The Guru Report: Groundhog Day Syndrome Dooms Villanova to Snap a 9-0 Win Streak Over St. John’s in Big East Opener at Madison Square Garden

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

 

NEW YORK — The last time St.John’s beat Villanova  in a Big East contest in 2019, Maddy Siegrist was on the bench in civilian attire serving her freshman season as a redshirt due to ankle injury.

 

When the native of nearby Poughkeepsie, N.Y., was in uniform, however, the Wildcats went unbeaten in the series on a 9-0 run as she came up with all kinds of ways to bedevil the Red Storm, including a thriller last January back on the Main Line in which she made St. John’s 16-point lead midway through the fourth quarter vanish by scoring 18 of her 32 points in the final period.

 

Saturday night thanks to her decision to forego a fifth season of eligibility and get picked third overall in the WNBA draft, Siegrist was here in Madison Square Garden again wearing street clothes unable to do anything as the Red Storm became the latest in the last two weeks to cast a Ground Hog Day spell making Villanova fade at the finish, this time 51-46 in the Big East opener for Both teams.

Asked whether he thought the odds were due in his favor, coach Joe Tartamella responded with a smile, “You would think.

“We executed what we thought would happen, the last few days, they changed a few things, they missed a couple that you would think would go in … today, hopefully, it just was on our side, we didn’t fall into the trap of fouling the shooter and we didn’t fall into not getting the ball, we rebounded the ball.”

The game was the third behind two men’s matchups billed as the Holiday Festival tripleheader.

 

Since playing near here on the Upper West Side two weeks ago rolling into Columbia with a 5-1 start, the Wildcats (6-5, 0-1 Big East) have now lost four of five to the Lions, at Saint Joseph’s that likely decided the Big Five, hosting Princeton, and now back in New York in which winnable games were short-circuited in the the final minutes.

 

Even the one win, hosting Penn, nearly got away.

 

In this game, going 6-for-6 from the line slightly masked a dreadful 1-for-11 from the field in the final period while St. John’s (6-6, 1-0) was 6-for-13 for 46.2 percent.

 

“Tough defensive battle to be sure, just unable to knock down some key shots, down the stretch, especially,” said Villanova coach Denise Dillon.

 

“Unfortunately, we’re not getting over that hump,” she said of the way games from her team’s side have concluded. “You hope a hundred times over when you’re back in that position, you knock a couple of those down.”

 

Saint John’s did a nice job curtailing two main Villanova components; Lucy Olsen, who had risen to third in the country and pre-game Saturday was averaging 24.9 with several 30 plus games but was held to nine points and five rebounds with four assists. 

 

Christina Dolce, who had had many double double nights, had two points and three rebounds.

 

On the bright side, Bella Runyun scored 16 points, shooting 6-for-11 from the field, tying a career-high, while Kaitlyn Orihel  shot 5-for-7 collecting 12 points.

 

Unique Drake had 16 points, while Jillian Archer had 15 points and 14 rebounds for the Red Storm, and Jailah Donald off the bench was 4-for-7, including 2-of-4 from deep.

 

St. John’s, whose Lou Carnesecca Arena is on campus in Queens, out rebounded the Wildcats 43-29.

With the Big East dropping two games off each team in the conference slate, the only chance Villanova will have for revenge is a March meeting in the tournament at the Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, Conn.

While the Red Storm have played infrequently in MSG, the last time four years ago, the Wildcats are now 0-2 in the former home of the WNBA New York Liberty, who now play in Brooklyn.

 

Villanova returns to action Thursday at noon, visiting La Salle to stay alive for a potential tie for the Big Five title pending the Explorers’ results with Temple on Sunday at 1 p.m., and at Saint Joseph’s on Jan. 15.

 

Meanwhile in the only other local action Saturday Rider opened play in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) losing at Manhattan 73-39 in Riverdale, N.Y., in the New York City Metro Area.

 

“Obviously a disappointing outcome today,” said veteran Rider coach Lynn Milligan. “I didn't have my team prepared to play. We have a quick 36 hours where we need to focus on ourselves and be ready to play against Quinnipiac.”

 

The Bobcats visit the Broncs Monday night at 7 p.m. in Alumni Gym in Lawrenceville, N.J. (ESPN+).

 

The Jaspers (6-2, 1-0 MAAC) dominated the boards 48-30.

 

No one scored in double figures for Rider (2-7), freshman Kaylan Deveney and senior Jessika Schiffer each scoring a team high eight points.

 

Manhattan’s Petra Juric out of Croatia had a game-high 27 points and 12 rebounds while Nitzan Amar, an Israeli, scored 14.

 

Besides the La Salle- Temple game Sunday, other games on the local card have No. 22 Florida State visiting Drexel at 2 p.m., at the Daskalakis Athletic Center (2 p.m.-NBC Sports), No. 16. Virginia Tech visiting Rutgers at 5:30 p.m. (FS1) at the Jersey Mike’s Arena in Piscataway, N.J., and St. Francis (Pa.) visiting Penn State at the Bryce Jordan Center at 1 p.m. (B1G+) in State College, Pa. 

 

The National Scene: After dropping to a 30-year low in the Associated Press women’s poll, falling to No. 17, the Huskies could he heading back to familiar territory when the next rankings are released Monday at noon, courtesy of a lopsided 86-62 win over No. 18 Louisville (10-2) at the XL Center in Hartford. 

 

The Cardinals had a six-game win streak snapped as Aubrey Griffin exploded with 25 points and Aaliyah Edwards had a similar outburst with 22 off a combined 19-of-23 from the field for the Huskies, who previously beat then-No. 24 North Carolina last Sunday.

 

Adding to a season-high opposing points on Louisville, the Huskies (7-3) had 20 points, including four shots from deep, from Paige Bueckers, who had a career-high five blocks. Nika Muhl added 10 of 24 assists from the home team.

 

“I'm guarding bigger guys which allows me to help off more and sort of play more off-ball sneakily,” Bueckers said. “I know that I play much better if I'm engaged and locked in on the defensive end and making plays that way just sort of fuels me and then gets me going on the offensive end.”

 

The Cardinals’ Kiki Jefferson scored 20, while Sydney Taylor collected 13 and Olivia Cochran 12.

 

“I don't know where what our expectations are.” said Hall of Fame UConn coach Geno Auriemma. “I hope this isn't our ceiling, let's put it that way. I hope there's more beyond this. But maybe this gave our players a glimpse of what it can be.”

 

Auriemma extended his career win mark to 1,187, eight behind Stanford’s Tara VanDerveer, whose women’s record grew to 1,195 Friday night in a bounce-back triumph Friday night over Portland.

 

Retired Duke men’s coach Mike Krzyzewski holds to combined gender record at 1,202.

 

UConn will be home but back in Hartford Monday to open Big East play hosting Butler, while on Wednesday the Cardinals host Washington of the PAC-12 whose program-matching unbeaten recorded (11-0) could see the Huskies from the Northwest break a long drought of appearances in the AP Poll Monday.

 

Meanwhile, No. 23 UNLV’s return to the poll Monday could be one of two appearances to be short-lived after the Rebels’ 9-0 start was slammed shut by Seton Hall 84-54 in the Pirates’ Walsh Gym in South Orange, N.J.

 

Azana Baines had 23 points and 11 rebounds to extend the current win streak of Seton Hall (8-3) to four straight earning coach Tony Bozella a thorough gatorade soaking from his players afterwards.

 

With UNLV off target from the outset going 0-for-11, the Pirates built a 15-2 lead that settled at 17-8 with one quarter in the books.

 

By halftime, it was 42-21.

 

Alyssa Brown had 13 points for the visitors, who hadn’t had an extended unbeaten start since 14-0 in 1990-91.

 

After the first meeting between the two teams, UNLV will stay in North Jersey to visit Fairleigh Dickinson, Thursday.

 

No. 24 Miami’s return to the rankings could also be short-lived, losing to No. 10 Baylor, 75-57, in a Hall of Fame series game in San Antonio, Texas, ending the Hurricanes’ 8-0 start while the Bears (9-0) remained perfect.

 

“This is a big matchup for us,” said Baylor’s Darianna Littlepage-Buggs, who grabbed 13 rebounds. “Preparation has been crazy. Just to be able to get out there and play and complete the mission, we’re feeling great right now.”

 

Jada Walker scored 14 for the Bears, Bella Fontleroy collected 13 and Yaya Felder scored 12.

 

Miami’s Shayeann Day-Wilson scored 12, while Ally Stedman and Kyla Oldcare each scored 11.

 

The week ahead will see a second but smaller cluster of holiday tournaments after the huge Thanksgiving weekend competitions. Miami opens its Hurricanes Holiday event Wednesday hosting SWAC contender Jackson State, while Baylor opens with Providence the same day against Providence in Florida in the West Palm Beach Invitational.

 

Elsewhere, No. 1 South Carolina had little challenge to stay perfect crushing visiting Presbyterian 99-29 as Milaysia Fulwiley led a bunch of teammates in double figures with 18 points, tying a career-high, for the Gamecocks (10-0).

 

No. 4 Iowa (11-1) handed a similar 104-75 lopsided result to visiting Cleveland State (9-2), which will meet Drexel in a tourney in Florida later this week.

 

Caitlin Clark had 38 points for the Hawkeyes.

 

No. 3 NC State topped host South Florida 66-54 as River Baldwin and Aziaha James each scored 16 points for the Wolfpack (11-0) and Baldwin also grabbed 11 rebounds, while Romi Levy (11) and Carla Brito (10) each scored in double figures for the Bulls (7-4).

 

Alissa Pili scored 20 for No. 11 Utah (9-2) in a i6-60 win at Southern Utah.

 

Maggie Doogan had 22 for Richmond (9-2) in a 99-73 win over Liberty (3-9).

 

In the second day of the Beach Classic, Pacific beat Long Beach State 90-86 while Colorado State beat UC Irvine 69-63.

 

Niagara coach Jada Pierce collected her 100^th career win topping Iona in a MAAC opener. 

 

Looking Ahead: With the finals period about to conclude prior to hosting Purdue Sunday at noon on the ACC Network, No. 14 Notre Dame (7-1) will unveil a statue of retired coach Muffet McGraw, a Saint Joseph’s grad.

 

On Monday No. 12 Ohio State hosts No. 2 UCLA at 6:30 p.m.

 

On Tuesday South Carolina coach Dawn Staley will have the Gamecocks travel to meet former assistant and first-year coach Fred Chmiel at Bowling Green while North Carolina plays Oklahoma on Day One of the Jumpman Invitational in Charlotte, N.C. On Wednesday, the second day, Florida plays Michigan.

 

And that’s the report.