Sports Odds and Ends
The Big Ten on Sunday, March 3 crowned its WBB tournament champion and NCAA automatic qualifier. Several sistas shined during the tourney who are worth noting:
Minnesota sophomore Amaya Battle scored 54 points, shooting nearly 49 percent in two Big Ten tournament games. She, Ayianna Johnson and Ajok Madol combined for 79 percent of Minnesota’s scoring last Thursday (45 of Minnesota’s 57 total points) against Michigan.
Niamya Holloway led the Gophers in their opening-round win over Rutgers with nine rebounds. “Winning our first Big Ten game in the tournament this year was probably the most special thing that ever happened,” said the 6-0 redshirt freshman from Eden Prairie. After sitting out all last season due to injury, “To be able to celebrate with my team, and I had a big role in it, was amazing,” she added.
Freshman forward Taylor Woodson (Hopkins) was inadvertently left off last week’s WBB preview—she is one of seven Black Minnesotans on team rosters this season. She played 10 minutes, grabbed two rebounds, and recorded a block for Michigan vs. Minnesota.
“I’ve played here during my state championship game back in high school,” said the 6-0 first-year player from Minnetonka. “I had to take a moment to realize how far I’ve come. My parents were in the stands.”
Wisconsin sophomore Serah Williams recorded her 16th straight double-double (points, rebounds) against Purdue, which set a new conference record. “I want to play like a mix of [Nikola] Jokic and Anthony Davis,” said Williams on patterning her game after the two NBA stars.
The 6-4 forward from New York last week was named Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year and All-Defense. “Just being able to move the ball around the court is the next step for me,” she pointed out.
Fellow Badgers sophomore Ronnie Porter of St. Paul led Wisconsin with 15 points and shot 50 percent from the field.
Coach Marisa Moseley spoke about both Williams and Porter when asked by the MSR during the post-game press conference. On Williams, “Obviously the type of scorer and impact player that she is offensively, being able to pass out of doubles or have more patience when the ball comes in…I think is the next step.”
On Porter, “I think Ronnie gave us her very, very best this year. Consistently becoming a better three-point shooter is going to be something that she will work on, I know for sure,” said the coach.
“I definitely love Kendall Coley,” said Nebraska Coach Amy Williams on the junior guard/forward from Minneapolis. She was the only Minneapolis-born Black player in last Sunday’s title game. “What a team player she’s been for us.”
Added the 6-2 Coley, who expects to graduate in May but plans to return next season, “I always came and watched Lynx games when I was a kid. Playing on the same stage was surreal.”
Moseley and Rutgers’ Coquese Washington are the conference’s only Black female head coaches.
“I think there needs to be absolutely role models, and as a young person watching [us], even not just young Black men and women but kids in general, I think in order to see that it’s possible to have people of all different walks doing this,” stressed Moseley. “For she [Washington] and I to have the opportunity to coach at this level and be a role model or potentially inspire a next generation of coaches or leaders, I think it’s incredibly important.”
Added Washington, “Yeah, I hope it’s meaningful. It doesn’t matter that we’re in 2024— representation matters. Not only just as women of color, but as women. All the accomplishments of women of color in this conference, being able to step into the shoes of [retired] Coach Vivian Stringer, who’s had tremendous success coaching at Iowa and coaching in this tournament.
“So definitely I want to be somebody who folks can look up to and have aspirations to do tremendous things in their own lives, whether it’s in sport or outside the sport. So, take that challenge and just try to be the best we can be all the time,” said the coach.