GLEN ALLEN, Va. — As “We are the Champions” played in the Henrico Sports & Events Center, Rhode Island senior guard Ines Debroise and senior forward Palmire Mbu lay down in the sea of confetti, making snow angels in their Atlantic 10 Tournament champions gear.
On Sunday, Rhode Island defeated George Mason 53-51 to win its first A-10 tournament championship and advance to its second NCAA Tournament and first in 30 years. The team heads to March Madness with a 28-4 record, as the winningest in program history, surpassing the 2022-23 team by two, and it will finish the season with the fewest losses in program history.
Three Rams made the All-Tournament team: junior guard Sophia Vital, senior guard Brooklyn Gray and the tournament’s most outstanding player, sophomore center Albina Syla. Syla averaged 14.7 points and 10.0 rebounds per game and added five total assists and five total blocks over three games.
George Mason junior guard Kennedy Harris and redshirt junior forward Zahirah Walton were also named to the All-Tournament team.
When Gray’s name was announced as part of the All-Tournament team, she hyped up the crowd, not realizing she had to go up to receive her trophy. She led all scorers with 16 points, including making all eight of her shots from the free throw line. When the final buzzer sounded, Gray couldn’t believe what was happening. As cheers filled the arena, visions of the entire season flashed through her mind.
After Syla’s name was announced a second time, she wasn’t sure what to do with her All-Tournament trophy as she went up to receive her MOP trophy. She eventually handed it off to the nearest person before going over to again take her photo with the conference staff members. She later balanced both trophies in one hand to receive a small black box to hold the ring she’ll eventually get.
At some point, Syla put both her trophies on the ground just outside the 3-point line, with her MOP trophy in the back and her championship hat on top.
When head coach Tammi Reiss’ name was called to receive her ring box, she high-fived some of the team’s practice players before pausing to give heart hands to the fans. The crowd chanted “Tammi” as she went to high-five each of her players and Reiss was soon the first one to lift the trophy.
Debroise is the only player on the roster who was on the 2022-23 regular-season co-championship team. Reiss said on Sunday that it had been imperative to retain Debroise after the 2024-25 season for many reasons, including her knowledge of the culture and her leadership.
Before the end of the regular season, Debroise told The IX Basketball she wanted to win the regular-season title, win the A-10 Tournament and secure a spot in March Madness. She said that if they were successful as a team, all of her individual goals would be achieved.
“She’s just a great leader, and she just grew into this role so much for four years,” Mbu told reporters on Sunday. “And I mean, the two years that I played with her, it’s been great to see her grow as a player and as a woman. … I’m just very happy for her, like she gets to go to March Madness after four years of doing great with our program.”
Debroise recorded 6 points, two rebounds and two assists in the championship game. She picked up her only foul and turnover 42 seconds into the game and she hit two free throws to put Rhode Island up 50-43 with 34 seconds left in the fourth quarter.
In Gray’s one season at Rhode Island, she has seen that Debroise is someone who is hardworking and will accomplish anything she sets her mind to.
“She’s our core,” Gray told reporters Sunday. “… She is a very, very, very big reason as to why we won this game today.”
Before the awards were passed out and the net cut, Syla went over to the Rhode Island fans with her championship hat and shirt as well as a towel in hand and celebrated with them. In return, she got cheers, applause and at least one set of heart hands. As the arena filled in before the game, it was predominantly green and gold, but the Rhode Island contingent was loud and proud and had fatheads of the players at the ready. When the team came out after warmups, the section behind the bench stood, clapped and cheered.
Gray believes the fans provide care, support and a genuine love that’s not always found in women’s basketball, and Mbu said it felt like a home game.
“I was very surprised, but it’s just what it is … at Rhode Island. I think the fans are always here,” Mbu said. “… It was just so many people in the stands, and they were so loud. It just, it felt great, and I’m happy that we did that today for them too, because they’re just so committed.”
George Mason was the tournament champion last year and was co-regular-season champions with Rhode Island this year. After securing a share of the regular-season championship eight days prior, Mbu said it felt great to win the tournament.
“Even though we won last week, we kind of feel like the job was unfinished because we were co-champions, and today was our game to prove that we’re the real champion,” she told reporters.
Reiss credited George Mason and head coach Vanessa Blair-Lewis, literally tipping her championship hat to the team, but said that Sunday was about Rhode Island. She said that the Rams were again a second-half team and that she’s never been prouder of a group coming out of halftime.
“We didn’t start the game with any discipline,” Reiss said. “We turned the ball over. That’s a key for us. We weren’t rebounding. That’s another key for us. We weren’t defending properly. … I think George Mason had a little bit more composure; they’ve been here. … And then our team, we had to remind ’em who you are and what you do. And they came out of halftime and just executed.”
Rhode Island scored 7 points in the first quarter, but scored at least 14 points in each of the next three quarters.
“We’re just a team that finds a way to get it done,” Gray said.
In the first quarter, Rhode Island turned the ball over seven times, which George Mason turned into 8 points. Over the rest of the game, the Rams turned the ball over four times, which the Patriots turned into 3 points.
George Mason’s largest lead of the afternoon was 17-7, early in the second quarter. Rhode Island pulled within one by halftime, and the Rams took their first lead, which they would not give up, with the first basket in the third quarter, a jumper from Syla.
In the fourth quarter, George Mason didn’t pull closer than 3 until freshman point guard Mary Amoateng hit a 3-pointer as time expired, even as Rhode Island went 9:29 without a field goal from late in the third quarter to late in the fourth quarter.
Reiss has now helped her team to an NCAA Tournament as a player, assistant coach and head coach. As a coach, she just wanted her team to have the feeling she had as a player, winning a conference championship and cutting down the net. To her, the players are like her children, so winning on Sunday was fulfilling in a different way from playing.
She was part of Virginia’s first ACC Tournament championship as a player and told her team that you can only be the first once. When Reiss came to Rhode Island in 2019, she wanted to vie for a championship every year.
“For seven years, we’ve been fighting,” Reiss said. “We’ve been there, we’ve been top-four, top-five. After last season, it felt like we took a step back, and then all of a sudden, here we come. So this one is extremely satisfying, because it’s the first.”
As the opening notes of “I Wanna Dance with Somebody” played, Reiss danced with a pair of scissors before making her way up the ladder to cut the first piece of the net. She continued dancing after she got off the ladder and only stopped to hand the scissors to freshman guard Vanessa Harris.
While this was going on, Gray got another pair of scissors and started to make her way up the ladder before getting down and letting Harris go up first. Gray headed up next, dancing on the ladder before climbing down and sending graduate student guard Ta’Viyanna Habib up to cut down her second piece of tournament championship net in two years after winning last year with George Mason.
Reiss learned from her last championship game appearance in 2024, when the team lost 65-51 to Richmond in what she called an “a-s-s whooping.”
“That hurt the most that I didn’t have my team ready to compete. Compete. Not win the game, just compete,” Reiss said. “And so we really assessed and sat back on how we were gonna prepare for … the tournament. Really the way we designed practices, things of that nature, how I substituted. But the biggest thing — and I’ll say it again — that year, is our culture caught up to us in that game. … It wasn’t as strong … of a culture as this team.”
When it came time for Rhode Island to put the final sticker on the conference tournament bracket, they had to track down a few players before Gray and Harris could do the honors. The pair faked out their teammates before slapping on the sticker.
At some point during the celebration, Reiss got thrown the game ball and was told not to forget it. It didn’t leave her possession until she, at some point, handed it off to her dad, Ed, who was holding it after the press conference. She plans to display it in her office.
Tammi Reiss walked into the press conference holding the game ball and placed it with the logo and lettering facing the media. Gray came in with her All-Tournament team trophy, which had a piece of red confetti tucked behind the red “A” of the A-10 logo. She’d also tied a piece of net in her hair.
Reiss talked about three of her supporters: her dad, who can often be seen; her mom, Doretta, who you’ll sometimes see; and her partner, Kristal Rees, who stays out of the spotlight.
“Without [Kristal], I couldn’t do any of this,” Tammi said. “… She takes care of the house, she takes care of the dogs, takes care of my parents, which is not an easy task. And so your family and your health are the only two things you truly have in this lifetime. …
“My parents are basketball parents, and we all know what they are. They don’t miss a game, they don’t miss anything. And I wanna spend as much time [as] humanly possible with my family. And so to have them celebrate your big wins — and they’re also there … for a shoulder to cry on when you have those huge losses. So family is everything.”
Reiss fell asleep Saturday night praying and woke up Sunday morning praying because all she wanted was for this specific team to win a championship.
“If I got fired tomorrow, I could care less,” Reiss said. “All I wanted was these student-athletes to feel what it felt like for confetti to come down and achieve their last goal. And I swear I was gonna sell my soul to the devil to make that happen. … We hit every goal this year, and I have never been prouder.”
