T’BREDS GO DANCING
Skidmore women’s basketball team win Liberty League tourney, berth to DIII NCAAs
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. » As freshman with the Skidmore College women’s basketball team Ari Fustini, Kelly Donnelly, Caite Opfer and Veronica Moceri were part of the Thoroughbreds first-ever Liberty League title and NCAA appearance four years ago.
After Sunday’s dominating 6542 win against RIT in the Liberty League tournament championship game at the Williamson Center on the Saratoga Springs campus this plaque, this title and this berth into the Division III NCAA women’s basketball tournament means a little bit more to this group of seniors.
“Freshman year we won it and to come that close last year and blow it against Clarkson, we were really hungry,” Skidmore senior Ari Fustini said. “This core four of the seniors we won it as freshman and we’ve been wanting to do it ever since. It seems natural.”
The Thoroughbreds dominated the title game with its defense and electrifying three-point shooting, hitting nine of 16 attempts from beyond the arc with Fustini finding her shot late in the year and hitting four in the championship game.
“I have definitely taken this past month so serious, shooting extra, the coaches have been helping with my shot and we just played as a team, so it makes it easy to do your job,” Fustini said.
Fustini had a hot hand the entire weekend, drilling five out of eight 3-point attempts Saturday afternoon at home against Vassar in the Liberty League semifinal.
“I honestly think I like higher pressure situations where you have be just locked in and focused,” Fustini said. “This whole weekend you had to be focused. I could feel it every second.”
She’s in good company as scouting report three-point threat Veronica Moceri buried five of seven in the championship game.
“All that practice is paying off and we’re playing with confidence,” Veronica Moceri said. “It’s not like me and Kelly (Donnelly) are trying to make all the shots, we have 12 other teammates that their confidence has sky rocketed and you can tell.”
The experience of the four previous Liberty League tournament champions kept the Thoroughbreds even-keeled.
“We’ve been here before, three of us didn’t really play, but we know what this hype is about, which I think was to our advantage and that’s the mindset we try to go into our practices and our games with,” Moceri said. “We’ve been here before, we’re mature enough and that’s how we played. We played like that team.”
Throughout it all was Averill Park grad and Skidmore College women’s basketball all-time leading scorer Kelly Donnelly who may have just a few fingerprints on the 2015 title plaque, but didn’t let it out of her hands Sunday afternoon. The Thoroughbred senior hugged the 2018 award with both arms throughout the postgame celebration and photo opportunities.
“I can’t even describe the feeling honestly, I’m on cloud nine,” Kelly Donnelly said. “It’s an unreal feeling and to do it with this group of girls is just unreal.
“Our closeness just adds to the great feeling even more. We couldn’t have done it without (player) 1 through 12, its unreal.”
Sunday’s win and point difference wasn’t the product of a run-and-gun type of offense, it was a credit to the Thoroughbred’s play at the other end.
“We talked, in this game especially, about getting a stop,” Skidmore College head coach Darren Bennett said. “We want a stop and we want a score here and that’s the difference between four and six- and eight-points in two possessions.
“When you can do that a couple times in a row or out of a time out, those leads start to expand and that’s what we saw happen today.”
Senior Caite Opfer finished with five points on the afternoon, going threeof-four from the free throw line and pulling down 12 rebounds for the Thoroughbreds.
Bennett was far from over-confident going into the weekend, at least about the outcome, but he had full faith in his team’s abilities.
“There was a lot of energy, there is a lot of excitement, they were nervous, obviously, we all were,” Bennett said. “You’ve got butterflies in your stomach, no one is eating, no one is sleeping, but we’ve been playing really good basketball.
“The last month or so we’ve been playing really, really solid basketball. Our change-up in defense has given our team mountains of confidence to the point where we make halftime adjustments and they’re better than they have ever been before.”
The Thoroughbreds will travel to first- and secondround pod (group) host Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine Friday and Saturday. Skidmore (189) will face Fairleigh Dickinson University-Florham (21-6) 5 p.m.Friday with Bowdoin (24-2) taking on Husson (19-9) in the 7p.m. nightcap. The winners will face-off 7 p.m. Saturday night on the Bowdoin Campus.
“We’ll go celebrate this for at least 48 hours, we’re going to break the 24-hour rule go to 48 and celebrate this for two days,” Bennett said after Sunday’s championship win. “Then we’ll find out on Monday afternoon who we’re going to play, where we’re going to go and then we’ll start to prepare from there.
“The same way we’ve prepared over the last couple of weeks, it won’t be easier. It’s almost like the beginning of the season, but both teams are probably playing their best basketball.