The last time the Bethany women played a meaningful basketball game, the Bison lost to Waynesburg in the first round of the PAC tournament. On February 24. For Franciscan, it was two days prior, falling to Medaille on February 22.
Saturday afternoon the two teams met inside Finnegan Fieldhouse in Steubenville for a mutual season opener that had far more meaning than just the first game of the season—for both teams.
“I can’t explain how it felt,” said Bethany coach Brian Sansom after his team came back in the second half for a 67-49 victory. “I got a little emotional before the game. A couple of months ago, we didn’t know if we were going to have a team. I didn’t know if I was going to have a job, and the girls didn’t know if they were going to play.”
The PAC first outlined its plans on September 17, when it detailed the pathway to return to sports. Sports like basketball were not to be held until after January 1. Practices could be had, but the usual late November season tip-off was out of the question.
So, the wait began. In November, the conference gave an update that pushed the start of the season back to no earlier than January 23. It was only a few extra weeks, but if the trend continued, those weeks could have turned into months.
Finally, on the 14th, the PAC put out its updated conference basketball schedules, and players and coaches collectively let out a sigh of relief.
“This was our first game in over a year, almost a year,” Franciscan second-year coach Sean Kirk remarked. “We’ll get there. We’re young, and they came out really hot (in the second half). Brian had his girls ready to play.
“But we’re not dejected. We’re happy to be playing.”
Another First for the Barons
It wasn’t just the season opener for the Franciscan women. No, this game held more significance.
The PAC announced back in April 2019 that Franciscan would become its 10th full member of the conference. The 2018-19 season saw the men’s and women’s lacrosse teams compete as an affiliate member. Women’s golf and men’s and women’s indoor and outdoor track followed suit in 2019-20. But this is the first school year to compete as a full member of the PAC.
The honor of the first official contest should have gone to a fall sport, perhaps soccer, or cross-country. But through circumstances, it fell to the women’s basketball team to christen the ship, so to speak, and kick off this new journey in the PAC.
“We always recruit and look to play gritty and with toughness, and we’ll continue to play that way,” Kirk said. “We’ll go out and compete at a high level.”
That’s exactly what Kirk’s club did, especially early. Led by junior post Angela Starre and sophomore point guard Selena Coronis, the Barons worked to either get the ball inside to Starre as she rolled off screens or use said screens and attack off the dribble.
It worked. Starre finished the first half with 11 points, and Coronis beat a few Bison defenders off the dribble en route to her team and career-high 15 points.
“I’m proud of them,” Kirk said. “I think Selena’s career high was maybe eight. We’ll need to keep getting her out and running. And Angela will be a consistent double-double.”
Their teammates utilized similar tactics and got to the line, frequently. Franciscan finished 13 of 16 at the line in the first half. The result was a 31-28 halftime lead.
“You can practice and practice, but until you get in a game, you get a sense for how the other team plays; we’ve been guarding the same people since October,” Sansom said. “But our team did a great job sliding their feet rather than trying to reach in the second half.”
Another Big Debut
Take a quick look at either team’s roster. You know what you won’t find? A senior. Both are similar in makeup in that each team’s veteran in the starting lineup is a junior post player.
For FUS, it’s Starre. For the Bison, it’s Cameron products Kelsie Meintel and guard Courtney Walker. The rest of the starters Saturday were comprised of sophomores and freshmen.
And in the case of the visitors, some of those freshmen were coming up big.
Bethany’s game plan early seemed a mixture of working the ball in to Meintel, or having freshman point guard Makenzee Mason attack the line and kick to an open teammate for an outside shot.
That worked, but the only problem was the Bison weren’t quite dialed in from the perimeter early, going just 3-for-20 from that range. That’s not the percentage you want when shooting triples is a focal point of the offense.
Second half, different story, and the resurgence was spearheaded by a freshman from Bloom-Carroll, the same school that produced Mason.
Sansom recruited Mason first, but when mentioning the need to improve perimeter play, she was quick to point out her teammate, 5-7 guard Nikki Bradbury.
It took all of one game to see that was a good decision. Bradbury hit seven 3-pointers, finishing 7-for-17 in totaling a game-high 23 points. Meintel backed her with 17.
“I told her when she came out, that was a heckuva freshman debut,” Sansom said. “I didn’t know how many times she shot it. It might have been 20. But I told her the next game, shoot 27, because she is special.”
It’s still early, but Sansom has a great feeling about his freshman class. Two started, and three others played at least seven minutes apiece and contributed. A couple others are coming off quarantine and will see their minutes increase soon.
“Our freshmen meshing so well with our returners, it’s special. I think we’ve got something brewing,” Sansom said. “We have some film to watch, but with a little more work, I’m excited about the future.”
