The Guru Report: Siegrist Breaks Villanova Career Scoring Record As Wildcats Blast Creighton

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

Some revenge visit.

Villanova senior Maddy Siegrist, the nation’s leading scorer, popped a mid-range jumper with 6:32 left in regulation Friday night and became the all-time men’s and women’s scorer at the Main Line university in what was the icing on the cake in a Big East 73-57 payback to Creighton that was settled much earlier in Omaha, Neb., atoning for the only blot, a 67-46 defeat, on the No. 22 Wildcats’ conference record to date.  

Long past the numbers of Kerry Kittles, the men’s career leader, Siegrist arrived just 18 points short of the 2,408 points scored in the late 1980s by the legendary Shelly Pennefather, who not long after her graduation became a nun with the Poor Clares, a strict religious order in Alexander, Va.

While the focus has been on Siegrist and her march to the long-thought unbreakable now36-year-old mark, actually getting there in less games at 103 than Pennefather at 117, the story of the first half was the work of the other Maddie — Penn State transfer Maddie Burk — firing five three pointers in the first quarter along with high field goal percentage accuracy from the rest of the squad.

“It’s remarkable what she’s done,” Villanova coach Denise Dillon said. “It’s efficiency. You’ve seen her allow to add to her game to grow her point total.”

Unlike the 19-9 lead that vanished in the first meeting at Finneran Pavilion in early December, Villanova (18-3. 9-1 Big East), in second place behind No. 5 UConn in the conference had a tenacious defense throughout, the normally sharpshooting Bluejays (12-6, 6-4) failing to get a field goal in the first period.

Siegrist (28.8 ppg.), who has reached 20 points in all 221 games this season, had 11 at the the half, but with Creighton, though playing somewhat better but failing to make any dent into the Wildcats advantage, attention turned to the native of Poughkeepsie, N.Y. as she neared her first stop with what will be a bunch of them with history as she finishes her collegiate career.

The Villanova star finished with 23 points and eight rebounds, the career mark 2414, two points short of becoming the all-time women’s leader in the Big Five, another long-existing total from Penn’s Diana Caramanico.

Lucy Olsen scored 19 points, grabbed eight rebounds, and dealt seven assists, while Burke’s 5-of-6 threes in the first period all accounted for her 15 points.

Creighton’s Morgan Mally, Lauren Jensen, and Carly Bachelor each scored 11 points and Mallory Brake scored 10.

“It’s so special,” Siegrist said of becoming the new record holder. “The amount of great players that played at Villanova, it’s just such an honor, to break Shelly’s record, I never could have imagined it.

“Especially a person like that. Such a good player, but such a better person.”

“I felt I was going to be all right (when she enrolled at Villanova) but I never could have dreamed that.”

Of the game and the total team effort to beat Creighton, Siegriest said, “It was huge. I tried real hard not to think about it this week, but obviously with social media and such, you’re aware, and to just go into this game and get the win. That was the most important thing. To start the first quarter … all these kids scoring that was huge. Most important, we got the win and when the time came, I took as many opportunity as I could.

“Yeah, I knew (when she had become No. 1), it was almost like, whew, take a deep breath and keep going and just try to get to the end of the game.”

Villanova is off until next Sunday when the Wildcats visit UConn at 2 p.m. at the XL Center in Hartford.

During the break Siegrist on Monday night will receive the Philadelphia Sportswriters Association Amateur Athlete of the Year honor at the organization’s annual dinner at 6 p.m. at the Doubletree at Hilton (formerly Crown Plaza) on Route 70 in Cherry Hill, N.J.

“Super proud of the win,” Dillon said. “Our team came in here ready to go at both ends of the floor, knocked down some big shots and set the tone, defensively.

“Summing it all up, extremely excited, proud, to see Maddy climb to the top of the list. I just said as an alum and player who was aware of Shelly’s accomplishments and what she did, you heard a lot about it, she held that record 30 plus years.

“To be part of Maddy’s journey and watch her work to this point has been an absolute pleasure. She still has so much more to do. It’s going to be exciting as she leads the team,” Dillon continue.

“It’s a huge accomplishment, breaking the record and being our leading scorer, but I still thought the job she did on the defensive end. She did for us what needs to be done to win this game and everything and the record would take care of itself, even if it wasn’t tonight. All she cared about was us winning this basketball game,” Dillon said.

“When I got here her sophomore year, she felt she had to score for us to be successful, to get 20+ each night for us to win. She has learned trusting her teammates, and their abilities, and giving them confidence, putting them in positions of scoring and, yet, with that mentality, she’s actually scoring more. What she does, it’s relentless. She wants to win.

“She wants to be the best. She’s not going to talk about it. She wants to put the time and effort into it. Dangle a goal and she’s going after it. She’s not backing down. It’s not like she’s going into a game with a set number, but she’s going to work for it, each time she’s out there. She knows if she’s her best, we have an opportunity to be successful.

“It’s a maturity factor of her seeing how far she can lead her team. She showed it last year. And still more. So that carrot’s still out there.”

With the climb through the numbers just beginning, including local men, here’s the updated list of how Siegrist compares. 

Gabriela Marginean – drexel -2581

Diana Caramanico – penn 2415

*Maddy Siegrist – Villanova 2414 – 1/20/23;  2 to pass diana b5 168 pass drex top wom 

Shelly Pennefather – villanova 2408

Mia Davis — Temple 2376

Sue Moran – Saint Joseph’s 2340

Marilyn Stephens – Temple 2194

Nancy Bernhardt – Villanova 2018

 

Big East Record Sarah Behn, B.C. 1546

Maddy 1393 needs 153 possible feb 18 UConn game here fox to break

 

 Men

Better than anyone else villanova penn drexel st joes. 

Temple – Mark Macon 2609 — needs 1966

La Salle Simmons — 3217 — out of reach likely

Tom Gola 2461 — needs 48

Michael Brooks 2628 — needs 214 — would make her second gender combo under simmon

Ken Durrett – (3 seasons ) 1,679 passed it

Larry Cannon (3 seasons) 1,430 passed it

Towson Edges Delaware: The building win streak of the Blue Hens came to an abrupt end to Towson, 69-66, at home in a Colonial Athletic Association game at the Bob Carpenter Center in Newark.

The Tigers (10-7, 4-2 CAA) under first-year coach Laura Harper, a former Cheltenham and Maryland star, have won four straight.

In this one, the third quarter was fatal to Delaware (10-7, 3-3), the Tigers outscoring the home team 23-10, though the game was tied 56-56 midway through the next period.

Towson went 9-5 the rest of the way and the Blue Hens were unable to force the game into overtime.

Nakiyah Mays-Prince had 12 points for the home team, while Makayla Pippin and Michelle Ojo each scored 10.

Towson’s Sky Williams scored 16, while Kylie Kornegay-Lucas had 14 points with six steals, and Patricia Anumbgba had 13 points and four steals.

Delaware is off until next Friday, hosting Elon ast 7 p.m. on Flohoops.

Nationally noted: All the action was in the PAC-12  beginning with a Top 10 battle between No. 2 Stanford and No. 8 Utah, the Cardinal winning 74-62 at home in Palo Alto.

Cameron Brink scored 25 points and 14 rebounds with three blocked shots, while Haley Jones had 25 with 12 rebounds and a pair of blocked shots as Stanford (18-2, 6-1 PAC-12) adjusted when freshman Talana Lepolo went down with an ankle injury and replaced with freshman Indya Nivar.

Bouncing back from Sunday’s upset loss at Southern Cal, the Stanford win increased Tara VanDerveer’s all-time record total to 1174.

“I think our team had something to prove ourselves and what better opportunity than against a team like Utah,” VanDerveer said. We have a lot of teams in the PAC-12 that are (NCAA) tournament teams and they’re a tournament team.”

Utah (15-2, 5-2) got 25 points from Alissa Pili while Gianna Kneepkens scored 19.

“Until people knock off Stanford they’re still at the top and we’re all chasing them,” said Utah coach Lynne Roberts.

No. 24 Colorado edged host California 73-66; and No. 9 UCLA won at Washington State 51-47, while Southern Cal won at Washington State 51-44; but Oregon State upset No. 23 Oregon 68-65 putting the Ducks in danger of being ousted in the next AP Women’s Poll released on Monday.

Looking Ahead: Another day, another showdown date in the Ivy League, this one with Penn trying to come back from Monday’s loss at Princeton, hosting Yale in The Palestra at 2 p.m. Saturday on ESPN+.

Rider is hosting Fairfield at 2 p.m. in the Broncs’ Alumni Gym in a Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) game on ESPN+ In Lawrenceville, N.J.

Temple visits Memphis at 3 p.m. on ESPN+ while in the Ivies, the other local has Princeton visiting Dartmouth.

In the Patriot League, Lehigh travels to nearby Lafayette at 2 p.m. in the Kirby Sports Center in Easton, Pa., on ESPN+.

On Sunday involving the locals, in the Atlantic 10, La Salle goes to Loyola Chicago at 3 p.m. on ESPN+ while at 2 p.m. in a key match Saint Joseph’s hosts Fordham at 2 p.m. in Hagan Arena on ESPN+.

In the Big Ten, Penn State hosts Wisconsin at 5 p.m. in the Bryce Jordan Center in State College on the B1G network, while Rutgers hosts Michigan State at 3 p.m. in Jersey Mike’s Arena in Piscataway, N.J. On the B1G+ subscription network.

Drexel visits Towson at 2 p.m. in the SECU Arena in suburban Baltimore on Flohoopds.

And that’s the report.