Stabler Arena. Nov. 6, 2023. The Warriors of East Stroudsburg are in town.
Colleen McQuillen pulls her home white Lehigh women’s basketball jersey over her head for the first time, and the junior point guard takes the floor as a Mountain Hawk.
The Cresskill, New Jersey native spent her first two collegiate seasons at Fordham, but now she finds herself wearing brown and white rather than maroon.
The typically calm McQuillen is admittedly nervous.
“I felt my stomach drop,” McQuillen said. “I was like, ‘Wait, do I have to go shake the ref’s hand? What do I do for the handshake? Do we give high-fives, low-fives, what do we do?’ I just remember my mind was racing.”
The lights framing the court dim as the crowd looks to the video board where the Mountain Hawks’ hype video plays before the announcement of the starting lineups.
McQuillen closes her eyes.
“‘It’s just a basketball game,’” she says to herself. “‘It’s not the end of the world.”’
McQuillen said she was so nervous for a moment and she couldn’t remember the high-fives, low-fives or the handshakes.
Now, she said the only memory that matters is touching the Stabler Arena hardwood for the first time and working with her teammates to earn the Hawks a decisive 78-42 win.
During her first season at Lehigh, McQuillen was made the team’s primary playmaker. She averaged the second-most assists per game in the Patriot League, with 3.7 a night.
Though not tasked as a team’s primary scorer, McQuillen ended the season second on the team in 3-point percentage among players with over 50 attempts at 35.6%.
Now a senior, McQuillen is a consistent starter and one of the Mountain Hawks’ most reliable players, though it took her a long time to get there.
Lehigh women’s basketball senior guard Colleen McQuillen takes control of the ball during the game against East Stroudsburg University on Nov. 6, 2023, at Stabler Arena. McQuillen started and played in all 30 games during her junior year. (Holly Fasching/B&W Staff)
She has been playing basketball for as long as she can remember, garnering a love for the sport. This passion was cultivated by her first and forever coach: her father.
McQuillen spent every summer training with her father. As soon as he pulled into the driveway after a day at work, McQuillen said she would start lacing up her shoes, urging her father to hurry up before walking downtown to the park.
They always went to the same hoop, the one on the far right end of the courts.
McQuillen shot the ball as her dad rebounded. The summer heat beat down on the pair, but it never hindered their practice sessions.
From third to eighth grade, McQuillen played organized basketball on a boy’s team, which she said helped to develop the grit she plays with today.
“I (had) to prove to a bunch of people that I belong where I am,” McQuillen said. “I wouldn’t trade that experience for anything because it’s taught me so much about being tougher than everyone else on the court and bringing an edge that most people don’t expect you to have.”
McQuillen became infatuated with “the process behind what people don’t see,” referring to the behind-the-scenes work and countless hours of practice that leads to success on the court.
She is the only one who sees the full extent of it all, but she doesn’t care.
“Whenever you see something translate from practice or workouts into a game, that feeling doesn’t get old,” McQuillen said.
McQuillen became her high school team’s all-time leading scorer with 2,324 points throughout her high school career, and she committed to Fordham University in 2021.
As a Ram, McQuillen made 41 appearances over two seasons without a start. She led the team with a 38.9% 3-point percentage in her sophomore season.
During her sophomore season, Fordham assistant coach Candice Green was promoted to interim head coach. Green played a vital role in recruiting McQuillen, but she left Fordham for a position at Holy Cross before she could be made the full-time head coach at season’s end.
McQuillen and several of her teammates decided to transfer, and after only two weeks, McQuillen made the move to Lehigh.
She said the week leading up to making her decision to transfer was one of the hardest weeks of her life mentally, but she knew she made the right decision based on how much weight it felt had been lifted off her shoulders. “
Though Lehigh had attempted to recruit McQuillen out of high school, she chose Fordham because Lehigh’s offer came later and she never had a chance to visit the campus.
“We knew that we weren’t going to miss twice,” coach Addie Micir said. “She is such a wonderful person, she is an absolute baller, we love the way she plays, and we thought she would fit our style.”
When McQuillen arrived at Lehigh during the summer of 2023, Micir said it didn’t take long for her to get acclimated to the team and for the team to warm up to her. She credits this to McQuillen’s energetic demeanor and easygoing personality.
“She has a knack for making her teammates play loose and play better,” Micir said. “That type of joy she plays with is contagious.”
Senior shooting guard Ella Stemmer said she and McQuillen often make dad jokes to one another at practices to lighten the stress of the season.
“She’s one of our biggest fans, for anyone and everyone on the team,” Stemmer said. “She’s always cracking jokes, but she’ll always be the first person to lock in and get focused.”
Lehigh’s style of play— dubbed “share it and shoot it” — also suits McQuillen’s personal technique.
At Lehigh, McQuillen was given the keys to the offense and was tasked with setting up her teammates. Despite being the primary shot-maker in high school, McQuillen said she has become more of a playmaker for the Mountain Hawks.
“If I make the right read, I feel much more confident going into the next offensive possession than they do when I score,” McQuillen said. “There’s just a beauty to it that I just love.”
Aside from contributing to countless Lehigh buckets, McQuillen was also responsible for wiping several opposing buckets off the board, leading the team in steals with 34.
McQuillen said she doesn’t have the quickness to out-hustle opposing players for a steal, but she has the basketball IQ to read opposing offenses and be in the right spot at the right time.
“She almost knows what offenses are going to do before they do it,” Micir said. “She sees it, she’s smart, she’s heady, she knows what to do and she gets it done.”
Despite a successful first season for McQuillen as a Mountain Hawk, the team was defeated by Loyola (Maryland) in the quarterfinal of the Patriot League playoff, 58-51.
With only one year left of college eligibility, McQuillen finds herself contemplating the time “the ball stops bouncing,” or the end of her basketball career.
McQuillen said she has pondered using her basketball acumen to start coaching, an idea she’s had in the back of her mind since middle school when teammates used to call her “coach Colleen” due to her knowledge of the sport.
She acknowledged how quickly her first season passed and is set on cherishing the remaining time she has playing the sport she loves.
“I’ve got to make the most out of what games and practices I have left, and it’s a tough pill to swallow but it’s also the beauty of it,” McQuillen said. “I’ve had an incredible career playing, making different relationships and getting to know different people.”
