The Guru’s Local NCAAW Weekend Roundup: Villanova Routs Temple, La Salle Tops American, Princeton Rally on Penn State Helps Tigers Sweep Battle 4 Atlantis

 By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

VILLANOVA/PHILADELPHIA – We’re splitting the roundup again in what was basically a decent overall weekend for the locals, considering two games had two played each other and the double dateline because we were in two places Saturday afternoon and night.

No one played Friday, a situation that will occur several times on Mondays once conference play gets under way in January.

Reversing the order, Villanova and Temple met on the Main Line at night, a repeat of last season’s Big Five Classic matchup won by Temple here at the Wildcats’ Finneran Pavilion, which was a bit of a surprise at the time.

This season, the Owls and Wildcats are in the same pod and Temple came up from North Philly as a slight favorite to finish 2-0 following the recent rout at home in the Liacouras Center of La Salle while this was the first of two for ‘Nova.

The end of the first quarter was a tight 13-13 tie before the Wildcats went on with a stunner off the differential 88-58 to need to just win at La Salle Tuesday night at 6:30 p.m. (ESPN+) at the John E. Glaser Arena to return to the title game.

Temple, at 1-1, will likely be a semifinalist unless the Explorers force a three-way tie upsetting Villanova.

“I’m excited for our team to get a great Big 5 win at home,, to get a win here at home against a really talented Temple team,” said Villanova coach Denise Dillon. “I was pleased with the effort knowing the matchup was going to be tough.

“We had a week to prepare recognizing the strengths of Temple with their presence on the attack, and rebounding. Our defense created our offense for us, which got us out running.”

The Wildcats produced two career highs; Ryanne Allen, who transferred from Vanderbilt before last season, was 5-for-6 from deep and 7-8 overall for 19 points off the bench.

Denae Carter had 17 points and five steals.

It didn’t stop there. Brynn McCurry added 13 points and eight boards, while Jasmine Bascoe and reserve Brooke Bender each scored 11.

The Wildcats defense, always a mainstay, forced 19 turnovers to just eight miscues on their side, resulting in a 26-6 disparity on fast break points.

After a 2-0 start, including an overtime win on Atlantic 10 tournament champion George Mason in overtime in the season opener, Temple seemed headed for improvements off a year ago solving areas in rebounding and depth.

But since, there has been a wide loss at West Virginia, which went on to get ranked after upsetting Duke in the Mountaineers’ next contest, a loss at Atlantic 10 favorite Richmond on Wednesday and now the lopsided loss to Villanova.

Coach Diane Richardson, who bore teardrops on her face, expected the Wildcats would be up for revenge.

Citing the long rivalry between Villanova coach Denise Dillon when at Drexel and herself at Towson in the same conference, Richardson said, “Denise has always had a chip on her shoulder.

“But at the same I expected us to come in here and play like a defending champion. I still believe in them,” she said while commenting on the lack of fight from her players.

“I don’t think we played hard,” she said. “I don’t think we were very competitive today and transition points are something that we don’t normally give up. We didn’t sprint back. I don’t know what to say. We just have to go back to the drawing board. We have to bounce  back. We can’t play like this the rest of the season. We can’t get beat by 30 points. That’s the thing.

“As old as I am, I usually have more energy than they do. That can’t happen. I’m like somebody’s grandmother and I have more energy than them. If your granny can run around and be excited, surely you can at 18 to 22.”

Tristen Taylor scored 15 points with four assists for the Owls, Jaleesa Molina grabbed nine boards and Felicia Jacobs, inserted from the bench and left in because she was displaying energy, scored 10 points.

The setback a year ago clearly stayed on the mind of Allen.

“That was a tough loss last year,” she said. “This week in practice, we were reminding the people that weren’t here about that loss, and how we wanted to get that back.

“So that was a huge impetus for us, especially losing on our home floor. We didn’t want it to happen again, so it was nice to get that win back for us.”

After the deadlock in the first ten minutes, Villanova tossed away notions of a competitive affair the rest of the way outscoring the opposition 31-11.

“That second quarter really punched us and we didn’t respond well enough, especially because (Villanova) got a lot of points in transition,” Richardson said, also adding during her session, she still believed in her team, “but we’ve got to get back to playing Temple basketball.”

While Dillon was elated over the defensive showing, she was also thrilled off the sharing on offense.

“What I was most pleased with was the assists,” Dillon said. “When you have 27 assists on 35 field goals, that’s good team basketball.”

So far, unlike what traditionally occurred in Big 5 battles for both men and women in the City Series, the three women’s games to date finished one-sided with Drexel romping over nearby neighbor Penn; the Owls over La Salle, and this one.

Saint Joseph’s plays its first of the season Monday night visiting Penn at 6 p.m. (ESPN+) at The Palestra and hosts Drexel on Saturday with an opportunity to set up a Holy War meeting in the championship.

Temple meets nationally-ranked Michigan State Friday in the opener of the Baha Mar Tourney in the tropics at 6:30 p.m.

La Salle Tops American

For the first time in several seasons, being able to start from above ground zero with eight returning players is boosting the Explorers, who after beating visiting American U. 72-61 now stands at 5-1, their best start in six seasons, while the Eagles fell to 1-4.

“It feels like 2019, there’s some pieces there that while we’re still young and still growing, they’re pretty talented,” said La Salle coach Mountain MacGillivray.

“We have an opportunity to keep getting better and better. You have to keep growing because the schedule’s going to get harder, the Atlantic 10 is going to be tough but they are putting themselves in position every day by being great teammates to each other, supporting one another and working hard.

“We’ll see if we can reap the benefits from that. There’s a maturity about them that they’re embracing that we’re not a finished product,” he said, aware the next game is Villanova’s Big 5 visit Tuesday night. “They’re growing every night out there. Some nights the ball goes in and some nights it doesn’t but we’ve really been consistent in competing for loose balls and rebounds and we haven’t let missing a few shots impact us,” said.

“It doesn’t always happen, but it’s nice when you talk to a team about a game plan and an expectation that we were going to be able to throw the ball inside and throw it back out and we were going to have to knock down a few shots.”

Ivona Miljanic scored 16 points, her best for the season.

“It was basically just my teammates finding me open,” she said. “They were collapsing down in the paint so we need to be ready to shoot. I was ready for this. I wasn’t shooting good in the first five games so I’m proud of myself but also my teammates.”

Joan Quinn scored 20 with a pair of steals, Ashleigh Connor scored 13 points with three boards, four assists, and and three steals.

The game was a return to the area for first year American coach Kelly Killion, former longtime associate head coach to Penn’s Mike McLaughlin, for whom she starred at Division II power Holy Family in Northeast Philadelphia.

Princeton Sweeps Battle 4 Atlantis Rallying Over Penn State in the Opener

All three Ivy teams that set a conference record going to the NCAA in the same season are under rebuilds but still are considered the frontrunners with Princeton having drawn the most preseason votes as the league favorite.

Tigers coach Carla Berube after rallying Wednesday night to beat Rice at home with a dominate fourth quarter in Jadwin Gym knew her team was going to have its hands full contending with Penn State center Gracie Merkle in the first of two Saturday in the opener of the Battle 4 Atlantis Saturday in Paradise Island in the Bahamas.

Her fears were realized with Merkle scoring a career record 39 points. But Princeton found the antidote in the second half with a program record 66 points and rally for a 100-93 victory, both local teams at that moment being 4-1 after the final buzzer.

Merkle was 19-23 from the field with seven boards while Moriah Murray scored 20 points and Rutgers transfer Kiyomi Miller scored 19 for the Lady Lions who will stay to play San Diego State Monday.

Princeton’s Skye Belker was 9-13 and 4-6 from beyond the arc to score 27 points, Madison St. Rose scored 23, Fadima Tall was 8-13 scoring 22 points and Ashley Chea was also in double figures with 13 points.

On Sunday, the Tigers improved to 5-1 beating Maryland Eastern Shore 81-62 dropping the opposition to 4-4 as Chea scored 18, Belker was 4-6 from deep and finished with 16 points, St. Rose scored 14, and Olivia Hutcherson scored 13.

To date, Princeton has won at Georgia Tech, Villanova, lost at Maryland, beat Rice, Penn State and UMES, but another challenge awaits Wednesday at Rhode Island (1 p.m., ESPN+), which may be enjoying its first ranking having pulled a road upset Sunday at No. 16 N.C. State.

Drexel and Lehigh Suffer Loses

Lehigh’s 98-43 loss at Stanford Sunday was no surprise considering the comparison between the two programs, though the winning Cardinal (7-0) are unranked and below the traditional heights under Hall of Famer Tara VanDerveer, who retired two seasons ago.

Stanford had recruited well but have yet to get the signature win to get back into the Associated Press women’s poll, celebrating its 50th anniversary season with the first one published Nov. 28,1976.

That omission, if it continues, could result Monday in Texas tying the Cardinal for second in all-time poll appearances behind Tennessee and a few spots above UConn.

Lehigh (2-4), which beat Drexel at home Wednesday, set the game up as a homecoming for sophomore Belle Bramer, who scored 13 points.

But the Cardinal were too dominant, scoring 60 in the paint, shooting 67 percent from the field, and gaining 24 points from 17 turnovers by the Mountain Hawks.

Nunu Agara scored 24 points for Stanford, shooting 10-for-10 with four other teammates also reaching double figures.

Lehigh stays West to finish the trip Tuesday night at 9 (ESPN+) visiting San Francisco.

Meanwhile Drexel ( 4-2) on Saturday dropped its second straight, losing at NJIT 73-66, a rallying late and falling short as the opposition improved to 6-1 in the game played in Newark, N.J.

Amaris Baker reached her 1,000th career point in the loss, scoring a career-high 35 with 11 boards.

NJIT led start to finish, Drexel coming within three points late before being stopped.

Drexel visits Saint Joseph’s Saturday at 2 p.m. (ESPN+) at Hagan Arena, a win sending the Dragons to the Big 5 Classic championship game, the Hawks could be in the same position pending the outcome of Monday night’s game with Penn.

The only other local playing Monday, Rutgers will host Siena at 7 p.m. (B1J+) at Jersey Mike’s Arena.