By Gordon Mann
D3hoops.com

Denison concluded a season full of first evers and best evers in the best way possible, as the Big Red defeated Scranton, 55-41, and captured their first ever NCAA Division III women’s basketball championship.

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The victory caps a remarkable three-game stretch in which Denison defeated the teams ranked second, third, and fourth in the final Top 25 poll entering the Tournament, with two of those teams undefeated until they played the Big Red. It also completes a season-long ascent for a program that received no Top 25 votes in the preseason poll and ended in a national championship, something that no other program has accomplished.

Saturday’s championship game got off to a slow start as the teams went 9-for-39 from the field in the first quarter. Even with those struggles, the Big Red set the tone on both ends of the court, outscoring Scranton 10-0 in the paint and frustrating the Lady Royals on offense. Denison sophomore center Anelly Mad-toingué, who stands 6-foot-3 and plays much taller than that, repeatedly frustrated Scranton with her length and shot-altering prowess, whether she was swatting away shots or making Scranton reluctant to attempt them.

Entering the second period ahead 11-10, Denison’s offense went cold, and the Big Red missed several contested shots around the rim. Denison’s offense came from two 3-pointers, one from Abby Cooch at the start of the period and the other from Violett Mitchell at the end, and the Big Red managed just eight points. That was markedly better than Scranton, which went 0 for 17 from the field with eight missed threes, and only managed one free throw in the second quarter. Denison led 19-11 at the half with neither team executing their offense as planned.

The Lady Royals' offense got on track early in the second half, and they ripped off a quick 9-0 run. Scranton All-American Kaci Kranson scored her first field goal of the game off an offensive rebound, chasing Denison with its lead down to one point at 21-20. The Big Red went nearly five minutes without a basket, but their defense stalled Scranton’s run, and they maintained a one-possession lead much of the third period. Scranton guard Meghan Lamanna nailed a three at the end of third, giving the Lady Royals some momentum and a 34-33 lead entering the final quarter.

Early in the fourth quarter, Scranton expanded its lead to three on Elizabeth Bennett’s left-wing three, but that was the Lady Royals’ last field goal for six minutes, and the final period played out like a rerun of the second for Scranton. Meanwhile, Denison's offense got into a groove. Cooch nailed a three-pointer from the corner near her bench and then hit another on the Big Red’s next possession, knotting the score at 36. All-American Ada Taute followed that with a set-shot three that gave Denison the lead, and then Mad-toingué scored off a beautiful up-and-under move, pushing the lead to 44-39.

A zip pass from Adelyn Moore to Cooch resulted in another two points, Taute had a swipe-and-score under Scranton’s basket for two more, and Mad-toingué scored again to give Denison an 11-point lead. Two minutes later, with Denison holding a 50-41 advantage, the Big Red drained the shot clock to its final seconds, and then found Cooch for a deep three that secured the win and the title for Denison.

“I thought I was going to air ball [the shot],” Cooch said of that shot afterward. “It felt really odd but, once I saw it go through the net, it was like, ‘Man, this is surreal to be in this moment.’”

Cooch finished with 18 points, 11 of them in the final period, and nine rebounds in a very full 40 minutes, garnering her Tournament Most Outstanding Player honors.

Taute posted a double-double (15 points, 10 rebounds) and joined her on the All-Tournament team. Mad-toingué finished with eight points, 16 rebounds, and countless shots altered. Playing in front of former Denison All-American Jordan Holmes who holds the Division III’s career record for blocks, Mad-toingué showed that the next elite shot blocker also puts the Big in Big Red. Her stellar defense and Denison’s 30-10 advantage on points in the paint loomed large over the game and the postgame press conference.

“We’ve dominated the paint all season long. I don’t know that we’ve ever lost points in the paint in any of our previous 32 games,” observed Scranton head coach Ben O’Brien.

“That’s a credit to Denison. They were tough in there, they were physical…What was presented to us throughout the game was some three-point opportunities for some very, very good three-point shooters on our team while, at the same time you have 6-foot-3 [Mad-toingué] in the middle, making it hard to get shots around the basket.”

The victory completes a dream run for Denison that started with the Big Red receiving no votes in the preseason Top 25 and sitting second behind DePauw in the conference preseason poll. The Big Red cracked the Top 25 in early December, peaked at No. 6 entering the conference playoffs, and then took a small step back to No. 8 after losing to DePauw at home in the NCAC semifinals.

While Denison had success prior to this season under former long-time head coach Sarah Lee, this was a season of “firsts," "highests," and “bests” including best start to a season (17-0), highest national ranking (besting their previous peak of No. 10 in 2011’s final poll), and first national semifinal appearance.

The Tournament was especially unfamiliar territory. None of the Denison players had played in the NCAA Tournament prior to this season, and last season ended with a home-loss to Hiram in the NCAC quarterfinals. The 2024-25 campaign was marred by injuries to Mad-toingué and Taute but that gave other players the opportunity to gain experience and confidence that made this year’s Big Red squad “18 strong.”

When asked to explain Denison’s ascent to the title, head coach Maureen Hirt did not hesitate in identifying the key ingredient.

“I think it’s the people that you build it with. All these players, we talked about it as a vision, and we just got the right people. Really talented basketball players that want a high academic experience, that wanted to be part of a culture where they are each other’s best friends.”

Those friends will be together for a while. Taute and Cooch have at least one more season left, and Mad-toingué has at least two. First-year guard Molly Dorighi, whose defense on All-American Ava Ryncarz helped Denison defeat John Carroll in the sectional semifinals, is even younger, and surely a national championship will not hurt Hirt on the recruiting trail.

And while Hirt is quick to deflect credit to her staff and her players, she is a cornerstone for Division III’s newest basketball powerhouse. An all-conference player who graduated from NCAC rival Kenyon with a degree in economics and psychology, Hirt tried to get away from basketball after graduating, when she took a full-time job in business near Cincinnati. But she couldn’t give it up completely and coached 8th-grade boys on the side, getting “paid in vanilla milkshakes" as she trained promising young hoopers.

In 2019, fellow Kenyon alumna Stephanie Dunmyer took the head coaching job at Oberlin and Hirt landed an assistant spot on her staff. She fell in love with college coaching and then moved to Denison, getting the job offer from Nan Carney-Debord who led Ohio Wesleyan to the 2001 national semifinals.

Just a few years later, Hirt is a national champion who is training the next wave of coaches. Junior guard Violett Mitchell talked about her desire to coach after college following Thursday’s semifinal win, and Hirt describes the Big Red as a “player led team,” where the coaches do not have to say much in practice because the team is self-directed.

That said, Hirt’s mark is clear. The team carries itself with the poise, grace and confidence that comes from having a head coach who has lived out those values.

That translates to the perseverance and resilience that helped the Big Red absorb a big run by Washington and Lee in front of a hostile crowd in the sectional semifinals, where Denison lost its lead early in the fourth quarter before recovering and closing out its victory. And then Denison did it again against Scranton in the championship game. Denison doesn’t panic. They keep their cool, go back to what worked, and it works again.

“We take a lot of pride in staying disciplined and staying poised, and making sure to stay level-headed,” explained Taute. “When things get crazy, we come together as a team. No one does this alone.”

When Denison comes together as a team next fall, they will not be underdogs in search of their first-ever this or best-ever that. The Big Red will be the big dogs, champions of Division III basketball, and a role model for dozens of other programs hoping to follow in their footsteps.

Denison Big Red, 2026 NCAA Division III women's basketball national champions. Photo by Brian Bishop, d3photography.com