The Guru’s Local/National NCAAW Roundup: Villanova Rides Allen’s Threes Over Seton Hall; Penn Beats Washington State; Temple Tops Coppin State; Stanford Upsets No. 22 Washington

 By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru (acct suspended)

VILLANOVA – Overall, Friday was a good day and night emerging out of finals for three of the four local teams who all hosted games.

Here at Finneran Pavilion in a Big East home opener Villanova (9-2, 2-0) shook off a rugged start shooting 5-18 for 27.8% in the first quarter to move on to a 72-55 win over Seton Hall (7-4, 1-1) making up for an early loss at the finish to the Pirates a year ago that was one of the costly setbacks in not making the NCAA tournament field.

Down at The Palestra in a late morning tipoff, Penn (8-3) gained a 67-62 win over former PAC-12 member Washington State (1-12), which has been diminished by losses through the transfer portal.

Temple (6-5) won its second straight taking a 59-39 win at the Liacouras Center over Coppin State (2-11).

Up north not far away, Rider (2-8, 0-1), a decided underdog going into its Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) opener at Alumni Gym in Lawrenceville, N.J., suffered a lopsided 84-58 defeat to two-time reigning champion and preseason favorite Fairfield (7-3, 1-0).

Here at Villanova, despite the mediocre shooting in the first period, the Wildcats got a 3-pointer from freshman Brooke Bender to head into the next with a one-point lead and then substitute Ryanne Allen, the Archbishop Wood grad who transferred from Vanderbilt a year ago, went on a 5-5 field and 3-point long range attack to put her team up 35-25 at the half to stay in front the rest of the way as she tied a career-high with 19 points.

The Wildcats got two more 3-pointers in the period and finished connecting on 12 from deep.

Allen’s personal best scoring total was first achieved earlier this season in a home win over Temple avenging the Big 5 Classic home loss to the Owls in last season’s championship and putting the Wildcats back on the road to return to the championship game here which they claimed over archrival Saint Joseph’s.

“My teammates were finding me and once I was open, I had the confidence just to knock it down,” Allen said. “After seeing a couple go in it was just natural at that point.”

Villanova coach Denise Dillon, pleased with the effect of the defense that produced an 18-4 advantage on points from turnovers, quickly added, “I don’t know if she had to see the basket. Just let it go. Follow through was on point. It was fantastic. We needed it big time.”

Big time was what the Wildcats got here three seasons when Maddy Siegrist, now with the WNBA Dallas Wings and playing in the Unrivaled league starting next month for the winter, put up a record 50 on Seton Hall.

This win was a share-the-wealth approach with Villanova showing threats to score from several players.

Super sophomore Jasmine Bascoe scored 20 points with seven boards, five assists and three steals, Denae Carter was 3-3 for six points and also grabbed seven boards.

Bender, whose twin sister Elise is also a freshman recruit, was 3-4 beyond the arc for all nine of her points.

“I was super proud of our commitment on the defensive end,” Dillon said. “Our defense created some offense for us when the shots weren’t falling. (Her players) were getting open looks because they were sharing the basketball. That settled us all.”

Seton Hall’s Savannah Catalon scored 11 points with six boards and Jade Eads scored 10 of her 12 points by the half.

It’s a big weekend here on campus with the football team hosting Illinois State Saturday night on campus in a FCS Semifinal contest.

Next up as Villanova continues on the Big East schedule the rest of the season is a visit Monday at noon against St. John’s (ESPN+).

At the Palestra, in a first-ever meeting with Washington State, which lost at Seton Hall earlier in the week, Katie Collins scored 15 points as did Simone Sawyer while Mataya Gayle scored 15.

Tina Njike was 4-8 from the field for eight points and she grabbed nine rebounds while Collins collected eight.

“I thought we played really well,” said Penn coach Mike McLaughlin, whose team’s Ivy prospects will get its biggest test in the league opener hosting preseason favorite Princeton on January 3. “We had moments on both side of the ball that we were really, really good.

The work of Collins and Njike on the boards helped the Quakers pick up 19 second chance points.

“We were struggling a couple of times to score, and Tina’s offensive ability to rebound and put it back (to score) … Katie dug down, you know, a couple loose balls on the on the offensive glass,” McLaughlin said. “The extra possessions really matter.”

He said the Quakers are getting more depth off players understanding their roles.

Penn is back on another long break, joined the next few days by most of the country, which will be idle across Christmas week starting Tuesday until next Sunday.

Washington State’s Eleonora Villa from Italy scored 21 points with six assists.

The Cougars are coached by former Texas star Kamie Ethridge, whose program assist record was recently broken on the Longhorns, who are unbeaten and ranked second.

When the PAC-12 was abandoned going into last season, Oregon State and Washington State signed up with a two-season membership in the West Coast Conference and then next season will head back to an otherwise brand-new membership group when the PAC-12 reactivates.

Before getting into Ivy play, Penn will play in Fairleigh Dickinson’s tournament in Hackensack, N.J., playing Md.-Eastern Shore in the opener on Monday, Dec. 29, and then the next day either FDU, coached by former Villanova star Stephanie Gaitley, who is a past Saint Joseph’s coach, or Binghamton in either the winner’s or consolation round.

FDU won the Northeast Conference last season.

Temple still had its draughts offensively in the win over Coppin State but lived on a defense that forced a season-high 29 turnovers to pick up 20 points.

Drew Alexander’s pair of makes from deep at the end of the third put the Owls up 19, large enough to stay in front the rest of the way.

“We played well defensively, but I think we weren’t patient offensively and didn’t execute,” said Temple coach Diane Richardson. “Coppin State is a kind of team that pushes defensively, and I think we we kind of rushed some things.

“We should have purposely executed our offense to get us better shots and I thought we took some quick shots.”

Temple was still without Tristen Taylor, who missed her third straight game with an ankle sprain.

Reserve Kelian Cedano scored a career-high 12 points.

“Just hustling and being aggressive on defense gives me confidence on the offensive side to go and score,” she said. “Driving the ball and just jacking up shots, starting off with that helped a lot because most of my points were off layups and free throws.”

Alexander also scored 12 points while Jaleesa Molina had 10 points and 13 boards and Saniyah Craig had nine points and 10 boards.

Temple gets a big challenge Monday traveling up to newly ranked No. 25 Princeton, the Ivy preseason favorite, who is at Atlantic 10 reigning conference tournament champion George Mason on Saturday.

Monday’s game with the Tigers in Jadwin Gym tips at 11:30 a.m. on ESPN+.

In Rider’s game, the visiting Stags got 25 points and six assists from Kaety L’Amoreaux, while Meghan Andersen scored 18.

The host Broncs got 13 points and eight boards from Aliya McIver, while Kristina Ekofo scored 12 points and Aina Perez Mesquida scored 10 points.

“I thought we competed,” said Rider first-year coach Jackie Hartzell. “That’s what we asked our players to do, and I thought we did that for 40 minutes.

“Obviously, they’re a great team, and they’ve been the team to beat for a few years now for a reason. Never pleased with a loss but definitely pleased with our effort from start to finish,” she continued.

“We had 14 turnovers in the first half, but we only had four in the second half, so there was improvement there. We hope to clean things up moving forward and improve on each game.”

On Sunday Rider travels for a MAAC game in Connecticut at Sacred Heart at 2 p.m. (ESPN+).

The National Scene

Three ranked teams played with one an upset in a game between two former PAC-12 members Stanford (10-2), which won 67-62, over No. 22 Washington (9-2) at home in Maples Pavilion in Palo Alto, Calif.

The Cardinal, now in the Atlantic Coast Conference, rallied down the stretch to win against the Huskies of the Northwest, now in the Big 10, though Stanford has one more this weekend playing Oregon, which also moved to the Big Ten, in San Francisco.

They’ll need to win that one to have a shot getting ranked in Monday’s next AP women’s poll, in its 50th anniversary season, but if they don’t, No. 1 UConn, win or lose Saturday against No. 11 Iowa, will snap a third place tie for total appearances, now at 646.

In the win over Washington, freshman Lara Somfai scored 14 points with six rebounds, Hailee Swain scored 13 points, Courtney Ogden scored 12 points with seven boards, and reserve Chloe Clardy scored 11 points.

Washington’s Avery Howell and Sayvia Sellers each scored 13 points, Hannah Stines and scored 12 points while Elle Ladine and reserve Brynn McGaughy each scored 11 points.

McGaudy pulled down nine rebounds while Howell and Stines each grabbed eight.

No. 7 Maryland (13-0) at home in the XFINITY Center in College Park slammed Central Connecticut 98-30, dropping the visitors to 0-11 in search of their first win.

Yarden Garzon had 25 points, shooting 7-16 from deep, with seven boards for the Terrapins while Oluchi Okananwa scored 22 with 10 boards.

On Monday, Maryland returns to Big Ten play hosting Wisconsin at 4 p.m. (B1G+).

No. 12 Kentucky (12-1) at home in Lexington picked up a 96-53 win over Wright State (5-9) as Clara Strack scored 26 points in a game in which the host Wildcats scored 10 3-pointers in the first half.

On Sunday, Kentucky will host Hofstra.

As teams head for their last games before the Christmas break as conference play starts fading in, there are some multiple team tournaments, not as plentiful as those that occur on Thanksgiving week, and none Friday that were in the traditional winners advance against each other.

The 4 Tha Culture Holiday Classic got under way with a single game in suburban Richmond as Georgia (12-0) stayed unbeaten with a 72-53 win over VCU (4-8) at the Henrico Sports & Events Center, site of the Atlantic 10 tournament in March.

The winning Bulldogs got 23 points from Trinity Turner while Dani Carnegie, a transfer from Georgia Tech, got 13 points and nine boards.

In the Maui Classic, Oregon State beat Montana State 53-51 in an opening round while Hawaii topped Liberty 67-58.

In a single game in Day 1 of the Puerto Rico December Classico in San Juan, Cleveland State won 67-61 over Charleston.

In a single non-event game Gonzaga won 68-49 at Missouri State.

Looking Ahead

Locally, the Hawk Classic gets under way at Hagan Arena with hosts Saint Joseph’s playing Le Moyne at noon before Delaware meets Akron at 2 p.m., both on ESPN+ with winners and losers meeting Sunday in a traditional tourney structure.

Continuing in the 4 Tha Culture Holiday Classic, Alabama A&M meets Richmond at 1 p.m., followed by Penn State playing VCU at 3:30 p.m., both on ESPN+, Penn State will play Richmond Sunday at 3:30 p.m.

Returning to Saturday, Drexel hosts America East favorite Vermont at the Daskalakis Athletic Center at noon on FloCollege; No. 25 Princeton visits George Mason at 1 p.m. on ESPN+, and then two others at noon have the Patriot League duo Lafayette at Rutgers (B1G+) in Piscataway, N.J., while Lehigh is at Towson (FloCollege).

Nationally, the second annual Women’s Champions Classic at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn on FOX has top-ranked UConn playing No. 11 Iowa at 1:30 p.m. after No. 17 Tennessee plays No. 16 Louisville at 11 a.m.

The field was the same last year with Tennessee under then-first year coach Kim Caldwell beating Iowa while the Huskies routed Louisville.

In the second round of the Maui Classic at Makawao, Hawaii, Oregon State plays Liberty at 11 p.m. after Hawaii meets Montana State at 11 p.m., both on YouTube.

The Cherokee Invitational, which is in a traditional tournament format in Asheville, N.C., on Sunday has No. 14 Ole Miss playing Old Dominion at 7:30 p.m. after No. 24 Michigan State plays Indiana State at 5 p.m.

In Saturday non-event games, No. 4 UCLA hosts Long Beach State at 5 p.m. (B1G+), No. 9 TCU hosts Kansas State at at 5 p.m. (ESPN+) in a Big 12 opener, No. 3 South Carolina is as Florida Gulf Coast at 2 p.m. (ESPN+), No. 13 Vanderbilt hosts Texas Southern at 1 p.m. (SECN+), Duke is at Belmont at 3 p.m. (ESPN+), and in a Sun Belt game at 5:30 p.m. preseason favorite James Madison is at Marshall (ESPN+).