Women’s Notebook
As this asterisk season rolls on its merry way, let’s take a quick look at the teams around the region before going into a little big-picture stuff…
In the ECC, Daemen is easily the class of the league (and region). The Wildcats are the only team that are in action this winter that I think would have been in the NCAA tournament had this been a normal season. They did garner their first NCAA bid last March as the #7 seed and my guess is they’d have bettered that this time around. A batch of veteran and productive players (Tiara Filbert, Katie Titus, Caroline White, Mickayla Ivy) and the steady hand of Jenepher Banker at the helm give the squad a settled feel. The NCAA has already announced that Daemen will be the regional tourney host in a few weeks so the ducks are lining up for the Wildcats to take that step.
St. Thomas Aquinas and Molloy are the next best clubs in the ECC but they are both a shell of their usual selves. The Spartans have received nice seasons from juniors Alexa Huertas and Victoria Kurisko while blooding a large class of freshmen. It will pay off in the long run but right now, they’re a level below Daemen. As for Molloy, they’ve been led by Gabriella Aspuru, Morgan Staab and transfer Safiyyah Lee, but are still looking for more depth. It’s possible that one (or both) could grab an NCAA spot but that’s speculation at best. Roberts Wesleyan has played the most games of any team in the region and, while they are faring decently, are showing they’re in an expected transition phase. Rounding it out, D’Youville picked up their first Division II win at the end of January and Mercy is trying to get a foothold but has yet to do so.
Georgian Court sits atop the CACC with an unblemished record (four of their wins in a 7-0 start have been by single digits) and have looked solid in all phases of the game. The Lions ended last winter with three straight victories (and a 6-3 mark in their last nine games) and carried that momentum over into this season. Rookie Anyssa Fields leads GCU with 20 ppg and 11.4 rpg and she’s had excellent support from Tian Addison, Savawn Hughes and Hanna Thrainsdottir (all averaging in double figures), making for a nice mix under head coach Jazz Perazic. Just before this item was published, though, it was learned that GCU had shut down for the remainder of the regular season and their return for the post season is in question. Yes, another twist in this asterisk season.
Dominican is GCU’s top CACC challenger, their only setback being against the Lions in their season opener. The Chargers look to veterans Jasmine Gee, Khay’la Latimer, Taylor Tomlinson and Korina Guerra and all have been productive. Otherwise, the CACC has a bunch of teams clustered around .500, including Bloomfield, Caldwell, Concordia and Nyack (Felician is bringing up the rear). None have a realistic chance to catch the leaders but if one can snaffle up enough wins, there might be an NCAA bid in their sights. In this bizarre campaign, anything goes.
Games have been scarce for the three NE10 teams that have been active. AIC is (3-1) but had a gap of more than three weeks between games. The Yellow Jackets have scheduled a number of games that have been postponed/cancelled so they may be a good test case to see if the minimum-game requirement will hold. As hard as it is to evaluate AIC, it’s near impossible to do the same for the College of Saint Rose (0-2) or Franklin Pierce (no games scheduled until March), so I won’t.
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Some notables from around the region the last few weeks… Jasmine Gee scored her 1,000th career point for Dominican on February 11 in an 82-57 win over Concordia. The Chargers rang up a massive 30-4 first quarter in the contest, including the last 18 points to ice it early… Speaking of big quarters, Roberts Wesleyan posted a 37-point third period against D’Youville on February 19 and then dropped 33 against the Saints two days later, helping them pick up a pair of wins. The latter effort was especially efficient, as RWC shot 14-17 from the floor, 4-5 from deep and recorded 11 assists in the third frame… Caldwell earned its first win of the year on February 11 over Felician (49-45), with Halle Brown’s three late free throws doing the damage. Two days later the Cougars made it two in a row, using an 11-0 fourth period burst to quell Concordia, 55-46.
A couple of back-and-forth games in the CACC saw Nyack beat Caldwell, 56-53 (February 16) in a clash that had 11 ties and 13 lead swaps. Back-to-back triples by Kennedi Fullwood and Amani Levitan put the Warriors ahead to stay late in that one… Dominican slipped past Bloomfield a few days later, 58-53, in another tight one that provided 15 ties and 14 lead changes.
St. Thomas Aquinas and Molloy, the primary chasers in the ECC behind Daemen, split a pair of low-scoring tilts on February 20 and 21. The Spartans claimed a 45-37 win in the opener thanks to a key 12-1 run spanning the third and fourth periods. Molloy returned the favor with a 47-39 success, as they forced STAC to miss 22 straight shots at one point. It was a brownout of major proportions for the Spartans, who went about 15 minutes of game time (late in the first quarter to early in the third quarter) without a basket. In fact, STAC scored just a single point in the second period as the Lions wrested control
STAC and Roberts Wesleyan split two close games, as well, with the Redhawks winning 68-64 on February 13 and the Spartans bouncing back to take a 60-57 victory the next day. RWC used a 12-5 closing run to grab their win while STAC rallied from twelve points down to nip the Redhawks, 60-57. Victoria Kurisko scored the last four points to decide the outcome in the latter game.
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As I said in my last Notebook column, I am not going to pass full judgment or criticize until the season is done. That said, I am full of questions…
- Assuming there are conference tournaments, does the winner get an automatic bid to the NCAA’s?
- Does the 11-game regular season minimum mean anything and is it still a thing in the region?
- In relation to #2 - Has that minimum game requirement been shifted to games scheduled and not games played? (Which is a very different thing and rife for misinterpretation)…
- What happens if fewer than six teams in the region have winning records – remember, the regional is supposed to have six teams – or a bunch of .500 teams?
The NCAA has published nominal regional rankings for the last two weeks but they are not actually rankings. They merely list, in alphabetical order, the teams ‘under consideration’. May I ask – what is the point? In fact, only five teams were actually listed in the East region, ostensibly not enough to fill out an NCAA regional bracket. The NCAA has boxed the East region in. All the rest of the regions seem to have enough teams with the requisite amount of games to fill out a reasonable region. The East region, by contrast, is struggling to get enough games played or enough teams with winning records. Oops, I said I would wait to criticize so… never mind.
The last word comes from a coach who reached out to me recently, and encapsulates my feelings almost exactly. I quote…
“You are also 100% correct in that this is not remotely a season that resembles any prior. With only one-third of the region participating with unequal schedules, combined with no NE10 participation, there cannot be a meaningful outcome. Also, include that Sciences and Jefferson, the top two teams in the CACC for the last several years are not active, which makes the women’s ranking frivolous in nature. Nevertheless, those attempting to play games should compete to the best of their abilities with safety as the first priority and I would hope that my fellow coaches respect their colleagues and programs that have made this region nationally respected.”
‘Nuf said.
Questions, comments, ideas, rants? Glad to hear them. Email me at Anfield13@aol.com.
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