The Guru’s Local NCAAW Roundup: Saint Joseph’s and La Salle Bid 2025 Farewell With A-10 Wins While Villanova Greets 2026 With It’s 10th Straight

 By Mel Greenberg

VILLANOVA – Saint Joseph’s and La Salle returned to Atlantic 10 action on Wednesday afternoon of New Year’s Eve saying goodbye to 2025 with gritty victories and Lehigh kicked off Patriot League play on the road downing Army, the team the Mountain Hawks beat for last season’s conference title, but biding adieu did not go well for Penn State in the Big Ten or Lafayette in its Patriot launch.

On the other side of midnight Thursday afternoon Villanova welcomed 2026 at home in Finneran Pavilion continuing the run that sprung up in December joining No. 1 UConn as the only two Big East teams with clean conference slates.

But Rutgers was felled in the Big Ten at home and Rider was downed again in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC).

Mopping up 2025, Saint Joseph’s (10-3, 1-1 A-10) after its Sunday home blowout of area D-3 Arcadia used solid defense to hold steady at home in Hagan Arena, moving from a one-point halftime deficit to VCU (4-10, 0-2) to go ahead with a 22-12 third period and then repeating finishing the game replicating a few that were on the non-conference slate with key steals to blunt rallies in the closing minutes and in this one emerge 55-45 and back to .500 in the front end of the A-10 race.

Bolting out of the break the Hawks jumped on a 10-2 run with Rhian Stokes getting half of those points to stay ahead the rest of the way.

Penn State transfer Jill Jekot had three of her four steals in the final period to help keep the Rams off the scoreboard for over three minutes.

Stokes finished with 11 points snd five assists, bringing this week’s two-game production to 24 points and 15 assists committing just two turnovers.

Aleah Snead added 10 points and five boards, Gabby Casey with nine points, one short of extending an 11-game run scoring in double figures, while collecting three rebounds and three assists.

Faith Stinson went nine and nine on points and rebounds, narrowly missing her first double double while Jekot scored seven points.

Defense was also fortified as a team on the boards with a 39-28 advantage and minimizing second chance scores to three points off six rebounds on the Rams’ offensive glass.

“Really happy with the outcome, it was perhaps the ugliest first half we’ve played all year,” said Saint Joseph’s coach Cindy Griffin now in her 25th season at her alma mater. “Only down one at the half was a positive and we came out in the third quarter and got the separation we needed and stayed together when things got hairy at the end,” she continued.

“What can you do when you’re not scoring? Can you set a good screen? Can you get a steal? Can you get a rebound? Jill was a great example of that today.”

“It’s just part of the game when things like that happen,” Jekot said of the fall off from Sunday’s scoring explosion. “So going into halftime our team knew we had to make adjustments so one of the things we talked about was winning those 50-50 balls, so we honed in on that and it ended up getting us a lot of extra possessions at the end of the game.”

The intriguing A-10 news so far this week was Tuesday night’s Rhode Island upset of preseason favorite Richmond.

“I always thought it would be (wide open race) going into this season with the additions and subtractions on roster, nobody has the same dominate team back,” Griffin said. “We just want to be playing our best basketball taking it and learning it,” Griffin said. “Right now, we’re 1-1 and Fordham’s next.”

The Hawks head up to play the next group of Rams at Rose Hill Gym in the Bronx, Saturday at 2 p.m. (ESPN+).

That’s where La Salle (9-4, 2-0) finished 2025 on Wednesday winning 72-69 and keeping Fordham (8-5, 0-2) winless at the league’s outset.

Ashleigh Connor had 17 points for the Explorers while Aryss Macktoon and Kiara Williams each scored 14 points and the trio each grabbed seven boards with Joan Quinn also in double figures with 10 points.

Fordham’s Alexis Black had 21 points and 10 assists.

La Salle hosts George Washington Saturday at 1 p.m. (ESPN+) at the John E. Glaser Arena.

Meanwhile Lehigh (5-7, 1-0) blunted the non-conference run Army (9-3, 0-1) had made under new coach and former Saint Joseph’s star Katie Kuester winning the Patriot League opener 77-66 at the West Point (N.Y.) and U.S. Military Academy home of the Black Knights.

Lehigh was hot from deep shooting 9-of-18 attempts.

“Throughout nonleague play, our team learned a lot of lessons in terms of dealing with adversity,” said Mountain Hawks coach Addie Micir. “It was good to see our team play together.

“Army is a tough team, we knew they would make a run. I'm proud of the way we responded and played this afternoon.”

Army was picked behind Navy in the preseason voting of the league’s coaches with Lehigh chosen a little farther down among the selections.

Whitney4 Lind and Lily Fandre each scored 18 points for the visitors.

The Black Knights’ Taylor Wilson scored 20 points and Kya Smith had 18 points and six assists.

Lehigh’s league home opener is Saturday at Stabler Arena in Bethlehem, Pa., hosting Bucknell at 2 p.m. (ESPN+).

Lafayette (4-8, 0-1) in a tightly fought contest fell 63-57 at Colgate (5-7, 1-0) in Hamilton, N.Y., in another Patriot opener.

Teresa Kiewiet had 16 points and nine rebounds for the visiting Leopards, while Sauda Ntaconayigize scored 14 points and Talia Zurinskas had 12 points and five assists.

Colgate’s Ella Meabon had 27 points and nine rebounds.

Lafayette has been on the road for seven of the last eight games but returns home to the Kirby Sports Center Saturday in Easton, Pa., hosting Loyola, Md., at 2 p.m. (ESPN+).

Playing in Rec Hall was of little help to Penn State (7-7, 0-3) in dropping its Big Ten contest 97-61 to No. 4 UCLA (13-1, 3-0) as Lauren Betts scored 25 points for the Bruins, including her 1,500th career point.

Gianna Kneepkens, the Utah transfer, scored 17 points, Kiki Rice had 16, and Betts’ freshman sister Sienna scored 10.

The Lady Lions’ Gracie Merkle scored 15 and Rutgers transfer Kiyomi Miller scored 13.

The Bruins host No. 17 Southern Cal in Pauley Pavilion in Los Angeles Saturday night, the cross-city attraction with less luster due to USC not also in the Top 5 with Trojan sensation Juju Watkins sidelined all season rehabbing the leg injury she suffered in the NCAA tournament.

Penn State Sunday is at Wisconsin.

Turning to newly minted 2026 on the calendar, though Creighton (6-8, 3-2) has now lost all those stars from the last several seasons who produced national rankings, the Buejays started here like a superpower jumping to an 8-0 lead on Villanova (12-2, 5-0) and maintaining the differential 13-5 until the Wildcats started humming to knot the score in a Big East game going into second period with a 12-0 run and reached the half ahead 36-23 never trailing again.

Creighton had made three 3-pointers in the opening salvo.

Ryanne Allen was near perfect off the bench to get the Wildcats into contention with her own trio of threes and 14 points for the game while freshman Kennedy Henry had a career-best 19 points with six boards, three blocks, three assists and two steals, Jasmine Bascoe had 15 boards with six assists, Denae Carter had 10 points and five boards, and Brynn McCurry had eight points and six boards.

Creighton’s Neleigh Gessert had a game-high 25 points fueled by 7-for-10 from deep and Kennedy Townsend hit three from outside to propel her 19 points.

“Getting stops and rebounds, getting steals, getting blocks just fuels me,” said Henry of her ability to fill the stat sheet. “Even if I am not scoring it makes me feel like I am doing something for my teammates and helping us the best way I know I can.

“Our team thrives off defense. Me playing defense I feel that excites our team that leads us to play Villanova basketball,” Henry continued. “On the offensive end because we just got a great stop. Now we want to capitalize off it. That allows us to go score.”

Villanova’s ten game streak began after a 2-2 start that included home losses to MAAC favorite Fairfield and Ivy favorite Princeton before a big upset win at then-ranked West Virginia.

“We talk a lot about the teams we have played and who is next,” said Villanova coach Denise Dillon. “It was a different mentality, whatever it takes. It led to results. I thought our defense was really disruptive, offensively we were in a flow, we were hard to guard for them, everyone was sharing the ball, that was the first eye-opener, ‘oh, this is what we’re looking to do and we continue to,’ and we’ve worked each day to get a little bit better.”

Villanova now heads to Milwaukee Sunday to play Marquette and then returns here next Thursday hosting Xavier 11 a.m. in the annual Education Day game.

In two other local games played up north in Central New Jersey Rutgers (8-6, 0-3) in the Big Ten fell 70-63 to Wisconsin (10-4, 2-1).

The Scarlet Knights at home at Jersey Mike’s Arena in Piscataway got 17 points from Zachara Perkins, Imani Lester scored 16, Nene Ndiaye scored scored 12, and Kaylah Ivey scored 10 while Atonia Bates grabbed eight rebounds.

The Badgers’ Kyrah Daniels was 6-for-11 from the field including 4-for-7 from deep for 20 points while Destiny Howell scored 16 also shooting 4-for-7 on 3-point attempts.

Rutgers next goes to No. 19 Ohio State in Columbus, Sunday.

Rider (2-11, 0-4) stayed winless in the MAAC losing 72-54 to Merrimack (5-7, 2-1) at home at Alumni Gym in Lawrenceville.

“We Played a really good first quarter, shot the ball well, and then we just couldn't make a shot, and that affected us on both ends of the floor,” said first year coach Jackie Hartzell. “It's replicating what we did in our first quarter to put four quarters together.”

Merrimack’s Paloma Garcia had 21 points while Madison Roman had 12 pointsand 11 boards.

The Broncs’ Deb Okechukwu double doubled with 14 points and 11 boards, while Aina Perez Mesquida scored 13 and Aliya McIver scored 10 points.

Rider next hosts Quinnipiac Saturday at 2 p.m. (ESPN+), the near homecoming for Bobcats’ veteran coach Trish Fabbri of Delran, N.J.

Looking Ahead

It gets quiet Friday; the only local action is Delaware’s Conference USA debut at UTEP at 9 p.m. (ESPN+).

The local action Saturday not mentioned off the roundup above has Ivy preseason-favorite No. 25 Princeton visiting Penn in a league opener at The Palestra at 2 p.m. (ESPN+), while Temple opens American play hosting UTSA in the Liacouras Center at 2:30 p.m. (ESPN+).

On Sunday Drexel ends a long layoff hosting Campbell at 2 p.m. at the Daskalakis Athletic Center (FloCollege) to start Coastal Athletic Association play while Delaware continues on the road in its Conference USA debut weekend at 4 p.m. visiting New Mexico State in Las Cruces (ESPN+).