The Guru Local Report: Siegrist Reaches 2000 Points as ‘Nova Handles South Florida; Temple, Saint Joseph’s, Drexel, and Rutgers Also Pick Up Victories

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

Maddy Siegrist past the 2000-point career milestone Sunday night and along the way drove No. 23 Villanova to a 72-50 rout of former old Big East rival South Florida and third place in the Gulf Coast Showcase in Hertz Arena in Estero, Fla.

The night’s work in dropping the reigning American Athletic Conference champions to 7-2 while improving to 6-1 coming 24 hours following a narrow and tough loss to No. 21 Baylor should be impressive enough to enable the Wildcats to maintain a place in the weekly Associated Press women’s basketball rankings.

‘Nova blasted off to a 25-11 lead against the Bulls, who never were able to mount a serious threat the rest of the way.

No. 22 Michigan, for the second straight year, took down Baylor, this time in the tourney title game later Sunday night.

Earlier, Saint Louis of the Atlantic 10 beat Air Force 77-58 to finish in seventh place in the eight team field, while Georgia Tech got past Belmont 58-52 for fifth place honors.

Siegrist, coming up fast on second on the all-time Wildcats scoring list attainable Friday when nationally-ranked Creighton comes to Finneran Pavilion to help open the season’s Big East slate, had a game-high 25 points and led her squad with seven rebounds, while Lucy Olsen had 13 points and five assists.

USF got 17 points from Sammie Puisis while Dulcy Fankam Mendjiadeu had 14 points and 17 rebounds. Her three-game tourney total of 49 boards blasted away the previous mark of 36 from Ebony Rowe of Middle Tennessee in 2013.

Siegrist with 76 points in the tourney was just nine points of the total tourney scoring mark.

The ‘Nova depth was lopsided also outscoring the Bulls bench 20-2.

Siegrist’s milestone arrival at two grand in points came at 3:46 of the third quarter off a 10-foot jumper.

That made her the eighth person from Philly Six schools behind all-time leader Gabriela Marginean, who had 2,581 at Drexel, ironically, then coached by the Wildcats’ Denise Dillon, who left the Dragons three seasons ago to take over her alma mater in the wake of longtime mentor Harry Perretta’s retirement.

Siegrist with 2,007 points at the moment is seventh among Big Five players with Diana Caramanico still ahead of the pack with 2,415 points.

And at ‘Nova she is now on the heels of second place Nancy Bernhardt, who had 2,018, with all-American Shelly Pennefather having held the longtime lead at 2,408.

In the championship, Michigan, the team that knocked out Villanova on the Wolverines’ campus in Ann Arbor in the second round of the NCAA tournament last spring, the winners used a strong fourth quarter to defeat the Bears (5-2).

Emily Kiser, with 25 points and 13 rebounds for Michigan (7-0) earned tourney MVP honors, while Laila Phelia of the Wolverines had 20 points to earn all-tourney honors.

Baylor’s Jaden Owens scored 22 to make the squad while the Bears’ Ja’Mee Asberry scored 15 points. Siegrist and Mendjiadeu also made the squad.

Michigan picked up 23 points off forcing Baylor into 22 turnovers.

Listed below, subject to anything missed from quick research, is the all-time 2,000 plus scorers from the Philly Six in order, and beyond since part of the coverage, those that reached 2,000 at Delaware, Penn State, and Rutgers.

WNBA star Elena Delle Donne of the Washington Mystics leads everyone in the region with 3,039 points.

Gabriela Marginean – Drexel -2581

Diana Caramanico – Penn 2415

Shelly Pennefather – Villanova 2408

Mia Davis — Temple 2376

Sue Moran – Saint Joseph’s 2340

Marilyn Stephens – Temple 2194

Nancy Bernhardt – Villanova 2018

Maddy Siegrist – Villanova 2007

 

Other area followed 2000 point club high scorers

 

Sue Wicks – Rutgers 2655

 Tyler Scaife – Rutgers 2233

 Cappie Pondexter – Rutgers 2211

 

Elena Delle Donne – Delaware 3039

 

Kelly Mazzante – Penn State 2919

 Maggie Lucas – Penn State 2510

 Susan Robinson – Penn State 2253

 Tyra Grant — Penn State 2044

 Khadeejah Herbert – Penn State 2026

Saint Joseph’s Stays Unbeaten With Lopsided Win at North Florida: The Hawks continue to fly high, the latest victim downed 79-56 to run the season start to 6-0. It’s the longest season-starting win streak under veteran coach Cindy Griffin since a 7-0 start in 2005-06. It’s the third best start in program history — the best 10-0 in 1984-85 under Jim Foster.

Saint Joseph’s took off with a 22-7 lead in the first quarter and was never threatened by a squad that recently lost a close one to Rider in the MAAC/ASUN Challenge in Dublin, Ireland.

Laura Ziegler scored 15 points and grabbed eight rebounds for the Hawks, while Katie Jekot scored 11, Talya Brugler scored nine as did Olivia Mullins, who also grabbed eight rebounds.

Kaylie Griffin, who sat out her freshman season, made her debut, getting an assist in eight minutes of action.

Lyric Swan scored 20 for North Florida (1-4), while Emma Broermann had 16 points and nine rebounds in the game in Jacksonville.

Saint Joseph’s next comes home and hosts Patriot League favorite Boston U. At Hagan Arena, Thursday, at 7 p.m. on ESPN+.

Drexel Conquers Buffalo: The Dragons continued to breathe fire, this time on the road in topping the Bulls 53-35 in Amherst, N.Y., as Grace O’Neill rang three categories with career highs of 12 points, nine rebounds, and three steals.

Keishana Washington scored 15, her 39th straight in double figures, while freshman Kylie Lavelle had 11 points, and Maura Hendrixson dealt eight assists.

Drexel (4-1) limited Buffalo (1-3) to 10-for-39 from the field through the first three quarters.

Kayla Salmons was the only Bulls player in double figures, scoring 10 points and completing the double double with 10 rebounds.

From travel north, the Dragons next head south, visiting Longwood in Farmville, Va., at 6 p.m. On Sunday afternoon, they return to the area for a local Philly Six showdown at Saint Joseph’s.

Temple Gets First Road Win for Richardson: New Owls coach Diana Richardson, who collected plenty at Towson, picked up her first road win at Temple, a 77-62 triumph at Patriot League contender Bucknell in Lewisburg, Pa., to snap a three-game losing streak, two at the hands of Big Five rivals.

Aleah Nelson, who earlier in the week said the starting losses did not dismay her, had 23 points, fueled by six shots from deep, while Jasha Clinton scored 17 for the Owls (2-4) She was 7-for-11 from the field.

Jaylynn Holmes had nine points off the bench and reserve Caranda Perea scored eight with six rebounds.

Bucknell (2-5) got 16 points from Isabella King, fueled by four shots from beyond the arc, while Cecelia Collins also scored 16, and Remi Sisselman scored 11.

Temple has another road stop this week, heading to Old Dominion at 6:30 p.m. in Norfolk, Va., on ESPN+. Since the two teams met last season here, the Lady Monarchs have moved from Conference-USA to the Sun Belt Conference.

On Saturday the Owls will host UMBC at 3:30 p.m. in the Liacouras Center on ESPN+.

Rutgers Snaps Skid Beating Cornell: Following a tough three-game slide last weekend in the Battle4Atlantis in the Bahamas, the Scarlet Knights returned home in their Jersey Mike’s Arena in Piscataway, N.J., and gained an easy 71-52 triumph over the Big Red (3-4) of the Ivy League.

Rutgers (4-4) controlled the boards 53-30 as Kaylene scored Smikle scored 25 points and grabbed eight rebounds. Awa Sidibe scored 16 and dealt four assists, while Chyna Cornwell had nine points and 16 rebounds. Reserve Abby Streeter scored 12.

“I thought we did a good job of pursuing the ball,” said first-year coach Coquese Washington. “There were a few times where we had two or three of our players fighting over the ball. That’s something we definitely want to use our aggressiveness to come down with the ball and I thought we did that.”

Kaya Ingram and Mia Beam each scored 11 points for Cornell.

As a conference school, Rutgers on Wednesday will travel to Chestnut Hill, Mass., to participate in the annual Big Ten/ACC challenge this week being held Wednesday and Thursday.

Next Sunday, besides hosting conference powerhouse Ohio State, the school will officially dedicate naming the court in honor of retired Hall of Fame coach C. Vivian Stringer.

Princeton Shot Down by Texas: The Tigers returned last season’s Texas visit to Jadwin Gym, venturing into the No. 19 Longhorns’ new Moody Center suffering a 74-50 wipeout.

Star guard Rori Harmon, who had been sidelined with an injury made her season debut for Texas (3-3) and in 22 minutes scored 11 points and shot 4-for-8 from the field.

Sonya Morris scored 15 points, while Taylor Jones had 12 points and ten rebounds, and Aaliyah Moore scored 10.

The Tigers (3-2), whose other loss is a home setback to Villanova, got 15 point from Kaitlyn Chen, while Julia Cunningham scored 10, and Ellie Mitchell grabbed seven rebounds.

Princeton is off until Friday when Carla Berube’s squad travels north to play Maine at 7 p.m.

Lehigh Edged by Quinnipiac While Lafayette Downed by Marist: After losing its opener Saturday to Southern Illinois in its own tourney, Lehigh suffered a tough 67-64 outcome to the Bobcats, the preseason pick of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.

With 33 seconds left in regulation, Frannie Hottinger got the host Mountain Hawks up by two with a pair of free throws in the third place game.

However, with 16 seconds remaining, Rose Caverly made an old fashioned three point play to put the visitors up 63-62.

Lehigh then missed a shot coming the other way and Jackie Grisdale went to the line for Quinnipiac and sank both opportunities.

Hottinger went back to the line for the Mountain Hawks and was 1-for-2. Quinnipiac then did likewise the other end holding a three-point lead. Rookie Lily Fandre went for the tie from deep but the shot rimmed in and out ending the game at Stabler Arena in Bethlehem, Pa.

“I think we are learning to play versus different styles of defenses, which is exactly what we have scheduled this for,” said Lehigh first-year coach Addie Micir.

Caverly had 15 points for Quinnipiac (3-3) in the third place game of the Christmas City Classic, while Ella O’Donnell scored 14, Cur’Tiera Haywood scored 11, and Mikala Morris scored 10.

Hottinger and Fandre each scored 12 for Lehigh (2-5), while reserve Kayla Van Eps scored 13 off the bench.

In the championship, Kent State beat Southern Illinois, 72-66, as Lindsey Thall scored 20 points for the Golden Flashes (4-2).

Tyranny Brown had 15 points for the Salukis (1-5), who also got 14 points and seven rebounds from Promise Taylor, while Ashley Jones scored 12.

Lehigh next visits Rider at 5 p.m. Wednesday in the Broncs’ Alumni Gym in Lawrenceville, N.J.

In the other local in action, a single game, out of the Patriot League’s Lafayette, the Leopards visited Marist in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., and stayed competitive for a half before the Red Foxes out of the break launched a 10-2 run and went on to a 52-42 victory.

Jackie Piddock paced nine different scorers for Marist (3-3), collecting 12 points, while Halee Smith of Lafayette (1-6) had a team high 11 points.

The Leopards next host UMBC Wednesday at 6 p.m. at the Kirby Sports Center in Easton, Pa.

Looking ahead to Tuesday, Penn visits La Salle at Tom Gola Arena at 7 p.m. on ESPN+ the Quakers, who are going to be either home or in the general area for a long stretch, playing their third Big Five game at 0-2 so far while the host Explorers will be playing their first.

Right now, Villanova, Saint Joseph’s, and La Salle are the remaining three teams who can still complete the City Series with a 4-0 run for local bragging rights. The Hawks (Penn, Temple) and Wildcats (also Penn, Temple) are each 2-0.

And that’s your local report.