City of Basketball Love

Joseph Santoliquito (@JSantoliquito)

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PHILADELPHIA, PA — Denise Dillon is in patience mode right now. The Villanova women’s basketball coach has been rotating several young players in her top-10 rotation and sometimes it translates into games like Tuesday night, when the Wildcats scrapped and clawed their way by a very feisty La Salle team, 66-54, on Tuesday night at La Salle’s John E. Glaser Arena.

There was one moment when Dillon had three freshmen and two sophomores on the court, and it is why the Wildcats (5-2) are still looking for an identity seven games into the season. Villanova scored a season-high 88 points in the Wildcats’ Big 5 victory over Temple on Saturday night, and just three points above their season-low 63 against the Explorers (5-2).

It puts the Wildcats in the Big 5 Classic Championship at Villanova’s Finneran Pavilion on Sunday, December 7, against the winner of the St. Joseph’s-Drexel winner on Saturday.

“I knew it would be a battle here at La Salle, all those Big 5 games are,” Dillon said. “Credit La Salle. They played really aggressive basketball. They certainly stuck with their game plan. We got a little out of sorts and away from ours. That’s going to happen with youth; them not understanding how intense these games are. I’ll keep on saying it.”

Are the Wildcats still looking for an identity?

“For sure, we’re definitely looking for that identity and just be connected and comfortable within what we’re doing,” Dillon said. “Every team has their defensive principles and we’re getting a little better in that area. Offensively, we’re making the adjustments in what our opponents are showing. I want (what Villanova did against Temple) when shots fall. We probably got the same looks tonight and we didn’t make them. We’re trying to get them to generate their energy and efficiency through the defense, because we are going to have nights like tonight when we don’t shoot the ball well.”

Villanova started out shooting the ball well, hitting seven of 18, including four of 10 from three-point range in building an 18-6 lead.

Villanova’s Brynn McCurry led all scorers with 18 points, followed by Jasmine Bascoe’s 16 and 11 points and five rebounds from freshman Kennedy Henry, a Westtown grad. La Salle was led by Ashleigh Connor’s team-high 17 points and nine rebounds, and Kiara Williams’ 14 points and five rebounds.

With 8:32 to play, La Salle had chiseled down a 15-point to 48-43, after a Connor three-point play.

That’s when Villanova’s Denae Carter found another gear and scored the next five points for the Wildcats, opening up a 53-43 cushion. La Salle never got within 10 again.

La Salle coach Mount MacGillivray was obviously not pleased about the outcome, but there were a lot of things he did like.

The Explorers opened the second half with six unanswered points causing Dillon to call a timeout with 7:40 to play in the third quarter. The Explorers were within double digits for the first time since they trailed, 15-6, with 3:23 left in the first quarter.

“If we got rid of the first quarter, I would have felt a little bit better about the game,” MacGillivray said. “It would have made things a little different down the stretch. Pleased with the fact that we responded after that. Our primary defensive game plan was not to let them shoot the three. We gave up four threes in the first quarter and we were down by 12 and it’s not a coincidence. I thought we adjusted. I thought we defended much better the rest of the game.

“We also executed the game plan of trying to go at (Bascoe). We wanted to put her in foul trouble and put her jeopardy. We executed that as well. Those are steps for a young team that you need to see.”   

In the last three quarters, the Explorers defended, moved the ball well, rebounded and made it competitive.

“It’s a loss to Villanova, a very good, well-coached team and there is nothing palatable about that, but I think we learned some things about ourselves that we will be able to apply to our next game,” MacGillivray said. “We are growing in our ability to be disciplined in following the defensive game plan. We can tweak what we are doing offensively to go out and get an opponent and make it happen. The first quarter, we did not stick to that. Part of our struggles defensively was our offense.”

Villanova had what seemed to be a substantial 36-21 lead by halftime. La Salle led once, 2-0, on a pair of Joan Quinn free throws, and after that, the Wildcats scored 18 of the next 22 points, going into the second quarter with an 18-6 lead.

McCurry led all scorers with 10 points on four-of-six shooting from the floor, followed by Bascoe’s six. The Wildcats hit 14 of 30 (46.7%) and caused 14 turnovers. The Wildcats also got 12 assists off 14 made shots in the first half. La Salle, meanwhile, struggled, making eight of 25 (32%) and were 0-for-5 from three-point range in the half and finished the game 2 of 14 from beyond the arc.

Villanova finished shooting 21 of 57 (36.8%), while La Salle hit 21 of 54 (38.9%), although the Explorers turned the b all 23 times to Nova’s 16.  

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Joseph Santoliquito is an award-winning sportswriter based in the Philadelphia area who began writing for CoBL in 2021 and is the president of the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be followed on BlueSky here.