The Spire

Aiden Konold ’26

Chief Sports Editor 

The 2025-26 Holy Cross Women’s Basketball Team season marks Candice Green’s second as the program’s head coach, but her first full season without the interim label attached to her name. 

With three games remaining in the 2024-25 regular season, Holy Cross Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics Kit Hughes named Green the Holy Cross Women’s Basketball Team’s permanent head coach. To that point, Green guided the Crusaders to a 16-10 record, with a 9-6 conference record. 

Green faced a unique challenge last season when Maureen Magarity stepped down as the program’s head coach on August 20, 2024 to spend more time with her family and now-husband John Becker in Burlington, Vt. In Magarity’s four years at the helm, she led the Crusaders to two Patriot League regular season titles and a pair of Patriot League Tournament Championships. 

The Crusaders won 20+ games in each of Magarity’s final three seasons as head coach with Cara McCormack, Bronagh Power-Cassidy, Janelle Allen, and Callie Wright, all of whom graduated the spring before Green took over, leading the way. 

Magarity established a winning culture on the Hill, with an expectation that the Crusaders had a legitimate chance at competing for an NCAA Tournament berth season after season. When Green stepped in to take over as the interim head coach last season, questions loomed over whether she could sustain the same success as Magarity. 

But following a 19-win season in which the Crusaders finished fifth in the Patriot League with an 11-7 conference record, Green proved herself capable of leading the Holy Cross Women’s Basketball program long term. Now, with the interim tag lifted from her title, Green feels less pressure to prove herself than she did last season knowing that the administration believes in her.

“Obviously, we gotta win games, that’s what we’re here to do,” Coach Green said from her office overlooking the Blaney Gymnasium. “But, the ‘Hey, what are you gonna do next year?’ is no longer the talk for us. So that’s been really important to us. I would say it’s been the biggest difference.” 

That’s not to say that challenges and stresses are not still there for Green in year two. When 6-2 forward Lindsay Berger graduated this past spring, Green had to figure out how to replace a player who averaged 12.4 points, 5.8 rebounds, and 28.2 minutes per game in her senior season. It’s an ongoing battle to make up for a player who had such a knack for rebounding. 

“To cover that, we kind of have to do it as a committee,” Coach Green said following her team’s narrow 65-64 win over Brown. “Clearly we haven’t done it in the last two games, so we’ll see. But, we’ve got to hit people, we’ve got to be physical, and then we’ve got to grab the ball. Sometimes, we just watch it roll out in front of us. We [have] to grab it, gotta be aggressive.” 

The Duke Blue Devils outrebounded the Crusaders 55-28 in historic Cameron Indoor Stadium on November 9, but Senior forward Meg Cahalan did not play due to injury. But even with Cahalan in the lineup against Brown two Wednesdays ago, the Crusaders were outrebounded 42-29. 

Against Marist last Sunday, the Crusaders reclaimed some of their aggressiveness, and won the rebounding battle 42-35. 

“We really put an emphasis on rebounding… leading up to Marist, and I think that we did a good job of rebounding, but we maybe lost a couple of the other little things that we honed in on earlier in the season, which probably led us to obviously losing,” Cahalan said. “So I think just building upon things like, we can have a game where we need to focus on rebounding, but we also need to remember those other little focuses, like adjusting in the game, how we’re guarding screens, all those little tiny things that maybe weren’t a huge focus going into Marist, but have been huge focuses in previous games.” 

All of the Crusaders who played against the Red Foxes recorded at least one rebound, but it was not enough in a 77-78 loss. 

“It is one step at a time, but I also think that us four [Cahalan, Simone Foreman, Mary-Elizabeth Donnelly, and I] have played here now for three years going on our fourth and we have a high expectation for these things,” said Senior guard Kaitlyn Flanagan. “We’ve always been a defensive team, and I think that we are trying to do a better job of showing the way to our underclassmen of what the defensive expectation is because we know how good we can be when we play solid defense.” 

Three of the players Coach Green expects to fill Berger’s shoes this season include Senior Mary-Elizabeth Donnelly, Senior guard Simone Foreman, and Cahalan, who matches Berger’s 6-2 height. 

“I knew with Lindsay leaving and the recruiting class we had coming in, that I would have to play more of a post/guard position,” said Donnelly. “So with that, I kind of just tried this summer to get in the gym more and work on more finishings.” 

She’s started in all five games so far this season, and averages six points and 6.2 rebounds per game with a 40 percent mark from behind the arc. 

“Compared to Lindsay and Janelle and Callie, I’m not necessarily a five, so I guess the person that I tried to base things off of… was Bronagh, just kind of seeing how, especially in our league [Patriot League], she was still able to dominate being a four and she was still able to post up,” said Donnelly. “Knowing I am taller and stronger than her does make me feel better going into league [play]. But I kind of just try and think of how she used to play.” 

Foreman, a 5-9 guard, returned to the starting lineup this season after missing a chunk of her Junior year to injury. She wasn’t expected to return to the lineup until late December or early January, but she spent practically every day working out in the gym over the summer using plans designed by her trainer, surgeon, and her own research to ensure that she would not miss any more time. 

Over her first three seasons and five games into her Senior season, Foreman averaged 7.8 points and 6.7 rebounds per game. Through the first five games of the 2025-26 season, she averaged 8.4 total rebounds per contest, with an average of 2.4 offensive rebounds. Foreman’s clutch playmaking ability paired alongside her aptness for rebounding makes her one of Holy Cross’ most valuable players, though it’s been difficult to return from injury so far this season. 

“It definitely is a struggle sometimes, like when I played Boston College before the fourth quarter and before the game-winner, it was a really big struggle. I felt like I got punched in the face,” Foreman said. “But I just think mentally coming back, and it was like this my Junior season, too, but I feel like, again, it is very physical, but I just think the mental aspect is a really big piece in coming back. And I feel like [against] Boston College I did really need that punch, because then [in the] fourth quarter, I was just like, ‘I can’t let it affect my defense.’ And then once it got to my defense, it translated to my offense.” 

In the sideline out of bounds play that the Holy Cross coaches drew up on the team’s final play of that Boston College game, nerves coursed through Foreman. Her team practiced the play many times before, but Foreman cannot recall a time that she was meant to receive the pass. 

“I was actually gonna say, I don’t think I ever practiced the lob. I was never the person receiving the lob when we did special situations, so when she [Coach Green] said it was me getting the ball, I was nervous,” Foreman said. “But I mean, like, I said, I feel like me and Kaitlyn, we have a really big trust where it’s like, she’ll throw the ball up, and I’ll always just go and grab it. So, I mean, I just saw the ball in the air and I knew what I had to do. So wide receiver day.” 

Through Holy Cross’ first five games of the 2025-26 season, Foreman has already scored two game-winners. Her second came just nine days after her first in the Crusaders’ home opener against Brown. 

With 10.5 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter and Holy Cross trailing 64-63, Flanagan in-bounded the ball to Foreman, who stood at the elbow. Foreman caught the pass and squared up with her defender with 10 seconds remaining on the clock. 

She dribbled three times with her right hand down to the low post, turned her back to her defender, and dribbled twice with her left hand. She drove to her right and into the paint. 

Foreman then spun around to her left with two defenders swarming her, left her feet, rose into the air, and floated the ball towards the hoop with her right hand. The ball rattled around the rim, and funneled right through the net with 4.3 seconds on the clock to give the Crusaders their one-point margin of victory. 

“Whenever I am put in that position, I always just talk to myself, and I’m like, ‘You’re going to make it,’ ” said Foreman. “I just keep telling myself, ‘You’re going to make it, you’re going to make it, you’re going to make it,’ because I feel like it’s really more mental than it is physical. So once I just keep saying that in my head, I don’t know, it just happens.”

Brown called one last timeout, and the Bears’ coaches drew up one final play from halfcourt. The Bears’ sideline out of bounds play set Senior forward Alyssa Moreland up with a layup, but Holy Cross Senior forward Meg Cahalan blocked the shot to seal the Crusader win. 

Despite the way the Brown game ended, Coach Green knows there is tons of room for improvement. The Crusaders pulled down just eight offensive rebounds compared to the Bears’ 18. 

“Brown, 18 o-boards, unacceptable,” said Coach Green where her team’s defense needs to improve. “So rebounding is at the top of that list. I would say our on-ball defense has to be better. We are a team that can keep people in front, so we got to focus on that, and then our step ups have to be better.” 

For much of the Brown game, Coach Green thought her team looked lethargic. As late as midway through the fourth stanza, Brown maintained a seven-point lead. It wasn’t until the final three minutes that Holy Cross started to click. 

“The whole season, you’re gonna be tired, right? You got to be able to play through that fatigue, so we’ll do a better job of preparing them and preparing their bodies, but yeah, we got to be able to play with that urgency, that pop, that ready to go,” explained Coach Green. “We had some really great possessions at the end there of the Brown game, where I’m like, ‘Where was this the whole game?’ If we played like this the whole game, we might not be in this situation” 

Coach Green’s players know that they have to be more consistent, and bring the same juice they bring towards the end of the game to the very first possession.  

“When we warm up, and when we get into the second quarter and the fourth quarter, we always show up, but it’s always like our first quarter or our third quarter, the start that really kind of slows us down,” said Foreman. “So I feel like [we need to focus on] just being consistent throughout the whole game, and then also translating being consistent throughout all of practice, too.” 

The focus for the Crusaders up until Patriot League play, which starts December 31, remains getting better each day and regaining their defensive identity. 

“We talk a lot about stacking days. That’s a phrase [Coach] Candice [Green] uses all the time,” said Donnelly. “And I think from now until conference [play], or even if we want to go all the way until March in the time that matters, I think just trying to stack days, stack games, and as we said, kind of working on those little things that we want to until then [is important].” 

Featured image courtesy of the Worcester Telegram