Women's Basketball 3/15/2023 10:00:00 AM

Women’s Basketball Ready to Return to the Top in 2023-24

By Mike Ashley ‘83

I've witnessed nine of Radford's 10 Big South Conference women's basketball championships live and I just saw another championship effort earlier this month in Charlotte.

The Highlanders didn't come away with the win against Gardner-Webb, falling 89-81 in overtime in the semifinals, but I haven't felt this good about the program in a long time. This 2022-23 RU team had already claimed a place in program history, picking up the 800^th win ever for Highlander women's basketball with a 66-61 win, appropriately enough, at long-time rival Campbell.

Then Big South Freshman of the Year Ashlyn Traylor hit a shot at the buzzer to beat Presbyterian in the quarterfinals of the Big South "Tunamint" – that's the way former Big South commissioner Buddy Sasser always pronounced it and it's a thing for us league old-timers – and then the Highlanders took it to top-seed Gardner-Webb in one of the great games in tunamint history before bowing with three starters sidelined at the end.

Long story, short, high times seem just ahead for coach Mike McGuire's Highlanders (14-17). There were only two seniors on the roster of a team that just missed snapping 29-4 Gardner-Webb's nation-leading 19-game winning streak. Radford shot 60 percent in the opening quarter and led by as many as 13 points in the second period (39-26 on a 3-pointer from Carmen Williams) before the Bulldogs roared back behind Big South Player of the Year Jhessyka Williams, Defensive Player of the Year Alashia Smith, First Team All-Conference Lauren Bevis and Coach of the Year Alex Simmons. The Bulldogs had five seniors and two grad students on a power-packed roster that eventually went 21-0 in conference competition.

The Bulldogs chewed the RU lead down to two points out the gate in the third period, but the young Highlanders summoned a 10-2 run and eventually led by 11. By then, 6-1 senior forward Rachel Lalonde was out with a first half injury while 6-2 Vanessa Blake and the indispensable Ashlyn Traylor, the BSC Freshman of the Year, both had four fouls.

There were more heroes, though, freshman point guard Olivia Wagner weathered the withering G-WU press and sophomore Carmen Williams, on her way to a career-high 26 points, hit big shot after big shot. Beaumont, a sophomore sharpshooter (9 points on 3-of-4 shooting from three) had her most points since a Nov. 30 game, and reserve senior center Jackie Christ's 20 minutes were her most play, also since November.

Williams, who had her jumper hit the back of the iron at the end of regulation, and the steady Wagner, both played 40+ minutes. With Traylor, Blake and LaLonde all gone by the final 2:20, the Highs ran out of answers.

"I'm exceptionally proud of our team," said McGuire. "I think we came in with the right approach. We had nothing to lose. We played aggressive. As the game progressed, we faced some adversity we hadn't seen all year in terms of foul trouble and some lineups combinations that made us uncomfortable. Our kids played their hearts out and laid it all out there on the line. I'm very proud of them for that."

McGuire, who is 163-138 in 10 years at Radford with three 20-win seasons, three WNIT bids and a 2019 BSC title and NCAA berth was heartbroken for the team and particularly Lalonde who was lost early in the game. His attention quickly turned to the future, though. "This is going to be great for us moving forward," he said. "Now we know what it feels like."

And the Highlanders can put that experience into practice in a deeper run at next year's tournament.

Something else you need to know, historically. Pre-tournament, I was counting on a 28-year-old lucky charm to help our Highlanders at the event.

We got spoiled in the Highlands the first 10 years of women's basketball in the conference with nine championships across 1987-1996. Charlene Curtis's powerhouse teams with names like Stephanie Howard, Patrinda Toney, Karen Bowles, Joyce Sampson and Darlene Adkins doing the heavy lifting, rolled up big wins.

Then Luby Lichonczak took over and won six in a row beginning with Roz Groce's buzzer beater in 1991. Tammie Crown and Shannan Wilkey also led championship teams. The then "Lady Highs" were underdogs in five of those tournaments as the rest of the league caught up to what Curtis and RU athletic director Chuck Taylor had been preaching about gender equity from Day One.

Still, in 1995, Radford had won five tournaments in a row, hosting three times in that stretch and were about to host another. UNC Greensboro was a heavy favorite and Towson State also finished ahead of RU and seemed to have the Lady Highs' number.

And that's where the bright-yellow, size-of-your fist, Tonka toy came in.

Radford opened the tournament that March with an 85-74 win over UNC Asheville in the late game of four quarterfinals. As I was cleaning up my press row that night, I found the bulldozer on the last table toward the riverside entrance. I scooped it up with stats, press guides and other equipment and stowed it away for the next day.

In the semifinals, I put the yellow bulldozer back on the table, hoping whoever had left it would retrieve it. It sat there all game and Radford rang up a 90-73 shocker over Towson State. Lisa Howard came off the bench to tear up the Tiger full-court press with 27 points. "Howie" and another key sub, Sara Larsen, known among teammates as "Buff" (as in buffalo, ahem, because she was from Wyoming), also had a big night.

The Tigers had won five in a row against Radford before that night. Now top-seed UNC Greensboro loomed and while the Lady Highs had beaten the Spartans in their first two championship game meetings in tight games, it seemed 21-win UNCG's year.

Not so fast.

Heavy snowfall hit Radford semifinal night. It came so hard so fast it fooled the Dedmon Center's heated roof sensors and the accumulation collapsed the air-supportive structure, made travel virtually impossible the next day and meanwhile down in Vinton, it memorably and completely wrecked the Lancer Lot hockey venue. The roof in Radford should have heated but again, got fooled.

There would have been no damage except that since the Dedmon Center opened in 1981, shot clocks had been added to the college game. The height of the shot clocks above the backboard was just enough to cause small holes to puncture the Teflon fabric and damage some of the floor with melting snow coming in. (Memorably, I got down to the DC the next day to help shovel, just so I could say I had been on the roof there.)

The championship game was postponed a full week. When action resumed, I brought the Tonka tractor, too. Radford 68, UNCG 63. Howie, Jenny Goode and Dede Logeman were named all-tournament.

That spring I gave the little yellow tractor to one of my graduating students, Drew Dickerson, for good luck. He and several other students, including Marty Smith, stayed in Radford over their spring break to work the tournament. It did bring Drew luck. He got into the business, was RU sports info director for a time and is now assistant commissioner of the Atlantic 10 Conference.

Long story shorter, this summer, Drew returned the Tonka talisman to me. It was there for Ashlyn Traylor's drive to the hoop and buzzer beater in the first round of the tournament, and very nearly helped pull off one of the all-time upsets, Radford taking undefeated (in conference) Gardner-Webb to overtime. The Highs played great, just ran out of play makers and time.

One other thought to tie this all together – Traylor reminds me of Hall of Famer Shannan Wilkey. Don't know that Ashlyn will star in three sports like Shannan did, adding softball and an all-Big South turn in cross country, but they have a similar fire, versatile game and Traylor, sooooo much like Wilkey, gets stronger as the game goes on. She, and Traylor, it seems, are like a great running back. Keep giving them the ball. Especially late in the game.

And, she's a freshman.

The Highlanders may not even need the Tonka truck. Just in case, I passed it along to Assistant Sports Information Director Greg Wolfe, the women's basketball contact, who can place it on press row as needed.

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Players Mentioned

#14 Vanessa Blake: C; 6' 2"; Sophomore

#50 Jackie Christ: C; 6' 3"; Senior

#23 Carmen Williams: G; 5' 11"; Sophomore

#11 Ashlyn Traylor-Walker: G; 5' 8"; Freshman

#5 Olivia Wagner: G; 5' 7"; Freshman

Players Mentioned

#14 Vanessa Blake
: 6' 2"; Sophomore
: C

#50 Jackie Christ
: 6' 3"; Senior
: C

#23 Carmen Williams
: 5' 11"; Sophomore
: G

#11 Ashlyn Traylor-Walker
: 5' 8"; Freshman
: G

#5 Olivia Wagner
: 5' 7"; Freshman
: G