Saint Vincent basketball teams return veteran squads with championship aspirations

The Saint Vincent men’s and women’s basketball teams return veteran rosters and have high aspirations for the 2025-26 season, which opens Friday for the women and Saturday for the men.

The women’s team now is under the direction of Kam Gissendanner, the former Clairton and Penn State standout who coached La Roche to eight Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference titles.

A closer look at each team:

• D.P. Harris begins the third season of his second stint at SVC with, essentially, the same roster as last season. The 2024-25 team went 20-6 overall and 16-4 in the Presidents’ Athletic Conference.

But the Bearcats were upset in the semifinals — their first game — of the PAC tournament. Harris said that loss is fueling his experienced group.

“When you play at Saint Vincent, there’s some entitlement because we put so much into it,” Harris said. “It’s a tradition here. We’ve had a long history of winning here. … But winning here is winning championships.”

Harris will challenge his team with a difficult nonconference schedule that includes John Carroll, Tufts and Carnegie Mellon. Ultimately, he said, his Bearcats might win fewer games than last year but, he believes, will be better for it.

Offense won’t be a problem. Barring injuries, SVC will have three 1,000-point scorers: Jaden Gales, the PAC Player of the Year two years ago, is already over 1,000; Dev Ostrowski, whom Harris calls “one of the best players in the league,” needs 147 points to reach 1,000; and Mike Iuzzolino needs just 56 points.

Defense is where Harris wants to see the biggest improvement. He said some of his players who have been strong offensively need to sink more energy into defense.

Harris said the team’s depth — he said he has “11 starters” — will allow him to do that while also keeping his lineup fresh.

“We’re going to play five guys in, five guys out,” he said. “We’ll platoon guys in and out, but we’re going to play 90 feet for 40 minutes. I thought last year … we were on tired legs in February. We lost our championship in December and January last year overplaying guys.”

Yough grad Terek Crosby likely will crack the starting lineup, and newcomer Colin Masten, a Franklin Regional grad who spent last season at Westmoreland County Community College, adds depth along with freshman Brady O’Rourke from Greensburg Central Catholic.

• Gissendanner hit the ground running at Saint Vincent, feeling comfortable in her new surroundings right away.

“I think anytime people are welcoming you with open arms and saying, ‘Whatever you need,’ on a daily, weekly basis, it’s really hard to fail when you have a lot of support,” she said.

She inherits most of the same players who went 13-13 overall and 12-8 in the PAC last season. The Bearcats lost their PAC playoff opener.

Gissendanner said she expects her team to contend right a way, regardless of what happened last season or any perceived adjustment period for her and her staff.

“I just told them from Day 1, we’re not waiting,” she said. “This is not a rebuilding year. This is more like reload. We have everything we need right now within this team to win a championship.”

That includes the return of top two scorers Makenna Maier (10.8 ppg) and Camdon Bashor (10.0) along with Reese Gadsby (8.3), Jillian Mannarino (5.7), Danielle Pontius (5.5, plus 56 assists) and Brooke Evans (4.5, plus 70 assists, 40 steals).

Gissendanner also is excited about freshman Carmella McDole, a Mars grad.

“I like how they are all bought in,” Gissendanner said. “There’s not one person that gives any resistance about any of the changes, any of the different philosophies.

“They want to be here. They want to win. They want to hold onto every single word of advice I give them.”