Rhode Island women win A-10 tournament, up next is March Madness

HENRICO, Va. – Tammi Reiss has cut down nets to celebrate conference tournament titles twice as a player and once as an assistant coach. On Sunday, March 8, doing it as the women’s basketball coach at the University of Rhode Island was different.

After the top-seeded Rams (28-4) downed No. 2 George Mason 53-51 in the Atlantic 10 Women’s Championship at the Henrico Sports and Events Center for their first conference tournament title, she was emotional.

“All I wanted was for these student-athletes to feel what it felt like for confetti to come down,” she said. “I couldn’t be any happier for our student-athletes, for our university.”

The Rams earned just their second NCAA tournament bid in program history. Their first was in 1996, when they lost to Oklahoma State 90-82. The Rams will learn this year’s NCAA tournament opponent on Sunday, March 15, during the NCAA Selection Show.

In addition to it being the 30^th anniversary of the Rams’ lone NCAA appearance, the Atlantic 10 is celebrating its 50th year. If that weren’t enough, URI’s NCAA appearance will be the first for a Division I women’s program from the state since 1996. Brown’s lone trip was in 1994, and Providence last made it in 1992.

The 1996 Rams team went as an at-large bid, not a conference champion, and was a No. 10 seed. Reiss made sure her players knew how special their accomplishment was.

“You’ve done something that in 50 years no one else has ever done,” she told her players. “The first one feels so good. This one is special because it’s never been done at our school. You can only be the first once.”

As with the first four days and 12 games of the tournament, the higher seed won. The last time that happened was 2001.

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All-tournament selections Brooklyn Gray and Albina Syla (also the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player), led the way. Gray finished with 16 points, and Syla had nine points and 10 rebounds. Sophia Vital, who also made the all-tournament team, had just four points but seven rebounds, two assists, two steals and a key bucket down the stretch.

Zahirah Walton (10 points and five rebounds) and Kennedy Harris (15 points) made the all-tournament for the Patriots. Mary Amoateng added 13 points and six rebounds.

It wasn’t easy for the Rams. For the third consecutive day, the difference was a strong second half. They fell behind 15-7 after the first quarter, thanks in part to five turnovers.

“I knew this game was going to be a knockout, drag-out war,” Reiss said.

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After giving up the first basket of the second quarter, URI went on a 17-7 run and trailed by just one at the half.

Adjustments were made at the break.

“I feel like we just found a way to execute against their zone,” Gray said.

Syla put the Rams ahead for good on a basket from the paint 32 seconds into the third quarter. The lead stretched to six at the 4:07 mark on a 3-pointer by Gray.

“I’ve never been prouder of a group coming out of halftime,” Reiss said. “We had to remind them who you are and what you do.”

In the fourth quarter, the lead was between three and six until Vital’s key basket, a driving left-handed layup, put URI up 46-39 with 1:06 left. The Patriots got within three with 15 seconds left, but Gray added two more free throws, making a 3-pointer at the buzzer by Amoateng academic.

A lot was going through Gray’s mind as that final horn sounded.

“To come out on top when we weren’t even picked to win the tournament. Finding a way to come out on top every single time was an amazing experience,” she said. “That’s what went through my mind. The whole journey.”

It was the second time in three years the Rams were in the title game, losing to Richmond in 2024. The Patriots (23-9) were looking to become the first team since George Washington in 2015 and 2016 to win back-to-back titles.

After the win, Reiss high-fived the cheerleaders, posed with the Rams mascot and celebrated with the URI fans, who were vocal and active during the game. As Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance with Somebody” blared over the loudspeakers, Reiss climbed up to the fifth rung on the ladder to cut down a piece of the net. But this time was different.

“The first one as a player is really, really special. It just is from a standpoint of it kind of caps off your journey and your hard work As a coach, it’s different,” she said. “I’m very happy for our school. Not so much for myself, but for them. I’m so ecstatic for them that they cut down the nets.”

At the end of her press conference, Reiss again mentioned the loss to Richmond two years ago as a catalyst for this victory.

“That loss, sometimes you have to have hard times,” she said. “Not everything is going to be unicorns and rainbows,” she said.

But today they are.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Rhode Island women win A-10 tournament, up next is March Madness

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