Click HERE For PDF File
Click HERE For WBB Preseason Poll Release
Bridgewater, NJ -- The Northeast Conference (NEC) women’s basketball coaches engaged in their annual ritual of naming the league’s top players, and it’s of no surprise that three of the five spots were occupied by ballers hailing from the league’s unanimous preseason favorite to win it all in 2024-25.
On the brink of reaching the pinnacle of NEC women’s hoops with a pair of regular season titles and top three finishes in each of the past three years, along with a championship game appearance, FDU will call on a trio of preseason All-NEC ballers to help the Knights slay their way through the conference and hoist the NEC Tournament championship trophy for the first time in 33 years.
It is just the second time in NEC annals that the list of preseason all-stars consists of three players from the same team. FDU was the only other squad to turn the trick back in 1992-93, but in that season, the conference sported a seven-member preseason first team and a six-player preseason second team.
Each of FDU’s three all-conference preseason picks — and four of the team’s five members — have already added bling to their respective trophy cases this past March in the form of All-NEC awards.
Highlighting the list of honorees is FDU graduate forward/center
Teneisia Brown (Montego Bay, Jamaica/Mount Vernon/St. Andrew’s (Merrimack)), who capped off a stellar debut campaign in Hackensack with All-NEC first team distinction.
A breakout year earned graduate guard
Abby Conklin (Irvington, NY/Irvington) the title of 2024 NEC Most Improved Player, a 2024 All-NEC second team nod and a spot on this season’s All-NEC Preseason squad. In addition, sophomore guard
Staci Williams (Holly Springs, NC/Holly Springs) inked her name on the all-conference preseason squad after she turned in an All-Rookie team-worthy campaign for the Knights in 2023-24.
Central Connecticut graduate guard
Belle Lanpher (Princeton, MA/Wachusett Regional) is not only a repeat Preseason All-NEC pick, but she is also the only returning NEC baller to have a pair of All-NEC awards to her name with back-to-back second team selections in 2023 and 2024.
Wagner graduate guard
Taleah Washington (Forestville & Rock Creek/District Heights, MD/Old Dominion)) rounded out the 2024 All-NEC Preseason Team.
The announcement of the team, along with the unveiling of the preseason coaches’ poll results, was made on Wednesday, October 23 as part of the 2024 NEC Basketball Media Day broadcast on ESPN+.
FDU’s offense hit its stride in the tail end of the 2023-24 campaign, and there is no doubt that that increased point production was a direct result of the emerging play of Brown in the post. Her name became a synonym for double-double, as her 11 last season were second in the conference to former Le Moyne all-star Lytoya Baker. Behind torrid play in the latter half of the year that was highlighted by a dominant, career-high 30-point game in the NEC Tournament’s opening round, the 6-foot-1 Jamaican-born hooper nearly averaged a double-double in her first year in Hackensack on 12.6 points and 8.0 rebounds per night.
In the final seven games of the conference regular season slate, Brown shredded NEC opponents’ defenses apart and wreaked havoc on the boards to the tune of 16.3 points and 10.6 caroms per night, up from the 11.2 points and 8.6 rebounds she put up over the first nine games of the slate. With the then-senior serving as the centerpiece of her team’s attack down the homestretch, the Knights, who uncoincidentally went 5-2 in that span to lock up the No. 3 seed in the postseason, received a healthy 28.6 percent boost in their offense.
Conklin, the NEC’s breakout player of the year in 2023-24, staged an impressive single-season turnaround and blossomed into a full-fledged offensive threat for the Knights. The Empire State product totaled 713 minutes — an average of 11.5 per game — in her first three years as a reserve in Hackensack, but quickly made up for lost time in her senior year. Conklin was undoubtedly the most valuable player on the Knights’ roster, and that was reflected in the fact that she was on the court for all but 90 minutes in 2023-24. Just six players in the entire nation averaged more minutes than Conklin’s 37.3-per-game clip.
But Conklin’s playing time was not the only thing that went up last season. The All-NEC second teamer nearly tripled her junior season’s scoring average, going from 3.4 points per game in 2022-23 to 9.8 points per contest in 2023-24. Conklin also grabbed more boards and dropped more dimes last year than in her first three seasons at FDU combined. In addition, the 5-foot-7 three-point markswoman closed out the campaign with more makes from long range than any other NEC competitor (76), while her 2.5 conversions per night were also good for first in the conference. Conklin’s play down the stretch helped FDU score a flurry of late-season wins and the program’s fifth consecutive trip to the NEC Tournament’s semifinals.
Williams’ adjustment to the college game was an impressively quick one. After netting just two points and logging 24 minutes during her first five games as a collegian, her numbers took off exponentially as she established herself as a point-scoring machine. With those first few games out of the equation, the sharpshooting guard, who poured in double figures 15 times on the year, averaged 9.8 points and 23.8 minutes in 24 appearances.
After knocking down 3-of-4 from three-point territory in an FDU win over Wagner on February 9, there was no looking back for the 5-foot-8 wing player. Twenty-four of her 39 makes from long range during the regular season were recorded over the final eight games of the season, and what’s even more impressive than the 13.9 points and 3.0 threes per game she dropped in that stretch was the lethal 57.1 percent clip that she shot the rock at from distance. A native of Holly Springs, NC and two-time NEC Rookie of the Week honoree in 2023-24, Williams put up 11.8 points per night against league competitors to rank second among conference rookies.
Lanpher burst onto the scene as a contributor during her junior season in 2022-23, and since then, the silky-smooth shooter and tenacious on-the-ball defender has taken on an expanded role each of the two years thereafter. She boasts a high-basketball IQ and has undoubtedly been Central Connecticut’s leader on the court for the past two years. The Commonwealth State product heads into her final season in New Britain as the NEC’s active leading scorer with 1,061 points to her credit, while her 209 career assists and 113 lifetime thefts are also tops among conference returnees.
Lanpher had a key hand in Central Connecticut’s most fruitful season in six years. Helping the Blue Devils to seven conference victories, including the team’s best postseason ranking in nearly a decade, Lanpher has made starts in 44 of her last 46 games donning the Blue and White, including all 30 contests last season. The 5-foot-5 guard netted double figures on 20 occasions — including three 20-plus-point performances — and her 12.6 points per game tied her for seventh on the NEC leaderboard. Lanpher ranked seventh on the list of conference leaders in both assists per game (2.8) and steals per contest (1.6).
Arriving on Grymes Hill by way of Old Dominion and Syracuse, Washington was quick to adjust to a new system and style of play and as a graduate student, she stepped up and became a key go-to player and facilitator for a Wagner squad that had its fair share of injuries last year. The 5-foot-7 do-it-all guard displayed her ability to take the ball to the rim, did damage on the boards and was her team’s top playmaker as shown by her of 9.2 points, 4.3 boards and 3.8 assists per contest. Washington’s competitive drive and ‘defense-first’ mindset made her a perfect fit for head coach Terrell Coburn’s in-your-face style of play in her debut season donning the Green and White, and the sky is the limit for her final season in a Seahawks’ uniform.
Once Washington heated up in a game, especially from behind the arc, there was no stopping her. She delivered three-or-more triples on six occasions, including an efficient 5-of-6 performance that saw her finish with a season-high 29 points against LIU on January 8. Even when the shots weren’t falling, Washington helped the Seahawks put points on the board with her knack of finding the open player and distributing the ball on the drive. Nine times last season, she dropped five-or-more dimes, including a nine-spot at LIU on Feb. 24 and a pair of seven-assist efforts. She was even more impressive once NEC play hit, upping her assist average to 4.1 per contest. For the season, she ranked second in the NEC in assists per game.
2024-25 Northeast Conference Preseason All-Conference Team
Name School Pos. Ht. Cl. Hometown/High School