New London’s India Pagan will miss out playing for the Puerto Rico women’s basketball team.
Former NLHS standout missed out on the NCAA tournament
India Pagan was first asked whether she wanted to talk about the good or bad.
“The bad,” the former New London High School basketball standout said. “Let's get it out of the way.”
Pagan and her Stony Brook women's basketball teammates were a day away from playing for both their first America East tournament championship and an NCAA tournament berth. The COVID-19 pandemic ruined all of that. "I still get teary-eyed once in a while talking about it," Pagan said.
Pagan also had a dream summer ahead of her playing for Puerto Rico's national team at the
Summer Olympics. That's gone now, too, after they were postponed Tuesday to 2021.
Everyone has lost something during the pandemic. A sense of security. Consistent human contact ... jobs.
Pagan, The Day's 2017 All-Area Girls' Basketball Player of the Year, knows there are worse things that could've happened. It still stings, though. “I still have hopes (to play in the Olympics),” Pagan said. “That was big, that Puerto Rico qualified to go to the Olympics. I just want to see how things will play out. And Japan, all the money they put into this event, I don't know how they'll bounce back. There are so many factors.”
Pagan and Stony Brook were so close to putting the happy finishing touches on the greatest season in program history. The Seawolves were 283, including a 22-game winning streak, had won their first America East regular-season championship and were the top seed in the conference tournament. They were scheduled to host Maine in the title game on March 13.
“Our AD (Shawn Heilbron) came and stopped us in the middle of practice the day before the championship game, and we all gathered into a circle,” Pagan said. “He told us the tournament was canceled. There wasn't a dry eye in the arena.
“The major focus (of the season) was that championship game. I think that's what hurt the most. We'd accomplished so many things along the way and to not get to that end goal was disappointing.”
The upside was that the cancellation meant Stony Brook had qualified for the tournament as the top seed. That was gone in hours,
“I still have hopes (to play in the Olympics). That was big, that Puerto Rico qualified to go to the Olympics. I just want to see how things will play out.” INDIA PAGAN
however, when the team learned during a meeting involving athletes and administrators that the NCAA had canceled all of its tournaments.
“Everyone on my team broke down crying again,” Pagan said. “(The tournament) was a dream that we all dreamt of as little kids.”
There's still a lot of happy memories for Pagan and Stony Brook to remember.
Pagan averaged a team-high 13.4 points, fifth-best in the conference, and six rebounds. She was the only Stony Brook player to earn first team all-conference honors and all-academic honors (she has a 3.37 GPA as a sociology major).
“It was a season like no other,” Pagan said. “We had a lot of mini-stories within the season. Cheyenne (Clark) came back from having a baby a year ago. KK (Kaela Hilaire) came from Seton Hall (where she was a unanimous 2016-17 Big East All-Freshman team pick). Annie (Warren), a sophomore, exploded during crunch time the last couple of games. She had amazing games. Everyone did their part. Everything was really coming together. You could see toward the end that everything was falling into place.
“KK made second team (America East). Annie got third team. Cheyenne got All-Defensive team. All those awards were team awards. Yes, we were all honored to receive them, but our main goal was to win the championship. But it was still great.”
Not used to free time
Pagan has been relaxing at home the last few weeks with no school or basketball. Having so much free time, she said, "is weird,” but she will start online classes start next week.
“My little sister, Tai (who attends Post University) has already started her online classes, so I've gotten a feel for it,” Pagan chuckled. “She goes to another room and goes to class. It's honestly funny. She has an alarm (set) for every time she has to go to class.
“I'm going to have to (set an alarm) because I've been so nonchalant with no classes the last two weeks.”