The Guru NCAAW Report: Saint Joseph’s Grabs Big 5 Win at Penn; Temple Rallies; Rutgers Romps; No. 2 UConn’s Auriemma Ties NCAA Win Mark; WHOF ‘25 Class Announced

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

PHILADELPHIA — Second-ranked Connecticut downed No. 14 Carolina 69-58 in Greensboro Friday night enabling Hall of Fame coach Geno Auriemma to move within a step of a place nine months ago the 70-year mentor in his 40th season who grew up in Norristown said would never happen.

Here in The Palestra, Saint Joseph’s defeated host Penn 68-57 and took a successful first step under the new Big 5 women’s tournament format to defend last season’s City Series title. Down South Temple rallied to beat VCU 59-55 in Richmond while Rutgers earlier in the day cruised at home 81-53 over Iona, but Rider fell at home 62-54 to Bryant.

Off the court, the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in Knoxville, Tenn., announced its induction class of 2025, an illustrious group of seven legends, highlighted by four retired WNBA greats, a pioneering coach out of New York City, the collegiate overseer of the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA), and a longtime Union University coach in NAIA competition.

The WNBA quartet includes Sue Bird, a 12-time All-Star who won five Olympic titles, four WNBA crowns in Seattle; and two NCAA titles at UConn; Sylvia Fowles, who won two WNBA titles in Minnesota and four Olympic Golds; Cappie Pondexter, a Rutgers star in college with two consecutive conference titles, was part of two WNBA champions in Phoenix, and an Olympic Gold on the same team as  Bird and Fowles; and Duke star Alana Beard, who won a WNBA title in Los Angeles and twice named defensive player of the year.

The coach is Lucille Kyvallos, who coached at West Chester in suburban Philadelphia, and was on the other side of the Queens-Immaculata rivalry that helped give the collegiate women’s game its first boost into the modern era. She went 311-73 at West Chester and two stints at Queens and helped transform the AIAW tournament into a Final Four format.

Mark Campbell has been at Division II Union University for 26 seasons; going 742-116 with NAIA titles in 2005, 2006, 2009, and 2010.

Auriemma Ties Stanford’s VanDerveer for Total Victories

Paige Bueckers, a strong candidate for the the top pick in the next WNBA draft, had 29 points to power the Huskies (3-0) over the Tar Heels (3-1) enabling Auriemma to bring his record that includes 11 NCAA women’s titles to 1,216-162, an 88.2 percent  win total, the number of victories matching VanDerveer, who retired  in April with the most  victories for either  men’s or women’s Division I competition in the NCAA.

UNC is coached by Courtney Banghart, who built Princeton into an Ivy and national force, prior to being hired to rebuild the Tar Heels’ fortunes.

Retired Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski holds the men’s win total at 1,202.

Auriemma is the only one to get all his triumphs at the same institution — VanDerveer coached at Ohio State,  Krzyzewski also coached at Army.

His teams, even through a tough run of injuries in recent seasons, are on an AP women’s poll record appearance streak of 587 weeks, beginning with the 1993-94 season, over three decades ago.

The Huskies can carry Auriemma to sole ownership of the record Wednesday night when they host Fairleigh Dickinson at the Gampel campus arena in Storrs. The visiting Stags are coached by former Villanova star Stephanie Gaitley.

Auriemma was low-key at his moment, the ap reported.

“I’m more of how do I put (the players) in position so they can feel how I feel,” he said. “Like I’ve  been  very fortunate to get a lot of things come my way.

“And they came hoping to get some of those things. So I just keep the focus on that all the time. And whatever happens on my end happens.”

Bueckers was a little more ebullient praising her coach.

“It’s the reason you came to UConn, to play under him. So it’s been a dream come true, and we’re super proud of him. I know he doesn’t talk about himself too much, just a little bit.

“To be  a part of this, it’s amazing, and it speaks to the longevity of what he’s built here at UConn — the history, the players, the success, the national championships. So it means everything to play for UConn and play for him.”

From the other bench, Banghart, who once interviewed Auriemma as a graduate assistant at her Alma mater Dartmouth as part of a thesis on coaching  leadership, praised her opponent.

“He deserves his flowers,” she said. “He  lifts others up. He had brought people with him. So you’re talking to a Geno fan.”

Hawks Fly, Temple Rallies, Rutgers Cruises

Two days after Drexel up 33rd Street crushed La Salle at home in the first game in the other pod of the Big 5 series, Saint Joseph’s was in a more competitive match playing the Quakers, but had answers when Penn drew close.

 The men went from the annual round robin last season and welcomed Drexel, the Dragons women joining the fold this season.

On Dec. 6 beginning 3:30 p.m. at Villanova, the women will play a triple header in Fineran Pavilion, the third place teams meeting for 5th overall, the second place for fifth, and  the first for the championship. NBC Sports Philadelphia plus will televise all three games live.

Saint Joseph’s can play for the title by beating the Wildcats on Hawk Hill at Hagan Arena at 2 p.m. on Dec. 1. Villanova will first play Penn on the Main Line next Wednesday.

In Friday’s game here, the Hawks (3-0) followed up Sunday’s win at Syracuse with a solid attack. Senior Talya Bruglar had 21 points and 11 rebounds, Laura Ziegler had 16 and 12 with seven assists, Gabby Casey scored 10, and Mackenzie Smith scored 11.

Emma Boslet with four points and four and four assists was still a part of the offense despite the lower scores steering her teammates, playing all but six minutes.

“Very, very pleased with the way our players came out today,” said Saint Joseph’s coach Cindy Griffin. “I felt we came out with a great punch, and then we were resilient. Penn went on a little run, they cut it to six one time, we got it up to eight and we never looked back after that.”

Penn (2-1) in suffering its first loss, got 21 from senior Stina Almqvist with nine rebounds, while sophomore Mataya Gayle scored 13. Freshman Katie Collins played all 40 minutes, Almqvist all but a half-minute, and Gayle all but a little over two.

“To even play 40 minutes against that talent with all that contact around the rim, to be able to stay vertical and play 40 minutes -to me, that translates,” Penn coach Mike McLaughlin said.

He noted his younger players weren’t ready to deal with the makeup of the Hawks.

In praising Saint Joseph’s, McLaughlin said, “They’re a really, really talented team. They’re going to go far. I’m routing for them, outside of today. They play together, they’re well coached. They’re very schooled on both ends of the floor. They take away what you’re comfortable doing. They execute.

‘Overall, l thought we executed. We gave ourselves a shot to win the game.”

Saint Joseph’s next makes a swing west visiting Southern Utah Wednesday, at 8:30 p.m. (ESPN+), and then to Utah Friday at 9 p.m. (ESPN+).

Penn continues on a Big 5 slate visiting Villanova Wednesday at 7 p.m. (FloHoops).

Temple rallied late to beat VCU, Anissa Rivera hit two foul shots to put the Owls (2-1) up three, and then avoided getting tied when the Rams’ Mary-Anna Asare missed a free throw after scoring a layup with 22 seconds left.

Tiarra East was quickly fouled, the common gamble by VCU (2-1) in those situations failing as the Owl made both shots, the Rams missed going the other way, East made one more shot to close it out.

Temple trailed 28-22 at the half.

East scored 28 and Rivera double doubled with 12 points and 16 rebounds.

The Owls were aided by VCU’s mediocre 4-15 on the the line. They go for a three-game sweep on the current road trip, visiting Georgetown Tuesday at 7 p.m. (FloHoops) in the nation’s capital.

Rutgers (4-0) continued to be a season-opening force at home in Jersey Mike’s Arena, led by another strong outing from reigning Big Ten player of the week Destiny Adams, who had 28 points and 11 boards, while Kyoni McMiller scored 14, Lisa Thompson collected 12, and JoJo Lacy scored 10 against the winless Gaels (0-3).

The Scarlet Knights head for a greater test Tuesday visiting Virginia Tech in Blacksburg at 6 p.m. (ACCNX).

Rider (1-2) faded down the stretch at home to Bryant (4-0), which stayed unbeaten.

La Salle transfer Gabby Turco led the Broncs along with Emilee Tahata, each scoring 16 points, while Camryn Collins scored 12.

Turco will face her former team Wednesday night when Rider visits the Explorers’ John E. Glaser Arena at 6:30 p.m. (ESPN+).

JoJo Fourth Fastest to a Grand

Sophomore sensation and reigning freshman of the year JoJo Watkins had 22 points in No. 3 Southern Cal’s 81-50 home victory over Santa Clara (2-1) at the Galen Center in Los Angeles bringing her to 1,008 points in her 38th game, 10 less than the legendary Cheryl Miller (1983-84) for the fastest ever with the Trojans (4-0) and fourth fastest overall.

Stanford transfer Kiki Iriafen had 20 points, Rayah Marshall scored 12, and freshman Kennedy Smith had nine points and five steals.

No. 15 West Virginia whipped Texas A&M 83-62 at home in Morgantown at the WVU Coliseum as JJ Quinerly scored 27 points against the Aggies (2-2) while Kylee Backston had a personal best five shots from deep and finished with 17 points, and Sydney Shaw scored 1s for the Mountaineers (4-0) who host Bowling Green Tuesday.

The other game in action with a ranked team Friday night saw No. 7 LSU (4-0) rally on Murray State 74-60 after trailing the Racers (1-2) by nine at the half at home in Baton Rouge.

However, the Tigers held the visitors to 14 points the rest of the way and were led by Flau’Jae Johnson with 25 points, including 10 in the fourth quarter.

Looking Ahead

Just two games Saturday on the local front, Villanova meets the second of three street Ivy opponents at 2 p.m. (FloHoops) in Finneran Pavilion on the Main Line hosting unbeaten Columbia after losing at Princeton and ahead of Wednesday night’s visit from Penn.

Princeton visits Quinnipiac at 2 p.m. (ESPN+) in Hamden, Conn.

On Sunday, Lafayette hosts No. 6 Notre Dame at 2 p.m., La Salle visits Virginia at j2 p.m., and Lehigh visits Brown at 1p.m.

In Saturday’s national games of note, No. 20 Kentucky hosts No. 18 Louisville in a Bluegrass State matchup at at 6 p.m. (SECN+); Fairfield is at Oklahoma State at 3 p.m. (ESPN+); in the Briann January Classic in Tempe, host Arizona State hosts O’Regan State at 4:30 p.m. (ESPN+) after Minnesota and SMU meet at 2 p.m.; and  Liberty is at Tennessee at at noon (SECN+).

On Sunday at 5 p.m., ESPN will air the WNBA draft lottery deciding who among Los Angeles (best odds); Dallas (second best), Chicago, or Washington will land the first overall pick.

Former Villanova star Maddy Siegrist will represent her Dallas Wings.