If Holy Cross advances, Clark, Iowa matchup next
When the Holy Cross women’s basketball team landed in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, on Tuesday afternoon, the representative who greeted them was buzzing about women’s basketball — and specifically Caitlin Clark.
The Crusaders reached March Madness for the second straight year by beating Boston University, 61-55, in Sunday’s Patriot League championship game. They’re in the First Four as a No. 16 seed with a game against Tennessee-Martin Thursday — much more winnable than their Round of 64 matchup against second-seeded Maryland last season.
If they prevail, the Crusaders get a once-in-alifetime opportunity: A dance with Clark and top-seeded Iowa Saturday on ABC in front of a sold-out Carver-Hawkeye Arena crowd.
“We have to play really well to beat UT-Martin, but after that, the reward is we get to play Iowa, at Iowa,” said Holy Cross coach Maureen Magarity. “And we get to play somebody that’s arguably the best women’s basketball player to ever play the game.”
At first glance, Holy Cross’s banner season looks much like 2022-23. The Crusaders (20-12, 11-7) won the conference title with a very similar cast, again headlined by guard Bronagh Power-Cassidy, and beat BU in a rematch of the 2023 final.
But this season wasn’t as smooth. After winning their first eight league games, the Crusaders went through a 1-5 slump in which they did not clear 50 points three times.
“I’m not going to lie, it was a really tough stretch,” Magarity said. “I thought we were practicing really well. I’m really proud of how the team stayed together and really stayed connected throughout all that, practiced hard, stayed within the game plan.
“Everyone kept asking, ‘What’s going on? Are people injured? What’s going on in the locker room?’ All that kind of stuff. I’m like, ‘Nothing, we just hit a tough patch there.’ ”
Magarity tinkered with the lineup multiple times and credited the players’ willingness to change. Senior forward Callie Wright joined the starters for the last seven games, with Lindsay Berger and Simone Foreman shifting to major minutes off the bench.
Power-Cassidy, a senior wing from Dublin, Ireland, stepped up with 26 points in a 5847overtime win against Bucknell Feb. 21 that put Holy Cross back on track. She proceeded to average 22 points with a 49.1 percent 3-point clip across her final eight contests, including 21 points in the Patriot League championship game to earn MVP honors.
“No one ever wants to lose, but we were worried about losing more than we were about, like, let’s go win,” Power-Cassidy said. “I think when that mind-set kind of switched for the whole team, and we were like, ‘You know what, we just want to go out there and enjoy every moment, and really just take every game as it comes, and just focus on being present every single game.’ That’s when we were able to buckle down and really get some good wins under our belts.”
Selection Sunday was a whirlwind as Holy Cross found out its First Four status mere hours after beating BU. After coming 7 miles short of qualifying for a chartered flight in 2023, and having to take a bus down to Maryland for their first-round game, the Crusaders left at 8 a.m. Tuesday morning on a chartered flight to Iowa. It was a first for Magarity and Power-Cassidy.
“It was just kind of really next-level — it was cool,” Power-Cassidy said. “You always kind of see other teams doing it, so to be able to do it and land here in Iowa City was really fun.”
Holy Cross is already locked in on UT-Martin and had a film session planned as soon as the team arrived at its hotel. The Skyhawks (16-16, 11-7) won the Ohio Valley Conference tournament to earn their first NCAA Tournament bid since 2014. Magarity believes UT-Martin has a versatile defense that could give the Crusaders some fits.
“You never really like to say this, but I’ve really enjoyed watching them on film,” she said. “They’re a really well-coached team that just really plays hard.”
Holy Cross has enough motivation to pursue its first NCAA Tournament victory since 1991. But the prize of playing Iowa is tantalizing. Clark, the all-time leading scorer in Division 1, has helped the Hawkeyes smash ratings records all season. For one game, her spotlight also could shine on Holy Cross.
“I don’t think you can put into words what that would mean, not only for our program, but for Holy Cross athletics and the college as a whole,” Magarity said. “What an amazing opportunity to promote our school, and talk about how great our school is, and to get people to Google us, and look us up and see what a great college it is.”