Resilient Widener set for Tufts test in NCAA tourney opener
Through mid-January, Widener was in a pretty good place. The Pride was 11-4 overall, 5-2 in the MAC Commonwealth and riding a five-game winning streak.
But then the team hit a rough spot, losing three of four games, including two in a row and two in the conference. Something needed to be done to get the team back on track and so a players-only meeting was called.
“It was all about us at that point,” said graduate student Pat Holden, who was named first-team all-conference. “It didn’t matter who was doing what. We all have our roles and we had to buy into those roles.”
Eight games and seven wins later the Pride are somewhere they haven’t been since 2009, conference champions and headed to the NCAA Division III tournament for the 17th time in program history.
Next stop is Keene State in New Hampshire, where the Pride (19-8) will take on Tufts (19-7) at 3 Friday afternoon. The winner of that game takes on the winner of the game between No. 5 Keene State (26-1) and Baruch (22-5) Saturday in the second round at 5:30.
“It’s been a dream come true,” said graduate student Dominic Dunn, a transfer from Susquehanna who also was named first-team allconference. “I’m so happy these guys could experience winning a championship. That’s all that matters. When you come back in 15 years, no one cares how much you scored, you get to look up and see that banner.”
It wasn’t a surprise that Widener was able to bounce back to win its first conference championship and earn its first trip to the NCAA Tournament in 14 years. The Pride dealt with adversity before the season started.
In the span of three weeks Widener lost two of its key returnees to injury, 6-8 junior forward Matt Daulerio and 6-1 graduate student guard A.J. Sawyers. Daulerio, the team’s leading returning scorer and rebounder from the 2021-22 season, suffered a season-ending knee injury while playing in a pickup game before practice began. Sawyers, a top-flight defender and ball-handler, went down with a season-ending knee injury three weeks later.
“You’re looking at those guys as two of your top eight or nine guys and now you have to shift things around,” said head coach Chris Carideo, who was named conference Coach of the Year for the fourth time in his 17 seasons at the helm. “To the team’s credit they rallied around themselves and have gotten better as the year has gone on. I have to give credit to the way they handled it.
“Xavier Ernest, he’s a sophomore and didn’t play much as a sophomore and to be honest, if those two guys are healthy, I don’t know how much he would have played. But he really has stepped up into a role that he has embraced and loves and been really good at it.”
The Pride responded by winning their first three games of the season, including a 67-66 triumph over then No. 21 Swarthmore.
“We’ve battled adversity ever since I’ve been here,” said Holden, who is averaging 14 points and 4.1 assists per game. “As a freshman, one of our best players, an all-conference caliber player (Tyler Drews) tore his ACL. Throughout
the years we’ve had multiple injuries, guys out, guys in, it’s just one of those things you have to deal with.”
The addition of the Dunn helped ease the pain. He averaged 12.9 points in 62 career games with the River Hawks and brought a championship pedigree to Chester. Susquehanna won two Landmark Conference titles and reached the second round of the Division III tournament during his time there.
Dunn leads the team in scoring (18.2) and rebounding (7.7) and was named MVP of the conference tournament.
“He brought that level of expectation on how to win,”
Carideo said. “We’ve won a lot of games in the last four or five years, we just haven’t won a conference championship. Last year we lost in the conference semifinals. In 2019 we lost in the conference championship. We’ve been close, but these guys have learned how to push through.”
The payoff was worth it. The Pride get to play in March Madness.
“The biggest thing is if you’re in the NCAA tournament you’re a good or a great team,” Dunn said. “Everyone you play is going to be good. These guys are up for it. We’ve overcome a lot this year, so I’m really excited.”