The Guru Report: Saint Joseph’s and Villanova Gain Atlantic Ten and Big East Victories While No.6 Baylor Tops No. 23 TCU in Battle of Unbeaten Big 12 Squads

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

 

PHILADELPHIA — The multi-number of teams with superior records coming out of non-conference play in the Atlantic 10 has caused an early action of bumper cars for positioning and Saint Joseph’s here in Hagan Arena and Richmond down south cleared the way Wednesday night for their clash Saturday back here with the Hawks using a terrific defensive stand in the third quarter with timely offense to beat George Washington 67-47 while down in Virginia in a crosstown battle the Spiders topped VCU 72-65 at home in the Robins Center in Richmond.

 

“I think it was a well fought game,” Saint Joseph's veteran coach Cindy Griffin said of the clash on Hawk Hill. “I felt GW did a nice job trying to take us out of our game plan.

 

 “We were relentless about our cuts in the second half and even more so relentless about our defense. Coming out of the locker room our team made adjustments and we made baskets.”

 

Through the first two quarters the Hawks (13-1, 2-0 A-10) and Revolutionaries, formerly known as the Colonials, engaged in a tight battle reminiscent of past battles leading to a 31-27 edge by the home team at the break.

 

Then the boom was engaged with a 21-5 run over the next ten minutes to stay ahead the rest of the way.

 

The tandem post combo of Talya Brugler and Laura Ziegler delivered 15 of those points and by game’s end the former collected 21 points while the latter had 18 points and eight rebounds.

 

“We were looking for what strengths we had within the offense,” Brugler said about the refinement of strategy in the third period. “Me and Laura had some mismatches inside, so we were trying to work it inside out to get better looks period.”

 

All of that enabled the x-factor addition of Davidson transfer Chloe Welch to continue to thrive in the backcourt with 16 points.

 

“That is always something we work on every single day,” Welch said. “We know how to do that and it helped us today.”

 

Nya Lok, who led the opposition with 16 points, was a thorn in the side from the game’s opening tip into the early part of the third quarter, when her shot from deep made the score 31-30.

 

Saint Joseph’s then flipped the switch to offer the same force that resulted in Saturday’s conference-opening rout at Fordham.

 

In this one, the Hawks launched a 16-0 run, causing GW to go 0-7 from the field and commit six turnovers as they honed a one-on-one defensive stand.

 

“We got familiar with their moves a little bit and were able to make a wall and force them into some tough shots,” Griffin said.

 

Reserve Emma Boslet had a person best five assists in the backcourt for the winners and took perfect care of the ball with no turnovers.

“Making shots always helps,” she said with a smile. “We scored 21 points on the other end, things were flowing. And the decisions. You've got to make some decisions and we did a really good job of playing off of each other.”

 

Meanwhile down in Richmond, Grace Townsend had 21 points, reserve Rachel Ullstrom scored 20, Cardinal o’Hara grad Maggie Doogan, who will make a second homecoming trip having done the previous at Villanova earlier in the season, had 10 points, seven rebounds and eight assists for the Spiders (12-3, 2-0).

 

VCU (12-2, 1-1) had 11 points from Timaya Lewis-Eutsey and 10 from Mary-Anna Asare.

 

Saturday’s game should draw a nice crowd on the heels of the turnout on Richmond’s previous visit.

 

“A very talented team,” Griffin said of Richmond. “They shoot the ball very well. It's a great matchup for us. We are going to see where we are early.”

 

The 13-start is the best in Griffin’s 23-year era at her alma mater and second best in program history behind a 16-1 launch in 1976-77, when Immaculata grad Rene Portland guided the Hawks.

 

Last season after early success at the front of the conference schedule the Hawks dipped in several narrow setbacks.

 

“Every challenge that is in front of them, they respond,” Griffin said of this year's squad. “I knew that going in, but it’s a new year, a new group, and we are now in the Atlantic 10 and we have to be even better in what we're doing.

 

“They have experienced that the last couple of years. When you are forced to get into the back half of your offenses, and making plays for each other, and doing it at a high success rate, that's really fun. We keep learning and growing each day.”

 

As for the improvement across the league, she observed, “The fact that we have a lot of teams that are in the top part of our league with wins, it's great for our league. That's what we want. We want to elevate ourselves and elevate the teams around us.”

 

As for the experience in playing then-No. 11 Utah, the one loss, Griffin said, “We are making timely shots and that's been an improvement.

 

“Just having a taste of a high-level NCAA tournament team is all about, and we want to be considered one of those teams. In order for us to be considered, we have to continue to win.”

 

Villanova Wins at Seton Hall Keeping Pace in the Big East

 

Last season in the first of two victories over Seton Hall, ‘Nova Nationa got a signature moment at home seeing all-American Maddy Siegrist shatter records with a 50-point performance.

 

On Wednesday night the Wildcats got to the magic number as a team, gaining a narrow 50-45 win over the host Pirates (9-5, 1-2 Big East) despite Lucy Olsen held to 10 points at Walsh Gym in South Orange, N.J., a few hours after being named a USBWA national player of the week the second time this season while Penn’s Mataya Gayle was named the national freshman.

 

But the deficiency was overcome as Kaitlyn Orihel had 13 points, including a pair of treys and six rebounds off the bench, freshman reserve Maddie Webber had 11, shooting 3-of-5 deep, Zanai Jones had eight with two from deep, and Christina Dalce grabbed 12 rebounds for Villanova (9-5, 2-1), which is off until the school day game at 11:30 a.m. when Georgetown visits Finneran Pavilion. 

 

Elsewhere in the Big East Wednesday, apparently previous reports of UConn’s demise due to injuries may have been premature in light of the No. 12 Huskies blasting No. 21 Creighton 94-50 on the road in Omaha, Neb., as Paige Bueckers had 24 points for the Huskies 11-3, 3-0), who knocked off nationally ranked Marquette on Sunday.

 

Aaliyah Edwards had 16 points and 11 rebounds while the freshman tandem of Ashlynn Shade and KK Arnold had 18 points and 17, respectively.

 

Of new concern, however, was Aubrey Griffin helped off the court with a leg injury in the third quarter.

 

The Bluejays (10-3, 1-2), who were outrebounded 45-29 and forced into 25 percent from the field, got 13 points from Emma Ronsick and 12 from Lauren Jensen.

 

Hall of Fame coach Geno Auriemma gained his 1,191st career victory, moving within seven of Stanford Hall of Famer Tara VanDerveer, the women’s record whose team has two PAC-12 games this weekend while the Huskies will be at Georgetown Sunday.

 

Retired Duke men’s coach Mike Krzyzewski is the combined record holder at 1,202.

 

Creighton is at DePaul in Chicago Saturday.

 

St. John’s, which upset Villanova in the conference opener in Madison Square Garden last month, bagged another Wednesday rallying from eight downbeating No. 19 Marquette 57-56 at home in Lou Carnesecca Arena in Queens, N.Y.

 

Unique Drake had 24 points for the Red Storm (8-7, 2-1) while Marquette (12-2, 1-2) got 15 from Frannie Hottinger and 14 from Liza Karlen.

 

The loss deprived former Notre Dame star Megan Duffy of her 100^th victory.

 

Marquette hosts Xavier Saturday while St. John’s visits Providence.

 

Lafayette Wins and Lehigh Loses in Patriot League Openers

 

The Leopards pulled off a 68-42 victory on the road at Army in West Point, N.Y., while Lehigh at home in Stabler Arena fell to American U. 68-65.

 

In the win by Lafayette (6-6), Makayla Andrews had 16 points, while Abby Antognoli and Kayla Drummond each scored 12 against the Black Knights (3-8).

 

American (3-8) got 16 from Laura Nogues and 15 from Emily Johns against the Mountain Hawks (8-4), whose Meghan O’Brien scored 14 points and grabbed nine rebounds while Lily Fandre scored 13 and Ella Stemmer was held to six points.

 

The National Scene: The list of unbeaten teams got reduced to six following the clash of two nationally ranked teams with perfect records colliding in the Big 12.

 

No. 6 Baylor opened its new Foster Pavilion arena in Waco, Texas, ending No.23 TCU’s best start 71-50 as Bella Fauntleroy had 16 of her 21 points in a rally by the Bears (13-0, 2-0 Big 12).

 

Oregon transfer Sedona Prince had 20 points andfor TCU (14-1, 1-1).

 

No. 10 Texas in another Big 12 game bounced back from Saturday’s conference opening home loss to win at Texas Tech 74-47 in Fort Worth as Aaliyah Moore had 18 points and 12 rebounds while Deyona Gaston had 17 points and 11 rebounds for the Longhorns (14-1, 1-1).

 

Madison Booker added 18 points against Texas Tech (12-3, 1-1).

 

In the American Athletic Conference in overtime new member Charlotte won in overtime 66-61 at preseason favorite South Florida (9-6, 1-1) as Dazia Lawrence scored 26 for the 49ers (9-5, 2-0). 

 

Looking Ahead: Just one local plays Thursday night, Rider, following its non-conference overtime win at Lehigh, the 200^th victory for Lynn Milligan, returns to Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference competition hosting Iona at 7 p.m. (ESPN+) in Alumni Gym in Lawrenceville, N.J.

 

Nationally, the slate is full of ACC games, highlighted by No. 25 Syracuse at North Carolina, No. 22 Florida State at No. 3 NC State, and Duke at No. 17 Louisville, while among teams involved in SEC opening night, No. 1 South Carolina is at Florida, Tennessee is at Auburn, and No. 7 LSU hosts Missouri.

 

Michigan is at No. 14 Indiana in the Big Ten.

 

And that’s the report.