The Guru Report: No. 25 Villanova Powers Past American While Penn Averts Bucknell Upset in Overtime

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

VILLANOVA — The Wildcats, who clung to their Associated Press women’s poll ranking on Monday despite the Big East home opening loss to then-No. 13 Creighton last week, made it two straight ensuing lopsided victories Tuesday night in routing visiting American U. 83-42 here at their Finneran Pavilion.

In the only other game on the Guru radar of local or national relevance during an ongoing period where finals are also occurring Penn got forced into overtime but then prevailed over visiting Bucknell 68-62 in overtime.

But while on the topic, health concerns caused a postponement of No. 5 Notre Dame’s Thursday night visit to Lafayette on the host Leopards’ side with the schools seeking to find a date to reschedule the game.

Last weekend, Texas A&M had a cancellation due a similar situation on the opponent’s end before becoming part of a trio of schools pulling out of a forthcoming tournament in Las Vegas over other issues.

On Tuesday night the Aggies were edged on the road by Little Rock 42-38.

Back on the Main Line, some might have seen the winless Eagles’ appearance here as a trap game for ‘Nova (8-2), which now gets to prepare head on for Saturday’s Big Five 2 p.m. visit from down the road from Saint Joseph’s.

The Hawks (8-0), off to their best start in veteran Cindy Griffin’s 22-year coaching era at her alma mater, will be on similar awareness Wednesday night at 7 p.m. (ESPN+)  in staying unbeaten when they head a little over an hour north to visit Rider in the Broncs’ Alumni Gym in Lawrenceville, N.J., just above Trenton.

In playing American (0-8), the Wildcats broke from an early 4-4 tie and basically had the game sealed in their favor with 21-5 run the rest of the first period unthreatened the rest of the way.

“The biggest thing over the summer is the buy-in on the defensive end, then on the offensive end sharing the ball, moving without the ball, good things will happen,” said Lucy Olsen, who had 12 points and six rebounds, while on the move shot 4-for-7 from the field.

On the team’s play, Olsen said, “They stepped up in the second half and showed what they were capable of doing so now we practice Thursday and Friday to prepare for a very good Saint Joe’s team.”

Given a chance to get some rest at times, Maddy Siegrist continued to thunder along the all time Villanova women’s scoring chart now in second place, pouring 24 points, while grabbing seven rebounds with two steals, two blocks, and a pair of assists.

The scoring math brings Siegrist’s total to 2,085, which is 323 behind the program leader, the legendary Shelly Pennefather (2,408). In the Philly Six group of what is an eight member contingent, she is 109 behind Temple all-American Marilyn Stephen’s (2,194) spot in sixth and 330, not much more after Pennefather, to get to Penn great Diana Caramanico (2,415 for the Big Five record.

The scoreboard for points isn’t the only place Siegrist has been mounting. She’s now fourth in rebounding passing Lisa Angelotti with 856.

Drexel’s Gabriela Marginean holds the all-time No. 1 scoring slot at 2,581, achieved when current Villanova coach Denise Dillon in her third season back at her alma mater was on a long, successful run handling the Dragons.

Christina Dalce, who will be in a group of most improved player in the area, collected 13 points, tying a career-high, in Tuesday’s action in which the Wildcats owned the boards 38-26. 

Penn State transfer Maddie Burke score nine, grabbed five rebounds, and dealt four assists.

Emily Johns with 12 points was the sole player scoring in double figures for American, which has won only once in what is now a five-game series, playing ‘Nova.

“There you go,” Dillon said of what the squad was facing from the Eagles. “You got a team coming in here desperate for a win and they’re going to try anything.”

Speaking of the span that began with Friday’s debacle and a second Big East weekend game 48 hours later in Providence Sunday and then another short turnaround, Dillon commented, “I said to the team, `We got punished. Let’s see how we respond.’

“They responded nicely. Because (Associate Head Coach) Joe (Mullaney Jr.) reminded me, `we haven’t played consistent up here. It’s a tough place to play.’ I don’t keep that traditional mindset in mind, but  Joe has been here for a lot of games and a lot of situations, so having said that I was pleased in not just winning, but beating somebody.

“I tell this group, you focus on us and you look to get better, you get caught up in the other team, you lose focus.”

With everything now in the rear view mirror heading to the local Saturday showdown, Dillon, who herself has played in what could be considered each team’s main Big Five rival, “you just try to put a spin on it, it’s an opportunity to play for a championship. We’re the last two teams who can win all four. That’s what you want. Here it is. Bragging rights and all that stuff.

“We have enough people who get all that, the importance of that, we talked about that when we went to Florida (Gulf Coast Showcase), the opportunity to win a championship. They haven’t had a loss, so we’ll see what happens.”

In this place, the Wildcats have been on a tear back to last season, the loss to Creighton Friday being the only one in the last 13 games. 

Following focus on classwork during exam period after the tilt with the Hawks, a week from Sunday, Villanova will be up on a doubleheader alongside No. 6 UConn, the Wildcats playing No. 10 Iowa State  on Dec. 18 at 3:30 p.m. in the Basketball Hall of Fame Women’s Showcase at the Mohegan Sun Arena near New London, Connecticut, the same site as the Big East tournament, besides home of the WNBA Connecticut Sun.

The Huskies will play Florida State.

Then the first day of winter, Dec. 21, brings the Villanova’s last seasonal City Series clash, hosting La Salle at 11:30 a.m. with a potential chance to clinch the Big Five outright, pending the Saint Joseph’s result, Saturday.

After the holiday break it will be then be conference wars all the way in what could be an even tougher Big East ride than in previous years.

On that note, No. 6 UConn announced that star Azzi Fudd will be out three to six weeks with a knee injury suffered in Sunday’s loss at then-No. 7 Notre Dame.

If that sets of an idea of repeating last year’s startling win in one of the two games with the Huskies, this year’s first encounter, which up there will be in Hartford this time, the date is Jan. 29, which falls outside a conservative timeline prognosis for Fudd’s return.

But it will be interesting to see the impact Thursday when Ivy favorite Princeton visits UConn at 7 p.m. at the campus Gampel Pavilion Arena, marking the homecoming of Tigers coach Carla Berube, who starred there in the mid-1990s.

Penn Escapes: With the Villanova win over American and the Quakers hosting Bucknell, Tuesday night could could be considered another Philly vs. the Patriot League Challenge event like the recent evening when Lehigh visited Drexel while La Salle was at Lafayette.

As that one went, this too was a two-game sweep for the city folks, except it was an adventure for Penn before pulling out a 68-62 win over the Bisons (4-6) in overtime at The Palestra.

That’s three triumphs in a row for veteran Quakers coach Mike McLaughlin’s group, far different than a year ago when a combination of rotating eight seniors on multi-games penalties from the league and cancelled games caused by issues from the pandemic played havoc over building any chemistry.

Thus while the visitors dipped below .500, Penn got closer at 4-5.

Furthermore, that span on the current 10-straight Palestra home stand could extend to four Thursday night when St. Francis Brooklyn visits at 7 p.m. on ESPN+ heading towards Sunday’s noon visit from Temple for a Big Five clash.

Playing the Brooklyn group up there last year was one of the season high spots, a 63-46 victory.

That’s another game that didn’t get played a year ago due to a postponement turned cancellation from the aforementioned Covid-19 interference with positive tests occurring.

Penn’s outside firepower was helpful, connecting on 9-for-27 from deep, while Bucknell was 5-for-16.

The Quakers placed four players scoring in double figures, Jordan Obi the leader with 16 points and five assists, while Kayla Padilla had 15 points and eight rebounds, Floor Toonders from the Netherlands had a big night, double-doubling her way also with 15 points along with 11 rebounds, and freshman Simone Sawyer, the Ivy rookie of the week, reached double digits again, scoring 10 points in this one.

Sawyer is leading Ivy rookies with .470 from the floor and .415 from deep.

Toonders was also a career-best 3-for-6 from outside the arc, as well as a personal best four blocks and two steals.

Bucknell’s Emma Shaffer had a double-double output of 15 points and 11 rebounds, while Cecilia Collins had a game-leading 18 points and dealt six assists.

Late in the third quarter, Penn’s lead ballooned to 15 points, but the Bison stampeded its way back to a 49-49 tie under two minutes of play in the final quarter.

Though the Quakers seemed safe up seven with 2:09 left in regulation what happened next was mindful of a loss to La Salle several years ago that cost Penn an outright claim to a Big Five crown.

A top of the key desperation sinker got it knotted at the finish and caused overtime, a situation that likely would have not gotten better a year ago.

But not these Quakers.

Though Bucknell went up a point in the extra period, Padilla drove for two and Obi went deep from outside for a four-point Penn advantage.

The Bison came back with its only field goal in the overtime but Mandy McGurk said enough by going 4-for-4 from the line to wrap it up.

“We’ve made progress … a series of tough losses,” Padilla said afterwards being interviewed on the ESPN+ stream. “We need to learn how to overcome challenges and this came into our mindset and those lessons helped us in overtime. 

“We’re going to have a series of diverse kind of games that will set us up for conference play. We’re going to be up 20 … overtime. We need to know how to handle these moments and stayed composed in these kind of situations.”

Nationally noted: No. 22 Gonzaga was again shorthanded, just seven available to play, but that was enough for an overpowering 73-49 win against Queens University of Charlotte in Spokane, Wash., as the winners (8-2) as Yvonne Ejim torched the nets for 32 points against the Royals (4-5). 

Ejim’s career-high was the first 30-point performance in the program since Jill Barta on Dec. 2, 2017 five seasons ago. UC Davis visits Sunday.

Belmont, the Missouri Valley favorite that Villanova edged in the first round of the Gulf Coast Showcase, beat host Lipscomb 77-68 to improve to 3-6 and drop the opposition to 5-5 as Kilyn McGuff, the daughter of Ohio State coach Kevin McGuff, scored 25 points, shooting 9-for-13 from the field.

Drake topped host South Dakota 83-54 in a game between contenders from separate conferences.

Tennessee, an unranked squad that was preseason Top 5 in the AP Poll, got to .500 at 5-5 at home in Knoxville beating in-state rival Chattanooga 69-35 dropping the visitors to 6-5. Jordan Horston scored 14 points.

Looking Ahead: Two other locals play Wednesday night besides the Saint Joseph’s visit to Rider with La Salle hosting Monmouth at 6:30 p.m. on ESPN+ while Rutgers in its second Big Ten encounter visits Illinois at 8 p.m. on the conference subscription plus network.

No. 10 Iowa State visits No. 16 Iowa in an in-state powerhouse game at 7 p.m. on ESPN2. Both had appeared in the Top 5 in earlier weeks of the still young season.

On Thursday, besides the Penn game, Princeton is at No. 6 UConn, as mentioned above, while No. 4 Indiana visits Penn State at 7 p.m. on the Big Ten subscription network, while on the main Big Ten, No. 20 Maryland is at Purdue at 6:30 p.m., No. 14 Michigan hosts Mid-American pick Toledo at 7 p.m., Fordham visits Maine at 7 p.m., and Kansas visits No. 12 Arizona at 8 p.m. on the PAC-12 Network.

On Friday, Rider is at Seton Hall in a New Jersey in-state contest at 11 a.m. in South Orange.

And that’s the report.