The Guru Local Report: Siegrist Keys No. 24 Villanova Rally in Big Five Win at Temple While Saint Joseph’s Gets a Nice One Down at Vanderbilt

Guru note — the combined report for Sunday morning somehow vanished while parked in the draft mode of the program and so pieces from the Saturday local and national will appear here and in the separate national report.

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

PHILADELPHIA — Temple’s first foray into the Big Five schedule at home Sunday night in the Liacouras Center seemed on a path to repeat the upset of Villanova the Owls pulled on the Main Line last season, though the Wildcats ended up with the City Series bragging rights.

Though the visitors are the ones who are known to fire threes in bunches, that skill belonged with Temple, particularly Tarriyonna Garner, who was 7-for-9 on the way to a career-high 23 points while Aleah Nelson connected with three and finished with 20 points.

Nevertheless, entering the fourth quarter with a 57-49 deficit, the ‘Cats, who earned a 24th national ranking from the Associated Press this past week, and their star Maddy Siegrist had the last word with 18 points from the reigning Big East and Big Five player of the year  to score 41 for the game resulting in a 74-71 victory.

Team-wise in those final 10 minutes Villanova (4-0, 2-0 Big Five) outscored Temple 25-14.  

Siegrist , who was 11-for-14 from the line overall also grabbed 16 rebounds, while Christina Dalce showing major improvement over a year ago, had 12 including six on the offensive glass.

The Owls (1-3, 0-1), however, stayed alive until the final minute.

Both coaches have a history facing each other in previous stops, Villanova coach Denise Dillon in a long run at Drexel and new Owls coach Diane Richardson at Towson matched up competing for the Colonial Athletic Association crown.

“Temple played a really, really, good game of basketball, tough finish, but extremely proud of our group,” Dillon said. 

It was the third 40 plus points game for Siegrist, including a previous 41 effort at La Salle in the City Series and she now has 1,931 in her career, trailing program runner up Nancy Bernhardt (2018) by 87, and all-time leader Shelly Pennefather (2,408).

Siegrist in terms of where the outcome was heading and turning it around, noted joking with Lucy Olsen about practice, “Down eight, six minutes to go, you do those in practice so you’re ready for it in a game. 

“It was just a get a score, get a stop mentality.”

Brook Mullin dealt eight assists and Olsen dealt six while Temple’s Nelson dealt eight assists for the Owls.

Meanwhile, despite the loss, Richardson was upbeat about how the Owls performed.

“What you all saw today, that’s Temple basketball, it’s the way we want to play,” she said. “The intensity we showed today. That’s Temple basketball and that’s the way we’re going to play, from here on in.”

Richardson terms her offense, “equal opportunity, which makes us hard to guard because the shots can come from anywhere.”

One difference Sunday, she noted, the shots were dropping, which didn’t happen in losses at Princeton in the season opener and last Wednesday at Saint John’s.

Temple’s next stop is Wednesday at Saint Joseph’s at 5 p.m. for another Big Five matchup. 

Villanova is off until the opening round Friday against Missouri Valley Conference favorite Belmont at 1:30 p.m. in the opening round of the three-day Gulf Coast Showcase tourney in Naples, Fla. 

On Saturday, pending the outcome, the Wildcats will see either the winner or loser between No. 17 Baylor or Saint Louis. 

No. 23 Michigan, who the Wildcats lost to in the second round of last spring’s NCAA tourney on the Wolverines’ court, South Florida, Georgia Tech, and Air Force are also in the field.

Saint Joseph’s Stays Unbeaten: A year ago, the Hawks struggled from the outset and continued most of the season until the youthful roster bloomed at the finish with a deep run in the Atlantic 10 tournament.

At the moment, the improved difference in stunning, the latest avenging a loss from 12 months ago knocking off Vanderbilt of the Southeastern Conference 67-59 in Nashville, Tenn.

It’s the first win over an SEC opponent since beating Georgia nine seasons ago in the NCAA tournament.

In the process, the Hawks (4-0) dealt the Commodores (5-1) their first loss of the season in the game at Memorial Coliseum.

Katie Jekot scored 17 points, Laura Ziegler had 14 points and nine rebounds, Mackenzie Smith scored 12, and Talya Brugler scored 11 with eight rebounds.

Vanderbilt’s Marnelle Garraud and reserve Ryanne Allen each scored 11 points, while Ciaja Harbison scored 10. On the boards, Yaubryon Chambers grabbed eight rebounds.

Saint Joseph’s is now 2-3 against Vandy, the last win occurring in the 1989 NCAA tournament. Soon thereafter then-Hawks coach Jim Foster was hired by the Commodores, and Griffin, who played on Hawk Hill, served two years as an assistant to him in Nashville.

Next up the squad returns home for the 5 p.m. Wednesday tip against Temple on ESPN+.

Rutgers Loses to South Dakota State in Tourney Consolation Round: Following a 94-54 loss Saturday in to No. 11 Tennessee in the opening round of the Battle4Atlantis in Paradise Island in the Bahamas, the Scarlet Knights fell in the consolation semifinal Sunday 75-56 to South Dakota State, which was ranked in the Associated Press preseason women’s poll.

Kaylene Smikle had a career high 22 points, connecting on five three-balls for the Scarlet Knights (3-3).The Jack Rabbits lost their opener to UCLA 72-65.

In the win over Rutgers, South Dakota State’s Tori Nelson had 17 points and seven rebounds, Haleigh Timmer had 15 points and Paiton Burkhard scored 11.

By virtue of two major upsets in Saturday games, on Monday for seventh place in the eight team field Rutgers will No. 3 Texas, which lost to No. 6 Louisville 71-63, in their consolation semifinal at 7:30 p.m.

The Longhorns (1-3), who are missing talented guard Rory Harmon, have lost three straight games, two to ranked opponents, that began last Monday at No. 5 UConn.

On Saturday, Texas got stunned by Marquette 68-61. Meanwhile, in an equally shocking take-down in the final game of Saturday’s action Gonzaga upset Louisville 79-67 in overtime.

The upsets continued Sunday with UCLA (5-0) becoming the third team, two others ranked, to beat Tennessee, this time 80-63, as the Bruins move to Monday’s championship playing Marquette (5-0) at noon.

The Golden Warriors in their semifinal gained a 70-66 win over Gonzaga (4-1) as Chloe Marotta had 18 points and eight rebounds, Jordan King had 13 points and nine rebounds, reserve Mackenzie Hare also had 13 points, and Liza Karlen scored 12.

Brynna Maxwell had 18 points for Gonzaga as did Kayly Truong.

Charisma Osborne had 23 points and six assists against the Lady Vols (2-3), who got 14 points from Rickea Jackson and 11 from Jordan Horston.

In the win by Louisville (4-1) over Texas, Chrislyn Carr had 19 points, while Hailey Van Lith and and Morgan Jones each scored 18 points, and Van Lith had six rebounds.

Louisville will play South Dakota State (3-2) Monday for 5th place at 5 p.m.

Tennessee and Gonzaga will play for third at 2:30 p.m.

The entire tournament is being aired on the Flohoops streaming network.

Saturday Action -  Washington Spurs Drexel Rally Over Md.-Eastern Shore: Before Siegrist’s big game against Temple Sunday, scoring honors on the early part of the weekend went to Keishana Washington, who poured 37 points, including 16-for-19 at the line to enable the Dragons to come back for a 66-61 victory. 

Freshman Kylie Lavelle scored 11 and grabbed six rebounds, while Grace O’Neill had seven points, and Maura Hendrixson dealt eight assists.

Drexel (2-1), which had lost at the finish earlier in the week at La Salle, helped by Washington’s effort, was 19-for-24 from the line, while the Hawks (1-4) were 8-for-17.

Washington was 9-for-10 in the final 2:27 of regulation to enable the home team to prevail.

“Sometimes you talk about Drexel basketball and grinding out wins and I think today was a perfect example of that,” Dragons coach Amy Mallon said. “Any team that comes in here is going to give us their best shot and (Md-Eastern Shore) challenged us in so many ways and I’m really proud of the way we handled the pressure.”

On Tuesday, Drexel hosts a high-scoring Lehigh squad from the Patriot League at 6 p.m. and then the Dragons will be on the road until coming back to the Daskalakis Athletic Center on Dec. 18 to host Penn State at 2 p.m. on Flohoops and NBC Sports Philadelphia.

The stops begin Sunday at Buffalo, then down south at Longwood,  back to the area in a Philly Six contest at Saint Joseph’s on Dec. 4 at 2 p.m. and then off to Yale (Dec. 11) and Dartmouth (Dec. 13).

La Salle Falls in Alaska Title Game: After Friday night’s last-second win in the Great Alaska Shootout, a tournament not held since 1917, the Explorers fell to the host Division II Alaska-Anchorage squad 88-75.

Claire Jacobs had 21 points in the loss for La Salle (4-2), which had won four straight. Kayla Spruill scored 18, and Fiona Connolly dealt nine assists in the first meeting between the two teams.

On Tuesday, the Explorers will go up to Lafayette for a game at 6 p.m. The Leopards of the Patriot League are coming off a Saturday loss at Siena 63-55 in suburban Albany.

Rider Left With Split After Loss in Ireland: The Broncs following Friday’s win over North Florida, fell to Eastern Kentucky, 85-64, in the second of the two-day MAAC/ASUN Challenge in Dublin, Ireland. Marist with a 61-45 win over North Florida made their part of the MAAC delegation deliver a sweep.

The game was close early in the fourth period until the Colonels (3-2) ripped off a 23-3 run to take the win.

This was the first meeting between the two school.

Mikayla Firebaugh scored 17 points for the Broncs (2-3), while Victoria Toomey had 12 points as did Raphaela Toussaint.

“We had just too many turnovers and too many fouls,” said Rider coach Lynn Milligan. “We gave up too many boards and just did a lot of things that are not really good formula for success.

“The trip as a whole was absolutely amazing,” she said. “If there’s a bad part about this trip it was the game. We’re very thankful for this opportunity, and this is going to be something our kids are going to remember for a long time.”

Rider is off until Lehigh visits at 5 p.m. ahead of the men’s game in the doubleheader at Alumni Gym in Lawrenceville, N.J.