Brendan Grudberg ’28
Staff Writer
The Holy Cross Women’s Basketball team wrapped up its regular season last Wednesday against Army, finishing the season 18-11 overall and 11-7 in the Patriot League. The Crusaders finished a regular season that saw lots of ups and downs, and culminated in a fifth place Patriot League finish, their first outside the top four since 2019.
Although this regular season may be marked as a disappointment on the surface level, Holy Cross vastly outperformed any realistic expectations set for them coming into this year. Losing their three top scorers to graduation, in addition to a sudden head coaching change, meant that the Crusaders faced an uphill battle to uphold the extraordinary standards they have set within the program the last several seasons. Despite these challenges, newly hired head coach Candice Green took whatever continuity she could find from the previous seasons and saw great success, removing the “Interim” tag from her title and leading the Crusaders to another winning season.
The Crusaders saw phenomenal growth from their returners this season, filling the void left by double digit scorers Bronagh Power-Cassidy, Cara McCormack, and Janelle Allen following their graduation last spring. Potentially the Crusaders’ biggest improver was junior guard Simone Foreman, who increased her points per game average by eight while simultaneously improving her shooting efficiency from all over the court. If not for a mid-season injury which sidelined her for nine games, Foreman almost certainly would have made an All-Conference team, as she finished in the top seven in both points and rebounds per game among Patriot League players.
In addition, both Lindsay Berger and Kaitlyn Flanagan made significant strides, with Berger becoming the league’s most efficient scorer in terms of field goal percentage and Flanagan leading the league in assists by a landslide with 5.2 per game. Both were rewarded with Second Team All-Patriot selections, with Berger adding an All-Defensive selection. The Patriot League’s head coaches recognizing the impact both Berger and Flanagan had should give the veterans a boost of confidence in the postseason, confidence that should already be high given the championship pedigree present within almost every member of Holy Cross’ rotation.
In the Patriot League Conference Championship quarterfinals, the fifth-seeded Crusaders headed down to Annapolis, Md. to face off against the fourth-seeded Navy Midshipmen on March 10. Prior to the quarterfinal, Navy had the Crusaders figured out in the regular season, winning the first matchup at home by 11 in January and the second on the road by nine a month later. Navy and Holy Cross play similar brands of basketball, as both play with a fast-paced tempo (both top four in pace) and stout interior defense (both top four in blocks). Although the two losses to Navy might have been worrying, looking closer at the results showed that Holy Cross still had a great chance in the quarterfinal matchup. The first matchup saw Navy shoot abnormally well from 3 point range (9-21, +10% from season average), and the second matchup saw Simone Foreman play just 19 minutes as she continued to rehab her injury. Foreman has played herself back into shape since then, notching 20 points the next game in a win versus Colgate and seeing increased minutes.
In March 10’s quarterfinal matchup on the road against Navy, the Crusaders secured a 66-52 victory behind a Lindsay Berger 19 point, eight rebound performance. Flanagan and Cahalan totaled 11 and 10 points respectively, while Foreman and sophomore Providence transfer guard Kendall Eddy added 11 and 15 point sparks off the bench. Foreman also corralled nine rebounds.
Green’s first postseason as the Crusader head coach ended on Thursday night with a 65-44 loss on the road to the one seeded Lehigh Mountain Hawks in the Patriot League Championship semifinals. The 23 turnovers committed by Holy Cross were simply too much to overcome. Despite being more of an underdog than they were used to this season, the Holy Cross Women’s Basketball team had a season to be proud of, and look to take some of their momentum from this season into the 2025-26 campaign.
Featured image courtesy of Holy Cross Athletics
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