The Guru A-10 Report: Saint Joseph’s Upset Among Two Other Top Seeds in Tourney Quarterfinals

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

HENRICO, Va. — The arrival of nitty gritty time in the first wave of conference tournaments Friday held to the consistency of upset stunners that occurred on opening day last November and continued all season into March Madness.

Nowhere was it more evident than here at the newly opened Henrico Sports & Events Center Friday in the Atlantic Ten quarterfinals where Saint Joseph’s one minute looked like the Hawks were heading for the beneficiary of karma only to be among three of the top four seeds to be rocked by upsets, only the local top seed Richmond surviving in a wave of stunners.

The Spiders began the day rolling to a 70-54 win over Loyola Chicago and then chaos in terms of progression began taking over with fifth-seed Duquesne controlling most of the way and then squeaking out the final seconds with a 63-62 win over fourth-seeded George Mason.

Next came seventh-seed Saint Louis, a year ago the surprise under-seed that won its first title, this time conquering No. 2 seed VCU, 65-63.

So as the third-seeded Hawks took the court, the team that gave them the most problems during their dominating conference run was out of the way as they prepared to take on No. 6 Rhode Island, the preseason pick just ahead of Saint Joseph’s, who fell twice to the Philly bunch this year and had recent aspirations previously derailed.

Get past the Rams once more, take an easier semifinal path to the title game and at worst just be respectable and the long drought from an NCAA tournament appearance would be over.

But URI had different ideas taking off on an 18-10 lead in the first quarter and then after succumbing to a 17-7 rally that put Saint Joseph’s ahead 27-25 at the half, Rhode Island managed to take a small lead in the third and repressed the Hawks at the finish for a 57-47 victory and a spot against Saint Louis in Saturday’s semifinals.

The fine-tuned machine that had been Saint Joseph’s (26-5) with a Big Five title, including the win over Villanova, rolling to the best start in program history and matching the existing mark for total wins, had trouble all afternoon with shots bouncing off the rims or just missing the mark.

In fact, at stretches where it seemed a good fortune that the game hadn’t become a rout, perhaps as had happened many times this season, the defense might yet come to the rescue.

“When you score 47 points, it’s tough to win games,” said veteran Saint Joseph’s coach Cindy Griffin. “I thought our defense was okay, could have been better, but when you’re not scoring it just elevates every play defensively.

“It’s a tough way to go. We wanted to come here and win a championship, but it wasn’t our day. I give Tammi (Reiss) and her team as lot of credit.”

Talya Bruglar was held to nine points, making the best of only six shots attempted and connecting four times. Laura Ziegler scored 12 but was 4-for-14 from the field, while Chloe Welch, the x factor all season arriving through the portal from conference rival Davidson, scoring 11, but shooting 4-for-14.

Dee Dee Davis scored 22, the only player in double figures for Rhode Island, while Ines Debroise scored nine and Maye Toure scored eight.

“I think they were being really physical,” Bruglar said of the Rams (20-13). “This was the third time we played them, so they knew a lot of our plays in the back end. And so it was hard to get into typical looks that we get, we weren’t able to create things that we’re usually able to do.”

While Reiss, the backcourt mate of Dawn Staley on those powerful Virginia teams in the early 1990s, doesn’t ascribe to omens, she said of her players watching the first two upsets thinking, “Why not us?”

Except if you go back to the beginnning of the year, the Rams were supposed to come here as the target of the rest of the A-10 until injuries and other happenings took Rhode Island under the radar as the conference race continued.

“We never fully got it rolling in conference and it almost reset us when the target was off our backs and we snuck in the back door in this tournament,” Reiss said. “No one thought that we were the favorite.

“You have no pressure, so the longer you stay in games with people, the tighter they get. Our kids are loose and free now. We’re healthy, we finally got our whole team together and we’re starting to find our roles and chemistry at the right time.

“I thought there were seven teams who could truly win this league,” Reiss said of the parity of the season and number of high-quality squads at the top of the standings.

 “The parity is incredible, that’s a tribute to the coaches and the student-athletes we’re getting in the Atlantic 10. When you have that combination, you have good teams. This year in my five years I thought this was the toughest year.”

Saint Joseph’s will still have a season ahead, just not the one they envisioned the past five months. Though are no longer likely to be a top seed in the newly NCAA-organized 32-team Women’s Basketball Invitational Tournament that will go to the first four teams missing the 68-team NCAA field, the Hawks could be one of the top at-large invitees.

Or they could land in the WNIT, which reduced its field to 48 from 64 after the proclamation of the new tournament, and in either setting, perhaps make the kind of run Columbia made last season to the WNIT title game after the Ivy semifinal upset loss to Harvard knocked the Lions out of the NCAAs.

“I think there’s deifinitely postseason for this team,” Griffin said. “Twenty-six wins is pretty reputable, and so we’ll prepare for that, and make a run at whatever tournament we’re in.”

The top-seeded Richmond team, which beat Saint Joseph’s on Hawk Hill early in the conference slate in January, has some Philadelphia flavor in assistant coach Alex Louin, a former Villanova star, and Maggie Doogan, a former Cardinal O’Hara star whose mother Chrissie (Donahue) now coaches there and was a standout star at La Salle.

And assistant coach Janine Radice was a longtime aide at Delaware, including the Elena Delle Donne era.

In Friday’s opener, Richmond (27-5) got 18 points from Addie Budnik, shooting 5-for-7 from the field. Doogan, a first team all-conference selectee, got 13 points, while Grace Townsend had eight points and nine assists, and Katie Hill scored 10.

Sam Galanopoulos had 22 points for Loyola Chicago (15-16).

A year ago, Duquesne (20-11) this time the fifth seed, suffered a tough loss early in the tournament, but veteran coach Dan Burt promised the Dukes would be better than ever this season.

It was a nerve wracking finish in a closely-fought contest before emerging with the 63-62 win over George Mason(23-7).

Tess Myers had 12 points off four makes from deep for the Dukes, while Precious Johnson and Jerni Kiaku scored 11 and 10 points respectively off the bench, while Megan McConnell had eight points, 10 rebounds, and six assists.”

“We’re such a veteran group so, we’ve been in this position a lot of times so we’ve been prepared for this moment,” said McConnell, whose family connections draw to Kathy McConnell, who was at Virginia when Reiss was there, and Suzie, the Penn State star who long held the NCAA career assist record.

“When it’s time to shine, I think we have that group to pull through and we did today, so I’m really proud.”

Sonia Smith had 24 points for George Mason, which along with Richmond, Saint Joseph’s and VCU (26-5), had double byes to the quarterfinals. Paula Suarez scored 17.

“It was a very good game, we couldn’t wait to play tonight, after a really good season,” said George Mason coach Vanessa Blair-Lewis. “It just didn’t end the way we felt it should.”

In the win by seventh-seeded Saint Louis (16-17), Peyton Kennedy scored 22 for the Bilikens, shooting 7-of-10 from the field, while Kyla McMakin and Brooklyn Gay scored 16 and 12 points respectively.

Saint Louis was 19 of 21 from the line.

Sarah Te-Biasu, the A-10 player of the year, scored 22 points and Mary-Anna Asare scored 16, while Mykel Parham grabbed 10 rebounds for. VCU.

“Obviously, it’s been a tremendous season for us,” said VCU coach Beth O’Boyle. “When you talk about the disappointment and agony of defeat, that is what this game felt like.

“You’ve got to give a lot of credit to Saint Louis. Down the stretch they made some really key plays.”

The Richmond/Duquesne game tips at 11 a.m. followed by Saint Louis/Rhode Island at 1:30 p.m., both airing on the CBS Sports Network.

Sunday’s championship game got an upgrade a month ago, moving to 4 p.m. and airing on the linear ESPN2.