The SUNY Potsdam women's basketball team opens its 2025-26 season in Jerry Welsh Gymnasium against Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute on Friday at 5:30 p.m.
Brittany Cohen enters her 10th season as head coach and associate coach
Michael Busby begins his seventh campaign. The duo has guided the Bears to double-digit victories in in three of the last four seasons. They'll miss third team All-SUNYAC forward
Jenna Cotter '25, but return seven veterans on this year's roster.
Graduate student guard
Xy'El Bradford (Syracuse, N.Y./Syracuse Academy of Science) and junior guard
Sara Richards (Au Sable Forks, N.Y./AuSable Valley) have been selected to captain Potsdam in 2025-26. Injury cut Bradford's senior season short after averaging 10.0 points-per-game and 7.0 rebounds-per-game in six contests. Richards played in all 25 games last winter.
Guard/forward
DaeLynn Alcock (Philadelphia, N.Y./Indian River) and
Paris Jones (Houston, Texas/Dulles) are the returning seniors. Alcock was fourth on the team in scoring and rebounding last season with 7.5 ppg. and 6.3 rpg. while playing in every contest with 20 starts. She led the team with 39 steals and was second in blocks (16) and third in assists (40). Richards and
Marygrace Guiney (Parishville, N.Y./Parishville-Hopkinton) make up the veteran juniors. Guiney, a guard, saw action in eight games.
Sophomores
Reese Shambo (Au Sable, N.Y./AuSable Forks) and
Rachel LaRock (Lisbon, N.Y./Lisbon) are also back. Shambo, a center, played in 13 games and grabbed 26 boards. LaRock was on the court in three contests.
The new Bears consist of a senior and a sophomore transfer along with four freshmen. Senior forward
Anais Hernandez (Brooklyn, N.Y./Urban Assembly for Law and Justice) joins the team this season and sophomore guard
Emily Smith (Greenville, N.Y./Greenville) played 10 games for North Country and SUNYAC rival Plattsburgh State in 2024-25.
Guards
Lucie Scarpine (Angola, N.Y./Lake Shore),
Olivia Cook (Cicero, N.Y./Cicero-North Syracuse) and
Lillian Hoyt (Hornell, N.Y./Hornell) along with forward/guard
Kierra Baxter (Liverpool, N.Y./Bishop Grimes) are Potsdam's Class of 2029. Scarpine was an ECIC All-Star for Lake Shore High School last season. Cook was two-time SCAC All-League and helped Cicero-North Syracuse to a Section III Championship. Hoyt was a four-year varsity member of the Hornell High School basketball team and served as team captain during her junior and senior seasons while reaching the 1000-point plateau. She was also three-time All-Livingston County, two-time Section V All-Tournament All-Star and a member of three sectional champs. Baxter was first and second team all-league at Bishop Grimes High School as well as all-tournament first team.
After opening against the Engineers, the Bears play six more nonconference contests. They host St. Lawrence University on Saturday night at 6:30 p.m. Potsdam squares off with Utica University in the first round of the Plattsburgh Holiday Inn Express Cardinal Classic on November 14 and Mount Holyoke College in the second round the following day. The Bears head across town to face Clarkson University on November 25. They battle Piedmont University in the first round of Nazareth University's Sandy DeWolf McCormack Memorial Holiday Tournament on December 13. The next day Potsdam faces either the host Golden Flyers or Westminster College (Pa.). The Bears open SUNYAC play at home against Buffalo State on December 5 and SUNY Fredonia the following afternoon.
Video of all Bears home games will be streamed live on
potsdambears.com and My Mix 96.1 FM will broadcast each home contest on the radio.
See the Bears' full schedule here.
Follow the live statistics for season opener against RPI here.
Watch the season opener against RPI here.
