Regis Rewind: Record-Setting Winning Streak
WESTON, Mass. – When the Regis College women's basketball team lost a conference game to Endicott College, 64-61, Feb. 5, 2011, no one could have imagined that the Pride would not lose another regular season league contest for almost seven full years.
In the end, Regis won 118 consecutive regular season conference games, spanning eight seasons and three different leagues: The Commonwealth Coast Conference (TCCC), the New England Collegiate Conference (NECC), and the Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC). The Pride played in back-to-back ECAC Tournaments in 2011 and 2012 before qualifying for five straight NCAA Tournaments from 2013 through 2017.
During the streak, Regis averaged 75.1 points per game while allowing just 45.4 points per contest. The Pride collected 19 all-conference awards in that span, including Amanda Hawkesworth receiving NECC Player of the Year honors in 2015-16 as well as Brittany Stone earning NECC Rookie of the Year recognition in 2014-15 and the NECC Player of the Year award in 2016-17. Julie Plant and Angela Santa Fe combined for four straight NECC Coach of the Year awards from 2013 through 2016.
In 2010-11, Regis won its final four regular season TCCC games to finish fifth in the league standings, and then the Pride avenged their earlier loss to the Gulls in the conference tournament quarterfinals before losing to Salve Regina in the semifinals.
The Regis athletic program joined the NECC starting in the 2011-12 academic year, and the women's basketball team immediately took control, starting with a 41-point victory over Becker Dec. 6, 2011. After winning all 18 regular season NECC contests by double digits, the Pride were upset by Daniel Webster in the NECC Tournament semifinals.
The following season, Elms became the first NECC opponent to lose to Regis by less than 10 points, but the Pride, led by Plant, still extended their regular season league winning streak to 40 games. This time, there would be no upset in the conference tournament, as Regis cruised past Daniel Webster and Elms for the NECC Tournament title and its first appearance in the NCAA Tournament since 1996.
Elms again came close to snapping the streak, losing by only six on Jan. 9, 2014, in a game that featured eight ties and 16 lead changes. However, Regis, under new head coach Santa Fe, once again swept through the NECC regular season to extend the streak to 58 games, followed by victories over Becker and Elms in the conference tournament. In 2014-15, the winning stretch grew to 76 games as the Pride once again took both the regular season and tournament titles.
The 2015-16 campaign featured several highlights, starting with the greatest threat to the streak Dec. 3, 2015, as Wheelock held a one-point lead before Hawkesworth made two free throws with four seconds remaining in regulation to give the Pride a 55-54 victory. On Jan. 16, 2016, Regis again needed to hold on down the stretch, preventing Elms from making a field goal in the final four minutes of regulation to defeat the Blazers, 49-47.
On Feb. 10, 2016, the team defeated Becker, 87-42, for its 93rd consecutive regular season conference win, breaking the NCAA Division III record for most consecutive regular season league victories of 92 previously held by Maryville. Six days later, Stone set the single-game scoring record with 37 points (14-16 FG, 9-10 FT) against Lesley. As a team, the Pride set the single-game scoring record with 122 points, plus individual single-game records were set in assists (Brandi Bonneau – 15) and made three-pointers (Chayla Louro – eight).
In Regis' final season in the NECC, the Pride won every regular season and tournament game against conference opponents by double digits, bringing a 112-game regular season conference winning streak into the GNAC. Regis opened the 2017-18 GNAC slate with six straight wins, highlighted by a 58-54 victory at Norwich Jan. 11, 2018, that featured seven ties and six lead changes.
Regis finally saw its record-setting streak snapped in Providence, R.I., by Johnson & Wales Jan. 18, 2018, as the Wildcats defeated the Pride, 77-68. The team finished fourth in the GNAC standings with a 12-4 record in 2017-18, but lost to Albertus Magnus in the GNAC Tournament quarterfinals.
The Regis College women's basketball team will probably hold this record for quite a while, as the longest current regular season conference winning streak as of the end of the 2019-20 season is 32 games, held by SUNY Poly of the Northeastern Athletic Conference (NEAC). DePauw of the North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) is next with a 28-game regular season league winning streak.