The Guru Report: Villanova Saved By Olsen in Overtime; Another Clark Triple-Double Leads Iowa; Another Unbeaten Falls in Pair of Big 12 Upsets

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

 

VILLANOVA — Lucy Olsen saved the Wildcats here in overtime from a Big East upset by Georgetown on Education Day, La Salle has a win streak, the return of Penn State did not translate into the victory column, No. 13 UConn got the bad news the Huskies were expecting and then posted another blowout win, Caitlin Clark performed more magic for No. 3 Iowa, the A-10 continued to be interesting, and, oh yes, on Big 12 night, the national list of unbeaten teams got reduced to two while another just got reduced.

 

We start here in Finneran Pavilion in a game that nobody seemed to want down the stretch until Lucy Olsen dragged Villanova across the finish line in overtime with her 28^th-point for a 53-51 win over Georgetown in the Big East to snap the Hoyas’ 8-0 mark on the road.

 

That left Saint Joseph’s leading in that category after winning at Saint Louis on Wednesday night.

 

In the win by the Wildcats (10-5, 3-1 Big East), they went ahead in the second period and stayed there until Graceann Bennett tied it with 2:55 left in regulation. 

 

That’s the way it stayed in that final stretch, both teams either missing shots or committing turnovers with Bella Runyan on the Wildcats, who scored just four team points in the fourth quarter, grabbing a miscue by the Hoyas (12-4, 2-3) driving the lane and missing the attempted game-winning shot as the layup rimmed out.

 

“As expected, we knew it would be a defensive battle and it certainly was,” said Villanova coach Denise Dillon. “Really pleased with our commitment to staying with it on the defensive end, finding ways to get the ball back, and pulling out a really tough win.”

 

Olsen, fifth in the nation in scoring (23.0), going into the game, scored eight of the ‘Cats nine points in the extra five-minute period.

 

“I was trying to be strong with the ball,” Olsen said of the deciding possession. “I didn't want to turn it over, just take whatever they were giving. If someone was open for the shot, find them. That came in a really good pass do at the end.”

 

The Hoyas took the ball, but Brianna Scott traveled going for the basket.

 

‘Nova’s Kaitlyn Orihel made a foul shot with 2.5 seconds remaining in the extra period.

 

Georgetown’s Kelsey Ransom had one last opportunity, launching an attempted 3-pointer just inside the mid-court line, but the ball bounced off the rim and the home team had its fourth straight win after a stretch of narrowly losing four of five, including three straight.

 

“Our shots weren't falling,” Olsen said. “We were getting some good shots.

 

“We can always control the defensive end. We were trying to Stay locked in, communicate, get the stop. Then we’ll focus on the next possession after.”

 

Olsen also had nine rebounds while dishing two assists and grabbing three steals. Runyan scored eight, grabbed seven boards, blocked three shots and swiped a pair of steals. Orihel also scored eight points.

 

Georgetown’s Bennett had 13 points and 9 rebounds, Scott also scored 13 and completed a double-double with a personal best 13 rebounds. Alex Cowan scored 11, making three from deep. 

 

Villanova next visits Butler on Saturday.

 

Elsewhere in the Big East, No. 22 Creighton (12-3, 3-2) grabbed an 89-53 win over visiting Butler (8-7, 0-4).

 

Connecticut announced its latest season-ending injury, an ACL suffered by Aubrey Griffin, a fifth-year senior who went down last week.

 

Then the Huskies (13-3, 5-0) went out and delivered an 85-41 rout of Providence (8-9, 2-20, improving its win streak in the series to 34 straight games.

 

Freshman Ashlynn Shade scored 17, classmate KK Arnold had 16 and eight of UConn’s 20 steals, while Paige Bueckers had 13 points, nine rebounds, five assists and four steals, and Nika Muhl hand 10 points and 13 assists.

 

The Huskies will be at Saint John’s on Saturday.

 

The A-10 Wars: After snapping an eight-game losing streak winning Saturday at Tom Gola Arena, La Salle travelled to St. Bonaventure (4-11, 1-3) in Olean, N.Y., and picked up a narrow 75-71 victory as Makayla Miller scored 19 points, Jolene Armendariz had 15 with seven rebounds, Tiara Bolden scored 13, and Molly Masciantonio had 11 points and four assists for the Explorers (5-10, 2-2).

 

They next return home Saturday on a nightcap in the doubleheader with the men scheduled to start against Massachusetts at 3 p.m. (ESPN+) though it might be later.

 

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the Atlantic Ten, preseason favorite Rhode Island was upset 61-56 at Loyola of Chicago, Richmond beat Umass 79-65 at home, VCU edged visiting Fordham 57-54, Duquesne won 71-54 at George Washington, and George Mason downedDavidson 79-41.

 

Big Ten Affairs: After missing four games with a leg injury suffered last month at Ohio State, leading scorer Makenna Marisa returned to Penn State off the bench scoring six points in 23 minutes, but the Lady Lions fell at No. 14 Indiana 75-67 in Bloomington.

 

Mackenzie Holmes had 21 points and 13 rebounds, Sydney Parrish scored 20, as the Hoosiers (14-1, 5-0) won their 13^th straight, the one loss a non-conference rout at Stanford.

 

Indiana will be meeting No. 3 Iowa Saturday in a battle for first in a national telecast on FOX.

 

Penn State (10-5, 1-3) led by five at halftime, but was outscored by Jndiana 41-28 the rest of the way.

 

Leilani Kapinus had 15 points, Ali Brigham scored 14, and Shay Ciezki had 12 for the Lady Lions who visit Rutgers at 2 p.m. Sunday.

 

Rutgers is at No. 17 Ohio State Thursday night at 6 p.m. on the Big Ten Network.

 

It’s the first time Indiana is 5-0 in the conference.

 

Iowa, meanwhile, won at Purdue 96-71 as Caitlin Clark collected another triple-double with 26 points, 10 rebounds, and 10 assists against the Boilermakers (9-6, 2-2), who had their fourth sellout in program history.

 

Clark has four on the season, 15 in her career, and her NCAA Division I record is now upgraded to 52 games with 25+ points, five rebounds and five assists and is now 40 points from passing Brittney Griner into fourth on the all-time NCAA scoring list.

 

Iowa (16-1, 5-0) is also on a 13-game win streak heading into Saturday’s showdown with Indiana at home in Iowa City.

 

Patriot League Action: It was a split in the final two of five local teams playing Wednesday as Lehigh beat Host Bucknell 69-63 in Lewisburg, Pa., four starters scoring in double figures for the Mountain Hawks (9-5, 1-20). 

 

Lily Fandre scored 15 points, Remi Siselman had 13, Colleen McQuillen collected 11 with seven assists, and Ella Stenner had 10 against the Bison (3-11, 0-3).

 

Lafayette (6-8, 1-2) fell at home 58-46 to Colgate (10-4, 3-0), which got 14 points from Morgan McMahon off the bench while Alexa Brodie scored 13 and  Taylor Golembiewski had 12 among the starters.

 

Abby Antognoli was the only Leopard in double figures scoring 13 points.

 

Lehigh next visits Holy Cross Saturday at 2 p.m. on ESPN+ while Lafayette is at Navy at 1 p.m. on the same Network.

 

Holy Cross (9-5, 3-0) kept pace with Colgate winning at host Navy 69-54 as Bronagh Power-Cassidy scored 19 points, but Boston U. got upset at American 91-87 in double overtime.

 

Big 12 Ambushes It was a wild night in the conference – the national list reduced to No. 1 Carolina and No. 2 UCLA after Baylor, having skyrocketed to fourth, is no longer unbeaten, stunned 87-66 at Kansas.

 

The Jayhawks (8-7, 1-3) snapped a three-game losing streak to start conference play as Taiyanna Jackson had a double-double with a career-high 27 points and 19 rebounds leading Kansas to its first top five victory in 15 seasons.

 

Baylor (14-1, 3-1) lost at Allen Fieldhouse for the first time in a decade. Darianna Littlepage-Buggs had 16 points for the Bears.

 

Meanwhile, If Vanderbilt of the Southeastern Conference was looking for a chance to move into the next Associated Press women’s poll on Monday, providing the Commodores take two winnable games ahead, opportunity knocked with courtesy of Iowa State’s 74-64 upset over visiting West Virginia.

 

The No. 25 Mountaineers (13-2, 2-2) was one of the three unbeaten teams falling last weekend and now are likely to lose remaining ranking support after Wednesday.

 

Iowa State (11-4, 4-0) got 22 point from Audi Crooks.

 

Down in Austin, No. 10 Texas was chased all night before pulling away from TCU 72-60 as freshman Madison Booker scored 21 for the Longhorns (16-1, 3-1) and Taylor Jones had 13.

 

TCU (14-3, 1-3), which has lost three straight after its best-ever start, got 15 points from Aaliyah Roberts.

 

Looking Ahead Rider at Marist for an MAAC game in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., as the Broncs look for their third straight win, is the only other team in action besides Rutgers.

 

Elsewhere in the MAAC Fairfield at 12-1 overall and 4-0 in the league hosts Iona at 7 p.m. on ESPN+.

 

Thursday night belongs to the SEC and ACC.

 

In the SEC, Vanderbilt (15-1) can build its case at Kentucky (8-8) tipping at Lexington at 7 p.m. Tennessee (9-5), which has been unranked a month, hosts Florida (9-5) at 7 on the SEC network.

 

Top-ranked South Carolina (14-0) should keep its perfect record intact playing at Missouri (9-6) at 8 p.m. then not playing again till Kentucky visits Monday night at 7 p.m.

 

No. 7 LSU, the reigning NCAA champion, hosts Texas A&M at 8 p.m.

 

In the ACC, No. 20 North Carolina visits No. 21 Florida State at 6 p.m.

 

On Friday, locally Drexel is at Charleston at 7 p.m. on FloHoops in the CAA in the only game.

 

No. 8 Stanford in the PAC-12 visits No. 19 Utah at 8 p.m. on the PAC12 network as the Cardinal’s Tara VanDerveer with 1200 wins is two short of retired Duke men’s coach Mike Krzyzewski’s collegiate record of 1202.

 

UConn’s Geno Auriemma is at 1193 after Wednesday’s win.

 

Stanford movs to Colorado Sunday, the same day No. 2 UCLA (14-0) risks the other unbeaten mark traveling across Los Angeles to meet No. 9 Southern Cal (12-1) at the Galen Center on the PAC-12 network.

 

It’s their second league showdown in two weeks after UCLA before a record home sellout won the first when USC was also then unbeaten and fell from sixth to ninth in the poll.

 

And that’s the report.