The Guru’s Postseason WBIT/WNIT Reports: Saint Joseph’s and Villanova Set To Add Another Big Five Rivalry Chapter Following WBIT Wins; Stanford Stunned by Portland

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

PHILADELPHIA — Within a few miles of each other in Thursday night openers of the second-annual WBIT, top-seeded Saint Joseph’s great Dane, one junior Laura Ziegler, led the Hawks attack against the UAlbany Great Danes, regular season champs of the America East, at home here in Hagan Arena to a lop-sided 69-40 victory while fourth-seeded Villanova battled at home on the Main Line at  Finneran Pavilion to a 76-70 win over Boston College leading to a Sunday afternoon of Big 5-palooza at 2 p.m. for an encore in what can be labelled the top rivalry among the six schools involved in both the annual men’s and women’s local  competition.

“It’s super-fitting,” said Ziegler, the foreign import standout from Denmark. “I think the moment we knew we were going to play in the WBIT, I think we all kind of knew we were probably going to play ‘Nova again. …  I don’t know how many times I’ve played them in my three years here but it’s always fun to get a rematch.”

The local members on both sides on the ‘Nova- ‘Joes rivalry have played together and against each other on local high school and AAU travel teams.

To say that there’s an ongoing element of revenge is an understatement.

A year ago, during the season the Hawks (24-9) ended a long losing streak against the Wildcats (19-14) to go on to a 4-0 sweep under the ending round-robin format to win the City Series.

Then two months later in the inaugural WBIT, the teams met at ‘Nova in the Elite Eight Round and the ‘Cats dealt a 67-59 payback to go on to the tourney’s Final Four at Butler’s Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis and beat Penn State before falling to Illinois in the championship.

Last December in the new Big Five Classic tournament format, coach Cindy Griffin’s squad was making another strong showing but fell 81-65 to Villanova at Hagan, allowing the winners to play in the championship game of the triple header at Finneran won by Temple while the Hawks won the third-place game against Drexel, the women Dragons in their first season as an official Big Five school.

The WBIT last go-round, Villanova was a No. 1 seed as one of the four bubble victims just missing the NCAA  68-team tournament field.

This time, Saint Joseph’s dropped into the 32-team WBIT field under the same circumstances after losing the A-10 championship game to George Mason a day after Ziegler’s shot at the buzzer toppled top seed Richmond, which still made the NCAA field.

“I thought only philly people knew about this rivalry, seems like it’s nationwide,” said Villanova coach Denise Dillon, who like Griffin, is a former star of the school she is guiding. “It certainly makes for great competitive basketball. I know both teams are going to be prepared. You just got to come out and give everything you have on both ends of the floor.”

Considering the tickets are just $15, coming out and packing Hagan would be a worthy display of enthusiasm to show the WNBA honchos who are considering whether this city should be awarded the next expansion franchise.

“These Big 5 games, they’re more physical than the other games we play, it really comes down to that,” Ziegler said. “They’re going to come in and they’re going to be on us.

“They know us so well, so they know what they want to take away. Our first and second options might not be there, we need to be patient in our offense and get to the back end of it and get some good and open looks. We really need to be more tough than they are.”

The No. 1 seeds are guaranteed three home games through advancing in each round before returning to Hinkle, which will again be the host site for the semifinals and championship.

One team quickly out of the mix in an opening night stunner in this quad was second-seeded Stanford, which was edged 69-68 at home in Maples Pavilion in Palo Alto, Calif., by unseeded Portland, a regular season co-champion with Gonzaga and top-seed in the West Coast Conference which fell in the league tourney title game  to fourth-seeded Oregon State, which is taking a two-year shelter in the WCC after the collapse of the Pac-12.

The other game had unseeded Quinnipiac, the MAAC runner-up, losing at three-seed Seton Hall at the Pirates’ Walsh Gym in South Orange, N. J.

The hosting pecking order for round three next Thursday goes to Saint Joseph’s with a win, then Seton Hall, then if Villanova and Portland win — Seton Hall is hosting the Pilots of the West on Sunday at 3 p.m. — the Wildcats get the nod.

Looking back at the A-10 title loss to George Mason, whom the Hawks swept during the season, “It was really hard emotionally for all of us, it always is in a championship game,” Ziegler said. “We had some really good games (in the A-10) …”

Ziegler here had 16 points and 13 boards, and seven assists, bringing her close to a third triple double this season. Reserve Aleah Snead scored 14 points and grabbed nine rebounds, eight on the offensive glass.

Mackenzie Smith and Talya Brugler each scored 11.

 The Hawks dominated the boards 53-28, 25-10 on the offensive glass resulting in a 22-3 advantage on second-chance points and 38-16 in the paint.

“To have 25 offensive rebounds is one of two things — we’re really hustling or we’re missing a lot of shots,” Griffin quipped, continuing, “But we’re going to say we’re really hustling.”

UAlbany (26-7), which lost to second—seeded Vermont in the AEC title game, got 22 points and seven boards from Kayla Cooper, but everyone else was kept under control.

In the Villanova game, freshman Jasmine Bascoe, a native of Toronto, Canada, had another outstanding effort with 24 points off shooting 10-15 from the field, including 2-4 makes from deep, and dealt four assists.

“It was exhilarating tonight,” she said. “We want to keep this going as far as we can.  I don’t want the season to be over yet. Just keep pushing. I was excited. It’s been a long season, but now that we’re here, we may as well go all the way.”

Boston College (16-18), an at-large entry from the Atlantic Coast Conference, got off to an early lead but the Wildcats adjusted at the half as the Eagles’ points in the paint were reduced from 24 in the first two quarters to half as much at 12 the rest of the way.

“I felt everyone homed in on their particular assignment, as opposed to playing the team defense that we emphasize,” Dillon said. “I think that reminder helped, and it gave us crowd the paint a little bit better as the game progressed, and it wasn’t just relying on the one-on-one coverage. Get into the gaps and crowd the ball a little bit more forcing more movement.”

Ryanne Allen matched her personal best with 17 points, including sinking three from deep, while Maddie Webber scored 12.

“The biggest stat that we are most excited about, it’s just been a challenge for us is the rebounding piece,” Dillon said. “We had 13 offensive rebounds. BC is a great rebounding team. I think they are first in the ACC and offensive rebounds, top 15 in the country. That’s a win for us.”

Teya Sidberry scored 21 with eight rebounds for Boston College, a team Villanova saw regularly when the Eagles were part of the old Big East in the last decade.  Savannah Samuel matched her season best with eight boards.

Seton Hall (23-9), third in the Big East, in its 57-40 win over win over Quinnipiac (28-5), got 18 points from Savannah Catalon, while Faith Masonius scored 12, and Jada Eads scored 10.

The Bobcats got 15 points from Jackie Grisdale and Anna Foley scored 12 but Gal Raviv, the Israeli point guard sensation who was both MAAC freshman and player of the year was held to six points.

In the other game Stanford (16-15) in its first season in the ACC, entering as another PAC-12 refugee, and first under longtime aide and former star Kate Paye after the retirement of longtime Hall of Fame coach Tara VanDerveer, finished off an unusual run of misery which saw a quick exit from the conference tournament and first omission from the NCAA tourney in 36 seasons, a streak now tied by Connecticut and exceeded only by Tennessee, which has made all  42.

Emme Shearer did it all for Portland (30-4), scoring 28 points shooting 12-18 from the field and tying the score at 60-60 with one minute left in regulation, both teams then failing to score the rest of the way until the overtime.

In the extra period, she tied it 68-68 and then was fouled with one second left by Elena Bosgana and went to the line and missed the first and then sank the second to end it.

Maisie Burnham scored 14 for Portland.

All this may be a blip for the Cardinal, which is set to welcome one of the top recruiting classes next season. Nuni Agara scored 21 with 12 boards for Stanford, while Bosgana had 19 points and eight rebounds.

Only one other result in the overall field was close, the winning Big Sky runner up Northern Arizona (27-7) nipped Big 12 member Arizona 71-69 as Sophie Glancey scored 23 for the winners who went up 71-69 on Nyah Moran’s jump shot with 1:07 left in regulation against the Wildcats (19-14) of the Southwest, who got 21 points from Skylar Jones.

In the WNIT, Army (25-7), the runnerup in the Patriot League, edged the America East’s Bryant 59-58 on Fiona Hastick’s layup and foul shot with 48 seconds left.

The Black Knights will play at Rutgers (11-19) on Sunday at 2 p.m. at the Jersey Mike’s Arena in Piscataway, N.J. — the Scarlet Knights holding an automatic bid  from the Big Ten, had a first-round bye.

The WBIT games are all airing on ESPN+ through the first three rounds.

Other WNIT opening results from Thursday, UMass, which exits from the Atlantic 10 this summer for the Mid-American Conference, cruised over Patriot League runner-up Stonehill at home in Amherst 86-40; Duquesne of the A-10 edged Longwood 70-58 as Megan McConnell scored 26 for the Dukes; Campbell edged host Coastal Carolina 57-55; Abilene Christian topped Northwestern State 86-59; Western Illinois beat visiting Lipscomb  89-74; UT  Arlington was an easy 78-52 winner over Incarnate  Word; Texas Southern beat Saint Mary’s 54-50 at home; Lindenwood won at  home 76-60 over Tulsa; New  Mexico State won at Pacific 54-49.

On Friday, Siena is at Howard at 7 p.m.; UAB is at UIC at 8 p.m.; both on ESPN+ and Utah Valley is at Air Force at 8:30 p.m.

On Saturday, completing first round play: Navy is at Old Dominion at 2 p.m.; Alabama A&M is at Chattanooga; and on ESPN+ Coppin State is at Colgate, whose coach is headed for George Washington. Tip time is at 6 p.m.

Below are the complete WBIT First Round results and second round tip times.

WBIT 2025

First Round - March 20

Sector 1

Davidson (19-14F) at 1-James Madison (29-5) James Madison 77-50

Marquette (21-10) at 4-Drake (22-12F) Marquette 74-69

Middle Tennessee (26-9F) at 3-Belmont (23-12) Belmont 64-51

Northern Arizona (27-7) at 2-Arizona (19-14F) Northern Arizona 71-69

 

Sector 2

UAlbany (26-7F) at 1-Saint Joseph’s (24-9) Saint Joseph’s 69-40

Boston College (16-18F) at 4-Villanova (19-14) Villanova 76-70

Quinnipiac (28-5F) at 3-Seton Hall (23-9) Seton Hall 57-40

Portland (30-4) at 2-Stanford (16-15F) Portland 69-68 ovt.

 

Sector 3

North Carolina A&T (19-12F) at 1-Virginia Tech (19-12) Virginia Tech 61-45

Texas Tech (18-17) at 4-Wyoming (22-12F) Texas Tech 65-48

UNI (17-17F) at 3-Florida (17-17) Florida 83-71

Hawaii (22-10F) at 2-UNLV (26-7) UNLV 63-46

 

Sector 4

Southeastern (26-6) at 1-Colorado (21-12) Colorado 73-41

UTSA (26-5F) at 4-Gonzaga (23-10) Gonzaga 67-51

Oral Roberts (24-9F) at 3-Missouri State (26-8) Missouri State 107-76

Toledo (24-9F) hosting 2-Minnesota* (21-11) Minnesota 65-53

 

Second Round -March 23

 

Sector One

Marquette 21-10 at 1-James Madison 29-5, 4 p.m.

Northern Arizona 27-7 at 3-Belmont 23-12, 3 p.m.

Sector Two

4-Villanova 19-14 at 1-Saint Joseph’s 24-9, 2 p.m.

Portland 30-4 at 3-Seton Hall 23-9, 4 p.m.

Sector Three

Texas Tech 18-17 at 1-Virginia Tech 19-12, 4 p.m.

3-Florida 17-17 at 2-UNLV 26-7, 5 p.m.

Sector Four

Gonzaga 23-10 at 1-Colorado 21-12, 3 p.m.

3-Missouri State 26-8 at 2 Minnesota 21-11, 3 p.m.

Glenn Papazian of Philly College Sports contributed to this post.