won the Southern Conference title and NCAA bid, beating Furman, 73-54, while Massachusetts beat favored Dayton 62-56 in an upset to win the Atlantic 10 crown as Sam Breen scored 19 for the Minutewomen and Dayton’s Makira Cook scored 15.

The Big South went to Longwood, the second seed, over top-seeded Campbell 86-47.

Villanova and No. 7 UConn head to the Big East Championship

For UConn, it’s old hat, no matter what conference the Huskies belong, heading to the Big East title game here in the Mohegan Sun Arena, home of the WNBA Connecticut Sun, making it the 18th straight appearance in the championship, be it the formerly constructed Big East, the seven seasons as a member of the American Athletic Conference, or the second belonging to the modern day Big East.

Hall of fame coach Geno Auriemma now has a fully recovered squad with Paige Bueckers back after missing most of the season with a knee injury.

The Huskies (24-5) beat Marquette 71-51 in Sunday’s opening semifinal as Evina Westbrook scored 14 off the bench, Ohio State transfer Dorka Juhasz scored 13, starter Christyn Williams scored 13, while played 18 minutes and scored two points.

Villanova, however, hasn’t been to the Big East title round since 2003 when the Wildcats (23-7) upset the Huskies to end what was at the time the nation’s longest ever women’s win streak at 70 straight games. UConn has since broken that record with a 90-game run and then broke that mark several years ago with 111 straight wins ended on a buzzer-beater in overtime in the semifinal of the 2017 NCAA national semifinal by Mississippi State.

The Wildcats held off a late challenge beating Seton Hall 55-64 to win the other semifinal.

Big East player of the year Maddy Siegrist scored 24 points and grabbed 14 rebounds, while Lior Garzon, one of two player in the conference voted most improved, scored 13, and Bria Herlihy scored 17.

Seton Hall’s Sidney Cooks scored 19, behind Lauren Park-Lane scored 24 for the Pirates (19-12).

Earlier this season, Villanova upset Connecticut at the Huskies’ larger XL Center venue in Hartford, besides the campus Gampel Pavilion UConn calls home in Storrs, to snap a 169 straight win streak across three membership belonging conferences dating that span back to 2013.

On Sunday, Seton Hall had narrowed a deficit to 55-51 before the Wildcats applied the breaks to the rally.

“Just watching them play, they would go on runs,” Siegrist said. “They’re very talented offensively, and they can score very quickly. 

“We knew, all right, that was their run. And we kept calm the whole time. And I think that really helped us, especially with a few of the turnovers. We were able to come back from that.”

A Villanova spurt in the fourth built a 51-38 lead, Siegrist scoring seven straight in a 10-6 run.  

Garzon at the one minute mark sent Villanova into safe waters with a three-point dagger for a 60-51 lead.

“It was tough down the stretch, that fourth quarter,” said Villanova’s Denise Dillon, voted the Big East coach of the year in her second year at her alma mater after a long, successful stint at Drexel, which will host the CAA tournament later this week. Her successor and former aide Amy Mallon after guiding the Dragons to the top seed a year after taking them to the conference playoff title, finished with Drexel as the regular season champ after both the Dragons and Delaware lost on Saturday to enable Mallon’s team to back into it.

“We were getting the ball in Maddy’s hands, which everybody is aware you’re going to do. And I have to tell you, and it was probably her biggest assist she made kicking that ball back to Lion and Lior knocking that shot down,” Dillon continued.

“And then (Garzon) gets that big three, you can see the fire. So it showed Maddy didn’t just try to make a play knowing it was down the stretch. She relied on her teammates once again. And a huge assist and great shot for Lior just for us to feel a little bit more of a cushion at that point.”

Lucy Olsen scored 10 for Villanova and dealt  game-high four assists. The Wildcats also had a 39-29 rebound margin.

The Wildcats can start planning a watch party Sunday night when the NCAA field is revealed at 8 p.m. on ESPN no matter the outcome Monday night which tips at 8 p.m. on FS1.

Possibly a third team could be in the field from the Big East with Creighton the frontrunner, though cases can be made for DePaul and Marquette.

Pirates coach Tony Bozzella believes his team deserves to be discussed and made his displeasure felt on the lack of discussion on the Pirates (by the national media) after they regained health and won 11 of 13 closing the regular season.

“If all we are going to do is look at a number (the NET) and not look at the game being played, then let’s just go right down the list and put them in the field,” he said in a brief emotional tirade.

And that’s the report.