Women’s Notebook – Elite Eight recap, Mid-Season recap, notes
By Stephen Zerdelian
Assumption’s run in the NCAA tournament came to an end at the hands of Minnesota-Duluth on Monday at the Elite Eight in St. Joseph, Missouri, 61-41. The Bulldogs flipped the script on Kerry Phayre’s Greyhounds, limiting them to 28% from the floor and making scoring a chore for the East Regional champions. Despite the defeat, Assumption wrapped up their best season in history at 27-6.
Monica Spain led the Hounds with 13 points (6-14 FG) in the contest but other than her the attack had little pop. Jay’Lyn Armstrong (8 points) and Marina Callahan (7 points, 12 rebounds) tried to help, with the former giving Assumption its only lead, 2-0, on a pair of foul shots. Soon after, UMD snapped a 5-5 tie with an 11-0 spree and never looked back. They led 16-7 after one frame and 27-14 at the half. The margin stayed between 10-14 points during the third period, but the Bulldogs extended it to as much as 24 points in the final frame before settling for the 20-point final spread.
WBCA Player of the Year Brooke Olson led UMD with 15 points and 6 rebounds despite picking up two early fouls (within the first 2:20 of the game) with Ella Gilbertson adding 12 points (and 6 boards) to the Bulldogs cause. Minnesota-Duluth had the upper hand in most areas, including shooting, three-pointers (6-22 to Assumption’s 0-10 effort) and assist/turnover ratio (15/8 to Assumption’s 7/19). The Greyhounds did grab a few more boards (34-31), fared a bit better at the foul line (11-15; UMD 7-11 FT) and held UMD to its’ second-lowest shooting performance of the season (35%) but it was all for naught.
Building on a superb season like the one Assumption just enjoyed isn’t easy but they have constructed a winning culture based on defense. That sort of buy-in is not easy to replicate but with most of the roster expected back and the experiences gained this season, they should be right back in the regional mix next March.
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I do like to check back to the mid-season break column and see what translated to the end of the campaign. If you recall, there were eight teams which posted .667 or better winning percentages through the recess just after Christmas. Six of them reached the NCAA tournament in the end with two others falling short. Assumption (#1 seed), SNHU (#2), Jefferson (#3), Le Moyne (#4), Daemen (#6) and St. Thomas Aquinas (#7) all ended up in the eight-team regional while New Haven and Southern Connecticut (both 6-3 at the time) missed out. Bentley (6-4 at the time) and Dominican (7-5 at the time) filled out the field by winning their respective conferences. To be fair, Bentley (#5 seed) was a lock for an at-large bid anyway, but Dominican (#8 seed) only got into the tourney by virtue of winning the CACC crown.
Once again, the mid-season info proved to be a relatively solid barometer of who eventually makes the NCAA field. A breakdown of the last few non-COVID years…
2021-’22 – 9 on the list, 6 made NCAA’s (three teams were one game shy of the list and two made it to the NCAA field).
2019-‘20 – 11 on list, 5 made NCAA’s (three teams were one game shy of the list, one of which made the NCAA’s).
2018-‘19 – 12 on list, 8 made NCAA’s.
2017-‘18 – 10 on list, 7 made NCAA’s (the other NCAA team was 7-5 at the break).
It may be worth remembering who appears on the list around the holidays next season.
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The WBCA announced their All-American list and honorable mentions last week. No East Regional player made the top 10 All-American list but there were a few tabbed as honorable mentions – Lytoya Baker (Le Moyne), Haley Meinel (Jefferson), Adriana Timberlake (SNHU), Taylor Tomlinson (AIC) and Maggie Whitmore (Bentley). Assumption’s Kerry Phayre was named as regional Coach of the Year. Meinel was also named to theD2CCA honorable mention team.
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This is the final women’s regional notebook of the season. It’s been a pleasure to bring you some insight on the region and hopefully it was an enjoyable read. With luck, I will be back again next season…
Here is my final plea… Please follow us on twitter at @D2EastHoops, so you don’t miss any releases, and if you like our work and want to contribute (this stuff gets pricey!), we gladly accept donations at www.patreon.com/D2easthoops. Also, feel free to email me at Anfield13@aol.com if you have any questions, suggestions, rants, etc. I’m all (mostly) ears. Thanks to all who have contributed this winter.
That’s it for now - until next time…