The Guru’s Local/National NCAAW RoundUp: Villanova Ends Regular Season on High Note Cruising Over Seton Hall; No. 6 LSU Hands Tennesee 5th Straight Loss

 By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsgurux

How sweep its is for Villanova, winning Thursday night in easy fashion up in North Jersey 82-52 over Seton Hall (18-10, 12-7) in the Pirates’ Walsh Gym in South Orange to conclude the regular season in dominating action as the Wildcats (23-6, 16-4) followed Sunday’s 64-39 payback home victory over Marquette on Senior Day to now head to the Big East tournament next weekend in second place with the No. 2 seed at the Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, Conn.

Coach Denise Dillon’s group have a bye over next Friday’s opening round and head to the quarterfinals on Saturday at 7 p.m.

Sophomore Jasmine Bascoe followed Sunday’s 18-point, seven assists performance by scoring 28 with seven assists and five rebounds, as Villanova plundered the Pirates to take the season’s series 2-0 while Denae Carter had 13 points, freshman Brooke Bender had three from deep to account for all nine of her points, and Brynn McCurry had eight points and eight rebounds.

Locals did not play on Monday or Tuesday, while two others did on Thursday night, Delaware in a Conference USA game at home in the Bob Carpenter Center in Newark had a comeback fall short in a 73-71 loss to Western Kentucky (8-18, 4-11).

Ande-‘a Cherisier had 18 points and 11 boards, her board work brought her within two to reach 500 in her career, while Lay Fantroy had 15 points and 14 boards.

Additionally, the Fighting Blue Hens got a game-high 23 points from Ella Wanzer, shooting 8-for-14 from the field, including a career-high seven 3-pointers, tying the most made in the Sarah Jenkins era at the helm.

Trinity Vance added to the double-digit pile with 12 points.

Delaware (12-16, 6-10) stays home Saturday to host Middle Tennessee at 5 p.m. and hold the program’s Senior Day.

It’s a new coach at Rider (7-21, 5-14) this season in Jackie Hartzell, who had great success at the D-2 level in the area, but last night’s 67-55 loss to Siena (12-16, 10-9) at home in the Broncs’ Alumni Gym in Lawrenceville, N.J., brought the same near-the-season-ending as 12 months ago, elimination from making the field for next weekend’s Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference tourney at James Whelan Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City.

The championship is expected to be contested in the title round again by reigning two-time winner Fairfield or Quinnipiac, the duo have only lost to each other on their respective home courts.

Kristina Ekofo, one of two departing graduates honored before the game, - the other Kayland Deveney, had a game-high 19 points.

“We played well in the first half, but the third quarter, we couldn’t score, and we just didn’t rebound the ball,” Hartzell said. “When a team has more offensive rebounds, you’re just not going to win.

“Credit to Siena, they played hard and they played like they really wanted the game. They were aggressive, and unfortunately, we just weren’t able to match it.”

Rider finishes the season Friday at Mount St. Mary’s at 1 p.m. on ESPN+ down in Maryland.

On Wednesday, Saint Joseph’s travelled to Fairfax, Va., outside Washington, D.C., to play a key Atlantic 10 contest at George Mason (20-8, 15-2), the reigning conference tournament champion and a decimating 22-11 second quarter sent the Hawks (19-9, 10-7) on the way to an 85-59 blowout loss at the Patriots’ EagleBank Arena, ending a four-game win streak.

GMU fired nine 3-pointers to to stay comfortably ahead after gaining separation before the half.

The visitors also ran into foul trouble.

“They played great and we were bad,” was the way veteran Hawks coach Cindy Griffin, in her 25th season at her alma mater, summed up the evening.

Faith Stinson scored 15 points for Saint Joseph’s.

The Hawks wrap up the regular season hosting preseason favorite Richmond Saturday at at 2 p.m. on Senior Day at Hagan Arena (ESPN+). They’ll likely need to win the A-10 tourney next weekend, returning to suburban Richmond, to snap the long NCAA tournament drought.

However, they’ve played well enough this season that they could end up returning to the WBIT or the WNIT and make a deep playoff run.

The Hawks will learn their seed soon after playing Richmond.

La Salle (16-12, 9-8), meanwhile, continued to show itself as one of the most improved A-10 teams winning in Richmond 71-54 at VCU (8-21, 4-13), whose well-liked coach was recently let go.

Aryss Macktoon had a career-high 28 points, shooting 12-for-21, a new personal mark for field goals made. She also added 10 points and dealt four assists while grabbing a game-high four steals.

Freshman Kiara Williams added 13 points to pass 250 in her rookie season while reserve Ivona Miljanic had three connect from deep for nine points and the senior eclipsed the 500-career milestone.

Before learning their seed for the A-10 tourney where the middle of the standings has much improved for the league the Explorers Saturday will conclude the regular season at home on their Senior Day at John E. Glaser Arena hosting Loyola, Chicago at 1 p.m. (ESPN+).

After lying on the bottom of the Big Ten most of the season, Penn State (11-17, 4-13) has begun picking up wins, including a stunning 85-82 upset of Southern Cal (17-11, 9-8) at home in Rec Hall Wednesday night, getting the job done again with Rutgers transfer Kiyomi McMiller, who in her sixth straight 30+ outing scored a personal best 40 points fueled by another milestone – a career-best seven 3-pointers.

Gracie Merkle had 15 points, shooting 7-for-8 from the floor, and freshman forward Nyla McFadden was 4-for-5, scoring 10 points with nine rebounds.

After an absence last season from the Big Ten tourney under the new format resulting from the big realignment of a year ago, Penn State could play its way to next week’s mega affair at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis Saturday by winning its final game of the regular season 2 p.m. (B!G+) visiting Indiana, which has had a down year.

Rutgers (9-19, 1-16), whose only conference win was at Penn State, which later returned the angst, barely got in last year, was bounced quickly and then landed in the WNIT picking a couple closing victories.

This year the Scarlet Knights’ fate was sealed from going by the same Indiana (16-13, 5-12) team in a fight to avoid the three-team rejection at the bottom of the standings.

The Hoosiers ruined Senior Night, winning 79-69 at Jersey Mikes’ Arena in Piscataway, N.J., to end the Scarlet Knights’ home stand for the season before they finish Saturday at Nebraska at 2 p.m. in Lincoln.

Indiana managed to win, though five Rutgers players were in double figures led by Zachara Perkins with 15 points while Lauryn Swann and Nene Ndiaye each scored 10 points, as did Kaylah Ivey scored 10.

Meanwhile Temple (12-15, 6-9) went wire-to-wire on the reverse side at home Wednesday night in the Liacouras Center suffering a 77-66 loss to American Conference leader Rice (25-3, 15-0), which has won 20 straight.

“It was a tough game, and I think we could have done better,” said Owls coach Diane Richardson. “I think we could have shown what talents we have, but without the consistency, we came up on the losing end.”

It was a battle of Owls, since the night bird is also the mascot of the opposition.

Temple’s Kaylah Turner had a game-high 22 points and Jaleesa Molina scored 17 with 11 rebounds.

Rice’s Dominque Ennis scored 21 points, and Shelby Hayes added 19 points.

Once again, the turnovers have been massive, Temple committing 20, a number they’ve hit consistently in recent games.

The home team Owls go on the road Saturday at Bartow Arena at 3 p.m. (ESPN+) to play UAB, in Birmingham, which will host the American Conference tourney in two weeks.

The schedule is light Friday night, the only game in town is a key one, Drexel looking to continue its move up the Coastal Athletic Association standings when the Dragons host Northeastern at 6 p.m. on FloCollege at the Daskalakis Athletic Center, where they’ll also host North Carolina A&T on Sunday.

The other action is all on the road in the Ivy League where No. 25 Princeton (21-3, 9-2) goes into the weekend tied for first with Columbia (18-6, 9-2) a game in front of Harvard (15-9, 8-3), which is a game in front of Brown (15-8, 7-4), which is above the cutoff two games above Penn (15-9, 5-6), which is either a Quakers loss or Bears win from elimination to return to next month’s four-team Ivy Madness, this year at Cornell.

On Friday, Princeton is at Dartmouth at 6 p.m. on ESPN+ in Hanover, N.H.

Penn is in Cambridge, Mass., at Harvard at 7 p.m., all games on ESPN+, while Columbia is at Yale at 6 p.m. in New Haven, Conn.

Brown is hosting Cornell at 7 p.m. in Providence, R.I. A Bears win gives the team a sweep of the Big Red, while Penn split, so there goes that tiebreaker, and Penn is not likely to pass Brown in the Net, should they tie.

The only path for the Quakers is to win out the last three games and Brown to lose the last three.

The National Scene

It keeps getting worse for Tennessee (16-11, 8-7), whose losing streak reached five Thursday night, losing 89-73 at No. 6 LSU (25-4, 11-4) in Baton Rouge as the battle in the rugged Southeastern Conference began the two-game closeout for best seed position for next week’s tournament in Greenville, S.C.

Mikaylah Williams scored 20 points with 10 rebounds and five assists, though the Lady Vols were close in the first half before the Tigers lowered the boom.

South Carolina transfer MiLaysia Fulwiley scored 18 points for LSU.

Tennessee has now lost 7 of its last nine games. Jaida Civil scored 17 for the Lady Vols, while Nya Robertson added 14 points and Talaysia Cooper scored 13.

Tennessee finishes at home hosting No. 5 Vanderbilt (26-3, 12-3) Sunday while LSU goes to Mississippi State.

Vanderbilt at home in Nashville easily won 85-60 beating No. 24 Alabama (21-8, 7-8) as Somerville (N.J.) native Mikayla Blakes continued to tear up the Commodores record book scoring 35 points.

Coach Shea Ralph’s group was 16-0 at Memorial Coliseum, a program record.

Meanwhile, No. 3 South Carolina (28-2, 14-1) continued to roll under Dawn Staley, clinching their fifth straight regular season SEC title in a 117-21 win over Missouri and former Tennessee coach Kellie Harper at home Columbia, as Madina Okot had 26 points and 17 rebounds, while Joyce Edwards added 23 points.

The Gamecocks will end their regular season Sunday at No. 16 Kentucky, which won 63-56 at Auburn.

No. 4 Texas (27-3, 12-3) at home in Austin cruised 79-50 over visiting No. 23 Georgia (21-8, 7-8) as Madison Booker scored 18 points.

The Longhorns, who finish at Alabama Sunday, are tie for second in the SEC with Vanderbilt.

Georgia on Sunday hosts Florida, which upset No. 19 Ole Miss 74-67 at home in Gainesville as Liv McGill had 28 points, six rebounds, and eight assists.

No. 1 UConn (30-0, 19-0), which beat Villanova last week to wrap up the top seed in the Big East tourney, won 84-52 over Georgetown in Hartford, as Geno Auriemma’s win total reached 1,280, tops in all collegiate basketball.

The Huskies have won 46 straight games dating to a loss late last season to Tennessee in Knoxville. It’s the 10th time they have been 30-0.

Azzi Fudd had 24 points and four steals while Sarah Strong had 13 points and 11 boards with seven assists.

UConn has also won 57 straight regular season Big East victories and beaten the Hoyas 42 straight times.

Earlier this week, Auriemma passed retired Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer with 655 appearances in the Associated Press poll for tops by women’s coaches and his team extended its record of 622 straight rankings dating to the preseason vote of 1993-94 a year before winning the first of 12 national titles.

In the Big Ten, No. 9 Iowa (23-5, 14-3) at home edged Illinois 82-78 as Ava Heiden had a career-high 28 points.