The Guru’s NCAAW Conference Tourney Report: Third-quarter scoring explosion carries George Mason Over Saint Joseph’s for the Atlantic 10 Tile

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

GLENN, ALLEN, Va. — It was two out and one officially in Sunday afternoon for three Philly local teams, most prominently here  at the Atlantic 10 championship between second seed George Mason (27-5) and fourth seed Saint  Joseph’s (23-9) in suburban Richmond at the Henrico Sports & Events Center.

Following two pulsating wins to get this far by topping Rhode Island in overtime and then downing nearby favorite Richmond on a pulsating shot at the buzzer from Laura Ziegler, there was a lot to be hopeful playing a Patriots team that had fallen twice to the Hawks in regular season competition in the league.

In fact, after veteran coach Cindy Griffin’s squad, in their first A-10 title game since 2018, fought back to a halftime tie 27-27 with the Patriots it seemed that the first A-10 crown since 2013 and first NCAA appearance since 2014 as an at-large entry would soon be at hand.

But George Mason, a team that 11 seaasons ago was in the then-called Colonial Athletic Association, was ready to do whatever it would take to overcome the Hawks.

“Today was about being faithful with 40 for 40 minutes ,” said GMU coach Vanessa Blair-Lewis, whose team was in its first A-10 title game besides becoming the first in the program to earn an NCAA bid with its 73-58 victory.

“That means every loose ball, every rebound, we didn’t do a great job with that. But everything we have to d to beat this team, we have to do it. And we have to be faithful.”

Griffin said she didn’t think the team got affected by the two games played before Sunday’s game against the Patriots.

“We had 17 offensive  rebounds. That’s not becoming mentally fatigued. I thought our game plan was good coming in off two really thrilling games to lead us up to this point,” she continued.

The 90 percent shooting in the third quarter from GMU and a 26-12 differential became the undoing of falling short of the Hawks’ season goal.

“I think they had a little bit more momentum from a shooting standpoint,” Griffin said. “We knew they had a lot of offensive punch from all spots. And we thought we had weathered the storm going into halftime.

“But there was certainly a second wave, that tidal wave, and the third that we just couldn’t recover from.”

The Patriots’ Paula Suarez scored a game-high 23 points on 9-of-16 from the field, while Zahirah Walton was 5-of-11 for 19 points, while Nalani Kaysia and Kennedy Harris each scored 11 points.

Mackenzie Smith scored 19 points, while Laura Ziegler scored 18 for Saint Joseph’s, and Talya Bruglar scored 10.

A year ago Columbia thought it wasn’t going to get picked and the Lions got surprised by being a second Ivy at-large team, so the Hawks have a shot though they would have to be the third A-10 team since Richmond, the defending and regular-season champion is considered a lock.

If they don’t make it, they are likely to be among the first four misses, meaning they automatically become one of the top four seeds, guaranteed three home games if advancing in the WBIT, which the NCAA begun last season and Villanova earned.

Speaking of the Wildcats, coach Denise Dillon’s squad in a Big East semifinal was routed by No. 3 Connecticut (30-3), which was led by Paige Bueckers with 23 points in an 82-54 victory in which Villanova (18-4) went more than 16 minutes without a field goal.

Freshman Sarah Strong had 20 points and 16 boards.

Maddie Webber had 15 points for the fifth-seeded squad.

Coach Geno Auriemma’s NCAA all-time leading victory total got extended to 1,243 triumphs and is in discussion to be moved to No. 1 in Monday’s poll after No. 5 South Carolina’s strong win over Texas, the current No. 1 team for the SEC title, while No. 2 Southern Cal after two wins over No. 4 UCLA for the regular season Big Ten title in Los Angeles, fell to the No. 4 Bruins in the tournament title game in Indianapolis.

No. 11 Duke, the third seed, upset top-seed N.C. State in Greensboro for the ACC crown, while top-seed TCU won its first Big 12 tournament beating Baylor, the second seed.

Connecticut play No. 23 and second seed Creighton for the Big East title Monday night after the Bluejays easily beat third-seeded Seton Hall.

Baring some change, after the new poll comes out Monday afternoon, no ranked team will be playing in the remaining mid-major tournaments for NCAA bids the rest of the week.

Temple opens against Charlotte Monday afternoon in a quarterfinal game in the American Athletic Conference, while Penn officially became the fourth Ivy team in the four-team field at Providence, Rhode Island, at Brown’s Pizzitola Center, breaking a tie with Brown on having a better Net in the daily report on Sunday.

The Quakers meet top-seed Columbia, while second-seeded Princeton meets third-seeded Harvard and there has been season-speculation of the Ivies getting three teams for the first time, which stands as a roadblock to Saint Joseph’s NCAA hopes.

Fourth-seeded Drexel has a double-bye to the quarterfinals in Friday’s Coastal Athletic Association tournament, which the Dragons won last year with four straight wins from the seventh seed slots.

Delaware is the seventh seed and plays Thursday.

And that’s the report.