King Philip girls basketball coach Jeff Miszkiewicz can quickly recall many of the little moments that defined the statement win for his program last winter: a 57-53 road win in the MIAA Division 1 Round of 16 against Quincy that took the Warriors to their first quarterfinal appearance ever.
Maybe it was Maryna Yuzhda coming off the bench and providing important production, or Shayne Dugan driving and scoring three times against a college-bound talent in Niamh Gendron, or Cheyenne Murray and Jessica Persky subbing in and out for Murray's defense and Persky's free throws to seal the victory. Like with much of the Warriors' success, the win was a full team effort that signaled how far the program has come in five years under Miszkiewicz.
"I think that one was huge," he said. "That was probably the biggest win KP has had in a very, very long time."
Now MIAA coaches are buzzing about King Philip, which returns most of its roster and could truly break out in the wider Division 1 championship conversation. Here's the outlook for 2025-26.
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Tatum Morgan ready for takeoff
Morgan burst onto the scene as a sophomore, leading the Warriors with 13.3 points per game. The 5-foot-3 junior can light up the 3-point arc (2.1 made 3s per game last season), but her sophomore breakout included a more well-rounded scoring game that represented a leap from freshman year.
"What kind of caught my eye from the get-go was, not just her ability to hit the 3, but she developed a penetration game where she could drive," Miszkiewicz said. "Kind of like Isaiah Thomas back in the day — just getting those weird angles, those awkward finishes, she got really good at."
By the end of the season, opponents were keying in on Morgan, who nearly doubled up any other teammate in per-game scoring. Morgan responded and really impressed Miszkiewicz with her activity off the ball as a cutter and unselfish passer.
"She might have been the best off-ball cutter on the team," he said. "Whether she had the ball or not, she really kept defenses honest."
A gaggle of guards
Morgan leads a Warriors squad that lacks size but is loaded with fast guards who pressure the ball. There's junior Katie Stierer, who led the team with 2.4 steals per game in addition to her 7.3 points. Miszkiewicz labeled seniors Erin Berthiaume and Dugan as breakout watch candidates.
King Philip doesn't run many offensive sets, with Miszkiewicz leaning on more of a read-and-react offense that allows more freedom for his players. It also means the ball has to move quickly, especially on a small team, which it did last season.
"That was probably the biggest difference between this team and the teams in the past," he said. "This was by far the most unselfish team I've had. The ball movement was just incredible."
The X-factor for King Philip: Persky, a senior guard and Skidmore commit. She played just 10 games last season after recovering from a torn ACL, eventually working up to major minutes off the bench. But Persky is capable of being a true three-level scorer and giving the Warriors a dynamic playmaking leader.
"Seeing her this summer, she seems kind of right back to where she was," Miszkiewicz said. "She actually added a little mid-range game to her repertoire. She kind of used to be like a 3-point or drive (player), and she added that little mid-range game coming in. So I'm looking at her and Tatum as as players that could score 15 to 20 points on any given night."
Building toward this season
King Philip's run to the quarterfinals didn't come out of nowhere. On Jan. 31, the Warriors took down Franklin, 54-42, in what Miszkiewicz believes is his team's first head-to-head win in about eight years. That came in the middle of a 10-game win streak all against Hockomock League foes. King Philip's 17 wins were the most in program history since 2002-03.
The Warriors had lost nine players from the 2023-24 season and had Persky sidelined for much of the winter. This year, they only have three departures. Though Miszkiewicz couldn't coach this summer, he watched his players self-run and excel in the Mass Premier high school summer league, which has added to the preseason hype.
"What I told them after is, 'I appreciated that you guys play basketball this summer. Like, we don't have me dictating the offense or the defense. What are you guys doing on the court? I can't call a timeout and redirect you guys, so what are the things that you are doing consistently when I'm not there to guide you?'" he said. "And I saw a lot of great ball movement. We ran the fast break really well. We were playing really great defense (and) rebounding really well. So those are the things you preach on a daily basis, and to see those things occur when I'm not guiding the ship is just awesome."
Miszkiewicz believes his squad can lead the entire Hockomock League, and with recent powerhouse Foxboro losing significant talent, that's not a far-fetched goal. Even more ambitious: he's thinking about the Division 1 Final 4.
"If we can play our style and our brand, with being up-tempo and being unselfish on offense, and creating havoc on defense and using our athleticism to create turnovers and make the offense uncomfortable — I mean, that's really tough to for any team to compete with for 32 minutes," he said.
