Photo by Pete Meshanic, d3photography.com

By Joe Sager
D3sports.com

Getting to the Final Four is no easy task. It’s a difficult climb fraught with twists and turns.

Smith learned what it took to reach that point last year when the Pioneers arrived for the first time in program history.

This season, it has relied heavily on its leadership to navigate the program back up the mountain as Smith (29-3) faces Wartburg (29-2) on Thursday for a spot in the national championship game.

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“I feel very lucky to have been able to play on a team with such amazing players and coaches. There’s nothing more I want than to still be playing basketball in March,” Smith junior guard Jane Loo said. “Back in August, we said our goal was to get another Final Four banner up in our gym and a national championship banner added. We have an opportunity to do that. It’s awesome. I wouldn’t want to do it with another group.”

The Pioneers squad that steps onto the Capital Center Performance Arena floor in Columbus against Wartburg is drastically different than the one the stepped off the Oosting Gymnasium floor in Hartford last spring after a 76-65 loss to Transylvania.

Smith bid farewell to three seniors, including senior Morgan Morrison, who was named the D3hoops.com Player of the Year. Morrison, the most decorated player in Smith program history, is in Columbus, too, but with NYU as a graduate student standout.

“We lost three starters from last year’s team and when we look through every other team here, they either gained a lot or didn’t lose as much,” Smith coach Lynn Hersey said. “We feel like we put the pieces of the puzzle together pretty quickly this year, though. We used the experience of the girls who played some significant minutes last year to be able to find a way to get back here this year.”

The Pioneers welcomed back starters Jessie Ruffner and Amelia Clairmont this year. Clairmont has been limited to 17 games this season, but Ally Yamada and Loo, key reserves last year, moved into starting guard roles. The team welcomed two newcomers, too, in freshman point guard Hannah Martin and graduate student Sofia Rosa, who did not play last season, but starred at Tufts previously. Junior Jazmyn Washington is an experienced returning player in the rotation, too.

“I think a lot of people thought that we might have trouble fighting our way back to the tournament, let alone the Final Four. We still have a good group of players who have had a lot of key minutes,” Loo said. “Jessie, Ally and Sofia — all those veteran leaders are essential for our team. Hannah has come in and stepped up to be our floor general. Yes, we’ve lost big pieces, but we’ve also found a way to make it work with what we have. We’re staying the course and not letting the outside noise affect us.

“We’re a team playing with a chip on our shoulder. We want to prove the doubters wrong, but we want to prove all our fans and supporters right. We’re finding ways to have everybody stand up and have different pieces of the puzzle come together.”

That was evident in the team’s quarterfinal win over Bowdoin. The Pioneers, one of the country’s top offensive squads, struggled mightily that night. The team hit on just 12.5 of its shots from 3-point range and 33.3 percent of its attempts from the floor, two categories where Smith ranks first and second, respectively, in the country.

Instead, the Pioneers dug in and limited Bowdoin to 47 points — only three in the final 4:27 — to post the 52-47 triumph.

“We are more of an offensive team, but you have to learn how to win in different ways,” Hersey said. “If your shots aren’t falling, you have to have a plan B. We really try to prepare them defensively. As a coaching staff, we will look to do whatever we can to make the other team have to make adjustments. The players have bought into that routine. They have been really good at executing that approach.

“You do have to be versatile to win in a lot of different ways to get to this point. Every team who is here does that. We watch a lot of film on these teams and you have to be able to rely on your defense or your rebounding or your ball security because you won’t always be at your best on offense. I think we’re really aware of that. We’re not so dependent on just one aspect of our game.”

That’s where experience kicks in for Smith.

“Losing all these offensive pieces from last year, you have to find different ways to win,” Loo said. “We played phenomenal defense against Bowdoin. Yeah, we are a very good offensive team, but we can hold our own on the D-end too. That’s got us this far.

“We’re just a very good group of competitive girls. Having that extra leadership and veteran presence we are able to bring over to this year’s team is so huge for us,” she continued. “It doesn’t matter who does what; we’ll find a way to win.

“Another good thing about our veteran group — we’re playing to win it all. We fell short last year. Getting back to the Final Four is what we wanted, but we want more and we want it all. Having that veteran experience not only gives us more confidence, but it gives us a competitive edge, too.”