The Guru NCAA Report: Saint Joseph’s Wins Big at South Utah; Villanova Cruises Over Penn; Auriemma Becomes the Winningest NCAA Basketball Coach

Guru notes: — geno auriemma, who became the winningest men’s or women’s collegiate coach Wednesday with 1,217 victories, will be a separate

 By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

 

The last thing Saint Joseph’s thought in preparing for a two-game swing in the state of Utah, was banging into a national story.

But that’s what has happened to the Hawks, in finishing off a home-and-home from last year with the Utes.

The first stop, however, on Wednesday night was quite successful, winning at Southern Utah 82-53 as Laura Ziegler scored a career-high 30 points, shooting 13-19 from the field and 4-8 from deep, while grabbing 10 rebounds to stay unbeaten at 4-0, while Southern Utah stayed winless at 0-5 in the game at America First Event Center in Cedar City.

Gabby Casey was 8-10 for 20 points, a career high, and Talya Bruglar scored 18, while Emma Boslet dealt a career-high 13 assists, matching the career-high from Saint Joseph’s coach Cindy Griffin as a player, fifth on the all-time list.

Daylani Ballena had 12 points and Ava Ulrich scored 10 for the home team.

Soon after landing Tuesday night, the news became public that Utah coach Lynne Roberts was resigning to take the vacant coaching job with the WNBA Los Angeles Sparks.

Thus, Saint Joseph’s, which was 33-59 for .559 pc. from the field Wednesday, in their game Friday night in Salt Lake City (9 p.m., ESPN+) will be Utah’s first under former associate head coach Gavin Peterson, who was promoted to replace Roberts.

Meanwhile, Villanova’s first pod game in the Big 5 formats saw the Wildcats route Penn 80-66 at home in Finneran Pavilion on the Maine Line to go 1-0 and saddle the Quakers (3-2 overall) with a third-place finish at 0-2.

Penn in the Big Five Classic at Villanova on December 6 at 3:30 p.m. will play for fifth place against the third-place team, not yet known, from the other pod.

Freshman Jasmine Bascoe continued to shine for the Wildcats (3-1) with 16 points, the same total from sophomore Denae Carter, with Bascoe dealing five assists. Maddie Burke shot 4-6 from beyond the arc for 14 points, and Maddie Webber scored 12.

Penn’s Stina Almqvist scored a game-high 24 points with eight boards while Mataya Gayle and Saniah Caldwell each scored nine points.

Penn completed a slate of three-straight Ivy opponents for Villanova, which lost at Princeton and won at home against Columbia.

The Quakers will have to quickly shake off the loss in hosting Big West tourney champ UC Irvine Thursday night at 6 at The Palestra (ESPN+), the visiting Anteaters also in the second game of a back-to-back after winning Wednesday a few blocks up the street 57-47 at Drexel (2-1) in the Daskalakis Athletic Center.

The visitors (3-1) got 15 points from Deja Lamb, while reserve Summah Hanson scored 12 points, and Nevaeh Dean had 11 points.

Amaris Baker had 20 points for the Dragons, while while Deja Evans scored 10.

Drexel, Saturday, visits Temple at 2 p.m. (ESPN+) at the Liacouras Center where a win puts the Dragons in the title game on December 6 in the Classic.

The host Owls have yet to play a pod game. They’ll be coming off a loss Tuesday at Georgetown.

La Salle (2-3), meanwhile, edged Rider 55-54 at home in John E. Glaser Arena on Ashleigh Connor’s two foul shots with one second left and a rebound to stop the Broncs (1-3), who advanced the ball, but Camryn Collins missed a layup.

Connor had 20 points for the Explorers, Ayisse Magassa had 12 points and seven boards.

Mackenzie Daleba had eight points and 12 rebounds.

Rider’s Gabby Turco, who played at La Salle last season, had 14 points against her former school, while Collins scored 10.

Rider Sunday plays at VCU in Richmond at 1 p.m. (ESPN+) while La Salle will next go play at American U. Saturday at 2 p.m. (ESPN) in the nation’s capital at Bender Arena.

The National Scene

While Hall of Fame Connecticut coach becoming the all-time winner for men or women with 1,217 victories after the No. 2 Huskies handled visiting Fairleigh Dickinson 85-41 at Gampel Pavilion — a separate will post on all that in the next 24 hours — the big news for the home team on the basketball element was the return of Azzi Fudd, who missed the whole season after her second game with an injury.

Auriemma, who grew up in Norristown outside Philadelphia, had been tied with retired Stanford women’s coach Tara VanDerveer the last five days after wining at No. 14 North Carolina last Friday.

Anticipating Auriemma could rise to the top Wednesday, the school targeted the game to celebrate the 40 years he and associate coach Chris Dailey, who played at Rutgers, have run the program.

Originally, forecasted to return in December, Fudd picked Nov. 20 as the date she would return.

“I didn’t even know the number and all this,” Fudd said of the fuss made of the achievement. “I’m glad to just be part of it.”

“She puts us in a place we haven’t been in a while,” Auriemma said, also having quipped, “I thought it was Azzi Fudd day.”

Fudd off the bench had four points for the Huskies (4-0) led by freshman Sarah Strong, the No. 1 recruit, who had 20 points and six assists with eight boards.

Paige Bueckers, likely the No. 1 WNBA draft pick by Dallas, which won the lottery Sunday, had 16 points, five assists, and and nine rebounds, Ice Brady scored 10, and Princeton transfer Kaitlyn Chen had 11.

FDU (4-2), led on the sidelines by Stephanie Gaitley, whom Auriemma coached against when UConn played Villanova, got 19 points from Ava Renninger, while Teneisia Brown scored 10 with eight boards.

There were several upsets elsewhere and near upsets involving ranked and unranked teams.

At Northern Iowa, the students stormed the court after an 87-75 win in Cedar Falls over No. 8 Iowa State (4-1) as Maya MxDermott scored a career-high 37 points for the host Panthers (3-1). Audi Crooks had 22 points and 10 rebounds, while Addy Brown had 21 points and 12 boards.

No. 1 South Carolina, the defending NCAA champion, set a school record with its 43rd straight victory, which was over in-state rival Clemson 77-45 on the road as Te-Hina Paopao had 13 points, while Ashlyn Watkins had 10 points and 11 rebounds.

The Gamecocks Sunday go to No. 5 UCLA.

No. 23 Oregon (6-0) at home edged Auburn 70-68 to escape from the Tigers (3-1) with a win at home in Eugene, while No. 7 LSU at home in Baton Rouge held off in-state rival Tulane 85-74.

UAlbany won at in-state rival Syracuse 73-70 and Northern Arizona won at home 92-75 over in-state rival Arizona.