Swoosh. That sound is so familiar to Ashley Tutzauer, Cabrini basketball phenom. At the Jan.15 basketball game between Cabrini and Marymount University. Tutzauer reached the milestone of 1,000 cumulative points in Women’s College Basketball.
Photo by Cabrini Athletics websiteTutzauer, a graduate student, who majored in early education and special education, is proud of her hard work for Cabrini’s basketball team. She plays basketball, lacrosse and soccer making her an impressive three-sport athlete.
While it was disappointing that due to COVID-19 there were no fans in stands on the day she marked 1000 points, she was “excited because her teammates, coaches and the men’s team were there supporting her, so it didn’t really matter if anyone else was there or not,” Tutzauer said.
Cabrini’s Women’s basketball coach, Kate Pearson, shared her perspective of who Cabrini’s Number 12 is as a person on and off the court.
“Kate P,” as described by Tutzauer, thinks very highly about her player.
Pearson said, “Ashley is a ball of energy, and always gives her teammates energy as well. She has evolved over the years, starting on the bench, to now our starting shooting guard. Ashley is a very passionate player who has fun and achieves a balance of that. And through the recruitment process, I saw her in high school, and she had a very pretty shot and could shoot from the outside.”
Cabrini only had one game last year because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Even so, Tutzauer managed to achieve many cumulative points leading up to the game versus Marymount University, where the team had traveled to Virginia to achieve her 1,000 points milestone and set the stage for many more points to come.
Tutzauer shared that basketball has always been a passion for her family. Her mother, Mary Ellen Baynes-Tutzauer was a star player for Rider University, earning recognition by the Asbury Park Press as “Female Player of the Year” and being inducted into Rider’s Hall of Fame.
It makes sense that Tutzauer’s mother was a lifelong teacher of basketball to her, even serving as her high school coach for her freshman year.
Tutzauer’s family is no doubt a sports family and her brothers played soccer in college too. While basketball was clearly in her blood, Tutzauer, a native of Toms River, NJ, has been playing other sports like soccer since the age of five.
Tutzauer said her favorite professional basketball players are WNBA player Sabrina Ionescu and like the rest of the world, Steph Curry. Having such offense-minded idols to look up to, it makes sense how she was able to accumulate over 1,200 points in her career. The Cabrini guard has a 35% career three-point shooting average. Tutzauer is also accurate from the free throw line, with a career average of 79%.
Tutzauer does not sacrifice defense for offense. Her stats show that she has 3.7 rebounds per game, 12 blocks and 34 steals this year – making her a threat at both ends of the court.
When asked for a fun fact, Tutzauer shared that she had a cat named Champ, the name is not from basketball, but from a soccer championship.
