Rhode Island College Anchorwomen continuing their NCAA march

CCRI women, Bryant men and women and Brown men are also chasing postseason hoops glory.

March Madness, the annual college basketball rite of spring, is upon us. To be precise, it starts March 19 with the men’s Division I tournament and March 20 with the women’s, and ends April 8 for the men and April 7 for the women.

Selection Sunday, when the brackets and seeds are announced, is March 17.

But who cares about precision? March Madness has begun with tournaments to crown conference, NCAA Division II and III and junior college champions. And we have a taste of this excitement right here in the Ocean State.

The record-breaking Rhode Island College women are in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Division III tournament. The Anchorwomen, No. 3 in the nation, will play No. 19 Washington and Lee (28-2) Friday at 8 p.m. at the Murray Center on campus. 

No. 7 Wartburg (27-2) will meet Bates (24-5) in the first game at 5:30 p.m. The winners will play Saturday at 7:30 p.m. for a ticket to the Division III Final Four in Columbus, Ohio, March 14-16.

An unforgettable season is only getting better for RIC. They are 29-0, a program record for victories. Last year they won 28 games on their way to the Final Four. 

Last week they received three of the four major Little East Conference Awards. Graduate student Sophia Guerrier is the 2024 Player of the Year, an award she won as a senior in 2021. Senior Jeniyah Jones is the Defensive Player of the Year and Jenna Cosgrove the Coach of the Year for the fourth time in five years.

There’s more. Guerrier, senior Izzy Booth from Newport and junior Madison Medbury from Scituate were named to the All-LEC first team and Jones and junior Angelina Nardolillo to the second team. Guerrier, Jones and Medbury made the LEC all-defensive team. 

Cosgrove has touted her team’s balance, and it has been front and center this postseason. Four different Anchorwomen have led the scoring. In the Little East Tournament semifinal, Medbury had 15 points against Eastern Connecticut. In the title game against UMass Dartmouth, Jones led with 14 points.

Booth was the top scorer with 13 points against St. Joseph’s of Maine in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Nardolillo topped the stat sheet in the second round with 19 points.

RIC’s defense has held its four tournament opponents to 40, 52, 37 and 43 points. The margins of victory have been 27, 15, 19 and 23 points.

All four games were at home, where RIC is 16-0 this season.

This success is not sudden. Since the start of the 20-21 season, Rhode Island College is 90-10, or roughly 22-2 per season. 

Can we say mini-dynasty? 

One more thing. Cosgrove is still pregnant and due toward the end of the month. She is trying to keep her little recruit on the bench until the tournament is over.

The Community College of Rhode Island women’s basketball team is heading back to the National Junior College Athletic Association Division III Championship March 13-16 at Rochester, Minn. The Knights are 20-7 and ranked No. 11 nationally.

CCRI received one of eight automatic bids to the 12-team dance thanks to its 11-0 record in Region XXI and its regional championship. This is CCRI’s third consecutive trip to the national event.

CCRI is seeded No. 9 and will play No. 8 Prince George’s Community College in the first round March 13. Prince George’s is 13-5 and the three-time Mid-Atlantic District champion. The Lady Owls lead the nation in three-point shooting with a 9.3 average. They rank eighth in scoring (74.2), 10th in free throws made (12.1) and 14th in assists.

CCRI is fifth in the nation in three-pointers made (6.8) and eighth in three-point percentage (30.3).

Sophomore Nysia Ortiz from Providence leads the Knight with 17.6 points per game. Freshman Angelisse Melendez from North Providence is averaging 15.1 points. Freshman center Stephanie Walker from Providence averages 10.4 points and 10.5 rebounds. She and freshman forward Tatiana Pereira started every game.

Bryant’s men and women will play host to the quarterfinals of the America East Tournament at the Chace Center in Smithfield. The men (19-12, 11-5) are seeded third and will play Maine Saturday at 2 p.m. The women (15-14, 8-8) are seeded fourth and will met Binghamton Friday at 6 p.m.

Bryant seniors Sherif Gros-Bullock and Earl Timberlake made the America East first team. Gross-Bullock was fourth in the league in scoring with an 18.1 points-per-game average. Timberlake was 11th in scoring (14.6) and third in rebounding (9.0).

Mia Mancini was the America East women’s rookie of the year. Mariona Planes-Fortuny made first-team all-conference. She averaged 16.5 points per game.

Brown is the new name on the local postseason calendar. The Bears clinched the fourth and final spot for Ivy Madness next week by sweeping Harvard and Dartmouth at the Pizzitola Center.

It was a weekend for the ages as far as Brown basketball is concerned. The Bears edged Harvard in overtime, 71-68, thanks to Kino Lilly Jr.’s game-tying three-pointer with 5.8 seconds remaining in the second half and Alexander Lesburt Jr.’s game-winning three-pointer with 56.3 seconds to play in overtime.

The home finale Saturday against Dartmouth turned into the Kimo Ferrari Show. The senior scored 39 points, his career high, made 10 three-pointers – a Brown record – and sank 14 of his 16 shots. Not surprisingly, he is the Ivy League player of the week.

Brown (11-17, 7-6) will close the regular season Saturday at noon at Yale. The Bears will play the top seed in the tournament March 16 at Columbia. Princeton, Yale, and Cornell are the other three participants.

Ivy Madness started in 2018. As conference tournaments exploded in popularity, the Ivies held out, boasting that their entire 14-game league season amounted to a tournament. League officials saw the light six years ago. This will be Brown’s first appearance.

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