The Guru Report: Saint Joseph's Advances in A-10 While La Salle Eliminated As is Penn State and Rutgers in Big Ten

 By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

 

WILMINGTON, Del. – Trading runs through much of the game, sixth-seeded Saint Joseph’s ultimately evoked the 14-3 start to the current season, delivering an explosive 16-0 outburst across the second and third quarter Thursday night to 11^th-seeded Davidson in the Atlantic 10 second round on the way to a 64-53 win and spot in Friday’s quarterfinals against third-seeded Saint Louis.

 

“Very, very proud of the way our team came out, very focused, I thought defensively we set the tone in the beginning,” Hawks veteran coach Cindy Griffin said.

 

“Davidson gave us a run, they certainly did, but the relentlessness of this team and the selflessness of this team came out today.”

 

Those who saw the Hawks decimate Friday night’s opponent at 7 p.m. in the last of the four games, a 71-47 whipping early in the conference schedule at home in Hagan Arena on January 7 may wonder what the Billikens (14-17) are doing seeded higher than the Hawks.

 

Well, not long after that triumph by Saint Joseph’s (20-9), who now have a number 20 in the victory column for the first time since 2013-14, the Hawks came up with a bunch of narrow setbacks against the perceived powers of the conference.

 

Saint Louis, on the other hand, came charging into a return to the A-10’s for the second season being held in the 76ers’ CHASE Fieldhouse.

 

Still, Griffin’s group never stopped envisioning enhancing last year’s tournament performance, that included an upset of now second-seeded Rhode Island, into the semifinals.

 

“We need to take care of our bodies a little more after each game,” said sophomore Talya Bruger, who won the A 10’s rookie of the year honor in 2022 and made good by landing a spot on the all-conference first team 12 months later. “We’re going to be here for a lot of games, we expected to be playing here on Sunday, so that’s four games in for days, doing things off the court that can help us recover.”

 

Of the run that finally put Davidson (13-16) away, Brugler said, “I think we were doing a better job of getting stops defense, and that momentum from our defensive end was shifting to the offense, which was helping us get open shots or just run in transition and get the looks that we were going for.”

 

Mackenzie Smith had a team-high 17 points for the Hawks, while grabbing eight rebounds with three steals and two assists.

 

Brugler and Laura Ziegler, both with a hot 6-of-10 from the field, finished with 15 and 13 points, respectively. Olivia Mullins scored eight points while Katie Jekot dealt five assists.

 

Eighth-seeded La Salle, meanwhile, which started Thursday’s four-game slate with a bye, the same perk as Saint Joseph’s, sputtered playing ninth-seeded George Mason, eventually falling 64-58, and sending the Patriots (16-14) into Friday’s opener at 11 a.m. against top-seeded and reigning champion UMass (24-5).

 

“We’re disappointed,” said La Salle head coach Mountain MacGillivray, “It’s winning and misery, that’s the way it goes.”

 

In what became her last game as a fifth-year grad player, Kayla Spruill had 15 points and 10 rebounds for La Salle (17-14), which was picked second by the A-10 coaches in the preseason poll.

 

“Through her five years, she has been an incredible woman to be around, an incredible personality, and one heck of a basketball player,” 
MacGillivray said.

 

Spruill departs as the program record holder with 220 three-pointers.

 

Though being the chaser through most of the game, when Mia Jacobs nailed with an old-fashioned three-point play to knot the score 46-46 midway in the fourth, perhaps the tide had turned.

 

Not for long, when George Mason, whose Sonia Smith scored 18, answered the thrust with five points to stay alive into Friday.

 

La Salle’s demise could be found in the Patriots getting 19 points off 20 offensive rebounds and 22 in transition off 17 turnovers.

 

A month ago, the Explorers were capable of a bid to the WNIT if not winning the NCAA automatic bid that comes with the conference championship.

 

But that foundered since in what is now six losses in the last eight games to end the season.

 

“They dominated the boards,” MacGillivray said, “that’s where we had to mitigate the game and they got out on top. Twenty offensive rebounds are tough to overcome.

 

“The rebounding disparity was the clear dagger throughout the game.”

 

Though Spruill departs, the Explorers have a future with optimism over a loaded return class of Molly Masciantonio, who had six points, four rebounds, and five assists. The three Australian Jacobs sisters of Claire (10 points), Amy and younger sibling Mia are back with junior Jaye Haynes.

 

MacGillivray will try to bolster that experience with some strength and depth recruited out of the portal.

 

Progress was still made in the turnaround the La Salle coach had to undertake several years ago when hired from his former job as the top assistant to Quinnipiac’s Trish Sacca-Fabbri.

 

It’s the first time in 19 years the Explorers will show successive winning seasons and the first in the program history to have two straight conference winning record since joining the A-10.

 

Penn State and Rutgers Eliminated from the Big Ten

 

Wednesday’s opening joy for the Lady Lions and Scarlet Knights that came with wins became Thursday’s disappointment with 11^th-seeded Rutgers losing to sixth-seeded Illinois 81-55 while 13^th-seeded Penn State suffered a tough 63-61 loss to fifth-seeded Michigan in the Big Ten tournament second round in Minneapolis.

 

Extra news of the day in the conference was the announcement from Lindsay Whalen of her resignation from her alma mater Minnesota, which was bounced by Penn State in the opener.

 

Illinois, who hired Shauna Green in the offseason from Dayton, holding a first-round bye, off the win from the Scarlet Knights, made it to the quarterfinals with the win for the first time since 3006 while the differential in the final score of 26 points is the team’s largest in its conference tournament history and largest in postseason competition since 1981.

 

Makira Cook had a game-high 24 points and Genesis Bryant scored 21.

 

It’s the first time since 2006 Illinois (22-8) beat a team all three times.

 

The win allows the squad to advance to Friday’s quarterfinals facing three-seed and seventh-ranked Maryland.

 

“I think it was an advantage paying them just a few days ago,” Green said of the win at Rutgers last Sunday.

 

“We talk right now in March, it’s about execution. It’s about effort.  I thought we were elite in both of those.”

 

Rutgers (12-20) got 22 points from Kaylene Smikle while Chyna Cornwell scored 14.

 

Penn State (14-17) closed fast with a 7-0 run but fell when Makenna Marissa’s shot didn’t go down at the finish.

 

Marissa and Leilani Kapinus each scored 16 points for the Lady Lions while Temple transfer Alexa Williamson scored 12 points.

Michigan (22-8) got 13 points each from Emily Kiser and Laila Phelia while Leigha Brown scored 12 and Elisa Stuck scored 11.

 

The 17^th-ranked Wolverines will play fourth-seeded and 14^th-ranked Ohio State in the quarterfinals on Friday.

 

The Other Locals

 

Playing in regular season with their tourneys not till next week, Delaware in a morning game edged North Carolina A&T 79-75 at home in overtime in the Colonial Athletic Association in the Bob Carpenter Center in Newark while Rider fell at Manhattan 69-52 in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC).

 

That’s the report.