Bill Gibbons, women's basketball coach at Holy Cross, knows Rhode Island well.

Two years ago, he recruited Bethany O'Dell of Lincoln, the two-time Rhode Island Gatorade player of the year. She started as a freshman and was the Patriot League rookie of the year. This season she helped the Crusaders to a runner-up finish in the Patriot League Tournament and was second-team All-League.

Last year, Gibbons recruited Meredith Ward of Westerly, the 2007 Rhode Island Gatorade player of the year, and signed her to a National Letter of Intent in December. She will join O'Dell and the rest of the Crusaders in the fall.

"We got in on her early," Gibbons said of Ward, a 2,000-point scorer and McDonald's All-America nominee. He was chasing Ward's Rhode Island Breakers AAU teammate, Heather Buck of Pawcatuck, Conn., simultaneously, but Buck chose UConn.

"She and Heather know us and know that Bethany goes to Holy Cross," he said. "Meredith is the same type of competitor as Bethany. She can play either guard. I thought two summers ago she was the Breakers MVP. She knows how to make plays down the stretch. She's a gamer. Any kid with more than 2,000 points in high school knows how to put the ball in the basket. She's very scrappy, very intense."

Gibbons said people might question whether Ward is big enough and quick enough to play Division I basketball. He does not.

"I've been blessed with many guards here. The experts will not be right until they measure the size of heart, the intangibles. After 27 years of coaching, I think intangibles are often overlooked. Bethany O'Dell definitely has them. Meredith Ward has them," he said.

The 2008 Rhode Island Gatorade player of the year will play Division I basketball next winter. Brittany Wilson, a 5-9 swing player, is bound for Northeastern. John Gillooly of The Journal, who has seen all the great high school players in the last four decades, compares Wilson with Shannon Perry, the guard who took her game from La Salle to Syracuse and then to Bryant for half a season before landing in Europe. Wilson can shoot, run the floor, jump and play defense. She can also take over a game, as Ward can.

"Brittany is a next-level player who was very highly recruited, and we are tremendously excited to have her be a part of our program. She's an explosive wing player, and we expect her to have an immediate impact and contribute on the offensive end as a freshman," Northeastern coach Daynia La-Force Mann said in announcing the signing last fall.

Wilson's Bay View teammate, Kashaia Cannon, is also heading to Northeastern on a basketball scholarship. She is a 5-9 shooting guard.

"Kashaia is a very athletic guard. She is very instinctive defensively and brings a lot to the table on that side of the ball. We look forward to her ability to shut down the opposition's best player," La-Force Mann said.