The Guru WNIT Report: Five-Point Sequence Near Final Minute Flips Seton Hall to Winner’s Column Over Drexel and On To The Elite Eight

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. — Since Tony Bozzella talked the talk after Villanova edged Seton Hall several weeks ago in the semifinals of the Big East women’s basketball his Pirates have been walking the walk through the WNIT.

On Thursday night, they took the program’s biggest steps in the program’s postseason history at home in Walsh Gym at the expense of Drexel, completing a rally that began early in the fourth period with a nine-point deficit and forged ahead on a five-point sequence as the final minute approached to to claim a 78-71 victory that finished the Dragons’ landmark season and sent Seton Hall on to a Monday night Elite Eight date at 8 p.m. at Columbia University on the Upper West Side in New York City off Broadway.

The round is the furtherest the Pirates (22-12) have advanced in the postseason as they head to a Columbia squad that had its own wild night at home in Levien Gym rallying from a 17-point deficit and shooting 0-for-20 on three-point attempts to overcome Boston College 54-51.

The outcome closed the books on both a Drexel (28-6) season that tied a record for wins and set one for fewest losses while also finishing off the last remaining active collegiate team in all Philadelphia area divisions following Monday night’s second-round loss by Villanova at Michigan in Ann Arbor.

That the Dragons were even in the arena was a result of Monday’s dynamic rally from 17-down in the closing minutes to edge Bucknell.

On Thursday night, here, after getting off to a sluggish start Drexel stayed within striking distance and a 9-0 run across the third and fourth quarters put coach Amy Mallon’s squad ahead 56-47.

But the Pirates, paced by an explosive night from Lauren Park-Lane with 29 points and 11 assists began to fight back.

The defining moment came with 1:07 left in regulation when Park-Lane off an assist from Katie Armstrong fired a three-pointer. Within four seconds, Armstrong with a steal turned over Drexel’s Keishana Washington and scored on a layup for a 73-67 lead.

Washington came back for two but then Sydney Cooks, who had 19 points and 10 rebounds, scored on an old fashioned three-point play to settle the issue.

Mya Jackson and Andra Espinoza-Hunter each added 12 point for Seton Hall.

Drexel’s Hannah Nihill closed out her career with a 20-point performance, while Washington scored 11, and Mariah Leonard scored 16, and Tessa Brugler had another double double with 15 points and 12 rebounds.

“When you’re in that situation, you can’t turn the ball over because that really killed us,” Mallon said of the second part of the key sequence. “After we had gone up nine at one point. You knew Seton Hall was going to make a run so that didn’t surprise us, but like I said, you got to take care of the ball.

“This year, though, you talk about tying the school record for wins and only having six losses, that’s a school record also. All year we said, ‘You’d have to find a team to beat us, not many did that. As a whole, you watched them play, the way they played, the senior leadership. I think they did everything they could do except win a couple of games they’d like to have back.”

One of them was the Colonial Athletic Association title game, losing to Delaware after two wins in the regular season that was a key to the No. 1 seed in the tourney held at Drexel’s Daskalakis Athletic Center.”

As for Seton Hall, following the loss to Villanova, following a split in the regular season, Bozzella got up and complained about the media ignoring his squad the way it was playing to close out the schedule, comments, by the way, that were not without merit.

He also noted the Big East overall in general lacking in multiple bid projections, ironically saying about other two-bid projected leads, “I’d like to see one of them, I’d like to see what would happen if BYU played Villanova.”

When the NCAA bracket was revealed, Villanova was made an at-large team with an 11th seed meeting sixth seed BYU and upsetting the West Coast Conference squad in the first round last weekend.

Meanwhile,, Thursday night, in a game involving the matchup Seton Hall would get, after being down 17, Columbia, which beat everyone in the Ivy League not named Princeton, fought back and gained the upper hand on Jaida Patrick’s shot for a 54-51 victory with 12.1 seconds left against Boston College (21-12, 10-8 Atlantic Coast Conference), which was one of the first teams missing the cut from the 68-team field by the NCAA tournament committee.

Columbia (25-6, 12-2 Ivy League) trailed 51-50 when Kaitlyn Davis and Kitty Henderson tied up the Eagles with 16.3 seconds left to gain possession.

Davis on a play drawn up by Columbia coach Megan Griffith tossed a pass to Patrick for the lead.

“KD saw a lane and she took what was given to her, because no one could really guard her,” Patrick said.

Hendereson clinched the game with a pair of foul shots, while Boston College’s Sydney Schwartz took an attempted shot to force overtime but the ball bounced off the back iron as time expired.

“We never really doubted ourselves that we would get this far and we’ve been locked in every game, taking it one game at a time,” Patrick said. “And to have that great crowd energy was an even better feeling.”

Davis had a team-high 21 points, while Patrick had 15 points and 13 rebounds.

Boston College’s Cameron Swartz had a game-high 24 points. Taylor Soule added 14 points and grabbed seven rebounds.

“Our first half was a little brutal,” Griffith said of Columbia’s shooting from the field. “I just thought offensively it was pretty tough. We didn’t see the ball go through the net, which I think frustrated us a little bit.”

Apparently whatever the Columbia coach said at the half at her alma mater did the trick.

“She’s the master of halftime speeches,” Davis said. “I’m not going to say the secrets but it’s magic.”

In other games, Toledo beat Marquette on the road 92-82, while Middle Tennessee edged visiting Vanderbilt 55-53, Alabama beat Houston 79-64, South Dakota State beat visiting Drake 84-66; Oregon State beat visiting New Mexico 78-73, and UCLA on the road edged Wyoming 82-81 in triple overtime.

We’ll be back later today catching up with the Temple and potential Delaware openings.