Senior Sarah Royals was University at Albany head coach Katie Abrahamson-Henderson’s first recruit, and the cornerstone of the Great Danes’ four-year America East Conference championship run.
For most of her career, Royals, a 5-foot-9 guard/forward from Torrington, Conn., has been the Great Danes’ point guard and the extension of her coach on the court. A fiery, no-nonsense player who will do anything asked of her in order to win, Royals has one more goal before she takes off her UAlbany jersey for the last time: She wants to win an NCAA tournament game.
The 24-8 Great Danes, who received their highest ever seed at No. 13, will have their fourth straight opportunity to register that first NCAA victory when they take on fourth-seeded Duke (21-10) today at noon at the Blue Devils’ home court, Cameron Indoor Stadium in Durham, N.C.
“We are so close. We finally got some respect, in terms of our seeding,” said Royals, who is the program’s all-time leader in assists, as well as member of the 1,000-point club. “It hurts us in that Duke knows all about us because we played them last year, but Coach Abe also knows all about Duke, too. The thing about Duke is that they have a lot of big athletes. We are very short by comparison.”
Royals said that in order for the Danes to beat the Blue Devils, they must get a balanced scoring effort to take the pressure off junior Shereesha Richards, the Danes’ all-time leading scorer and a two-time America East Player of the Year.
“[Richards] rises to the occasion in these types of games,” said Royals of Richards, who led the league in both scoring (21 ppg) and rebounding (8.7 rpg). “But she’s going to need some help, whether it be from me, Imani [Tate] or the rest of the team.”
UAlbany’s second scoring option will be Tate, a 5-8 sophomore who averaged nearly 14 points and six rebounds a game.
“Imani has improved so much. She can make things happen,” said Royals. “She has become a well-rounded scorer. She has a pull-up jumper that is almost impossible to defend, and she is a great free-throw shooter. Imani has a lot of options, and she knows how to read those options.”
For Richards, nothing changes much in her outlook. “It will take a lot to win this game,” she said. “They are tall and athletic. We need to score in transition, and we need to box out for rebounding. Like Penn State, they [the Blue Devils] have tall monsters in there. The good thing is that this year, we are quicker in our zone, and we are more versatile than we were last year when they beat us. They will have to guard Imani and the rest of our players, now, and that frees me up.”
Abrahamson-Henderson said the Great Danes must use their quickness to their advantage against the taller Blue Devils.
“They have some injuries in their backcourt, so they will probably start four post players and one guard,” she said. “We have to take advantage of our speed. We have to be faster. I know they won’t take us for granted. I know their matchups and their press, but I know they won’t overlook us. I’ll have to switch things up and put in some more sets that Duke hasn’t seen yet. We also have to move Shereesha around. She’s tough to guard if she moves around.”
Four players average in double digits for Duke, which is led by senior Elizabeth Williams, who averages 14.7 points and 8.9 rebounds per game. The Blue Devils are coached by Joanne P. McCallie, who was Abrahamson-Henderson’s boss at both Michigan State and Maine.
The winner of today’s game advances to play the Tulane-Mississippi Stat winner on Sunday.
Categories: College Sports
