By Dan Weber
NKyTribune sports reporter
Those three national championship banners from the past decade overlooking the basketball floor at Thomas More’s Connor Center are no longer a burden. Just a reminder of the quality of the program, the Saints say.
It’s been four seasons now since the TMU women won their last national title, an NAIA championship in 2022, to go with their two NCAA Division III championships in 2016 and 2019.
“It’s why I came here,” Danville’s Desiree Tandy, a junior, says after her career-high and game-high 13 points off the bench proved the difference in Wednesday’s grind-it-out 55-41 win over Trevecca Nazarene. And with wins in 10 of the first 11 games, the Saints close out a December to remember.
“We only won 11 all last year,” second-year head coach Brian Neal says of his second stint in a return to Crestview Hills after 13 years away, including six seasons as head coach at Xavier, to a program that was as good as it gets in college-division basketball for more than a decade under Jeff Hans, now the head women’s coach at NKU.
Neal was a part of that dynasty as an assistant and “last year, when you take over a program, it’s tough,” he says, especially one with so much recent success. Lots of challenges. Especially a program that over the last two seasons has graduated 11 seniors, Neal adds.
“Those banners, we’re not looking up there every day,” Neal says. This team has its own daily focus and challenges. But “they’re definitely something, those banners,” says 6-foot senior Sereniti Webb, a Simon Kenton grad from Covington and a transfer from Midway College who leads the Saints in scoring with her soft touch around the basket from the low post where she averages 13.3 points a game.
Only not as much this game after 11 days off for the Christmas break. Were the Saints a bit rusty, she’s asked. “Absolutely,” Webb responded with a big grin after her 11-point day. Time to get back to work.
Indeed, as Neal noted, “the two Rylee’s (Turner and Leonard) were on the bench next to me and each had just one basket,” he said of his pair of double-figure scorers going through a combined two-for-15 day from the field. “Even if the ball’s not going in for you,” there are other ways to contribute, Neal encouraged them.
No need to tell Turner. It’s what the 6-foot senior from Newport Central Catholic does, As the lone Saint with significant playing time in the 2023 national championship game when she played 15 minutes as a top backup for runner-up TMU, Turner has been there.
“You expect so much out of her,” Neal says, “such a versatile player with her length and savvy.” While she may not have shot it this game, Turner did lead the Saints in rebounds (10) and assists (four) while getting much of the credit for holding Trevecca’s leading scorer to a four-for-22 shooting game.
If they can win with two of their offensive leaders with just one basket each, “I’ll take it,” Neal says. however, he’d “rather win by 25 with an explosion” but that wasn’t happening on this day. What was happening was this: a defense that held the Nashville team to 23.9 percent shooting on 16 of 67 from the field (four of 31,12.9 percent, from three-point range)
Izzy Rotert, a 5-10 junior from Cincinnati Mercy McAuley, added 11 points with eight rebounds in a game in rounding out the quartet of Saints’ double-digit scorers. Morgan Hunt, a 5-10 junior guard from Hollansburg, Ohio, added nine points with eight rebounds in rounding out the starters.
Then came Tandy, “I got into the gym, I got stronger, more confident,” the 6-footer said after her game-high 13 points with seven rebounds and seven-of-eight from the free throw line.
And now the Saints finish the preseason and turn to an extremely competitive Great Midwest Athletic Conference where their 2-1 league record has them in fifth place behind three undefeated teams and a 3-1 Kentucky Wesleyan. The new year gets the Saints back into GMAC play with a trio of home conference games against Ursuline Monday, Northwood Thursday and Hillsdale Jan. 10.
“We view each game as our little puzzle,” Neal says, calling himself “a defensive coach” in his approach. “Our players are doing a great job figuring it out.”
And have for 10 of the 11 puzzles that have come their way in 2025. Now we see what 2026 will bring.
SCORING SUMMARY
Trevecca Nazarene 11 6 14 10–41
Thomas More 12 12 11 20–55
Trevecca Nazarene (6-5): Trotter 3 0 3 9, Shaw 4 3 0 11, Woods 0 0 0 0, Burgess 0 0 0 0, Gillies 4 1 0 9, Johnson 1 0 0 2, Hernandez 0 0 0 0, Jones 2 0 1 5, Butler 2 0 1 5; TOTALS: 16-67 4-31 5-9 41.
Thomas More (10-1): Turner 1 0 1 3, Rotert 4 1 2 11, Webb 5 0 1 11, Leonard 1 0 1 3, Hunt 4 0 1 9, Jackson 0 0 0 0, Noel 0 0 2 2, Sterling 1 1 0 3, Tandy 3 0 7 13, Paul 0 0 0 0; TOTALS: 19-53 2-12 15-20 55.