With tears still in her eyes, freshman guard Danielle Williamsen immediately wanted to turn the page to next year following a painful ending to her first season as a Red Fox.
At Jim Whelan Boardwalk Hall, the show went on. Marist’s 68-65 season-ending loss to Mount St. Mary’s was the first of four games of the 2025 MAAC Men’s and Women’s Basketball Championships on the day. Siena and Merrimack took over the floor, preparing for their game, which had been delayed.
On paper, it was merely a three-point loss for the Red Foxes. What the final score did not show was Marist’s unthinkable come-from-behind effort, nearly erasing a 27-point deficit in the final 14 minutes of play.
Some fifteen minutes after the rollercoaster of a game ended, Williamsen, two teammates and head coach Erin Doughty stepped to the stage in a makeshift media room tucked away in the corner of the arena. All four fought tears as they took their seats.
“It was a different hurt in the locker room this year,” said Doughty.
Mount St. Mary’s led 54-27 with less than four minutes remaining in the third quarter. In a hole that big, Doughty just hoped to see some fight from her team.
“I just wanted us to keep competing,” said Doughty. “They kept coming into the huddle saying ‘this isn’t how we go out’, ‘we’re gonna keep fighting’ and I knew they were still locked into it.”
Marist got some momentum on a 10-5 run to end the quarter but still trailed by 22. Doughty gathered her staff to talk about the final 10 minutes, and when she looked back at her team, Williamsen had already taken charge.
Though a freshman with a quiet demeanor throughout the regular season, Williamsen changed her tune in the biggest moment.
“All I knew was her teammates’ eyes were locked on her, and that was something we were looking for in a leader all year,” said Doughty. “She’s really passionate about playing for Marist, she’s really passionate about winning and being successful. I think that was her moment to show that and show her teammates that she had it in her.”
“I was cursing a little bit,” Williamsen laughed. “They all responded to it really well, which proved how each and every one of us wanted it so bad.”
Williamsen dominated the fourth quarter, scoring ten points and assisting on three 3-pointers, while the Red Foxes outscored the Mountaineers 28-9. Though she stayed optimistic throughout the comeback, Doughty finally felt it was possible once they dropped the deficit to 10.
“Now we can get a little more strategic,” she thought on the sideline. “We think about possession by possession and how many possessions we have left and being effective in those situations.”
The Red Foxes earned themselves a real chance to win it, trailing by one with 8.8 seconds on the clock. Doughty drew up a play for junior center Morgan Lee, starting with an inbound to Williamsen.
“We were trying to go to Morgan [Lee]. We have an action where the ball goes to the high post, and it was really effective,” said Doughty. “They doubled Dani as soon as she got the ball, so they kind of blew it up.”
Williamsen broke free and swung the ball to sophomore guard Julia Corsentino, who attempted to get the ball inside to Lee but had her pass deflected. She scooped up the ball and lofted a potential game-winning midranger with three seconds remaining.
The ball bounced off the rim and into the hands of a Mountaineer; Marist came up short on what would have been the third-largest comeback victory in Division I women’s basketball – and the largest in postseason play.
Having missed the final shot, Corsentino was crushed. Meanwhile, Williamsen continued the leadership she displayed on the court in the fourth quarter.
“She was really down on herself that she missed it, but I told her, ‘Julia, it was the right shot. We know at any point… you can hit that shot,’” said Williamsen.
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Williamsen wasted no time thinking about next year; later that night, she texted her trainer, Zach Leach, asking if she could work out with him the next day.
“She’s one of the players that I enjoy working out because you don’t have to beg her to get into the gym. She’s constantly begging me to get into the gym,” Leach said.
Leach had the Fairfield vs Mount St. Mary’s game on in the gym when Williamsen arrived; the game she would have been playing in had Marist completed the comeback. Williamsen wanted no part of watching; she and Leach immediately got back to work.
“I go to basketball when I’m happy, sad, angry… everything,” Williamsen said.
Leach has trained Williamsen since 2017, and she has been the same hard-working competitor since she was in middle school.
“She was just a gym rat from the start,” said Leach. “You could just see the toughness in a little girl.”
That tireless work ethic is what Doughty hopes to see from the rest of the Red Foxes..
“It’s so exciting just to walk into practice and know you’re going to be pushed to work hard,” Williamsen said. “Nobody’s gonna let you take a play off, nobody’s gonna let you walk around. Everything’s game speed, full speed. We want to make each other better.”
In the era of the transfer portal, the thought of leaving never crossed Williamsen’s mind – she’s committed to the Red Foxes for the long haul.
“I’m very, very, very, very proud to wear Marist on my chest,” Williamsen said.
That’s just the type of player Doughty is looking for when recruiting, one that wants to be in Poughkeepsie all four years and takes pride in being a Red Fox.
“I don’t just want them coming here because we’re the school that called,” Doughty said.
In her freshman year, Williamsen started in all but one game and earned a spot on the MAAC All-Rookie Team, tallying 9.4 points and three rebounds a game. Williamsen saved her best game for when it mattered most, scoring 22 points, four assists, two rebounds, two steals and a block in the MAAC Quarterfinal loss.
After being picked to finish 11th in last year’s MAAC Preseason Coaches’ Poll, the Red Foxes adopted a “prove them wrong” mantra for the 2024-25 season. That they did, finishing the regular season in fifth. Williamsen wants to see more respect next time from the coaches of the MAAC.
“I truly think we’re top one or top two. I don’t think we’re any lower than that,” she said. “I know what each and every one of us can do when we really buy in and lock in; there’s no one stopping us.”
Williamsen has lofty goals, but that is just what this program needs to return to prominence.
“If we put in the work, we’re putting ourselves in a good position to make another jump next year, and Dani’s already started on that process,” said Doughty.
As a leader on and off the court, Williamsen will be the driving factor in returning the Red Foxes to the top of the MAAC. Marist won 11 MAAC Tournaments from 2004 to 2021, including nine in a row, but have not won a postseason game since their 2021 MAAC Championship. Following a frustrating 2023-24 season in which Marist lost the most games in school history, the Red Foxes are back on track.
“Dani’s our future and who we’re building with and through as we move forward,” Doughty said. “She wants it for her upperclassmen next year, and I think that mentality and that work ethic is gonna do wonderful things.”
Edited by Aidan Lavin and Marley Pope
Graphic by Quinn DiFiore; Photos from Marist Athletics
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