The Guru Report: Saint Joseph’s Tops La Salle to Claim Big Five 4-0 Title Sweep While Ivy Members Penn and Princeton Both Won

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

 

PHILADELPHIA — Extra juiced by an energetic Hagan Arena crowd enhanced from several other teams in the stands on Hawk Hill, Saint Joseph’s checked a major one off the season goal list Monday in a Martin Luther King Jr. Day matinee in beating crosstown rival La Salle 64-39 to claim the program’s first outright Big Five title at 4-0 since the 2013-14.

 

And in a first, in playing the last Big Five women’s game in the longtime traditional round-robin format, Saint Joseph’s in the same season are local champions with the men’s squad, who won their title in December at the Wells Fargo Center in the new two groups of three tournament style leading to the championship and ensuing placement games.

 

Next season the Drexel women complete the Dragons’ move to becoming full-blooded Big Five members.

 

The women’s pod set up is expected have Drexel, La Salle and Temple in one group with Saint Joseph’s, Villanova, and Penn in the other. 

 

Because they wouldn’t see each other in this set up, the Owls and Hawks have scheduled a game beyond the formal Big Five competition, acknowledging it could become a two-game series if both advance to the championship.

 

A source familiar with negotiations for next season said the Big Five is awaiting dates from the Wells Fargo Center and would likely set up a “mix and match flex” so a school could have both men and women playing placement games on the same day in South Philadelphia.

 

That said, just as important in the normally first of two home-and-home with the Explorers, who arrived on a three-game win streak, Saint Joseph’s continued to roll along with the team’s eye on the prize to claim the top seed for the Atlantic Ten tournament in suburban Richmond, Va., and ultimately the tourney title to gain an automatic bid for the NCAA tournament.

 

Against the Explorers (6-11, 3-3 A-10, 0-4 Big Five), the combo in the frontcourt of Talya Brugler and Laura Ziegler continued to be a formidable force, combing for 42 points and 21 rebounds.

 

“I think as ‘Coach (Cindy Griffin) said, it was one of our goals in the beginning of the year,” said Ziegler, who is from Denmark and said the importance of Big Five competition was a major part of the pitch presented by the Hawks staff in her recruitment.

 

“We wanted the Big Five championship. Just getting here, and we’ve been waiting for this since the beginning of December when we played (Villanova) and won. We wanted to be Big Five champions.”

 

Both Brugler and Ziegler were Atlantic 10 rookie of the year in successive seasons.

 

Brugler, a 6-1 junior forward, equaled her tops for the season with 26 points, shooting a slick 11-12 from the field with five boards and a pair of assists. Ziegler, a 6-2 sophomore forward, had another strong double double with 16 points and 16 rebounds, besides collecting six assists while shooting 7-11 from the field. The rebounds and assists were career highs for the foreigner as the Hawks improved to 16-2 overall and 4-1 in the league besides the 4-0 City Series sweep.

 

The overall record at this stage of the season is the best start for Griffin in her 23-years coaching at her alma mater.

 

As for Brugler’s play, she said, “I just try to get to my open area where my teammates can find me, opening them up for drives and most of the time it just ends up with them kicking it because my girl is helping off of them.” 

 

Brugler, who with the title right now as a deal breaker, becomes the frontrunner for Big Five player of the year, slightly in front of Villanova’s Lucy Olsen, who is among the nation’s scoring leaders.

 

Continuing to talk about her ability to dominate La Salle, Brugler said, “The more we were getting the ball reversed around the horn, the easier it was for me to get position inside and that was what was working best for us.”

 

Saint Joseph’s opened a 16-8 lead in the first quarter, Brugler collecting 11 points.

 

But La Salle came back in the next period to knot the score before Hawks rookie Gabby Casey nailed a 3-pointer to snap the deadlock and send the home team to a 22-19 lead at the half.

 

At the break Ziegler only had two points before being a strong force the rest of the way, though the Hawks were helped in defending Molly Mascantonio into an 0-for-11 day, just the sixth time scoreless in her 79 games with the Explorers after transferring from Division II power Holy Family in Northeast Philadelphia.

 

In the third, Saint Joseph’s began putting distance finishing the period with a 43-22 lead after Julia Nystrom’s score beat the time clock.

 

“That’s a good team,” said La Salle coach Mountain MacGillivray afterwards. “We knew they were going inside. When you have four kids who can shoot the lights out on the perimeter and have the best post player in the league, the ball’s going inside.

 

“But we sent a shot across the bow,” he said of his team’s effort, which kept things competitive until the Hawks’ dominance prevailed. “I thought we did a great job of not allowing it to go in there effectively for a large part of the game until we got stretched out and had to do too much defensively.”

 

Said Griffin of her team’s post play and the inside-outside strategy the Hawks effectively muster, “I think what people try to do is they try to take them away, but if you take Talya away on the block, you’re gonna have Laura there as well.

 

“It’s really tough to guard because of our inside-outside game, and then you compile that with the shooters that we have and the playmakers we have on the perimeter, and we share the ball.”

 

Makayla Miller scored 14 for La Salle, while Emilee Tahata scored 12.

 

“Our margin for failure is really slim,” MacGillivray said. “We’ve got to play really well. We’ve got to play near perfect, but we’re improved.”

 

As for the future Big Five setup, MacGillivray said, “I’m old school and I’m kind of sad to see it go.

 

“That’s the reality of it, but we’re embracing the change, we’re gonna make the most of it, and we’ll take it from there. We’ll see if the additional games on the schedule can be more successful for us and hopefully, we can pull off two wins and find ourselves in the championship.”

 

The Hawks next go to Rhode Island for a noon game Sunday in Kingston on ESPNU.

 

URI was picked by the A-10 coaches to win the league with Saint Joseph’s second, where the Hawks are at the moment, the difference from the top, the loss here to Richmond. The Rams have two losses.

 

La Salle goes to VCU on Saturday in Richmond at 1 p.m. on ESPN+

 

Penn and Princeton Take Ivy Contests

 

The local and overall schedule was light on Monday but the two local Ivy squads looking to land in the four-team playoffs at Columbia in March pocketed victories, the entire league had mostly matinee games scheduled.

 

Penn at The Palestra beat Cornell 67-54 as Stina Almqvist had a career-high 26 points and 10 rebounds for her second straight double double for the Quakers (10-6, 2-1 Ivy).

 

It was the 13^th straight win over the Big Red dating back to 2016-17.

 

Jordan Obi added 14 points with nine rebounds, while Lizzy Groetsch scored 10 and Mataya Gayle, one of the top Ivy freshmen, had seven assists. 

 

Kaya Ingram and Summer Parker-Hall each scored 14 points for Cornell (6-9, 0-3).

 

Defending regular and league tournament championPrinceton easily won Monday night at Dartmouth 63-40 as Madison St. Rose had a game-high 14 points for the Tigers (13-3, 3-0 Ivy) at Leede Arena in Hanover, N.H.

 

Mia Curtis was the only player in double figures for the Big Green (6-9, 0-3), scoring 11 points.

 

On Saturday, Penn travels to Harvard at 2 p.m. on ESPN+ in Lavietes Pavilion in Cambridge, Mass., while Princeton hosts 2023 regular-season co-champion Columbia at 4 p.m. on ESPNU at Jadwyn Gym in central New Jersey.

 

Columbia on Monday at home in Levien Gym, the site of this season’s Ivy tourney off Broadway at New York City’s Upper West Side, trounced Yale Yale 88-52 as Abbey Hsu led the way for the Lions (12-4, 3-0) with 24 points, a game high.

 

The home team has won 10 straight matching the program record set last season.

 

Yale fell to 3-13 overall and remained winless in league play at 0-3.

 

Harvard on the road down in Providence beat host Brown 73-59, the Crimson (9-7, 2-1 Ivy) led by Elena Rodriguez with 21 points and 13 rebounds.

 

Harmoni Turner and Lola Mullaney each scored 13 points in the winning attack. 

 

The host Bears (11-5, 2-1) got 22 points from Kyla Jones, while Grace Arnolie scored 18.

 

The National Scene:  In the one game of note, South Carolina easily maintained the Gamecocks’ status as the sole unbeaten team with an easy 98-36 trouncing of visiting Kentucky (8-10, 1-3) in a Southeastern Conference game in Columbia.

 

Dawn Staley’s squad (16-0, 4-0) on a 16-game win streak faced no serious threats from the Wildcats.

 

MiLaysia Fulwiley scored 14 points and the home crowd was treated to the program’s second-ever dunk, a shot fired by Ashlyn Watkins, who also had the previous one.

 

Oregon transfer Te-Hina Paopao also scored 14, while Kamilla Cardoso had 12 points, 11 rebounds, and five blocked shots.

 

The Gamecocks’ Raven Johnson and Tessa Johnson each scored 11 points, while Watkins collected 10 points.

 

Kentucky’s Saniah Tyler had 13 points.

 

South Carolina will be at Texas A&M on Sunday.

 

Vice President Kamala Harris, who was in town, visited both teams during shootarounds earlier in the day.

 

Looking Ahead: No local teams are scheduled for Tuesday, while nationally, Kansas visits No. 11 Texas in the Big 12 at 8 p.m. on the Longhorn Network, while over in the Big Ten No. 2 Iowa hosts Wisconsin at 9 p.m. on Peacock.

 

On Wednesday, Villanova hosts No. 22 Marquette at 7 p.m. in Finneran Pavillion on FloHoops in the Big East. In the Big Ten, Rutgers visits Illinois at 8 p.m. on the B1G+ subscription channel, while in the Patriot League, Lehigh hosts Navy at Stabler Arena in Bethelehem, Pa., and Lafayette hosts preseason favorite Holy Cross at the Kirby Sports Center in nearby Easton, Pa., both games at 6 p.m. and both airing on ESPN+.

 

Nationally, No. 9 Uconn visits Seton Hall at 8:30 p.m. in the Big East at Walsh Gym in South Orange, N.J., while No. 18 Ohio State is at Maryland in the XFinity Center at 8 p.m. in the Big Ten in College Park, Md., on Peacock.

 

And that’s the report.