The Guru’s NCAAW Report: Upsets Triggered by Villanova and Princeton in NCAA Second Part of Round One Highlight Saturday’s Action

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Seton Hall Coach Tony Bozzella got what he asked for several weeks ago and the Villanova women delivered Saturday on that request, rallying in a 61-57 win by the 11th-seeded Wildcats over sixth-seeded BYU here in Michigan’s Crisler Arena in the Wichita Regional in the first round while elsewhere over in the Bridgeport Regional, 11th-seeded Princeton, the champions of the Ivy League, stunned the Southeastern Conference champion Kentucky squad, seeded sixth, 69-62, in Indiana’s  Assembly Hall in Bloomington.

Saturday was the second part of the first round completing the entire round of 32 plus the inaugural earlier First Four on Wednesday and Thursday, similar to the existing men’s First Four, in which four of eight teams opened with wins, Dayton over DePaul, 88-57; Howard over Incarnate capturing the very first of those games 55-51; Longwood over Mt. St. Mary’s 74-70; and Missouri State over Florida State 61-50, and advanced into the field of 64.

None of those teams lasted longer, Howard the MEAC champion, slaughtered by overall No. 1 and top-ranked South Carolina, 79-21; Dayton falling to sixth-seeded Georgia 70-54, in Ames, Iowa; top-seeded and ACC champion NC State ousting Longwood 96-68; and Missouri State falling to No. 6 Ohio State 63-56 in in the Spokane Regional in in Baton Rouge, La.

On Friday in the Spokane Regional, 13th-seeded Delaware in College Park, Md., at fourth-seeded Maryland in the Terrapins’ XFINITY Center, fell to the hosts from the Big Ten 102-71.

Another upset on Saturday, in a close 9-8 bracket pairing, saw Kansas State eliminate Washington State 50-40, in a Bridgeport Regional, which also saw second-seeded UConn begin it’s quest for a 12th NCAA title beating 15th-seeded Mercer 83-38, as Christyn Williams at home in Gampel Pavilion in Storrs scored 13 points, Paige Bueckers, the 2021 national player of the year as a freshman recently returned from a virtually all season-long knee injury, going 5-for-7 for 12 points in 24 minutes, while freshman Caroline Ducharme scored 10 as did Ohio State transfer Dorka Duhasz. 

In the other game here, third-seeded Michigan, in its first-ever NCAA home game, struggle a bit in the outset with 14th-seeded American before downing the Patriot League champions 74-39; while in the other game involving the bracket sector housing Princeton, third-seeded Indiana cruised over C-USA champion Charlotte 85-51.

Saturday’s other upset saw 12th-seeded Belmont, the Ohio Valley champion, oust fifth-seeded Oregon 73-70 in Knoxville, where host and fourth-seeded Tennessee downed 13th-seeded Buffalo 80-67.

Another Saturday Bridgeport Regional game had seventh-seeded UCF, the American Athletic Conference champ best state rival and 10th seeded Florida of the SEC 69-52.

Remaining Saturday NCAA tourney games had third-seeded LSU at home in Baton Rouge hold off 14th-seeded Jackson State, the SWAC champion, 83-77, while fifth-seeded North Carolina put away 12th seeded Stephen F. Austin, the WAC winner, 79-66 in Tucson, where host and fourth-seeded Arizona edged 13th-seeded UNLV, the Mountain West winners, 72-67; fourth-seeded Oklahoma at home in Norman in a Bridgeport Regional opener edged 13th-seeded IUPUI, the Horizon champion, 78-72; and in another Bridgeport Regional game, fifth seeded Notre Dame in Oklahoma bested 12th-seed and Atlantic 10 champion Massachusetts 89-78.

Villanova Moves to play Michigan

Recently after the Wildcats in the Big East tournament moved past Seton Hall in a semifinal, coach Tony Bozzella in his postgame remarks, complained of lack of respect for his team and Big East squads in NCAA speculation for the women and at one point noting his regard for Villanova, then being called a bubble squad, comparing other conferences talking about more than one representatives, said he’d like to see what would happen to a BYU squad meeting coach Denise Dillon’s players.

The NCAA tournament committee unknowingly matched up the Cougars, who led the West Coast Conference most of the season but fell to Gonzaga in the title game, and Big East runner-ups.

Early on the seed differential seemed justified as the Cougars (26-4) raced to a 13-2 lead, shooting a hot 4-of-7 from the field at the outset while the Wildcats (24-8) hit just one of their first seven.

“”We didn’t come out executing great, but we found a way,” Dillon said. “Talked to the team to make it a one-possession game, and they did just that and found a way to come up with a huge win here in the tournament.”

By the half, Villanova edged close to trail 30-29, helped by the younger members of the roster.

Dillon had two time outs early one to call.

“Just continuing to deliver the message of defense,” Dillon said. “We thought it would take us a little bit recognize how they were guarding us, tp get a few for the game on the offensive end, and what we would be able to execute. 

“Just so unfamiliar with this team. You’re looking at them on film, but you’re not aware of the strength and side. Delivering that message back to the team that the defense will ground us if we commit to that, and then the offense will come as we get more comfortable throughout the contest.”

Down the stretch the Wildcats began to get some separation, launching a 9-2 run in a second half in which junior Maddy Siegrist regained her all-American form and ‘Nova led 55-48 with 5 minutes, 30 seconds left in the game.

But BYU wasn’t done and answered with its own 8-0 spurt to get within a point at 56-55 as the clock counted down to 2:19.

Tegan  Graham’s shot from deep spurred the counter-rally.

‘Nova took a timeout to slow the Cougars’ thrust and then Siegrist scored for a 58-55 lead 

BYU’s Sarah Hamson  got the points right back for a point separation again.

With 26 seconds remaining Siegrist calmly fired down two from the line and a 60-57 lead.

The Cougars were defended into a difficult shot and also faced being stopped from taking a three.

Siegrist partially blocked it and then Herlihy grabbed the loose ball and made 1-of-2 to seal the outcome.

Lucy Olson grabbed six steals, five in the first half to help reverse the way things were going.

“”I just want to do as much as I can to help our team win, and I guess steals was one of the ways today,” she said.

As for being her first March Madness, Olson, a freshman, said, “Yeah, it was very exciting. I mean, I just like playing basketball. It’s fun. So the fact that we can keep playing the NCAA tournament, like I always watched it growing up. That I’m here playing with my team, it’s really cool.”

Siegrist finished with 25 points, though the bulk of them came by way of 19 in the second half.

“Just knowing it’s a long game,” she said of the swing in performance. “Keep shooting the shots you normally take and eventually they’ll fall.”

Added Dillon, “For Mad, it was really just a matter of settling and seeing what was out there and just feeling the game. I think she’s done a tremendous job of that season.”

From the other side, Hamson said, “I mean, we came in, knowing she’s her leading scorer, and we were really locked in the first half. And then she adjusted.

She turned it up a couple notches and and really went off. Kudos to her. She played a great game.”

After Siegrist missed six games early in the season with a hand injury, Villanova is 19 of 21 since her return.

Brianna Herlihy had five points and a team best nine rebounds, while Kaitlyn Orihel, one of the freshman who helped shore the offense, collected 10 points. Olsen scored nine and dealt a career-high six assists.

Paisley Harding had 21 for BYU, while Graham scored 11, and Lauren Gustin grabbed 13 rebounds. As she climbs toward becoming the Villanova all-time scorer — she’s current third — after hitting a new milestone here, she has 1,803 points.

A big factor was the Villanova bench, outscoring BYU 16-4.

“I think we came out super aggressive, especially on defense,” Harding said. “We took them out of the things they thought they would get pretty easy, but then I think they turned up the heat. They started pressing a little more getting in our passing lanes.”

Noted veteran BYU coach Jeff Judkins on the change in momentum, “Villanova went to their star. In the second half they ran everything through her, and she’s a great player and she made some plays that as a coach you try to double her, but she’s quick enough to get her shot off fast that you can’t get there.”

In the second game, American U. (23-9) stayed competitive in the first quarter and then “… just a lot of little things,” said Eagles coach Megan Gebba.

Lauren Slack scored 10, the only one in douible figures.

All-American Naz Hillmon scored 24 points and completed the double double with  11 rebounds for the Wolverines (23-6), while Emily Kiser scored 11, and freshman Laila Phelia scored 8. 

Leighla Brown off the bench scored 11 coming back from injury.

Villanova will play Michigan here Monday night for the right to go to the Sweet 16, where the Wildcats advanced last in 2003.

Princeton Stays Alive

As much as Villanova proved the Wildcats belong in the NCAA tourney, likewise the Tigers with the win, a rare one via Ivy champions over the years, proved that they are one of the top teams in the nation in taking down the same Wildcats corp that hit a shot at the buzzer to deprive top-ranked and overall No. 1 seed South Carolina in the SEC championship.

The 69-62 win sent the Tigers into Monday’s second round against third seed Indiana, a team not out of the realm of imagination capable of being victimized and making Princeton the first Ivy champion to land a spot in the Sweet 16 next weekend in Bridgeport, where likely second seed and fifth ranked UConn is likely to be one of the four participants.

The Tigers (25-4) have a previous win in 2015 under now North Carolina coach Courtney Banghart, who’s Tar Heels also advanced on Saturday.

The only other Ivy team with an NCAA win was back in the day when newly-retired Harvard coach Kathy Delayed-Smith led the 16th-seeded Crimson to the only 16-1 reversal in seeds taking down a Stanford squad in the Cardinal’s Maples Pavilion in Northern California.

The host Hoosiers advanced, beating Charlotte 85-51.

The Tigers made it into the weekly AP Poll the final two votes of the season in 25th in the last vote.

The win stopped a momentum running 10-game streak by Kentucky (19-12).

Freshman (by eligibility) Kaitlyn Chen scored 17 points, while Abby Myers poured down 29 points, fueled by a pair of threes and a near-perfect 9-for-11 on the line.

“They love the confidence level,” said Tigers coach Carla Berube on ESPN’s SportsCenter after the game. “Kentucky did a good job rattling us a little in the first half, but we did such a better job taking care of the ball better in the second half.

“Our playmakers made plays from start to finish but it was a battle. We’re going to enjoy this for 10 seconds and then move on to Indiana.”

Dre-Una Edwards, the star of the win over the Gamecocks, had 16 points, including her 1,000th and had 12 rebounds.

Rhyne Howard, one of the nation’s top  players, now heads to the WNBA draft finishing with 17 points in a game in which she got injured in the first half limiting her effectiveness the rest of the way.

The only other player from the Wildcats in double figures was freshman Jada Walker scoring 11 points.

Looking Ahead

As the second round gets under way with eight games Sunday to begin to fill the Sweet 16, in the Spokane Regional, Florida Gulf Coast plays at Maryland at 3 p.m. on ESPN; Miami is at South Carolina at 3 p.m. on ABC; ; Creighton is at Iowa at 1 p.m. on ESPN; Utah is at Texas at 5 p.m. on ESPN; South Dakota is at Baylor at 6 p.m. on ESPN2; Gonzaga is at top-seed and fourth-ranked Louisville at 7 p.m. on ESPN; Georgia is at Iowa State at 8 p.m. on ESPN2; and Kansas is at second-rank and top-seed Stanford at 9 p.m. on ESPN.

On Monday, Villanova will play at Michigan at 6 p.m. to start the rest of the second round; Princeton will be at Indiana at 8 p.m.; both of those games on ESPNU; UCF will be at UConn at 9 p.m. on ESPN; Kansas State will be at ESPN at 4 p.m.; Notre Dame will be at Oklahoma on ESPN2 at 6 p.m.; Belmont will be at Tennessee at 7 p.m. on ESPN; Ohio State will be at LSU at 8 p.m. ; and North Carolina will be at Arizona at 10 p.m. on ESPN2.

Also Monday night in the WNIT Drexel will host Bucknell in the Daskalakis Athletic Center in a second-round game at 6 p.m.

And that’s the report.