The Guru Report: Marquette Hands No. 4 UConn First Losing Streak in Three Decades; No. 15 Villanova and Saint Joseph’s Gain Lopsided Wins

Guru’s Note: The UConn portion drawn from wire reports of the game

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

Heading into last season, the powerhouse Connecticut women’s basketball team was poised to enhance all it had previously achieved primarily in terms of national titles and elite listings in the Associated Press poll. Then the parade of injuries began and long-standing success standards began to go by the wayside, though the Huskies were able to get somewhat healthy and advance all the way to the championship before stopped by South Carolina.

Then over the summer, it began again, even worse, suddenly offering reverse notoriety such as the postponement of a Big East game due to the required number of healthy scholarship players able to play.

Yet, remarkably, Hall of Fame UConn coach Geno Auriemma was able to keep it together enough for his squad to handle most of the schedule, stay in the Top 10, even most weeks as of Monday’s poll in the Top five.

After a narrow 81-77 loss at home in Hartford to top-ranked and unbeaten South Carolina, in his postgame comments, Auriemma beamed that he knew more about his team after the game than he did immediately before.

Well, unlike the many wines he has dealt in his restaurant businesses, the upbeat comment did not age very well, in fact lasting just 72 hours.

If the Storrs campus that is home to UConn is the place that made the sport very famous, on Wednesday night in a Big East road game at Marquette in the Midwest, Milwaukee showered infamy on the Huskies by way of a Golden Eagles 59-52 first-ever win in the series that struck them with something they had not experienced in three decades — a losing streak.

It’s the first back-to-back set of defeats for the visitors since March of 1993. That’s a record of 75-0 following losses and 1,083 straight games without consecutive losses prior to arriving in Milwaukee.

In those three decades there have been single game losses on the biggest media stages, but a bounce back always came the next game no matter the opponent.

Incidentally, add this to the supplementary collateral effect. 

When the moment of dubious history struck, the once proud, once very peopled media contingent beyond athletic department personnel, nicknamed “The Horde,” was nowhere to be found on the scene, except for the SNY-TV crew. 

Where once columnists and reporters would have been pounding away deep into the night, deadlines notwithstanding, all were covering from back home via TV, managerial decisions seeing this as an expected win-producing saved resources for March Madness.

Those of us who go way back nationally for us and locally for them with the rise of the program can recall Auriemma in 1995 when Rebecca Lobo, Jen Rizzotti, and a now-Princeton  coach Carla Berube, among others, delivered the first of the 11 titles, saying, (paraphrasing) “This is how how a fairy tale should end.”

On Wednesday night, while Marquette (16-8, 9-6 Big East) was celebrating with its fan base the first win in 17 meetings in the series, Auriemma was saying this of the UConn (21-4, 13-1) streak ender: “When people read that stat and they look back, that is a fairly-tale stat. And all fairy tales — they don’t always come true — but everything has an end. So this ended here at Marquette.”

The losses in ‘93 were to Providence in the Big East tourney on March 7 and then to Louisville in the NCAA tournament on March 17.

Of all the notable streaks and milestones, team-wise, just two remain, the 14-straight Final Fours, which is on tender hooks, given the roster situation, and, unless something really disastrous occurs, the current 559 straight appearances in the AP Poll set to tie the Tennessee mark of 565 in the preseason poll of 2023-24 and break after the first week of play gets under way.

Last year when Villanova broke a long 169-unbeaten mark in conference play in the American Athletic Conference and current Big East makeup, Marquette had a chance to also beat the Huskies, only to lose in the fourth quarter, 72-58.

But Marquette’s defense held this time, limiting UConn to its lowest point total of the season.

“We came into a huddle and we were at the media timeout in the fourth quarter, and I was like, “`We were here last year. I’m not watching film on how we lost in the last five minutes,’” said Jordan King, whose 18 points for the Golden Eagles was one less than Chloe Marotta with 19. “You have to put 40 minutes together. For us, I felt like we did that.”

The outcome added Marquette coach Megan Duffy, a former Notre Dame star, to the list of two others, South Carolina coach Dawn Staley, who played at Virginia, and Villanova’s Denise Dillon, in the third year at her alma mater, who have beaten Auriemma-coached squads as a player and coach.

“In some ways, I’m speechless,” Duffy said. “The next emotion is I’m just incredibly proud of these women and what they did tonight —  a historic win for Marquette in women’s basketball. 

“We knew we were up against a buzzsaw with Connecticut losing on Sunday.”

The Huskies’ Dorka Juhasz scored 15 points, while Aubrey Griffin and Lou Lopez Senechal each scored 12 points.

Auriemma noted King scoring 10 straight points, which also involved two from deep, as where things began getting away from his group.

“I think that just completely and totally deflated us,” he said. “After the week that we’ve had — after the 10 days, two weeks, whatever — we just, I think mentally all of us .. I think we just checked out. 

“It was a major struggle because they were so locked in, their team, in what they wanted to do.

“I told the team this: I’m surprised that it’s taken this long to have that kind of mental checkout,” he said. “And it’s the first time all year in 20-some games that it’s happened. Tonight happened to be that night. And against the wrong team.”

On Saturday, Connecticut will attempt to pick up the pieces and continue in the Big East, playing Georgetown on the road, not in the Hoyas’ McDonough Arena in the Nation’s Capital, but in the WNBA Washington Mystics’ Entertainment & Sports Arena at 5 p.m. on FloHoops at 1100 Oak Dr. SE in the Congress Heights neighborhood.

Villanova Rolls Through Georgetown

Whether the attraction of the weekend’s game with UConn was a factor for the host Hoyas is not known but unlike the earlier meeting on the Main Line last month, this one was came easier at 82-53 to add another Big East opponent in the season-sweep collection.

Maddy Siegrist, the nation’s leading scorer (28.3), scored 27, along with another double-double achievement with 12 rebounds, becoming only the second women in the Philly Six to surpass 2,500 career statistics, behind the 2,581 by former Drexel star Gabriela Marginian.

The native of Poughkeepsie now has 2,521, needing just 61 points to become the all-time women’s scorer. 

The Big East record, which only tracks conference games, is held by Boston College’s Sarah Behn at 1,546. 

Siegrist became the second conference women to reach 1,500 points, now exactly at that total, needing 47. She would only have to average 15 points and decimal change over the next three to break the mark when UConn visits here a week from Saturday. Overall, she has six games left in regular season play.

The game also saw Kaitlyn Orihel have a career-high 20 points for the Wildcats (21-4, 12-2), shooting 8-of-9 from the field, and 4-of-5 from the deep to tie a personal best.

Lucy Olsen had 10 points and dealt seven assists.

The Hoyas (12-12, 5-10) got 12 points from Kristina Moore, and 11 points and eight rebounds from Kennedy Fauntleroy.

On Saturday, Villanova has a key conference game, hosting Seton Hall at 1 p.m. on FloHoops, the first of two with one of the squads not far behind the second-place Wildcats.

Saint Joseph’s Pounds VCU While La Salle Downed in Richmond

In the game yours truly attended at Hagan Arena on Hawk Hill, Saint Joseph’s shook off its recent 1-5 stretch of narrow losses against the best of the Atlantic 10 by routing VCU 67-45.

The two previous losses were in overtime and double overtime at Rhode Island and Richmond.

Not necessary to go extra minutes in this one, however, as Laura Ziegler had a double-double 22 points, matching her personal best, and 16 rebounds for the Hawks (16-7, 6-5 A-10) The Dane’s performance was only the fifth in the program in the last 13 seasons with a 20/15 game. 

The outcome dispenses with a six-game losing streak in the series with the Rams (7-16, 4-7) from Richmond, Va. Mackenzie Smith had 11 points, shooting 4-for-6, six rebounds. Olivia Mullins and Katie Jekot combined for 10 assists, while Emirson Devenie and Julia Nystrom gave a 13-point combo from the bench.

VCU got 19 points from Timaya Lewis-Eulsey.

Coach Cindy Griffin lauded the team’s play, commending “the job defensively against a team that likes to go downhill.”

Saint Joseph’s takes off on the road the next two games before Rhode Island returns the home-and-home first traveling to Dayton Saturday at noon on ESPN+

The host Flyers on a field day trip promotion drew a near-sellout 11,635, but St. Louis won 74-65.

In the other  A-10 game involving a local, La Salle fell victim on the road to a 22-point third period attack from Richmond in the Robbins Center in Virginia and lost 67-51 to the Spiders (14-8, 4-5 A-10).

It’s the third straight loss for the Explorers (14-11, 5-5), who were picked second in the conference.

Claire Jacobs scored 18 for La Salle, while Charity Shears had 11 points.

In the backcourt, Molly Masciantonio reached her 13th game without committing a turnover.

La Salle will host Duquesne at 2 p.m. on Sunday in Tom Gola Arena in TruMark Financial Center on ESPN+.

Elsewhere in the A-10 Rhode Island stayed unbeaten at the top off a 64-47 win over George Washington in the Ryan Center in Kingston as the Rams (20-3, 11-0 A-10) got a double-double 26 points and 14 rebounds from Maye  Toure.

Reigning champion and preseason pick UMass edged Fordham at home 80-79, the Minutewomen (20-4, 10-1) staying a game-behind Rhody as Ber’Nyah Mayo scored 29 points, Sam Breen scored 18, and Destiny Philoxy scored 15.

Fordham (16-9, 4-1), which fell in an exact third-place tie with George Washington, got 30 points from Asiah Dingle, while Anna DeWolfe had 17, and Jada Dapaa had 12 points and 10 rebounds.

The lead went back and forth four times in the last minute, Dingle scoring for Fordham and then Breen hit a layup with 32 seconds left to advance UMass. DeWolfe got it back with a jumper with 23 seconds left in regulation.

But the home folks had the final word with Mayo scored on a layup with 11 seconds left in regulation.

Temple Bypassed by East Carolina

The number 17 was not good for the Owls on the road in an American Athletic Conference game at East Carolina. 

They committed 17 turnovers and the host Pirates used a 17-0 spurt in the fourth quarter to win the game 67-52.

Amiya Joyner had a double-double 23 points and 14 rebounds for ECU (16-8, 7-4) in Greenville, N.C., sweeping the season series.

Taking advantage of the shortened roster for Temple (10-13, 5-6), ECU adopted the same pressing tactics used by Houston in a recent game.

Brittany Garner had eight points and nine rebounds for the Owls, who host Cincinnati Saturday at 2 p.m. home in the Liacouras Center on ESPN+.

Lehigh and Lafayette Defeated in Patriot League

Neither Lehigh nor Lafayette found success in the Patriot League, host Lehigh losing to Colgate 63-51 while Holy Cross had little difficulty with Lafayette in a 67-49 victory.

In the Lehigh game played art home in Stabler Arena in Bethlehem, Pa., Mackenzie Kramer scored 19 points while Fran Hottinger had 18 and nine rebounds for the Mountain Hawks (11-12, 7-5 PL) while Colgate (12-11, 6-6) got 22 points from Taylor Golembiewski, reserve Morgan McMahon scored 11, and Christina Midgette scored 10.

Lafayette (8-14, 5-7) got 22 from Makayla Andrews, and Holy Cross (18-5, 10-2) was paced by Bronagh Power-Cassidy from Dublin, Ireland, who scored 22.

On Saturday, Lafayette visits league-leader Boston U. at 2 p.m. on ESPN+ while Lehigh will be at Loyola, Maryland, in suburban Baltimore at 5 p.m. on ESPN+

Looking Ahead

So in light of the UConn history consecutive loss at Marquette, the question on the first NCAA reveal of how the Top 16 seeds would look today is did the committee conclude its work before or after the Big East game was played.

Last year the presentation was rendered moot when high seeds were upset each time.

The mock field will be shown Thursday at halftime of the PAC-12 game, which tips at 9 p.m., between No. 6 Stanford at No. 17 Arizona on ESPN.

Only two local games are slated. In the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, Rider is Marist at 7 p.m. on ESPN3  and Rutgers is hosting Purdue at 7 p.m. in the B1G in Jersey Mike’s Arena in Piscataway.  N.J. At 7 p.m.

Elsewhere in the conference at 6:30 p.m. on the B1G a major showdown has No. 5 Iowa visiting No. 2 Indiana.

And that’s the report.

  

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