Following an offseason of change, the women’s basketball team took the floor for the first time in its 2026-27 campaign, demolishing Franklin 114-26.
The Maria Marchesano era officially commenced when junior guard Tamar Singer won the opening tip-off and instantly found senior guard Nevaeh Jackson, who buried a three-pointer. Butler scored the opening nine points of the game, and it was off to the races for the Dawgs as they increased their lead to as much as 48 by the end of the first half.
The story of the first half was on the defensive end, as the Bulldogs held the Grizzlies to just seven points — including only one field goal — while forcing 19 turnovers and 11 steals. Overall, Butler forced 39 turnovers for the contest while also outrebounding Franklin 56-24.
Marchesano had high praise for the defensive aggression early in the game and attributes the aggression to the deflection tracking the team has done in practice.
“I think right off the bat, [we were] trying to get our deflection goal,” Marchesano said. “A lot of those deflections turned into steals for the game and got us out and running.”
One of the marquee transfers for the team in the offseason was Singer. A member of last year’s All-MAC Defensive Team picked up where she left off, forcing six steals and dishing out a team-high nine assists.
Marchesano specifically highlighted Singer’s effort on both ends of the floor as a positive as the Dawgs transition to live game play.
“You can’t look past Tamar,” Marchesano said. “She’s a menace. She’s adding steals, assists [and] getting rebounds; she just wears other teams’ point guards down. I think Tamar is the leader of our defense every game, and tonight was no different.”
Butler came out of the locker room aggressive on both ends of the floor, starting the half on a 17-0 run with eight points coming off turnovers. By the end of the third quarter, the Dawgs increased their lead to 68 points — buoyed by five points apiece from twins redshirt junior guard Saniya and Nevaeh Jackson, along with five from first-year guard Lexi Baer.
Marchesano was especially pleased with how simple the offense looked throughout the contest.
“Franklin’s the type of team that wants to press and try [to] turn you over,” Marchesano said. “With our height and athleticism, it was easy for us to get those easy kick-ahead layups [and] wide open threes. We didn’t really have to run a lot of offense. I like that we just kept it simple.”
Senior forward Taya Ellis scored the layup that broke the century mark, and two three-pointers from sophomore guard Karina Bystry and graduate guard Jacy Weisbrod increased the Dawgs’ lead to 85. Both teams traded buckets the remainder of the contest as the Bulldogs cruised to an 88-point victory.
Every Bulldog scored in the contest, with Nevaeh leading the way with 17 points. First-year guard Laniah Wills led all Bulldogs with 10 rebounds — including six defensive rebounds.
The Bulldogs will look to build off of tonight’s strong performance when they host Tennessee Tech at their regular season opener on Nov. 2.