Numbers also can’t quantify the impact she had on her teammates when she shrugged off two debilitating injuries last year. But here is a numerical combination that does hint at her contribution: 20-7. That’s how the Pioneers finished the regular season with Maher starting all 27 games and logging the second-highest number of minutes on the team.
Maher, a 5-foot-10 forward from Waterford, averaged 5.4 points per game for the Pioneers. She does, however, lead the team in rebounding with 7 per game and assists with 3.4.
“We’ve got plenty of people on the team who are well able, better than I am, of creating shots,” Maher said. “I’ll take them when they come to me, when it’s created for me or if I get a rebound. My job is to help the other people play better. I’m not a finesse style player at all. I’m more of the hustle, defense, rebound type of player as opposed to the skillful, shooter type of player. And that’s fine with me.”
Sacred Heart had high hopes entering last season, Maher’s junior year, but the team fizzled. There were no such expectations coming into this season.
“Last year, the expectation was the team would do really well and I think it clouded our vision, our focus for the next game; we’d get two or three games ahead,” Maher said.
Maher cited a change to a fast-break offense and full-court pressing defense as conducive to the team’s collective abilities. An early-season blowout at the hands of the University of Maryland also provided the Pioneers with some perspective.
“We were only down 11 at the half and for most of the half they only had a 6-point lead,” Maher said. “If you let a team get on a quick run, it can kill your confidence and I think that’s where our youth showed back then. When we went down by 20 points, we just didn’t have what it takes to grind it out and think that maybe we have a chance of coming back. We were a little overwhelmed and I think from that we learned a lot.”
The fourth of six children, Maher was a self-confessed tomboy, taking up basketball at the age of 13, when she played for her school team. She was invited to join the national Under-15 squad, and continued through the ranks, playing for the U-16 and U-18 teams.
Susan Moran, two years her senior, inspired her to consider playing college ball in the states. Moran was a stalwart for St. Joseph’s of Philadelphia and played briefly for the New York Liberty of the WNBA.
“When we saw [Susan] come over and play, that’s when in the back of my mind I said, that’s something that I would like to do,” Maher said.
Maher then received a suggestion that if she really wanted to play ball in the U.S., she would need to call better attention to herself.
“I never had big stats at home until my senior year,” Maher said. “My coach at Our Lady of Mercy, who came over from the states, told me that if I wanted to play in America you have to get some sort of stats. So in my senior year at home I averaged probably 20 points a game and 10 rebounds.”
Maher heard from a handful of schools, and was most interested in Stonehill in Massachusetts and Sacred Heart, opting for the latter.
“I just thought that I fit in here better,” Maher said of her choice. “I felt more at home with the girls on the team. I got to play pickup with them for an hour and it just felt like the right place to be.”
The adjustments she had to make came mainly on the hardwood.
“At home, you only have one coach,” Maher said. “Here, there’s like three or four coaches who are watching you practice, so it’s kind of hard; you’re constantly getting criticized for something because somebody always catches it. At home, nobody notices. And the style of play is a little more aggressive at home. Here you have three referees, where at home you’d be lucky if one referee showed up.”
Off the court, homesickness was not a problem.
“I had learned to be very independent,” Maher said. “My mother passed away when I was only 13, so I think from then on you had to learn to stand on your own two feet. And then when I got picked to be on the national team, we traveled to lots of different countries, so I was used to being away for periods of time.”
Maher exhibited toughness when she played through two injuries in her junior season. A fractured wrist was a nuisance, but not as bad as the foot condition plantar fascitis.
“I’d get up in the morning and couldn’t even walk to the bathroom,” Maher said. “The muscles in your feet constrict so much that every time you walk, they’d be tearing away from the heel bone. It was really very annoying. I couldn’t wear shoes; I had to wear sneakers everywhere I went.
“Once I got warmed up and got into it, it wasn’t so bad, but starting off in the first half-hour of practice some days, I didn’t think I’d get through the rest of practice, because they’d just be so tight and so sore. But when it comes down to it, the option of sitting down or the option of playing, I’m never going to take the option to sit down. I’d much rather play.”
Maher had surgery in May to correct the situation, then stayed in Connecticut over the summer for rehab. She was allowed to do much of her conditioning work for the season in a hydropool so as to save wear and tear on her feet. She has declared herself essentially pain free now.
Maher, who will graduate in the spring, has no plans beyond donning the cap and gown. She learned last year not to look too far ahead and has profited handsomely.