The Guru NCAAW Report: Saint Joseph’s Here and Former Villanova Star Lucy Olsen at Iowa Set Program Season Opening Records in Victories

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

PHILADELPHIA — A night with not much going on in terms of numbers Wednesday still held major items of interest locally, near and afar.

Near would be a thunderous season and home opener on Hawk Hill in Hagan Arena where an ambitious Saint Joseph’s squad peppered D-II Goldey-Beacom from Wilmington for a 102-30 rout in preparation for a greater target Sunday on the road up North playing at Syracuse of the Atlantic Coast Conference at 2 p.m. in upstate New York on the subscription ACCNX broadcast.

Far would be in the Midwest where former Villanova star Lucy Olsen, third in the nation in scoring last season, made her official debut on a roster no longer containing the sensational Caitlyn Clark at Iowa and she delivered with 19 points in a season and home opening 91-73 victory over Northern Illinois before a sellout crowd of 14,998 in Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

The Iowa email report noted Clark’s total was the most by a transfer in their Iowa debut.

The game also marked the debut of coach Jan Jansen on the sidelines, elevated from associate position after longtime mentor Lisa Bluder retired soon after the season ended.

Saint Joseph’s had a “most” to trot out also as the differential of 72 points, erasing the long-existing 71, one-point under, in a 115-44 victory over Gwynedd Mercy in 1977.

The home team total was also a record in the program for an opener surpassing 93 on Niagara seven seasons ago.

The game was considered only an exhibition by the visiting Lightning while everything for the Hawks goes into the books except it’s a non-game to the NCAA tournament committee deliberating the 68-team field.

Saint Joseph’s is not the only area D-I squad with lower division area teams on the schedule, Penn and Drexel in a similar situation.

It’s the price of being considered a top level mid-major where you suddenly run into numerous rejections once you achieve success.

 Nevertheless, once the season gets under way, after playing against one’s selves for several months, playing a real opponent is desired to not go in cold, especially when Sunday’s Orange team hit triple digits themselves over Niagara earlier this week.

“They’re a good team,” Griffin said the Hawks’ next opponent. “Felisha’s (Legette-Jack) has done a good job since they got there.”

Credit the Hawks, favored in the Big Five and picked second in the A-10, for achieving what’s required in this kind of matchup — everyone returns from last season’s program record for wins.

If looking for the best sign out of Wednesday’s action, knowing there will be nights the shots don’t drop, what is the state of the defense?

Superior, Saint Joseph’s coach Cindy Griffin agreed following the launch of season 24 at her Alma mater in a game the Hawks allowed just five points in the second quarter along with single digits the next two after yielding 12 in the opening period, still below the goal of 15 or less.

The home team also forced 32 turnovers.

“Defensively, we were on,” Griffin said. “Communication was really high. I thought our slides were really, really good. We rebounded the ball, which gave us more opportunities down the other end.

“So, yeah, defensively, we were terrific today.”

And also showed their depth.

Mackenzie Smith had 22 points and completed 4 of 6 from deep, Laura Ziegler double doubled with 19 points and 13 boards, Talya Brugler had 13 points and 13 rebounds, and off the bench Aleah Sneed had 14 points. Additionally, Rhian Stokes and Meja Jagerskog each scored 10.

The senior class is particularly full of desire after the two previous seasons fell short of attaining an NCAA berth to not leave anything on the table.

“We wanted everybody to come and contribute,” said Ziegler, one of the Hawks elders. “We had 10 players playing, and when you look at the stats right now, everybody came into score.”

And Julia Nystrom, one of the senior leaders, didn’t even play.

“You really didn’t see a lot of drop off with our second group,” Griffin said. “That’s going to be really important going forward with our depth, and so very proud of the way our bench played as well today.”

Goldey-Beacom coach Bethan Burke was upbeat afterwards despite the disparity in the outcome in what was the only local D-1 game on the Guru slate.

“You can’t look at the points and we didn’t show a lot,” she said of the quick turnaround when the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference squad opens in its tournament Friday hosting New England traditional power Bentley at 3 p.m.

New Haven plays Wilmington at 1 p.m. in the opener.

“I thought we did some good things,” Burke said of her team that played as a unit in the Philadelphia/Suburban Women’s Summer Basketball League in Willow Grove at the home of the AAU Renagades.

The National Scene

Just two games were on the Guru radar list, Purdue beat visiting Purdue-Fort Wayne 87-77, while the other was the Iowa win already noted.

Destini Lombardi had a career-high 20 points for the Boilermakers and Lana McCarthy, a freshman, double doubled with 18 points and 10 rebounds, the first time a freshman did such in a season opener.

Adding into the mix, despite longtime DePaul coach Doug Bruno dealing with a medical situation, and the Blue Demons had four out with injuries but still took their season and home opener beating Mercyhurst 74-63.

Looking Ahead to Thursday Games, the Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame Ceremony and the Big Five Hall of Fame Class Announced

On Thursday night among the notables, who are part of the Induction Class of 25 to the Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame at the casino hotel in South Philadelphia, will be former La Salle star Cheryl Reeve, from South Jersey, who guided the USA Olympic squad to a record eighth straight gold medal in Paris last August, and is also the coach of the four-time WNBA champion Minnesota Lynx, which just got edged last month by the New York Liberty in the overtime in the decisive Game 5 of the finals.

Retired long time University High School coach Lurline Jones, who recently had a street in West Philadelphia named for her, is also in the class

Two seasons ago Reeve went into the Big 5  Hall of Fame, which on Wednesday announced the new induction group which will become members at the Women’s Classic at Villanova on Friday, Dec., 6, followed by the men’s classic the following Saturday afternoon, Dec. 7, at the Wells Fargo Center.

The group includes Saint Joseph’s Amy Facer, Villanova’s Courtney Mix, Temple’s LaKeisha Eaddy, Penn’s Ira  Bowman, La Salle coach John Giannini, and Guru colleague, a joy to see, retired longtime Inquirer college basketball writer Mike Jensen, who has been writing a book on local hoops since leaving the paper a year ago in 2003.

As for local teams on the court, Drexel, now also a Big 5 women’s team, opens its overall and home slate in the Daskalakis Athletic Center hosting Marist of the MAAC, while looking for second straight victories are the Big Ten local pair of Penn State hosting Canisius of the MAAC at 6 p.m. in the Bryce Jordan Center, and Rutgers at 7 p.m. hosting Cornell of the Ivy League.

Nationally, UConn Hall of Fame coach Geno Auriemma and his associate head coach Chris Dailey open their 40th season at the XL Center in Hartford playing the Patriot League’s Boston U.

Auriemma goes into the opener with 1,213 victories, three behind the retired Stanford Hall of Famer Tara VanDerveer at the end of last season for the most by either men or women in the NCAA.

Game 4 is against FDU on Nov. 20 on the UConn campus in Storrs.

Game 2 is in Storrs on Sunday playing South Florida, the former rival when both were in the AAC. Game 3 follows in Greensboro, N.C., playing North Carolina in a game in which the record becomes tied with a win.

It’s also part of the larger path to Tampa, Fla., for the No. 2 Huskies, whose Paige Bueckers is using a fifth year of eligibility to take one last shot at a championship before heading to the WNBA.

Elsewhere Thursday, in a larger slate than the last two nights, some highlights include Washington State at Stanford, former PAC-12 rivals now meeting realigned the first week of the season with the host Cardinal now in the ACC meeting the Cougars, housed the next two years in the West Coast Conference.

Harvard of the Ivy League is at No. 25 Indiana in the Big Ten; Big Sky favorite Northern Arizona is at Mountain West choice UNLV, the defending champion; Hawaii is at Portland.

And that is the report.