Rivier's Anna Stenger (11) fights with Anna Maria's Patty Agbeh (00) during the Raiders' 93-67 GNAC first round tourney win Tuesday night in Nashua. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – Deanna Purcell remembers the good ol’ days of tournament basketball at Rivier University.

That’s when she was a player, some nine years ago. Now, as the Raiders head coach, Purcell was able to see it return in fine fashion Tuesday night at the Muldoon Center as the No. 6 Raiders routed No. 11 Anna Maria 93-67 in the first round of the Great Northeast Athletic Conference tournament.

“It’s so exciting because they deserve it,” said Purcell, whose team has now won eight straight and will now head to Standish, Me. to take on the third-seeded Saint Joseph’s Monks tonight in a very quick turnaround. “They’ve worked so hard. At one point in time we were 2-8 in the conference. We’re a young group, to deal with a rally in the month of February and earn a first round playoff game, get a playoff win, and then go up to St. Joe’s tomorrow, it kind of feels like it’s meant to happen that way.”

Last night the Raiders (14-11) predictably were simply able to throw more skilled bodies at the AMCATS (4-20), not to mention the nation’s leading Division III women’s scorer in Manchester’s Lyric Grumblatt, who had 19. Rivier had five players in double figures, including Nashua’s Hannah Muchemore, who along with Alexa Dufries had 13 points. Raider Anna Stenger had 17 and Ciera Clark added 10. Anna Maria, though, laid claim to the game high scorer in Franchesca Hammond, who had 21 points while teammate Ashley Rufo had 13.

It was over fairly early. Leading 15-7, the Raiders, who shot 46.5 percent from the floor, went on a 10-2 run and were never threatened after that. They led 50-28 at the half, 64-39 early in the third and it was no contest.

“I was nervous coming in here,” Purcell said. “None of us, other than the two coaches, had played in a college playoff game before. So figuring out how to come out right in the first half was important.”

For Muchemore (Bishop Guertin) and Grumblatt (Manchester Memorial), postseason basketball was old hat.

“I think it definitely helped,” said Grumblatt, who had 12 rebounds. “We both had experience in tight game situations, big games we know what to do, stay calm under pressure.”

For Muchemore, it was her first postseason game since she hit a big halfcourt shot to help beat Portsmouth in the 2019 Division I title game.

“Like I said to (Purcell) before the game, I’ve never lost a playoff game and I don’t plan on doing that tonight,” Muchemore said. “I had the mentality of doing anything it takes to get to the next game.”

Rivier’s Hannah Muchemore splits the Anna Maria defense of Chloe Giordano, left, and Patty Agbeh during Tuesday night’s GNAC first round tourney game at the Muldoon Center. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

The Raiders are clearly better than they were a month ago.

“We figured out how to play together as a team,” Purcell said. “We knew we had so many weapons, but they were so young and hadn’t played together before. The key was trying to figure out how to get them to all play together.

“Obviously Hannah (eight assists) brings a whole other level to our transition game, she makes everybody better. .. Getting out and running in transition we just figured out what type of team we were.”

Of course, not having the No. 1 scorer in the country didn’t hurt.

“It helps,” Purcell said with a chuckle. “It sure helps. I told her when I recruited her that I expected her to break my records.”

And she’s already broken three – points in a season, points in a rookie season, and points (44) in a single game.

But that wasn’t needed last night. Still, a heckuva year.

“It’s the last thing I thought would happen,” Grumblatt said. “I was just hoping to come here, get some wins and change this program. That’s exactly what we’ve done. Anything else is icing on the cake for me.”

What does Riv have to do to taste some of that icing and get the upset over Saint Joe’s, which is where Purcell’s Raiders lost in the GNAC semis in 2014? The Raiders lost twice to the Monks this year, 74-59 here and 77-43 in Maine, the latter the team being severely shorthanded due to COVID. The Monks feature former Hollis Brookline standout Cassandra Stapelfeld.

“They’re a team of guards as well,” Purcell said. “We’re just going to try to run with them. They play good team offense, and our team defense needs to be strong.

“We’re in a different spot now.”

But the same one Purcell knew as a player.