Bobbi Morgan has coached long enough to know that sometimes it takes a little time to get a handle on your team.
That was the case this year for the veteran women’s basketball coach at Haverford College.
The Fords were 7-2 overall and 4-0 in the Centennial Conference as they headed into the semester break, but Morgan was still trying to figure out just what kind of team she had.
Morgan would receive her answer in the first two games after the three-week break. Haverford won a pair of games in overtime, beating McDaniel, 54-47, on the road and Johns Hopkins at home, 67-60.
“The Hopkins game was epic,” said Morgan, who was named Centennial Conference Coach of the Year Wednesday for the third time in her career. “We should have lost. We made a buzzer-beater at the end of regulation, but I just think they found a really strong resolve that we can win any game. We may not win pretty or by a lot, but they have that attitude.”
It’s a winning attitude that produced a 14-2 record in the second semester, resulting in the team’s second straight Centennial Conference tournament title and fourth straight trip to the NCAA Division III tournament. The Fords (24-3) begin their Big Dance by taking on ninth-ranked Baldwin Wallace (26-2) Friday night in Berea, Ohio. Tip-off is 7 p.m.
A win would tie the program record for victories in a season and send the Fords into Saturday night’s second round against the winner No. 18 Chicago (20-5) and LaRoche (20-6).
“I really felt that after the Hopkins game, the way they came back, that this was a really special group,” Morgan said. “They have proved it consistently. And they really work hard, too. When you have a sixth-month season in Division III at a school like Haverford, sometimes you have these stretches where the kids get exhausted from the academic balance, but these kids have been on point, really gritty.
“They really don’t seem to get too rattled. They have a quiet confidence, ‘Hey, we got this.’ They don’t ever seem to lose their poise.”
Leading that charge have been seniors Anna-Sophia Capizzi and Megan Furch, who will graduate as the winningest class in program history. Capizzi, a 5-9 guard, was named Centennial Player of the Year. She led the conference in scoring (19.5), while shooting 46.1 percent from the field. Furch averaged 10.1 points and 6.2 rebounds and received honorable mention all-conference honors.
“Anna-Sophia Capizzi had an All-American kind of performance this year,” Morgan said. “She scored 500 points in the season. She scored inside and out. She’s a really tough guard from Holy Cross, the Catholic League in Washington. It’s like the Catholic League in Philly, really great basketball. And she’s got a really good basketball IQ. She kind of put us on her back and just carried us.
“Megan Furch is from St. John Vianney, which is like O’Hara, perennially a nationally ranked program so they’re used to winning and they’re just tough. The other kid who had a huge impact is Julianna Clark. She actually played for the Comets. She’s from Lancaster, but came down here to play (AAU basketball). She’s legit. She’s just a clutch player. She made huge shots in the conference championship game.”
Everything, though, begins and ends with defense, and the Fords are among the best in Division III in that area. Haverford ranks second in scoring defense (46.3), 10th in field goal percentage defense (31.8) and 18th in 3-point field goal percentage defense (24.9).
“The two things we talk about every day is grit and grateful, and that’s kind of been their mantra,” Morgan said. “We’re going to be gritty and we’re going to be grateful for the opportunity and they’ve followed that. And we’re grateful to still be playing.”
