Women’s Basketball on a mission

Isaac Bean

Sports Editor

Rhode Island College’s Women’s Basketball is on a mission to bring a national championship to RIC. The team's quest to earn a national championship started on Friday when they played Saint Joseph’s College of Maine in the first round of the tournament.

The Anchorwomen came in with a target on their back as they were named the three seed in the tournament and had a perfect record of 27-0 on the season. Saint Joseph’s College of Maine was a much lower seed than the Anchorwomen. The Monks came into the tournament with a record of 21-7.

This game could not have started off any better for RIC. The Anchorwomen were dominating the Monks in the first quarter and got off to a 24-4 lead. Izabelle Booth was on fire for the Anchorwomen as she had 11 points in the first quarter alone. A late three by the Monks made the score 24-7 going into the second quarter. 

The momentum started to change in the second quarter. The Monk’s started to get their offense going and played much tighter on defense. They held the Anchorwomen’s high powered offense to just five points in the quarter. This changed the feeling around the game going into halftime as the score was 29-23 in favor of the Anchorwomen. The 20 point lead the Anchorwomen had held turned into a six point lead just like that.

Image from goanchormen.com

Coming out of halftime the Anchorwomen needed to get back on track as the Monks came to play. Angelina Nardolillo made a layup early in the quarter to extend their lead to eight. The Monks then scored five unanswered points to close the lead to just three points. The game was getting close and the Anchorwomen needed to get some momentum back. RIC ended up scoring some point late in the quarter to give them a 38-30 lead going into the fourth quarter.

The Anchorwomen needed to do what they have done all season; close out a game with a fourth quarter lead. They tend to play their best basketball in the fourth quarter. RIC did just that and closed out the game in dominating fashion. The Anchorwomen outscored the Monks by eleven points in the fourth quarter to give them a 56-37 win. This game improved the Anchorwomen to 28-0 on the season and advanced them to the second round of the tournament. 

The second round of the tournament was the next day against the 24-4 St. John Fisher University Cardinals. Coming off what was a relatively close game the day prior, the Anchorwomen needed to follow that up with a good performance against the Cardinals in order to keep their national championship dreams alive.

The first half was a neck and neck battle between both teams. Everytime the Anchorwomen would get a lead, the Cardinals would come right back and tie it up. The first quarter saw the teams tie each other five times. The Anchorwomen were able to go into the second quarter with a 12-10 lead. 

The second quarter was still a back and forth battle. The Anchorwomen had the lead for the majority of the quarter but never could never pull away. The Cardinals were able to have a brief 18-17 lead midway through, but the lead only lasted 22 seconds. The Anchorwomen were able to go into halftime with a 27-24 lead.

The first half was a barn burner; a game that was super competitive by both teams. The second half was a complete polar opposite. The Anchorwomen came out and dominated the Cardinals in the third quarter. RIC scored twelve unanswered points to start the third quarter and never looked back. The Anchorwomen came into the fourth quarter with a 44-31 lead.

Like the previous game, the Anchorwomen continue to play their best basketball in the fourth quarter. They outscored the Cardinals by ten points in the fourth quarter to give them a convincing 66-43 win. A game that was really close in the first half, turned out to be a dominating second half win for the Anchorwomen.

The Anchorwomen had three players recording double digit points. Nardolillo was all over the court as she recorded 19 points and nine rebounds. Jeniyah Jones had quite the day as well as she recorded 13 points and six rebounds. Sophia Guerrier also had double digit points as the grad student dropped 12 points on the day.

This win improved the Anchorwomen’s perfect record to 29-0 on the season. This also advanced them to the NCAA Div. III Women's Basketball Championship Sectional Semifinal game against Washington and Lee University. This game will be hosted by RIC on Friday March 8.