City of Basketball Love

Owen McCue (@Owen_McCue)
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VILLANOVA — Lucy Olsen flashed Maddy Siegrist a smile as she made her way back down the floor.

Following an assist to Siegrist, she maintained that grin on the defensive end as well.

There’s a lot to smile about when you get to play with Maddy Siegirst — the nation’s second leading scorer (behind only Drexel’s Keishana Washington).

Siegrist poured in a casual 31 points in Wednesday’s 81-55 victory over La Salle, which capped an undefeated Big 5 championship for the Wildcats. 

Olsen added 19 points and eight assists — an outing becoming more and more routine for the sophomore guard from Spring-Ford as she continues filling the team’s No. 2 scoring role well.

“She’s a great person on-and-off the court, a great player” Olsen said. “It’s awesome to play with her. I don’t know if I've played with anyone as good as her. It’s really fun and hopefully we just keep getting better with that connection.”

Villanova (9-3) held a 9-8 lead in the first quarter before ending the period on an 11-3 to extend the advantage to 20-11 over La Salle (8-6). Olsen had seven points during the stretch, including a pull-up jumper in the final seconds of the half.

Siegrist got going with eight of her team’s 18 points in the second quarter, and despite La Salle graduate forward Kayla Spruill (14 points) igniting the Explorers’ offense, the Wildcats extended that lead to 16 on an Olsen pull-up three on the final basket of the half. That advantage grew past 20 early in the third.

Wednesday was Olsen’s eighth double-digit effort in nine games and fifth-straight outing in double figures. She’s hit a career-high 20 points twice during the stretch.

“It’s something even through the offseason we were talking about increasing the role, responsibilities on the floor,” Villanova coach Denise Dillon said. “You saw it last year, the progression. When you don’t skip steps, and Lucy doesn’t, good things happen within that progression.”

“She has just a relentless work ethic, and that’s what you see everyday at practice,” she added.

Finding a third piece to factor in on a more consistent basis will be important in Big East play as opponents will come in with plans of taking away VIllaonva’s top two threats.

Lior Garzon (13.1 ppg) and Brianna Herlihy (10.7 ppg) supplemented Siegrist’s scoring last season along with Olsen (7.0 ppg as a freshman).

Junior guard Maddie Burke (C.B. West) came in as the next top offensive threat at 7.3 ppg, almost all of that coming from 3-point range. Sophomore forward Christina Dalce (6.8 ppg) has had a few strong outings as well, though they combined for just nine points on Wednesday.

Instead it was sophomore guard Kaitlyn Oriehl (Archbishop Wood), giving the Wildcats a lift with 18 points on 6-of-8 shooting. The big outing topped her season-high of four and career-high of 11.

“We played a really good team tonight and they played really well,” La Salle coach Mountain MacGillivray said. “They had some players who hadn’t been shooting the ball effectively shoot lights out tonight. When you’re trying to beat a team who’s a little bit ahead of you, you need some of those players to do what they’ve been doing and not shoot lights out on you.”

Oriehl was the Wildcats’ sixth different player to reach double figures this season along with Siegrist, Olsen, Burke, Dalce and junior guard Bella Runyan. Burke (three times) and Dalce (twice) are the only players outside of Siegrist (13) and Olsen (9) to accomplish the feat more than once.

Dillon noted there’s some positives and negatives about not knowing where the scoring is going to come from behind Olsen and Siegrist every night. She appreciates the fact that other players have embraced their opportunity to step up when the opportunity presented itself, but there is some benefit in knowing what you can expect on any given night.

“It’s nice when you can rely and you have players who are consistent in the scoring,” Dillon said. “I think we can probably get Kaitlyn and Maddie Burke and Christina in that six to 12 frame and be really good, but it is a little bit high and low. We need to find some of that consistency so we know what we’re getting. … It’s easier to guard when you’re honing in on just a couple people. Us getting more comfortable with looks is going to be key moving forward.”

Villanova, which bounced back from a loss to Iowa State on Sunday, returns to action at Marquette next Wednesday. Wednesday’s win marked the 14th straight over the Explorers.

Following Spruill, Gabby Crawford scored 13 points off the bench and Claire Jacobs added 11 for La Salle.

La Salle went 7-5 in the non-conference last season, and despite heightened expectations, the Explorers find themselves in a similar spot this season before jumping into conference play against St. Joe’s on New Year’s Eve.

“We’re definitely taking some steps in the right direction, but I think we were playing better basketball through this point last year than we are now,” MacGillivray said. “That’s a little disappointing and I want to play better, but everyone in that locker room wants to play better. We had two of our best practices leading into today and we’re just going to carry that over.”