Anna Fanelli had a great career at Colorado College before coming to Hardin-Simmons, and her presence has helped the Cowgirls round out their lineup quite nicely. By Scott Burkhalter, d3photography.com

By Riley Zayas
D3sports.com

ABILENE, Texas – The scene unfolded on Saturday night with 38 seconds until the final buzzer. 

With Hardin-Simmons leading Trinity (Texas), 82-62, in a second-round matchup at home, Cowgirls head coach Kendra Whitehead called a timeout. Her team would live to fight another day in the NCAA Tournament, but for the four fifth-year seniors she subbed out amidst an ovation from the large crowd on hand, it was a curtain call inside the Mabee Complex. The final time they would walk off their home court in a game setting. 

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And it was memorable, considering what the quartet has meant to HSU’s memorable season, a 23-4 record that includes a second-straight ASC regular season title, an ASC Tournament crown, and most notably, the program’s first Sweet 16 appearance since 2006. 

“Honestly, I’ve had so much faith and confidence in this group,” Whitehead said minutes after. “We have four super seniors who play at a very high level, and they’re pulling some of our underclassmen up along with them.” 

The leadership and experience has been invaluable. There is no question that the quality minutes earned early in their collegiate careers are now paying off for HSU. But they haven’t all taken the same path to this point. Parris Parmer, who became just the fifth player in program history to surpass the 1,500 point mark for her career, has spent all five of her years in Abilene. Samantha Tatum is in her fourth year at HSU, having transferred in from Harding University following her freshman year. 

And in the cases of Paris Kiser and Anna Fanelli, the impactful experiences as freshmen and sophomores were spent away from Abilene. For Kiser, it was at ASC rival UT-Dallas, where she starred as the Comets’ point guard for three seasons before transferring to HSU prior to 2022-23. Fanelli’s first four years came at Colorado College, before she opted to join the HSU program as a grad transfer ahead of the current season. 

“They’ve been phenomenal,” Whitehead said of Fanelli and Kiser. “They are smart, smart players, and that’s important in basketball because it is hard to learn a new system. To come from playing under somebody else’s style and jump in and pick it up right away. That’s important. The transfer portal is certainly affecting all levels, but it doesn’t always work quite as well as it has for us.” 

Together, the duo has formed an elite backcourt, one whose contributions have helped place HSU as the nation’s No. 1 scoring offense at 84.6 points per game. Fanelli is fourth in the country in total assists; she already broke the program’s single-season record for assists in a season in the ASC title game. Kiser is third in the conference in points per game, and earned Co-Player of the Year honors for the first time in her career two weeks ago. It is a one-two punch strengthened by both poise and a trust in each other. 

“Part of what Anna does is she helps us push the pace, and Paris is one of the most dynamic players in the open court,” Whitehead added. “So [Anna] can get it up to [Paris] when it’s a 2-on-1 situation, and she’s almost impossible to stop in some of those spots.”

It seems opponents have had just as tough of a time stopping Kiser from shooting 3-pointers as they have slowing her down in transition. And Fanelli’s role in that has been significant. In one statement play late in the fourth quarter of the second round win, Fanelli dribbled around the right wing before finding Kiser standing a few feet above the arc. The pass was on-point, and Kiser connected on the long-range 3 at the end of the shot clock, as the crowd roared with HSU’s now-20-point lead. That type of play has happened night after night for the Cowgirls this season. 

“I think Anna is what makes us go as a team,” Kiser said. “Without her, it would change us. I’m so grateful for her and her coming here. It’s been great. Credit to her for a lot of our success as a team.”

Fanelli’s impact in HSU’s push for a historic season in 2023-24 cannot be overstated. A four-year starter at Colorado College, Fanelli brought with her to Abilene a notoriety of being one of the top point guards in Division III. She averaged 3.9 assists per game through 89 career contests — all of which she started — and added 35 steals as a senior. 

Whitehead knew the level of talent she would be adding to the starting lineup, and Fanelli knew, after four straight seasons of SCAC tournament final losses to Trinity, that HSU would give her the chance to be part of a NCAA Tournament-caliber program. Yet, the initial hesitancy in moving to West Texas was understandable, as an out-of-state transfer who grew up in Portland, Oregon. Looking back, though, she couldn’t be happy with the decision she made. 

“I definitely felt like, at the time, maybe I was taking a chance coming from Oregon and Colorado all the way to Abilene, Texas,” Fanelli said. “Back in March, I couldn’t even pronounce Abilene correctly. But I knew about Hardin-Simmons and the success of the program. I couldn’t be more grateful for coming here. This is the perfect place for me. 

“It’s an incredible family that I have here. Even my parents say they’ve never met more welcoming people than in West Texas.”

Interestingly, she knew about HSU and Whitehead knew about her well before the idea of actually transferring ever came into the picture thanks to a meeting at the Rocky Mountain Thanksgiving Classic on Nov. 27, 2021. In a narrow 74-73 victory for HSU, Fanelli put on a show on her home court, with 13 points, seven assists, and four rebounds, leaving a lasting impression in Whitehead’s mind.

“Two years ago, we played at Colorado College and had to guard – or try – to guard Anna and keep her in front of us,” Whitehead remembers. “It was really a challenge. I remember leaving that game thinking, ‘She would fit so well in what we do and how we want to play.’”

That style is predicated on playing fast and getting downhill on drives to the lane, two traits that have contributed majorly to HSU’s high-scoring ability during Whitehead’s time at the helm and perhaps more prominently in this season. So when Fanelli made the decision to transfer, the HSU coaching staff didn’t hesitate to extend an opportunity. 

“When you recruit, you have this vision in your head of what you think it will look like, but the pieces still have to all fit into this puzzle,” Whitehead noted. “So it’s been super fun to see them actually fit and watch them on the court.”

Indeed it is, with plenty of ball movement leading to open 3-pointers and a strong sense of the timing needed when it comes to passes, cuts, and screens. HSU is 15th in the country in assists per game, averaging 17.8, over three more than any other team in the ASC. 

“It’s a really fun way to play basketball, and I think that’s what makes us so good,” Kiser said. “At any time, anyone on our team could go off. We’re all going to score, and Anna is going to find us the ball. It’s fun out there.” 

Kiser was another one of the puzzle pieces Whitehead referenced, in each of the last two years. A season ago, she was in Fanelli’s position, as a talented newcomer who came in expected to make an immediate impact. And she did just that, fitting into the system alongside Parmer, Tatum, and Hallie Edmondson, averaging 11.8 points per game as the point guard, just as she had done over three years with UTD. 

But by the time this preseason rolled around, her role had changed with the presence of Fanelli. Bringing in a point guard of Fanelli’s caliber created an opportunity for Kiser to play on the wing more often, and showcase her talent as a pure shooter even more. 

While her minutes only increased by 1.5 this season compared to last, Kiser went from 11.8 points per game to 19.3, ranking in the top three of the conference in scoring for the first time in her career. She garnered an ASC Co-Player of the Year award, and was named the ASC Tournament’s MVP recently, and much of it is a credit to the dynamic of Kiser stepping up her outside shooting and Fanelli running the offense. 

“Last year, coming in, the point guard position was where I had to be, and where I would have the most minutes,” Kiser said. “This year, it’s been different with Anna taking over the point guard spot, and it freed me up to be on the wing and score that way.”

She considers the HSU program a blessing, an opportunity to rekindle her passion for the sport over the last two years, and contribute to a veteran-led squad with big goals and the chemistry to get there. 

“Two years ago, I wasn’t sure if I was going to continue playing basketball. I was kind of falling out of love with the game, you could say. So coming here, I’ve loved it, and enjoyed these girls and these relationships. I wasn’t guaranteed these last two years that I’ve been playing, so it’s just a blessing to be able to be here.”

It has all come together for both Kiser and Fanelli, as the backcourt continues to produce. The trust between the two has allowed each of their skill sets to complement the other, an invaluable trait that continues to challenge the defenses tasked with slowing down the Cowgirls. 

“We’ve seen a press a couple times this year playing against teams in our conference, and not one time have I felt like it’s too much pressure,” Fanelli said, “because I know I always have Paris Kiser in the backcourt with me, helping me out. In past seasons, I’ve felt like I’ve had a lot of pressure on me playing the 1, but now playing with Paris, she’s played that position before. So if I ever need someone to play the 1 for a couple of possessions or guard the 1, she can do that really well.”

It will be more important than ever to have the senior leadership on the floor when HSU continues its tournament run on Friday evening in New York City. NYU, at 27-0 and ranked No. 1 in the nation, awaits. 

It is a daunting task to say the least, facing the nation’s top-ranked team on the road, but the poise and experience level of HSU’s core, of which Fanelli and Kiser are included, has carried the Cowgirls to this point. And that won’t stop even in The Big Apple’s bright lights. 

“I remember coming into Coach’s office early in the season,” Kiser recalls. “Obviously being a fifth-year, I know a lot of us wanted to accomplish what we didn’t last year, or even go further [in the tournament]. Early on, I was worrying about those things that were further out, but I couldn’t control them. I remember her telling me, ‘It has to just be taken one game at a time.’ That’s how we’ve approached it, and it’s cool to see how far we’ve come. 

“We’re not done yet.”