The Guru Report - I: Siegrist, Olsen, and Orihel Power Villanova Over La Salle to Claim Outright Big Five Title With 4-0 Sweep

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

VILLANOVA — The winner and still champions. 

That would be the Villanova Wildcats, who on Wednesday afternoon at home in Finneran Pavilion for the second time this season bounced back from a previous lopsided loss to reverse the equation by handing La Salle an 81-55 thumping, completing a City Series sweep to retain the Big Five title, their 19th.

The game here got off to a competitive start but a 9-0 run near the end of the first quarter created separation and sent Denise Dillon’s squad on its way to continue to own the Explorers with their 14th straight win in the series for an overall 43-9 record.

In the round robin Villanova (10-3, 4-0 Big Five) is now a Big Five best 129-41 with Saint Joseph’s second on total wins at 114.

The way the season is going with senior Maddy Siegrist, 30 is the new 20, she scored 31 with 11 rebounds and was a perfect 9-for-9 on the line. Seventeen of her points occurred in the second half.

Prior to Wednesday’s games Siegrist was second in the nation averaging 27.8 points per game behind Drexel’s Keishana Washington (29.5) and just ahead of Iowa’s Caitlin Clark (27.6).

The native of Poughkeepsie, N.Y., has been a special nightmare to the Explorers (8-6, 0-3) , let alone a fearsome force to the rest of the nation, now having averaged 31.7 points per game off collecting 127 points in the four games she’s played while on the defensive side her 39 rebounds averages to 9.7.

Her career high of 41 at La Salle, matched this year in the win over Temple, was a Big Five record for a frosh in a City Series game.

While Siegrist is from outside the area, the Villanova sophomore tandem of Lucy Olsen and Kaitlyn Orihel are more attuned locally to the Big Five history.

Olsen, who helped the cause with 19 points, her fifth straight game in double figures, and with eight assists, one off her personal best, is from Royersford and Spring-Ford High.

“There is a lot of competition in the Big Five and for us to come out on top is really exciting,” she said. “It’s great.”

Orihel, from Newtown, Pa., and Archbishop Wood, had a career-high 18 points, of which 12 came off 4 three-pointers.

On Sunday, Villanova suffered a loss to No. 14 Iowa State in the Basketball Hall of Fame Women’s Showcase at the Mohegan Sun Arena, the site of the Big East women’s tourney in March, that knocked the Wildcats out of the Associated Press women’s poll, ending a five-week stay that began with their upset of then nationally-ranked Princeton.

But with non-conference play now completed, Dillon’s squad will have plenty of opportunity to reclaim the notoriety with the number of Big East squads involved with the poll.

St. John’s, off to a program best 12-0 start, replaced Villanova this week, the Red Storm’s first ranking appearance since 2015.

“We’ve had a lot of great non-conference games,” Olsen said. “The Big East is going to be great this year. Every game is going to be a tough one. I think we’ve prepared well so far.”

Besides the offense, the defense held the Explorers to 32 percent from the field.

Kaitlyn Spruill scored 14, Claire Jacobs scored 11, reserve Gabby Crawford scored 13,  and Molly Mascianto dealt seven assists for La Salle, picked from the A-10 coaches to finish second in conference play.

Coach Mountain MacGillivray said that despite the forecast and respectable record, he thought his squad was playing better this time last season.

“It’s been the same for us,” he said of Wednesday’s game and coming off a similar differential loss Saturday at American Athletic Conference pick South Florida. “You shoot 32 percent, you’re not going to win a lot of basketball games,” he said. “We have to get better and find a way to put the ball in the basket.”

La Salle takes a quick dip in the conference schedule, hosting St. Joseph’s at 2 p.m. on New Year’s Eve in Tom Gola Arena, then starts 2003 hosting Hartford on Jan. 2, the last non-conference opponent on Jan. 2. That game also counts as the final Big Five game of the year so a visiting Hawks win gives Saint Joseph’s an outright second place finish at 3-1 and the Explorers in fifth at 0-5.

A reversal sends the Hawks to second in a 2-2 tie with Penn while La Salle would tie Temple for fourth at 1-4.

Dillon was pleased with the defensive effort.

“When shots fall it makes things easier and you’re more comfortable on the floor,” she said. “We’re trying to get our group to understand the work on the defensive end, staying locked in, and what the strategy and the plan is on that end. Because you’re going to have some nights when you’re not shooting that well.”

Siegrist on the career climb to moving past the celebrated Shelly Pennefather (1,408) from second to first in program scoring history now has 2,179 and just beyond Pennefather, she would need only a few more points to top Penn’s Diana Caramanico to become the all-time leader in the Big Five.

Following the Christmas break, Villanova begins its dive into the Big East wars visiting Marquette next Wednesday in Milwaukee at 8 p.m., then at Xavier in Cincinnati at noon on New Year’s Day before returning home to host Georgetown on Wednesday at 7 p.m., all those games appearing on the Flohoops Network.