Tiana England concluded her career at Stamford High School a few years ago and secured her legacy as one of the best girls’ basketball players ever from the FCIAC.
England is now continuing her success on the major college level.
England recently put the wraps on a very good season as the starting sophomore point guard for St. John’s University in the Big East Conference.
After the conclusion of the regular season and just before the start of the conference tournament, England was among five players selected All-Big East Honorable Mention, which made her the fourth player in the program’s history to earn conference honorable mention honors. It also was the highest postseason award for a St. John’s player this season.
Five players were selected on both the All-Big East first and second teams and no Red Storm player was on either of those teams, so England was considered St. John’s best player and among the conference’s best 15 players. The first and second teams consisted of all upperclassmen and England was one of the two Honorable Mention sophomores.
The 5-foot-7 redshirt sophomore led the Big East in assists, dishing out an average of 5.7 assists per game, and she also led the conference with 36.9 minutes played per game. She ranked 17th in assists among all Division I players in the country.
England also had a strong year shooting as she was third on the team with her scoring average of 10.7 points per games. She scored in double figures in 16 of the team’s 31 games in the regular season, including scoring at least 20 in two of the last five games in the regular season. She also led the team with her average of 1.5 steals per games and snatched 3.5 rebounds per game.
England finished the regular season with a flourish. She earned a spot on the Big East Weekly Honor Roll for the second consecutive week and for the fifth time during the season when she averaged 19 points on 57 percent shooting (15-of-26) from the field, 5.5 assists and 4.0 rebounds during a two-game weekend when the Red Storm went 1-1. The award honors the conference’s best five players during a given week.
Another one of her big games occurred Feb. 15 when she scored 20 points to help St. John’s wipe out a 14-point deficit in the second quarter and surge back for an 81-74 upset victory eighth-ranked Marquette. That ended a 12-game winning streak of the Golden Eagles and was the Red Storm’s first victory over a top 10 team in nearly seven years. She made the conference’s Weekly Honor Roll that week – averaging 17 points, 5.5 assists and 3.5 rebounds during two weekend games.
St. John’s, which had a 7-11 record in the Big East conference season, finished 15-16 overall after losing to Marquette, 88-57, in the quarterfinals of the Big East Women’s Basketball Tournament.
England scored 11 points on 5-of-7 shooting from the field and dished out nine assists while helping lead the Red Storm to a 76-51 victory over Seton Hall in the first game of the conference tournament on March 9.
England’s season was a strong progression from the 2017-18 season when the redshirt freshman led the team with 5.0 assists per game while starting in 32 of 34 games. She also averaged 9.4 points and 3.1 rebounds per game.
England was named Big East Freshman of the Week four times, tying for most by conference freshman, and was a unanimous selection to the 2017-18 All-Big East Freshman Team.
England was a redshirt freshman that season because she missed the entire 2016-17 season due to injury.
The 2016 graduate of Stamford High School is Stamford High’s all-time leading scorer with 1,501 career points.
She was an instant phenom at Stamford High, averaging 10.9 points as a freshman to earn selection to the 2012-13 All-FCIAC Girls Basketball Second Team.
England would make the All-FCIAC First Team and the coaches all-state team during each of her sophomore, junior and senior years.
England averaged 18.9 points, 5.2 assists and 4.1 steals per game during her junior year and as a senior she averaged 19.0 points, 6.1 assists and 5.7 steals per game and was selected to GameTimeCT/New Haven Register All-State First Team for the second straight year.
Stamford’s coach, Diane Burns, was the state’s Coach of the Year during England’s senior season when they led the Black Knights to their first FCIAC championship since 1979 – with England selected the tournament MVP – and its first state championship in school history when Stamford defeated Greenwich, 50-45, in the Class LL final and England’s high school career finale.
And now England is exactly halfway through what is shaping up to be a wondrous college career – with the best most likely still to come.