If Gabby Lisella ever tires of being the Rowan University women’s basketball coach, she would make a good recruitment officer for the U.S. Army.
When it comes to sophomore guard Dominique Peters, Lisella never stops telling her to “Be all that you can be.”
As of Feb. 16, the Lawrence High School graduate was third on the Profs in scoring at 13.8 points per game, third in rebounding (4.7), third in assists (48), first in steals (66) and second in blocked shots (21). Those are impressive all-around stats for a player whose ceiling is still high, according to her coach.
“Dominique’s very talented athletically, and part of her growth or her transition to the college game is really putting all of those skills to use,” said Lisella, now in her 18th year at Rowan and 27th as a college head coach. “She’s probably one of the best athletes I’ve coached and she’s still learning how good she is.”
Lisella was talking on the phone from her office in Glassboro, with Peters sitting nearby.
“She’s rolling her eyes a little bit as we speak,” the coach continued. “We’ve had numerous conversations about that. She’s very talented. sometimes the expectations that have been set for her, last year in particular; may have been a little bit overwhelming. I don’t think she has any idea how good she is or could be. Responding to those challenges is part of her growing process.”
In a nutshell, Peters is good, but not all that she can be, just yet.
“These are a lot of backhanded compliments, it all comes down to what I think she’s capable of,” Lisella said. “She’s had a very, very successful year. Don’t get me wrong about that. We’re pleased with where she is, but I don’t think we’ve scratched the surface of where she can go.”
And while Peters may have been rolling her eyes, it was not because she was tired of hearing such things. In fact, she admitted the need to hear them.
“It took me a while to figure out that what she was saying was true, to be honest,” Peters said. “As a player, you always feel like you’re trying your hardest until you realize you’re not. It’s something she tries teaching me.”
At Lawrence, Peters played for some bad teams. The Cardinals won 16 games her first season but combined for just 15 victories in her final three years. She became a 1,000-point scorer and averaged 16 points and 10 rebounds as a senior. But without a supporting cast, Peters was able to pretty much do what she wanted.
That all changed last year when she arrived in a program that is a perennial New Jersey Athletic Conference power. Peters was urged to look at Rowan by Lawrence teacher Jaime (McCormack) Land, a Hamilton West graduate and 1,000-point scorer for the Profs, and Allentown’s Linda Weise, who coached Peters in AAU ball.
As a freshman, Peters started just three games and averaged 7.5 minutes per game, as she played behind All-American guard Anyssa Sanchez and All-Conference guard Summer Crilley. It was a whole new world for the girl who never sat the bench before.
“It definitely was tough,” she said. “My whole life I never had to fight for playing time. But it made me better. It made me feel like I can’t do whatever I wanted. It pretty much made me hungrier.”
It also made her realize that she was no longer the only show on the team.
“In high school I could take 40 shots a game and no one would say anything,” she said. “When I came here, I had to learn to take the best shots, and pass and do more things that were team oriented.”
It helps that she has talented teammates to pass to. With the Cardinals, Peters had to score. With the Profs, assistance is all around.
“Passing is one of the things I’ve been trying to work on,” she said. “Being able to pass out to someone I know will make a shot. If I pass out to Summer for a three, I know she’s gonna make it. I try to position myself to get the defense to think (about me) and then try to kick out to my shooters. It’s fun playing with people who can play.”
In reflecting upon last year, Lisella felt it was productive for Peters in some ways.
“We play very fast, we press the entire game, we look to fast break the entire game,” the coach said. “I think that playing behind Anyssa Sanchez gave her the ability to watch what we expected from her without necessarily a ton of pressure. She showed sparks of what she was capable of last year, and I think it was just a learning and growing process.”
The style of play fits the 5-foot-10 Peters’ ability. A track standout in high school, she has continued the sport in college and was part of Rowan’s 4×400 relay team that qualified for the NCAA Division III nationals. “That was the scariest experience of my life, but it was fun” she said. Peters also does the high jump and long jump.
“I started doing track just to stay in shape in high school, but then I got trapped by (coach Tim) Collins,” she said with a laugh. “I planned on doing both sports at Rowan. I figured if I liked it in high school why wouldn’t I do it in college?”
Peters is adamant that basketball is her main sport, however, which pleases Lisella. Playing her at the two guard, the coach likes to use her out front in the press so she can get downcourt quickly in transition. In the halfcourt, Peters is usually found on the wing.
She can play most places because she can do most anything.
“She can hit the three, she can slash to the basket, she can rebound out of her mind when she feels like it,” Lisella said. “She can jump out of the gym, she can pick people’s pockets. She can do everything. Again, it’s just really challenging her to do all of those things consistently.”
One of the keys to Peters’ ability was playing tough competition growing up. She competed frequently against her father and her brother Dillon, a former LHS player. She also went to the park and played pick-up games against strictly boys, which helped toughen her up.
“I got a little soft in high school,” she said. “I had to get it back in college.”
She has also developed her versatility in college, having worked on all aspects but focusing mostly on defense.
“Defense is usually the catalyst,” she said. “If I’m playing well on defense, everything else just comes. I usually get a steal and a layup or assist.”
Peters chose an interesting way to prepare for her sophomore season. Rather than playing in a competitive college league last summer, she worked camps in the area and continued to play against her dad and brother. While teaching others, Peters learned a little about herself.
“It makes you read the game differently,” she said. “When you’re coaching kids, people don’t understand the game as much as you do, so it makes you simplify things. And that makes me see things that you wouldn’t see in a normal game. It makes you break things down, and when you break things down it helps you understand basketball more.”
There is one thing that Lisella understands very well—she has a rare talent on her hands whose best days are still ahead.
“Sometimes it’s hard to make that adjustment to college,” the coach said. “Just because it came easy and for her and it was successful, and now it’s like ‘You want me to work hard?’ We’ve had many conversations about this. There are times that Dominique throws her hands up in the air. She can cruise though a game and at the end of the night have 19 points and five steals, that’s a pretty good night and I’ve been on her case the entire time just because I know what she’s capable of.
“Diligence is our word. If we can get her to be diligent, I tell her all the time, she could be scary. I’m just excited to see where she goes the rest of her career.”
Lawrence High graduate Dominique Peters shoots during a game for the Rowan University women’s basketball team. (Photo courtesy of Rowan University.),
