MVCC looking for elusive national title

Already wearing a couple of layers of tape on her newly broken nose, Mohawk Valley Community College's Sara Roseen quickly got frustrated with her experimental plastic mask.

So before MVCC's women's basketball practice on Monday, she pulled the mask up and rested it on her forehead, then made five consecutive 3-pointers.

Roseen, a West Canada Valley graduate, is one of the influx of new players the Hawks have recruited in hopes of making the step from national runner-up two years running to national champions.

"We've got more guards this year," said point guard Shanai Norman, whose team hosts the NJCAA Division III national finals this weekend. "We have more shooters, so I think we'll be able to score a little bit more."

The Hawks open the tournament against Central Lakes College of Brainerd, Minn., at 8 p.m. Thursday with the semifinals scheduled for Friday and the title game at 8 p.m. Saturday.

MVCC has built its identity as a hard-nosed man-to-man defensive team, but this year coach Bobby Allison said his team's success will depend on its ability to put the ball in the basket.

"Can we score?" Allison asked. "That's what it's going to come down to. Last year, we defended enough, we rebounded enough, but we didn't score enough to win."

The Hawks enter this year's tournament with a 27-4 record and the No. 2 seed.

"It's a huge advantage," said Allison, whose MVCC teams are 185-15 in his six seasons at MVCC. "It's so much fun to play at home where everybody's rooting for you. We're the main draw here. On the road, you don't have all of those people there to see you."

Roseen, along with Herkimer County Community College transfer Tonisha Kirby and Gracie Plagainos add depth in the MVCC backcourt, and Thomas R. Proctor's Sam Morgan brings size to the post.

"Sam was the best post player in the whole regional tournament," Allison said. "She got a double-double in every game and was dominant."

After transferring to MVCC last year, Morgan was present but not playing in the national championship loss.

"We were devastated by what happened," Morgan said.

While new players make up a strong balk of MVCC's core, the team finds itself heavily invested in the play of Norman, who was all-tournament at nationals last year.

Norman is a captain and said it's her job to let the freshman know what they're in for this week.

"Everybody looks more to me now than last year," she said. "The freshmen have to know what to expect and how hard they have to play."

Norman admitted she had a bit of an adjustment this year by having to defer some of the ball-handling duties to Kirby, but she was named the MVCC Athlete of the Week following the team's Region III tournament win and said now she looks at Kirby's presence as an advantage.

"She can help me out a lot," Norman said. "I don't have to make every play or do everything with the ball because I know she can do that too."

Observer-Dispatch