Bethany Tighe Finds Her Niche on the Stonehill Women's Basketball Team

By Jim Fenton, Brockton Enterprise

March 12, 2008

Easton, Mass. - The junior forward from Easton is on her way to NCAA Div. 2 basketball tournament.

She lives about a mile from Stonehill College, but Bethany Tighe made few visits to the campus to watch the women's basketball team play.

"I came to a couple of games, but not too many," said Tighe. "I was always watching my brother (Chris, at Suffolk University) and my sister (Kristin, at Oliver Ames High) play."

It wasn't until she made a recruiting visit to Stonehill while a student at OA that Tighe got a real up-close visit of the campus and the basketball program.

"After my overnight visit, I just fell in love with the team, the campus, the whole package," said Tighe. "I always overlooked Stonehill because it was the college in my town."

Nearly three years into her stay at Stonehill, Tighe is glad that she didn't venture too far from home to find a college.

The junior forward, a health care administration major, has settled in as a key player for the eighth-ranked Skyhawks, who open the NCAA Div. 2 tournament Friday afternoon in Philadelphia.

The former 1,000-point scorer at Oliver Ames is second on the team to Kelsey Simonds of Middleboro in scoring (10.5) and rebounds (7.4) heading into a Northeast Regional matchup with Bryant University.

Tighe, a three-time Enterprise All-Scholastic, is putting together the best season of her career on a team that is 26-4 after winning the Northeast-10 Conference regular-season and tournament titles.

She playing sparingly as a freshman, averaging 2.4 points and 1.7 rebounds, then contributed 6.7 points and 5.3 rebounds as a sophomore.

With four seniors exiting the starting lineup following last season, Tighe knew her assignments would increase this winter.

"I definitely worked a lot harder over the summer," she said. "I kind of knew what role I'd be filling this year, that I had to be ready to play.

"I came in (as a freshman) and I expected not to play that much. Coming in as a freshman I knew I had to work every minute. I did all right, but it was definitely an adjustment period.

"Freshman year is tough for everybody and then you become more comfortable with the team, more comfortable with the coaching staff, and sophomore year, it's completely different."

Tighe does a little bit of everything for the Skyhawks, whether it be hitting clutch shots, grabbing rebounds at both ends or playing tight defense.

"She has been phenomenal," said Coach Trisha Brown. "We were pretty disappointed she didn't make one of the all-league teams. Unfortunately, what she does on the court doesn't show up in the stat column. But she does whatever it takes to get us wins.

"If you notice in our games, when we make runs or big stops, Bethany Tighe is always a part of that. She just outworks people. She's an undersized post player who just works harder than everybody on that court."

The all-around game played by Tighe does not go unnoticed by her teammates, who know they can count on the 5-foot-10 player to come through in a variety of ways.

"She does all the little things that don't always show up on the scoreboard or at the end of the games," said Simonds. "She takes charges almost every game, gets offensive rebounds that spark our team. I just love playing with Bethany."

Tighe will be front and center when the Skyhawks bid for the Northeast Regional title at Holy Family University.

With 80 games on her portfolio, Tighe has plenty of experience, and now she's one of the leaders for Stonehill.

"She's come a long way," said Brown. "We knew that, fundamentally, she's always been a very strong player, but the difference was in how she came in ready to play this year as far as conditioning.

"She was really fit, and that's helped her game quite a bit. The work she did in the offseason definitely helped her game right now where she is still playing very strong."

The change from being the top scorer at Oliver Ames to being a role player counted on to produce in different areas is a transition Tighe gladly made.

"I was kind of the go-to player in high school, but I'm definitely comfortable with my position now," she said. "I love going after the boards, taking a charge. I'm not really concerned with having too many points. We have a lot of people who can fill that role.

"I'm more aggressive in college. I think I was kind of tentative in high school. I feel like I'm more of an all-around player now."

Everything is happening not far from Tighe's home, right down the street from the Stonehill campus, a place she is happy to have discovered.

"I think it was really good for me," said Tighe. "I'm able to go home when I want and stay away from home when I want. It's the best of both worlds."