Gannon Knight Sports

     Gannon University’s women’s basketball team would have had an easier time scaling Mount Everest.
     After starting the year as the No. 19 team in the nation, the Knights needed 28-straight wins to successfully reach the summit of the national rankings after earning the No. 1 spot in the USA Today/ESPN Top 25 Coaches’ Poll that was unveiled Tuesday.
     The No. 1 ranking is the first in the basketball program’s history. The only other Gannon teams to achieve a top national rank were the 2000 and 2001 women’s lacrosse teams.
     The Knights (Pictured below - Terry Carson/ Knight) feel that their hard work has deservingly propelled them into the conversation with the country’s elite programs.
     “We are by far the hardest working team,” said senior forward Brittany Tabron, who has averaged 11 points and eight rebounds per game over the past three years. “There may be teams that work just as hard, but none that work harder. We deserve it.”
     Senior forward Kim Vargas said that the team has been striving toward this goal since practice started in the summer.
     “We work our butts off,” she said “Our hard work has been shown through the way we’ve been playing recently.”
     Coach Cleve Wright, Gannon’s all-time winningest coach with 158 victories, said he thinks that there is little this team can’t accomplish in the postseason tournaments.
     “I believe we are one of the best teams,” he said. “The potential of this team is limitless.”

     The Knights moved up one spot in the poll by grabbing 25 of the 27 available first-place votes after Franklin Pierce University (N.H.), which was previously ranked No. 1 for seven straight weeks, was defeated by Merrimack College 71-64.
     Wednesday, when Franklin Pierce suffered its first loss of the season, Gannon was also given a scare as the team edged out an 80-72 victory over rival Edinboro University.
     The Knights used a 10-2 run in the last 3 minutes of the second half against the Fighting Scots to earn the victory.
     Gannon entered its Saturday matchup with Indiana (Pa.) University knowing that a win would likely place the squad atop the national rankings.
     In spite of this knowledge, none of the players felt any additional anxiety heading into the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference matchup.
     “It didn’t really add too much pressure,” said senior sharpshooter Carrie Nolan, who leads the team in 3-pointers made. “It helps that we’ve been ranked in the Top 10 the majority of the season.”
     Wright said that the ranking was nothing more than an after-thought heading into the game.
     “We didn’t talk or think about it,” he said. “We are focused on getting wins. There are no opinions in wins. You either win or you don’t.”
     Led by a game-high 17 points from senior guard Kristina Freeman, who left the second half of the Edinboro contest with an injury, the Knights handedly defeated the Crimson Hawks 69-48.
     The players understand that when you combine a 38-game regular-season win streak with a No. 1 ranking, they’ll get every team’s best shot.
     “We have a huge target on our back,” said Vargas, who has started every game for Gannon this season. “We are the team that everyone is trying to beat.”
     Although at times the Knights make looking undefeated easy by winning their games by an average of 21 points, there are obstacles that they’ve overcome that most people are unaware of.
     “Staying focused is the hardest thing,” said senior guard Tiffany Crocker, who leads Division II in assist-to-turnover ratio. “There are a number of things that come up that no one knows about. We’ve had meetings where we recognize that there are things coming up that could affect our focus but consciously decide not let them become a distraction.”
     Vargas says that the daily grind of a long season is one of the overlooked aspects of a long winning streak.
     “Injuries take their toll through the year,” she said. “We don’t have many other problems. If there is an issue, we make sure to work it out.” The sports maxim that says a great team must lose before it can win doesn’t hold any water with the Knights as each game is approached as an opportunity to learn things that can help them down the road in the NCAA Division II tournament.
     “We been in every type of game,” Vargas said. “When we get into a close late-game situation, we know that we’ve been there before.”
     Not every game has been a blowout as the Knights have had to rely on their share of last-second shots and overtime victories.
     Gannon won its first game of the season over Northeastern State University by only one point. A few weeks later while playing in the North Star Invitational in Fairbanks, Alaska, the Knights needed two overtimes to erase a 15-point halftime deficit.
     “We have come as close as you can to losing without actually losing,” said Crocker. “We know there is still a lot to work on.”
     “It has not been easy,” Nolan said. “There have been games we could’ve folded but we overcame it. We are a good team and good teams get lucky.”
     Gannon gets to try its new ranking on for size at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday as the Knights take on crosstown rival Mercyhurst College at the Hammermill Center.
     “This is a very important game,” Tabron said. “Mercyhurst always brings their best and this game won’t be any different.”