CMCC Women’s Basketball Wins 4th USCAA National Championship

Buffalo, NY – CMCC Women's Basketball won its fourth United States Collegiate Athletic Association national championship in program history with an emphatic 74-46 victory over Miami University-Hamilton on Saturday night at SUNY-Erie in Buffalo, NY. The #1 seeded Mustangs left no doubt from the opening tip-off, scoring on their opening possession and dominating the #3 seeded Harriers 24-2 in the first quarter. It was a full team effort for head coach Andrew Morong's squad with all 17 available players featuring in the game and 14 contributing points.

"It all started back in September when we had a team meeting," coach Morong said in his postgame press conference. "It was very clear we were going to be very talented, and we had a tremendous group of young women in our program who are very selfless. We just committed to saying, 'let's go all in and if we're devastated by the results at the end, we're going to be okay with it.' We knew if we went all in, we were going to have an opportunity to do what we did tonight. This was really just six months in the making, and it turned out exactly the way we all believed it would from day one."

Central Maine caps an incredible season at 29-1 overall, having stayed as the #1 ranked team in DII from the first preseason poll to the very end of the campaign. It was CMCC's seventh appearance in the USCAA title game, having previously won the championship in 2017, 2019, and 2022. It's the school's seventh national title across all sports and the second won during the 2025-26 academic year following men's soccer's triumph in the fall.

"It's one of the best feelings for sure," said first-year Josie Friend. "We worked hard all year and I'm just so glad that we got to do this as a team. It's amazing. Such a good feeling. Super happy, super proud, and couldn't be happier."

"There's not one girl on the team who just wants it for herself," second-year forward Ava Smith said. "It's everybody playing for everybody. We had a talk not that long ago, just talking about how we needed to pick it up and go out there and play for each other, because we just love each other so much."

The Mustangs looked fired up right from the get-go, facing the Harriers for the third straight season at the national tournament. There was also a bit of revenge to be had after Miami-Hamilton eliminated CMCC in last year's semifinals. Smith controlled the opening tip before Friend found her with a kickout pass to knock down the first points of the night on a mid-range jumper. Just like that, Central Maine had a lead it would not give up, immediately going to its full-court press and hounding the Harriers into mistakes.

Smith poured in the first six points of the contest and Abilene Corson added a layup to make it 8-0 after 3:24, forcing a timeout. Taj Pewett answered with a jump shot for Miami, but it would prove to be the team's only points of the quarter after shooting 1-for-11 and turning the ball over nine times in the opening ten minutes.

CMCC's outside shooting made an impact in response. Caitlyn McCoy, Anais Balla Zambo, and Gabbie Tibbetts all hit shots from beyond the arc. Balla Zambo followed Smith's example doing good work in the paint as well. The forward out of Fribourg, Switzerland matched Smith's total for the quarter with eight points, establishing a dominant 22-point advantage.

The lead climbed as high as 30 points in the first half, though the Harriers had a better second quarter. Beri Ngwa and Kirsten Cross, both USCAA 1^st-Team All-Americans, got on the board and Pewett added four points, as the team tried to adapt to the press.

The Mustangs kept them from seizing momentum though. Their own 1^st-Team All-American, Breanna Dwyer, scored five points in the quarter while McCoy splashed two more threes to make it 42-14 at the break. The big lead did not change the team's approach to the second half though.

"Back in 2019, in the national championship game, we had a similar lead at halftime against Villa Maria, then with a minute and a half to go in the game it was only a five-point lead and they had the ball," Morong said. "Pulling on that previous experience, we talked about it in a timeout in the first half, we talked about it at halftime. We knew we couldn't just roll the ball out there and hope we wouldn't lose because Miami-Hamilton is just so talented and has so many weapons. So, the message was don't change anything, keep pressing."

The team did just that, tiring out a shorthanded Miami University-Hamilton squad that had just six players available in their rotation. The Harriers had their best quarter of the game in the third, scoring 17 points, but their legs paid the price. Smith, Dwyer, and Friend all had buckets in the first four minutes, and fresh players like Mikela Alvarado and Zoe Bedford came off the bench to hit three-pointers. Alvarado's triple made it 51-19, CMCC's largest lead of the night.

When the fourth quarter started, Central Maine simply had to manage a 61-31 lead. More players got a chance to shine. Keilani Horne buried a jumper, Autumn Peterson knocked down a late three, and Hunter Hartsgrove got a basket to go for the third straight quarter. Every healthy player on the roster finished the game contributing a positive stat to the box score, before the final horn set off the celebrations of a 74-46 victory to claim the trophy in front of the traveling CMCC faithful.

"I couldn't be more thankful for the fans who come down and watch our games," Friend said. "I look at them as my family because my parents are back home watching in Australia. It's so special having them all come down because it's a massive amount of travel. So, we really appreciate it and we love the energy."

"I think it makes all the difference," Smith said. "Looking up and seeing them cheering us on, knowing we have people that have our back, it's amazing."

Dwyer and Balla Zambo ended the night tied with a team-high 11 points while Smith contributed her fourth double-double of the season with 10 points and 10 rebounds. McCoy had nine with three triples, Friend finished with eight points and seven boards, and Hartsgrove had six points. Corson, Dwyer, and Friend tied with a team-best four assists while Horne had a game-high five steals and added nine rebounds. Ngwa's 16 points and 15 from Pewett paced Miami-Hamilton. Central Maine shot 34.9% from the floor and won the rebound battle 58-41. The defense finished the night forcing 28 turnovers with its press.

"That's our gameplan every game," coach Morong said. "I guess my answer as a coach to everything is just press. That's all I've really ever known. This matchup kind of played into our hands. We were shocked that they weren't pressed the game before, and we saw what they could do when they were allowed to walk the ball up the floor. They were super dangerous. So, we knew we couldn't let them have anything easy. Everything that they got was going to be contested. We just wanted to make them play all 94 feet for 40 minutes, and we knew there was no way they were going to be able to sustain that.

The Mustangs placed three players on the USCAA All-Tournament team. Dwyer concluded her stellar freshman campaign with the honor and McCoy joined her after hitting ten threes over the three games. Smith went one better. The 6'0" sophomore out of Lake Region High School was also named Tournament MVP, finishing the week with a combined 30 points, 29 rebounds, nine blocks, six steals, and three assists in just 48 minutes on the court.

"It was just a team effort," said Smith. "I'm glad I could go out there and do my part for the common goal, but it was everybody tonight. The defensive stops, the takes to the basket, the smart plays, everything."

"She's not giving herself enough credit," coach Morong interjected. "In each of our three (tournament) games, we went up against 1^st-Team All-American post players. She (Ava Smith) is the best post player in the USCAA offensively, and she (Josie Friend) is the best defender the USCAA has ever seen. They'll obviously never say that about themselves, but without each of them doing what they do, we aren't who we are. They're all pieces to the puzzle."

As the women's basketball team prepared to celebrate its epic season that culminated in several program records and a fourth national championship in ten years, the head coach summed up his thoughts about this group of players.

"They would all rather us win than have any sort of personal performance or get an individual award," Morong said. "They just want to win, and they will sacrifice whatever it takes for one another to do that. That's a staple of our program. It's the way it's been for the last 14 years and hopefully it will stay that way for another 14 years."