Lady Knights confident with full complement of players

CCRI WOMEN’S BASKETBALL PREVIEW

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Everything is a little bit different this season for the CCRI women’s basketball team, and so far that hasn’t translated into a ton of success.

Yet, the differences are good things, and in the long run, head coach Brittany Brown thinks that her squad has a chance to go a long way. It’s just a matter of putting it all together, something that the team is working on in the early season.

The Lady Knights are 2-3 at this point, as they won their first two games against Bunker Hill Community College and Bristol CC before falling to Roxbury and then losing a pair of games over this past weekend.

“We really have an opportunity to do something special,” Brown said. “Once we get everybody on board and we build some team chemistry, I think the sky is the limit.”

CCRI is just two years removed from a trip to the NJCAA Division II national tournament, although the program is not exactly in the same situation as it was then.

That year was the last of a run of 10 straight Region XXI titles and the end of former head coach Kate Lynch’s time leading the Lady Knights.

Brown stepped in last year and led the team to a 16-9 record, but it didn’t win the region in what turned out to be a trying year. By the time the season came to an end, CCRI had just six players on the roster.

To make matters worse, all of those players were guards. They were good players, but without much versatility, the Lady Knights couldn’t quite get to where it wanted to go.

This year’s group is new, and is still finding its way, but there are natural post players on the roster to complement the guards, giving CCRI the luxury of trotting out a more well-rounded team.

“This year I have guards and posts,” Brown said. “I’m trying to get on the right level. A lot of teaching and a lot rebuilding. We’re trying to get everybody on the same level. We’re trying to build chemistry. That’s what we’re trying to focus on right now.”

The Lady Knights graduated their top two scorers from last year in guards Lexi Barros and Ahnyyah Jackson.

Right now, Brown is working on finding someone to step into the primary scoring role to replace those points.

“It’s kind of hard to try to make someone be aggressive, to want to take over the game, to score when we’re down,” Brown said. “That’s where we’re struggling right now.”

Two candidates to fill the void are sophomores Jesse Ossian and Amber Edwards, both of who were on the team a year ago.

Ossian, from Chandler, Ariz., scored a team-high 22 points on Saturday from her point guard position.

Edwards, from Boston, was forced to play in the post last season, but this year has moved back to her natural guard spot. On Saturday, she also had a big game, scoring 19 points to go with 11 rebounds.

“Amber is really playing well this year,” Brown said. “She’s not playing down low. This year I put her in a guard position. She plays hard every game, gets rebounds. She’s almost averaging a double-double.”

Joining the two returners in the starting lineup are sophomore transfer LaShana Tolliver, from Watervliet, N.Y., Anna McDaniel from Taunton, Mass. and Lyric Artis from Albany, N.Y.

McDaniel can play down low, Artis is a guard and Oliver is serving as a captain – along with the two returners – and is big enough to play down low but can also handle the ball.

“It definitely does help having returners, so we can get girls on the same page,” Brown said. “I think the problem is that we’re not used to having the full package. From last year, they’re all used to playing with just guards.”

On the bench, Brown has three players, giving her eight total. Yesenia Biascochea is a local player, from Central Falls, and she’s a speedy guard who plays solid defense and can also shoot from beyond the arc. South Kingstown’s Tianna Cruz-Perry is a transfer student who is 5-foot-11 and can make plays down low.

The team’s eighth player is freshman Jennifer Cicero from West Greenwich. She can play either forward positions, but is currently rehabbing from knee surgery and won’t be back for a few weeks.

It’s the biggest team in terms of numbers, but that’s just fine with Brown and the rest of the group.

“No one complains about playing time,” Brown said.

The key now is putting it all together and learning to play as a unit, as CCRI is adjusting to having all the pieces. If the Lady Knights can get into rhythm, they’re expecting big things once again.

They’ll host rival Dean College on Thursday at 6 p.m.

“We only can hurt ourselves right now, and that’s what we’re doing,” Brown said. “But when we get the ball rolling, there’s no turning back.”

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