Editor's Note: The Marist Athletics Department is continuing to highlight its Senior Awards finalists. From April 20-May 15, a feature story will be presented on each finalist for Sportsperson of the Year.
Sportsperson Finalists: Megan Fergus (Volleyball) | Sydney Ford (Women's Rowing) | Alana Gilmer (Women's Basketball) | Denise Grohn (Women's Cross Country/Track)
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Previous finalists:Â Female Strength & Conditioning (April 14)Â |Â Male Strength & Conditioning (April 15)Â |Â Female Pizzani (April 16)Â |Â Male Pizzani (April 17)
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POUGHKEEPSIE, New York – Rebekah Hand emerged from the locker room following Marist's 82-57 victory over Niagara on February 1. She was summoned to the postgame press conference after dropping 16 points and 12 rebounds on 50 percent shooting on the Purple Eagles.
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Hand walked down the basketball corridor decorated with the achievements of Marist Women's Basketball teams past, with legends such as Rachele Fitz, Ursula Winter, and other titans of the Red Foxes. In that same hall, the Junior Hoop Club Pizza Party was set up, with dozens of kids sitting at tables with Hand's teammates, ready to attack the pizza slices the same way the Foxes attacked the paint against the Purple Eagles earlier in the night.
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As Hand navigated through the crowd, a young girl, having already recognized the shooting guard from Argyle, Texas, approached the senior and asked if she would sit with her during the party. Hand stooped down to the same level as her fan, and promised that after she took care of something (being the press conference), she would find her and sit with her.
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And so, after her media obligations passed, even with the clock rolling well past nine o'clock on a Saturday night, even with the next game coming in less than 72 hours on the road, even with assignments surely due the following Monday, Hand fulfilled her pizza party promise to her supporter.
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Moments like this have combined with her on-court accolades to create a lasting impression of
Rebekah Hand, named a 2020 Female Sportsperson of the Year finalist, on the Red Fox community.
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Hand's decorated career has impacted all three levels of college basketball: her program, her conference, and the NCAA.
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A quick search in the Marist record book reveals her name 15 times. Across 126 career games, all of which were starts, she sits…
- Second in scoring with 1,994 points
- Second in field goals with 681
- Second in three-pointers with 247
- Second in free throw percentage at .887
- Fourth in free throws made with 385
- Fourth in scoring average with 15.8 points per game
- Fifth in rebounds with 768
- Fifth in three-point percentage at .352
- Seventh in assists with 358
Head Coach
Brian Giorgis held Rebekah and her twin sister, Hannah, in high regard from the moment they stepped onto the Marist campus ahead of the 2016-17 campaign. Joining a team seeking an influx of talent, Rebekah quickly answered the call to be a feature player and averaged 13.7 points per game. The award avalanche began early, as she was named MAAC, ECAC, and MBWA Rookie of the Year.
Even as she received on-court help in transfers and eventual forever friends
Alana Gilmer and
Grace Vander Weide, Hand became the face of the program as a sophomore, boosting her scoring average to 16.1 points per game and her field goal percentage 88 points. During the season, she drained 52 straight free throws, a feat that occurred less than 10 times in NCAA history. She All-MAAC and All-Met First Team honors while taking the Foxes to the MAAC Championship game.
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The 2018-19 campaign brought about Hand's usual achievements: more All-MAAC and All-Met First Team picks, and another case of leading the team in points and minutes per game. However, she also posted some of her finest achievements in her junior season. She was the 25
th player in the Marist annals to reach the 1,000-point plateau thanks to her first bucket against Stetson in the Challenge in Music City. This time, she hit 62 foul shots in a row, the fourth-longest streak ever, and became the first Division I player to have multiple streaks of 50-plus made free throws. Her .941 free throw percentage eclipsed her .940 mark from a season ago, and stood at 13
th on the NCAA single-season list. She is the only player in the NCAA record books with a 94 percent effort from the charity stripe in multiple seasons.
Freshman year set precedence. Sophomore year established consistency. Junior year showcased reliability. And yet, despite having compiled a career-worth of highlights in three years, No. 23 shifted her game into another gear in her last dance. She set career-highs with 18 points per game, 103 assists (as a shooting guard), a .522 field goal percentage, and a .407 three-point percentage. She ascended the all-time scoring list, moving into second place on December 15, 2019 against Green Bay (on free throws, no less). Entering the top 10 in baskets made, rebounds, and assists (again, as a shooting guard…), she joined Corielle Yarde as the only Red Foxes to rank top 10 in those three categories as well as points. While doing so, she entered the top 10 in MAAC history in scoring. All of this came as she helped guide Marist to a
No. 5 national ranking among mid-majors, a 26-4 record, and a share of the program's 12
th MAAC regular season title. Unsurprisingly, it led to a unanimous All-MAAC First Team pick, her third All-Met First Team selection, and a spot on the All-ECAC Second Team.
Perhaps the biggest individual accomplishment in her storied tenure, however, came after her homecoming game on December 19, 2019 at UT Arlington, approximately 40 minutes south of her hometown Argyle, Texas. Giorgis, a 10-time MAAC champion who has coached 54 All-MAAC honorees, labeled her as the best motion player off the ball he's ever had.
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"Rebekah is arguably one of the Top 3 players in Marist Women's Basketball History, and one of the best to ever play in the MAAC," commended Giorgis. "Known for her perimeter shooting, she may be the only player in Marist history to be in the record books at the Marist, MAAC, and NCAA levels."
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This piece is a good opportunity to display Hand's career milestones and accolades, because Hand was never one to boast about her own achievements.
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For every postgame press conference she attended after another strong performance, for every interview with Center Field, the Poughkeepsie Journal, or another news outlet, and for every video session with the Red Fox Network, each person would ask about what it means for her to attain the success she's had.
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The phrases varied from interview to interview, yet her every answer revolved around the same three concepts.
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"I honestly can't take a lot of credit for my scoring, per se," claimed Hand
in an interview with Center Field after becoming then the third player in program history to reach 1,500 career points. "I think it's more of my teammates finding me… It's such an honor just from the standpoint of how thankful I am to be surrounded by the teammates I have and the coaches."
Hand was never one to have kept track of her personal milestones while she played, and if she was, it was a secret to the general public. She admitted after what
undeservingly and unceremoniously turned out to be her final game as a Red Fox that she was not aware she fell six points shy of becoming the second player ever to hit 2,000 career points in a Marist uniform.
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To Hand, while she welcomes the accolades and being mentioned in the same breath as a Rachele Fitz, Corielle Yarde, or Erica Allenspach, she cared more about the gratitude for having the opportunity itself to play for Marist. She cared more about the lifelong relationships she developed with her second family of teammates and coaches. Those will be what she remembers most.
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"What I wanted to do here was obviously focus on basketball and work hard, but I realized that it is bigger than basketball, and I was really blessed to, statistically speaking, climb those (charts)," said Hand prior to her Senior Night on March 7. "But I really think… I mainly cared about my teammates and the relationships I was making with them. They're the ones who lifted me up so that I could do that. I don't think anyone can leave a legacy without being impacted themselves."
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That selflessness permeated beyond the team, however. It impacted the thousands of fans that walked into McCann Arena from 2016-2020 to watch her bury a big three-pointer from the corner or hit free throw after free throw. It impacted the dozens of kids that would line up from the sideline to the restricted arc to get her signature on Autograph Night. It impacted her young fan sitting beside her at the Junior Hoop Club Pizza Party.
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As much as the record books solidify her legacy on the court, her altruistic personality will make her most memorable to the Red Fox family.
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"Despite all of her accolades and accomplishments, I have been most impressed with her humility, work ethic and character," proclaimed Giorgis. "She is an affable, charming and wonderful teammate. She is truly one of Marist's all-time greats - both on and off the court."
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