The Guru Report: Villanova Opens With a Romp at host Portland While Drexel and Penn State Also Get Lopsided Wins; No. 21 Southern Cal Rallies Over FGCU

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

 

Villanova had no problems at the outset of the post-Maddy Siegrist era, winning its season opener Friday night in the Northwest with a lopsided 64-42 win over Portland in the Chiles Center in Oregon.

 

The two other locals who also played on Friday’s card made it a sweep on the night posting equal lopsided triumphs as Drexel recovered from Wednesday’s tough two-point loss to Norfolk State to win at Delaware State 65-33 in Dover while Penn State went to 2-0 on its opening week home stand sinking Navy 107-44 in the Bryce Jordan Center in State College.

 

With Siegrist graduated and in the WNBA, Lucy Olson was the main thrust for Villanova, scoring 20 points off 8-for-15 from the field, including a pair of 3-pointers, while dealing five assists.

 

Maddie Burke scored 12 points, including the other two made shots from deep, while Bella Runyon shot 5-for-10 from the field to collect 10 points.

 

Christina Dulce came close to a double-double for the visitors scoring nine points and grabbing eight rebounds.

 

The Wildcats threw the Pilots (1-1) off course from the outset, jumping to an 18-6 first quarter advantage and then rode to a 15-8 second quarter effort to make it 33-14 at the half.

 

Villanova hounded Portland into 20 turnovers while coming nine miscues.

 

Lucy Cochrane scored 11 points and Maisie Burnham scored 10 for the Pilots, the second pick of the coaches behind power mid-major Gonzaga in the West Coast Conference.

 

On Sunday the Wildcats will try to do their part to place a setback on a member of the unbeaten PAC-12 (22-0) when they visit Oregon State in Gill Coliseum at 4 p.m. on the PAC-12 network.

 

They’ll then return home with the week off until Sunday’s home opener Nov. 19 when Temple visits for a Big Five affair.

 

Meanwhile, Drexel was hot in both facets, shooting 27-for-56 from the field to sting the Hornets and in holding them to 33 points, it matched a low last achieved against Maine, 57-33 on Dec. 4, 2021.

 

Momo LaClair and freshman Laine McGurk each had personal bests of 12 points for the Dragons, whij

 

Grace O’Neill didn’t score but she grabbed seven rebounds while LaClair did likewis.

 

The Drexel women don’t begin formal Big Five play until next season but the Dragons’ next two games are against long-running Big Five opponents with La Salle visiting Wednesday at 6 p.m. and Saint Joseph’s visiting next Sunday at 4:30 p.m.

 

Penn State in its romp over Navy of the Patriot League got a career-high 24 points from Leilani Kapinus who also grabbed nine rebounds and dealt four assists.

 

The 63-point differential tied fourth largest in the history of the program.

 

Makena Marisa is now over 1,800 career points at 1,815, and for the second straight game forced 26 turnovers and dominated the boards 57-33.

 

Shay Ciezki scored 17 points, which was one more than teammate Marisa, while Moriah Murray scored 12, and Ali Brigham and Chanaya Pinto each scored 10 points.

 

Tay Valladay, a graduate guard for the Lady Lions, scored six assists.

 

Navy (1-1) got one player to score in double digits as Zanai Barnett-Gay collected 11 points.

 

Still home Monday, the opposition gets more challenging with a visit from Kansas of the Big 12 at 6 p.m. on the Big Ten Network.

 

The National Scene: No. 21 Southern Cal made its home opener in the Galen Center in Los Angeles successful following Monday’s upset of No. 7 Ohio State as Juju Watkins, the nation’s top recruit, scored 18 points in a 67-51 victory over reigning champion and preseason ASun favorite Florida Gulf Coast.

 

The greats of yesteryear were honored in Cheryl Miller and Pam and Paula McGee, and teammates from the 1984 back-to-back NCAA champions.

 

FGCU got off to a 9-0 start before the Trojans got going and another surge at the outset of the third quarter closed the gap to five points before it was all USC the rest of the way holding a 20-point lead with one quarter left to play.

 

In scoring her points, the combined 50 points for Watkins matched the rookie program start by Miller as a freshman.

 

The crowd of 4,712 was the largest since Jan. 17, 210.

 

Rayah Marshall also scored 18 in the first meeting with FGCU (1-1) and Watkins and former Columbia star Kaitlyn Davis each grabbed seven rebounds.

 

A second former Ivy great, Penn’s Kayla Padilla, was 4-for-7 for eight points while Watklns drew 10 player fouls from the opposition.

 

Maddie Antenucci scored a game-high 19 points for the Eagles and Uju Ezeudu grabbed 11 rebounds.

 

LeMoyne visits Monday night.

 

Arizona and Arizona State kept the lame-duck PAC-12 unbeaten with home wins as the former beat Big Sky favorite Northern Arizona 87-64 and the latter topped Montana State 75-62.

 

Six conference teams play Sunday and besides the Villanova game, No. 15 Stanford hosts No. 9 Indiana at 5 p.m. and Colorado hosts Oklahoma State.

 

Two other ranked teams played Friday, No. 22 Creighton went to 2-0 beating Summit favorite South  Dakota 81-55 at home in Omaha, Nebraska, as Morgan Maly scored 30 points, and No. 25 Mississippi State at home topped SE Louisiana 81-55 as Powe Debreasha scored 19 points.

 

Columbia recovered from its opening loss at Stony Brook as the reigning Ivy co-champs at home beat Seton Hall 72-61 with Abbey Hsu scoring 21 points.

 

Defending CAA tournament champion Monmouth at home beat St. John’s 74-69. Jaye Haynes had 15 points from the host Hawks and Unique Drake scored 24 for the Red Storm with both teams now 1-1.

 

In a WAC/C-USA game, Liberty of the latter beat host Stephen F. Austin 84-81 in overtime.

 

Missouri Valley contender Belmont beat visiting Georgia of the SEC 76-50 as Kendal Cheesman scored 28 points.

 

And that’s the report.