City of Basketball Love

Andrew Robinson (@ADRobinson3)
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PHILADELPHIA >> Maddie Burke’s jumper has always been picture-perfect.

Amidst the chaos in the closing seconds of Sunday’s second round WBIT game at Saint Joseph’s, the ball found Burke and the fifth-year Villanova guard was ready. Catching the ball, setting her feet, loading up and firing, Burke’s eyes never left the rim as she held the follow-through for a few hop-steps up the court.

The outcome of that shot was picture-perfect too, half the Villanova bench hanging in mid-air as the arms of every fan behind them went up and Burke traded the follow-through for an emphatic yell.

Burke’s corner three with 4.7 left capped a stunning rally as No. 4 seed Villanova came back to knock off No. 1 seed St. Joe’s 62-60 at Hagan Arena on Sunday.

“Any opportunity to keep playing, I will and if I get the opportunity to shoot, I’m going and every time, I think it’s going in,” Burke said. “I just let it fly.”

With 1:33 left on the clock, the Hawks led by five and it seemed like the bell was poised to toll on Villanova’s season and by extension, Burke’s playing career. The CB West alum, who has been in a protective plastic face mask and with her left thumb taped and braced for nearly a month, wasn’t ready to hear it and instead rang the bell on St. Joe’s season.

Burke scored six of her 11 points in the final quarter while shooting 3-of-5 from long range and 3-of-4 from deep in the second half. Jasmine Bascoe led Villanova with 15 points, the standout freshman fighting through a difficult shooting game to deliver in the clutch, her crosscourt pass setting up Maddie Webber for the first three of ‘Nova’s comeback run and her extra dish to the corner going right to Burke’s shooting pocket on the go-ahead shot.

“I was going for the next two minutes and just trying to lead this group to a win,” Burke said.

Villanova had nine players score on Sunday and the sequence that led to Burke putting the Wildcats in front was fittingly a team basketball play. With St. Joe’s guard Mackenzie Smith looking to turn the corner, Wildcats forward Denae Carter (St. Basil Academy) instead poked the ball free to Webber.

Webber pushed the ball up the floor, halting at the top of the key and dishing to Bascoe on the opposite wing, the Big East All-Freshman Team selection not even holding the ball for a second before she swung it to Burke.

“Maddie spoke to it, it’s Webber and Jas being such threats for us, Webber was struggling tonight and her hitting that three was what gave us that opportunity,” Wildcats coach Denise Dillon said. “We talked about needing to get a stop and coming up with a steal, we said ‘we’re going, we’re not using the timeout, we’re going.’

“I feel it’s our best offense when we’re in the open court and it’s Webb and Jas finding their teammates. Burke had made a shot earlier, Jas found her as the open person and Burke just made a huge shot.”

The elation in Villanova’s victory was equally reflected in the woes of the Hawks’ loss. After Smith scored off a gorgeous feed from Laura Ziegler for a 60-55 lead with 1:33 to go, three Hawks turnovers gave Villanova the lifeline it needed to completely turn the game around.

St. Joe's coach Cindy Griffin tried to summarize a shock ending to a season the Hawks had hoped to end with a championship run.

"Certainly not the way we wanted this game to go. I thought the last minute and a half, I take full responsibility for all of it. I thought there were some situations where we could have done a lot better, and it's just one of those situations that if we could get it back, we would get it back, but this time of year you can't get it back,” Griffin said. “A couple plays you have to give Villanova credit, two threes in the last 45 seconds. They made those plays. Doesn't take away from the year that we've had and the teams' accomplishments and also the way this team has showed up every day. 

“This time of year, you want to coach kids that want to be coached and you want to coach players that want to play, and this team never wavered. We come off a really tough situation, losing the (A-10) championship game a couple weeks ago, and we get disappointed there, we get disappointed not making the NCAA Tournament. We get a No. 1 seed in this tournament which is a really great tournament and as a coach you're always like, 'I hope that we're ready to play,' and this team, I never had to worry about whether they're ready to play or not."

It’s been a long journey to this point for Burke. The Doylestown product became a national commodity as an eighth grader before she’d even made it to CB West then went on to four first team All-SOL selections plus all-state player of the year and a District 1 6A title as a senior.

After two years at Penn State, Burke came home as a transfer to Villanova. With the Wildcats undergoing a dramatic facelift this past offseason, Burke had to weigh her options of calling it a career, potentially following a few others into the transfer portal or using her fifth year for a third season with Villanova.

Then, like Sunday, she wasn’t ready to hear the bell ring for her. She also knew there would be plenty of new faces joining the Wildcats and they’d need someone who had been there, done that and seen it all to help show them the way.

“It was huge in developing my leadership skills on and off the court,” Burke said. “It was a great opportunity to grow as a leader and I’ve really enjoyed every second of it.

“It was pretty easy because they’re all really good kids. They came from all over, we’ve got Ireland and Australia plus a bunch of freshmen but just a lot of good kids.”

Sunday wasn’t her first foray into dramatic shots either. Asked if she could recall the last shot like the go-ahead bomb she hit Sunday, Burke said “St. John’s” almost at the same time Dillon did, the graduate guard chiding her coach with a “jinx” as Dillon finished.

In her first year at Villanova, the Wildcats had erased a 16-point fourth quarter deficit against the Red Storm, Burke nailing back-to-back threes that had clipped the lead to one with a minute left.

Pressed if she could remember one further back than that, say in high school, Burke looked up and mused for a second, noting “how long ago was that?”

Burke’s shot may look picture-perfect but that doesn’t mean it always goes in. What she’s learned in years of playing is how to keep going and be ready for the next one, so she made sure to prop up Bascoe at every chance knowing the Wildcats would need the freshman down the stretch.

“Maddie Burke has done an amazing job this year of keeping that cohesiveness on and off the floor,” Dillon said. “Hearing her talking to Webber and Jas, she’s bringing people up with her and when you do that, great things happen.”

As a victory had slipped away, St. Joe’s senior class saw its standard-setting run on Hawk Hill brought to a sudden halt. While a tough loss in the A-10 final this year joins Sunday’s heartbreak and last year’s WBIT quarterfinal loss to Villanova as postseason frustrations for a class, they were paramount in helping turn around the program. 

"They have really put their footprint on this program, from a culture standpoint, from every-day players that they come in every day with no agenda. The agenda is to get better every day and to play with and for each other. They are very steady kids that have a competitive way about them but their work ethic is off the charts,” Griffin said. “They came in, they won 13 games their freshman year, they went to 20 their sophomore year, 28 games last year, 24 games this year. One step further, they got to the championship game, it obviously wasn't the outcome we wanted but they kept getting this program further and further. I'll be forever grateful for them, and then you add Laura to that mix and it just elevated our whole program from a skill standpoint, but even from a culture standpoint. I will be forever indebted to them."

St. Joe’s had plenty of success inside, going 22-of-40 on twos and scoring 40 points in the paint, but the difference maker was on the outside. Villanova connected on 11-of-26 threes while the Hawks shot just 1-of-10 from distance, Griffin highlighting the chess match of inside-out but when it came down to it, Villanova’s 5-of-9 showing beyond the arc in the fourth quarter was too much to overcome.

The Hawks had a long meeting in their locker room after the game and understandably, they didn’t think this was one they’d get over in a hurry.

"It takes a little while. Looking back to the same loss in the tournament last year, I know that it took me a while just to be able to watch the game again. At one point you get to a point where you've got to learn from it. I know we're taking a couple weeks off before we start postseason, well, the offseason, but it'll take me a few days,” Ziegler said. “It hurts a lot and it hurts a lot because you want to do it for the people around you. You want to do it for the coaches, the ones who've been here and who haven't won an A-10 championship. It'll definitely take a little while. I normally have a midnight rule, but since there's no game in the near future, it'll probably take a little longer."

Burke wasn’t done after playing the hero role offensively. The Hawks advanced the ball and pretty much everyone in Hagan Arena knew it was going to Talya Brugler, Ziegler or some combination of the two posts.

With 4.7 on the clock, St. Joe’s inbounded to Brugler on the baseline with Burke defending. The Villanova guard held her ground, Brugler losing the ball out of bounds with 2.1 left in the game and the call standing after St. Joe’s challenged the ruling.

“I knew they were going to go to Brugler or (Ziegler) so it was just about staying straight up and not fouling,” Burke said. “I tried to not let her get the ball, but she’s a really good player so from there it was just staying straight up.”

Griffin acknowledged the plan was to go to either of her post players, given the advantage Brugler and Ziegler had inside. Brugler scored 18 points in her final game while Ziegler was close to a triple-double with 19 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists.

"Yeah, we were trying to get the isolation; if we didn't have it, Laura was going to be able to flash across and get her the ball,” Griffin said. “We had two options there and just unfortunate that the ball went out of bounds."

Villanova will try to make it back-to-back WBIT final four appearances on Thursday when the Wildcats host Portland at Finneran Pavilion. The Pilots have knocked off No. 2 seed Stanford and No. 3 seed Seton Hall through two rounds.

“I’m excited for Maddie in her final campaign, we have a lot of players where it’s the end of the line for them,” Dillon said. “They’re giving it all they have and leaving it out there.”