Monmouth women's basketball: Has Shore Conference-led uprising turned Hawks into CAA contenders?

WEST LONG BRANCH – Three days had passed since what had the feel of a program-changing performance for the Monmouth women’s basketball team, as the post-holiday practice wrapped up inside OceanFirst Bank Center Wednesday afternoon.

To put it in perspective, Delaware is a top-150 team in the NCAA’s NET rankings that had wins over Illinois and VCU this season, and a reputation as one of the Colonial Athletic Association’s top programs. And Monmouth, in its first CAA season, returned on New Year’s Day with a resounding 80-60 road victory, its second league win in as many outings.

And graduate forward Lucy Thomas, who has persevered through three different head coaches, a series of injuries and an ever-shifting roster, led the way with 19 points, five rebounds and three assists against a frontcourt that included Minnesota transfer Klarke Sconiers and Kansas State transfer Makayla Pippen.

It’s not the first time Thomas and some of her teammates had overcome the odds.

Six years earlier on the court they just practiced on, Thomas, graduate guard Jen Louro and forward Lovin Marsicano, a graduate transfer from Saint Joseph’s, were part of another seminal performance when they led Saint Rose to a 25-point win over powerhouse Saint John Vianney in the 2017 Shore Conference Tournament championship game.

Louro was the MVP, Marsicano scored 11 points and Thomas scored 15 points and grabbed eight rebounds playing against Saint John Vianney’s Seton Hall-bound center Kimi Evans. The trio combined for 33 points against Delaware.

“To this day I still think about that. It brings so much excitement, chills,” Thomas said. “I think we were ranked fifth, and a lot of people doubted us and we were the underdogs, and we didn’t let that get to our heads. Just like at Delaware. We were ranked lower but, it doesn’t matter. As long as we’re going out there and giving our best, we’ll have a good outcome.”

The upstart Hawks (7-6), picked to finish 10th in the preseason poll, return to the court Friday (7 p.m.) when they host North Carolina A&T, also off to a 2-0 start in CAA play.

Thomas, an Ocean Township native, is third on the team in scoring (9.3 points) and second in rebounding (5.1) even though she’s averaging just 18 minutes off the bench.

“It’s been an incredible journey and testament to her toughness pushing through,” said Monmouth head coach Ginny Boggess, in her second season. “The thing I will say about Lucy Thomas is she shows up every day. Whether she’s healthy or not, she fights through injuries, she has a high IQ and she is competitive. She’s got that killer eye, and you can see it and it was on Sunday.”

The light went on

It was the first time since Boggess arrived from Penn State that Monmouth had gotten on a plane as a team and jetted off to face a high-major foe when they played at BYU on Dec. 21. And while the result was a 70-50 setback, the experience did wonders for the Hawks.

They’ve played their best basketball of the season since returning, including a 54-49 win over Northeastern in their first-ever CAA game.

“It helped tremendously,” Boggess said. “I asked them, ‘why is the light bulb on now?’ Our toughness and togetherness had been moving ahead but I just hadn’t seen all 12 or 13 of us at one time. And they said watching the BYU film they didn’t like what they saw. And I didn’t like what I saw, but it doesn’t matter if I don’t like it. If they aren’t buying into the culture and the pace, it doesn’t matter. And they said we didn’t play our game and we are going to play our game for the rest of the year.”

Here’s why it matters.

Delaware has the second highest NET among CAA teams, behind only Drexel (102), and Monmouth has beaten Northeastern, which at 191 is the fourth highest-rated among CAA teams. North Carolina A&T checks in at 230.

“I think we are going to surprise a lot of people this year,” said point guard Bri Tinsley, a graduate transfer who had started at Virginia and James Madison. “We have some new faces but we’re starting to gel.”

Tinsley leads Monmouth at 13.8 points-per-game and 3.9 assists.

“We’re just different than a lot of teams in the league right now,” Boggess said. “We’ve made more threes than anybody else, so we’re shooting the ball well right now. And we just played loose, we played together defensively and that was really the difference.”

Making it better

After making the MAAC All-Rookie team in 2018-19, Thomas suffered a series of injuries, including a sprained ankle, a groin injury that took several months to heal and plantar fasciitis, while Monmouth went 2-14 during the pandemic-shortened 2020-21 season.

During an age when college athletes are able to transfer with few restrictions, Thomas said she never really considered leaving Monmouth. And over the last two seasons she's settled nicely into a rotation with 6-3 junior center Belle Kranbuhl, playing a key role in the Hawks’ gameplans.

“Through the years there are ups and down, but I never really thought about (transferring) much,” said Thomas, who needs 94 points to reach 1,000 for her career. “New coaches, a new conference. I wanted to stay and experience that. I was just excited to see this.”

Now Thomas’ decision to stay is paying big dividends, as she embraces both her role on the court and off, serving as a scorer, defender and leader during the program’s most important season ever.

Stephen Edelson is a USA TODAY NETWORK New Jersey sports columnist who has been covering athletics in the state and at the Jersey Shore for 35 years. Contact him at: @SteveEdelsonAPP; sedelson@gannettnj.com.

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Monmouth NJ women's basketball: Shore stars turn Hawks into CAA contenders.