City of Basketball Love

By Owen McCue (@Owen_McCue)
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OLNEY — There was an urgency for both the La Salle and Villanova women’s basketball programs to get back in the win column on Thursday afternoon.

The Wildcats headed into the Big 5 contest on a three-game skid, while the Explorers arrived trying to dig themselves out of a five-game losing streak.

Unfortunately for La Salle, it ran into a school it hasn’t beaten in 15 years.

Even with a late Explorers’ push, Villanova proved too much in a 74-60 win that marked the Wildcats’ 15th straight victory against their Big 5 rivals.

“I think it’s great going into this little Christmas break getting a win,” Villanova senior Bella Runyan said. “It’s time to relax, time with family, a good reset going into Big East play. It feels good, and I think it was good timing too.”

Villanova (7-5, 0-1 Big East) junior guard Lucy Olsen scored 23 points on 10-of-21 shooting to bounce back from Saturday’s loss to St. John’s when she shot 2-for-15 from the floor. Junior forward Christina Dalce added a double-double with 13 points and 11 rebounds. Runyan filled the statsheet as well with 11 points, seven assists and nine boards. 

The Wildcats’ 17 assists were a season-high and matched the highest number they accumulated last season, when they reached the mark three times.

“Sometimes we get a little too dribble happy, and that’s when turnovers happen, travels, dribbling off our foot,” Runtyan said. “We stayed in our offense, let the system work for us. When we’re sharing the ball, setting good screens, using screens, good things always happen. It’s easy buckets too.”

La Salle (3-8) graduate guard Molly Masciantonio had a team-high 15 points, eclipsing the 1,000-point milestone in her career on a pull-up jumper in the third quarter. Masciantonio, who was a 1,000-point scorer in her high school career at Carroll, has been more of a distributor during her college career since transferring from Holy Family after her freshman season.

The milestone highlights her commitment to the Explorers over the last five seasons (four on the court).

“I honestly didn’t think I was gonna get there, but within five years I got it,” Masciantonio said. “I just enjoy being on the court and playing for La Salle women’s basketball and I couldn’t do it without them. I’ve just loved improving everyday and I want to win.”

La Salle missed its first seven shots and finished just 2-for-15 in the first quarter. A three and a pair of free throws by Masciantonio marked the Explorers’ only points of the period until Amber Bullard beat the buzzer on a putback bucket to make it a 13-7 Villanova after one.

The Wildcats led by as many as 21 in the second quarter and led 37-20 at half as Olsen had 14 at the break. Villanova’s 74 points were the most since scoring 75 in a Dec. 3 loss to Columbia, but the Wildcats weren’t at their sharpest throughout. 

They came in averaging just 9.2 turnovers per game, the fewest in the country, and turned the ball over six times in the first quarter and a season-high 17 times in the game. The defensive effort early spearheaded the Wildcats to a big lead and kept La Salle playing from behind.

“That’s what we try to emphasize because offensively, it’s a lot of ups and downs with us,” Villanova coach Denise Dillon said. “The uncertainty is who is doing what on that day, who might be feeling it. We’re still trying to find that consistency, so staying focused on the defensive end. I always feel like if you’re staying focused on defense and rebounding, you’re not overthinking the offensive end and then things just start to fall into place for you.”

La Salle’s offense finally started to make shots at the end of the third quarter and into the fourth. Junior guard Gabby Turco added 14 and junior guard Tiara Bolden chipped in 12 to cut the deficit down to 10 with under a minute to play. It was just too late.

The Explorers’ six-game skid started with a 79-71 loss to Penn on Nov. 29. La Salle’s next four opponents Virginia (94-73), Rutgers (98-67), Lehigh (106-60) and Temple (85-61) all picked up lopsided wins. La Salle head coach Mountain MacGillivray said this was one was a little easier to swallow given his team’s fight.

“Every single day, we take a stride forward and then we realize there’s some more things we gotta work on,” MacGillivray said. “We get better at this and then there’s some other things. We’re just growing. It’s tough when the scores were lopsided, and it feels a little bit better knowing we were in the hunt and we had a chance in this one.”

“The vibe from the team has been good and that’s what I was worried about after that real bad stretch we had in three games in five games, but they responded.”

La Salle begins Atlantic-10 Conference play Dec. 30 at George Mason. Villanova returns home to face Xavier in Big East play on the same day.