The Guru’s March Madness Local/National Roundup Day 2: Saint Joseph’s and La Salle Fall in A-10 Tourney; Second-Seed Villanova set to open Big East play meeting Providence; No. 5 Vanderbilt Stunned by Ole Miss in SEC

 By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsgurux

HENRICO, Va. – Valentines Day for 2026 is almost a month passed by but here at the Atlantic 10 women’s basketball tournament in Friday’s quarterfinal action at the three-years-old Henrico Sports & Events Center in suburban Richmond it was heartbreak city for fifth seed Saint Joseph’s and seventh-seed Dayton in two of the four games.

In a grind all 40 minutes in game two, the Hawks from Philadelphia and fourth-seed Davidson went at, neither building much of a lead after the Wildcats’ 17-10 first quarter, but late in the game the Philly folks went on an 8-0 run and moved into a 56-53 lead with 3:17 left in regulation.

That was to be it from the field for coach Cindy Griffin’s team but not quite yet the end off a tenacious defense.

Down 60-57 with 27 seconds left in regulation, Aleah Snead made two from the line and then Faith Stinson made a steal putting the Hawks in position take the rubber match after splitting the season series with Davidson.

Snead drove for the basket, the ball dropped in the net but Davidson’s Charlise Dunn moved into position to take a charge sending possession back to the Wildcats (21-11), who finished up at the line to take a 64-59 victory and move on to Saturday’s semifinals in the 11 a.m. opener (CBSSN) against top-seed Rhode Island (26-4), which held off a feisty effort from eighth-seed Loyola, Chicago for a 71-64 victory.

Saint Joseph’s (20-11) is likely to extend the season participating in either the three-old WBIT or WNIT but won’t be pursuing any home games due to athletic staffing situation involved hosting an opening set of weekend games in the men’s NCAA at the Xfinity Mobile Arena in South Philadelphia.

Snead was one off her career high scoring 23 points and tied her personal best with five steals for Saint Joseph’s, while Faith Stinson had 14 points and eight rebounds, and Rhian Stokes scored 12 points.

Davidson’s Dunn, a native of Australia, scored 12 points while Katie Donovan, also an Aussie, had a team-high 13 points helped by some timely long-range shooting with three makes from deep, while Dunn had two of the Wildcats’ other three from distance.

“A total team win, everybody that went into the game scored and we needed all of them,” said Davidson coach Gayle Fulks.

“I’m very proud of the way we came back, we had a lot of comeback situations today,” said Griffin, in her 25th season coaching her alma mater. “Just didn’t have enough at the end.

“I am proud of our players for believing we could win today. I thought we had a great game plan today and executed what we needed to execute. Davidson did an unbelievable job; they made those threes and that I think was the difference. That was tough to recover from. I am proud of the way we came out and fought back.”

When seventh seed Dayton, coached by former UConn star Tamika Williams-Jeter, took the floor for game three against George Mason (22-8), the entire tournament in all previous games saw the higher seed win each of them, some in closely fought contests.

For a long while, the Flyers (17-14) seemed poised to pull the first upset, several times leading by double digits until the defending conference tournament champs mounted and stirring rally and got the game into overtime where Louis Volker beat the end of period clock to give the Patriots an 87-85 victory and area matchup  with preseason favorite Richmond (26-6) in the 1:30 p.m. contest.

The Spiders, who were the third seed, easily dispatched the other Philly team entry La Salle (18-13), winning 70-51 leaving Explorers coach Mountain MacGilivray hopeful to keep his season alive in one of the other two secondary tournaments to the 68-team NCAA women’s national championship.

“Some once the season ends (being out of the NCAA mix) are ready to move on to the next season, not me, I just loved coaching these kids,” MacGilivray said.

Off George Mason’s cliffhanger, Volker said of her winning shot, “I did not want to lose. I’m glad we get to keep dancing, but this is what March is about. I think we’re all on the same page and really excited to play tomorrow.”

Coach Vanessa Blair paid tribute to Volker in her opening statement: “As proud as I am of those who scored 20-some points, I’m super proud of Lou. (She) sacrifices those moments offensively to be a defensive player, for us and she still can score.

“For Lou to end up with that last shot to win the game, I am super proud of her.”

Kennedy Harris scored 22 for George Mason while Zahirah Walton scored 20, with seven rebounds. Maliyah Johnson collected 13 points.

“Y’all awake now,” Blair quipped to open her postgame podium appearance. “It’s always that first game in the tournament you have to get going and it took us until two minutes in the fourth quarter to get our groove. They never quit or got their head down.”

Dayton’s Fatima Ibrahim scored 18 points with nine boards. Ajok Madol scored 15 points while Nayo Lear scored 14, as did Molly O’Riordan while Nicole Stephens scored 13 points.

“I think it was a heavyweight fight tonight,” Williams-Jeter said. “George Mason definitely came as the heavyweight, coached by someone I really look up to.

“We wanted to throw punches and we did. I wanted the players to respond because we’ve been through a lot this year, and they did. For us we wanted to win the battle in the paint against a team that doesn’t give that up,” she continued.

“We forced them to make a lot of tough twos. We executed pretty decent to throw punches. I have a senior group that has built culture, confidence and leaves a phenomenal foundation from where we wore four years ago.”

Dayton went 14-for-15 from the line and collected 46 Flyers points in the paint.

Williams-Jeter was optimistic over her team’s progress despite the tough loss.

“She used to beat me by 40,” the Dayton coach said.

Walton said that her team never doubted the win when trailing the Flyers late in regulation.

“We did everything we could and never gave up. We knew the game was ours and we just  had to play hard.”

Richmond coach Aaron Roussell was pleased to give some of his other players down the bench a lot of experience in this one and them playing well was a good enough reason to not find it necessary later in the game to bring his stars such as Broomall’s Maggie Doogan, the A-10 player of the year, back into action with the outcome  long determined before the final buzer.

Doogan led Richmond with 13 points, eight rebounds and five assists, while Ally Sweeney scored 12 points and grabbed six rebounds. Tierra Simon scored 11 points, and Rayne Wright scored 10.

“I thought it was important today to get our young kids some experience early and I think they did a good job,” Roussell said. “So we just rolled with that. The way the team played and the energy that we played with was great tonight and bodes well for the future as well.”

Richmond’s depth was key outscoring the Explorers 34-2.

La Salle’s Aryss Macktoon scored scored 13 points and grabbed 13 rebounds. Ashleigh Connor had a game-high 18 points and Joan Quinn reached double figures with 12 points.

“I’ve held the position that Richmond is the best team in the conference all season long and they showed that tonight,” MacGillivray said. “We would’ve liked a better showing the first half and put some game pressure on them, but really pleased and proud of what these young ladies have shown this season to this point, and we hope it’s recognized and hope to keep playing. Returning your entire backcourt from a season before, having that experience that’s why we’re in the position that we were in this year to compete in these games. We didn’t have a good shooting night, so it didn’t happen for us tonight, but we’re not letting that diminish where we got to this year and what we want to keep doing.”

Richmond and George Mason split their series, each winning their games at home.

The Rest of the Locals

In the Big East tournament up at the Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, Conn., near New London, Villanova (23-6), second seeded, will play the third of the four quarterfinals at 7:30 p.m., meeting Providence (14-17), the seventh seed, who advanced in Friday’s first-round games beating DePaul 69-55.

Uconn, the lone undefeated Division I team and defending NCAA champions, get the four-game Saturday card started at noon hosting eighth-seed Georgetown (14-16), a 62-58 winner over Butler.

The entire tournament is being broadcast on NBC’s Peacock.

If Villanova wins, the Wildcats playing for 500 wins in program history, in one of the two semifinals, will meet the winner between Seton Hall and St. John’s.

Delaware (12-18, 6-12) concluded its regular season, which had the Blue Hens debut in Conference USA, losing at Liberty 71-64 in Lynchburg, Va., in a game in which the Blue Hens’ Safi Kolliegbo scored her 1,000th point, while the opposition finished 17-12 and 11-7 in the league, whose bracket for next week’s tournament will be announced after Saturday’s games are concluded.

The Fightin’ Blue Hens got 19 points and 10 rebounds from Lay Fantroy, while  Kailah Correa scored 12 points, shooting 5-for-12 from the field. Ande’a Cherisier scored 10 points as did Trinity Vance.

The four seeds will be determined in final season games Saturday for Ivy Madness, next weekend at Cornell’s Newman Arena in Ithaca, N.Y.

Penn won’t be part of the action, having been eliminated last weekend in a loss at Harvard.

But the Quakers, hosting Senior Day at 2 p.m. (ESPN+), can finish a game behind Brown in fifth place with a win that would atone for the upset loss to the Bears early in the Ivy schedule.

No. 23 Princeton, tied with Columbia for first but on the losing end of the tiebreaks off a series sweep by the Lions, hosts Yale at 2 p.m. at Jadwin Gym at home, while hosts Harvard at 2 p.m., the Crimson holding third in front of Brown.

Temple finishes regular season play hosting FAU at 2 p.m. (ESPN+) at the Liacouras Center ahead of next week’s American Conference tournament in Birmingham. Seeding will be announced Saturday.

Next week in the Patriot League, whose tourney sites are all at higher seed matchups throughout the three rounds, fourth-seed Lehigh on Monday hosts fifth-seed Loyola, Md., at Stabler Arena in Bethlehem, Pa., at 6 p.m. while sixth seed Lafayette is at third seed Army at 6 p.m., all tourney games on ESPN+, except the championship.

Drexel finishes regular season play Saturday at Towson in the Coastal Athletic Association at 2 p.m. on FloCollege, the Dragons needing to win to take the second seed into next week’s tournament in Washington, D.C.

The Dragons have clinched one of the double byes. Pairings will be announced following Saturday’s games.

The National Scene

Upsets continued in the Power Four conferences Saturday highlighted by second seed and No. 5 Vanderbilt (27-4) losing in the Southeastern quarterfinals to No. 24 Mississippi (23-10) 89-78 after the winning Rebels got off to a 23-2 start and led by as many as 32 points in the third period.

Cotie McMahon scored 27 points for the winners, while Latasha Lattimore was one better at 28.

Mikayla Blakes scored 24 for the Commodores.

In Saturday’s semifinals in Greenville, S.C., OIe Miss will meet No. 4 Texas (29-3), which blasted Alabama 83-60 as Jordan Lee scored 16 points, and Madison Booker had 11 points, 10 rebounds, and six assists.

In the other two quarterfinals, No. 3 South Carolina (30-2) blasted No. 17 Kentucky, 87-64, as Joyce Edwards scored 21 points and Madina Okot had 12 points and 13 rebounds.

The Wildcats fell to 23-10.

No. 6 LSU (27-4) romped 112-78 over No. 7 Oklahoma (24-7) as former South Carolina star MiLaysia Fulwiley scored 33 points with eight assists and Flo’jae johnson had 16 of her 21 points in the second half.

The Tigers and Gamecocks Saturday meet at 4:30 p.m. on ESPN2.

In the Big Ten, No. 2 UCLA (29-1) won 78-60 over former Pac12 rival Washington in Indianapolis as Lauren Betts had 26 points and eight boards and Kiki Rice scored 18 while No. 11 Ohio State (26-6) downed No. 19 Minnesota 60-55 as Elsa Lemmila scored 17 points with 11 boards and Jaloni Cambridge added 17 points to send the two winners against each other in a Saturday semifinal at 2 p.m. on the Big Ten Network.

The same carrier will air 8 Michigan against No. 9 Iowa at 4:30 p.m.

The Wolverines (25-5) advanced beating Oregon 80-58 while the Hawkeyes (25-5) edged Illinois 60-58 as Ava Heiden scored 16 points and Hannah Stuelke collected 13 points with five rebounds.

In the ACC in Duluth, Georgia, No. 13 Duke (11-8), the top seed, beat Clemson 60-46 as Toby Fournier had 17 points and 10 rebounds, while Delaney Thomas had 14 points while Notre Dame got 25 points from Hannah Hidalgo and Iyana Moore scored 20 in an 81-63 win over N.C. State to set up one of Saturday’s semifinals at noon on ESPN2.

No. 16 North Carolina (26-6) will be in the other semifinals after Lanie Grant had a career-high 21 points and Nyla Harris had 19 points and 10 boards for an 85-68 win over Virginia Tech, while No. 12 Louisville (26-6) got 17 points from Taajianna Roberts and Mackenly Rudolph had 12 points and 10 rebounds in an 87-61 win over Syracuse to set up the other semifinal Saturday at 2:30 p.m. on ESPN2.

And in the Big 12, Colorado (22-10) upset No. 20 Baylor 62-53 in Kansas City, Desiree Wooton scoring 21 points and Zyanna Walker 19 against the Bears (24-8) while No. 15 West Virginia (25-6) ended Arizona State’s run 67-54 as Sydney Shaw had five makes from deep and scored 19 points to set up a Saturday semifinal at 6:30 p.m. on ESPN+.

That game follows the other semifinal at 4 p.m. on the same network between No. 10 TCU (28-4), the top seed, against Kansas State (18-16), which continued its upset run ousting four seed Oklahoma State 74-73 as freshman Jordan Speiser scored 18 of her career-high 21 points and Tess Heal scored the game-winner on a foul shot with 1.3 seconds left.

Kansas State is the first 12 seed to make the Big 12 semifinals.

TCU (28-4) easily dispatched BYU 63-46 as Marta Suarez scored 17 points with eight rebounds, and Taylor Bigby scored 11 of her 13 points in the opening period. Olivia Miles had 10 points, 10 rebounds, and six assists for the winning Horned Frogs.

On Saturday in the Ohio Valley championship, the winner between Western Illinois and Lindenwood will become the first team into the NCAA women’s tournament field.

In the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference tournament in Atlantic City, N.J., Siena and Iona meet at noon and Merrimack and Mount Saint Mary’s follows, both on ESPN+ to send two winners into the semifinals Sunday against co-leaders Quinnipiac and two-time defending champion Fairfield, ranked No. 25 this week.