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Lady Bison repeat as national champions
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The Salish Kootenai College Lady Bison kept their feet on the pedal through the entire American Indian Higher Education Consortium National Basketball Championships and outran the rest of the competition to capture their second national title in a row and their third in the last four years.
After being challenged only once in pool play at the four-day tournament in Santa Fe, N.M., the Lady Bison were able to pull away from the three teams they faced in bracket play in the second half to repeat as national champions.
“It feels nice. It feels nice. It was a battle, but it was all worth it,” SKC coach Juan Perez said.
Playing at around 7,000 feet above sea level, Perez credits his team’s conditioning for getting him his third title as the Lady Bison coach. Having 11 players he could turn to at anytime of the game also helped.
In the championship game Sunday against Oglala Lakota College, the Lady Bison trailed by as many as 10 points and were down by six at the break, but shutdown OLC in the second half and scraped out a 72-57 title-clinching victory.
Perez said there was no panic from his experienced team when they went into the locker room down at halftime.
“They all know 20 minutes in a college game is a long time and anything can happen. They know we're not going to get it all back at once and if they continue playing hard they’ll be fine,” Perez said.
And the Lady Bison were fine. After being hurt by OLC driving to the basket in the first half, SKC switched from their man-to-man defense to a zone and shut off OLC’s penetration of the lane. No longer able to get to the basket OLC players had to settle for outside shots, which weren’t falling for them and they lost to the Lady Bison for the fourth time in four games this season.
In her final games as a Lady Bison, Carla McLean was named the tournament’s outstanding player. It was also Genevieve Cochran’s final games as a Lady Bison.
“They were pretty happy to go out on top and with a 20-game win streak,” Perez said.
But the pride and bliss felt by winning a championship and creating a championship legacy shouldn’t be felt by the Lady Bison players only, according to Perez. He said that the school has always been an important part of the community and “we want them to take part in it, too.”
After going 4-0 in pool play Thursday and Friday, SKC faced Turtle Mountain Community College in the quarterfinals Saturday. The Lady Bison pulled away from the team they faced in the national championship last year in the final minutes and advanced to the semifinals with a 96-67 victory.
“Our conditioning was a big factor in bracket play. We really started to outrun them (TMCC) the last 14 minutes. We were using a full-court press and we could tell they were tired, so we just stayed aggressive,” Perez said.
Unlike a lot of the teams at the tournament, Perez had a deep bench and was able to rest his starters without skipping a beat.
“In each game, I knew I had 11 players that could produce on both the offensive and defensive end,” Perez said.
In the semifinals, the Lady Bison defeated Blackfeet Community College 73-62 to earn a spot in the national title game.
“We couldn’t pull away from them (BCC). They kept battling,” Perez said.
Perez could tell you a lot about his team – just not their individual stats at the tournament.
“This year the girls really stuck together. There were no factions. The whole 11 girls were a team. Not having the books for the tournament is fitting on how the season went,” Perez said.
In the pool play, the Northwest Indian College was the only team that challenged the Lady Bison, but SKC prevailed 51-47. The Lady Bison started the tournament with a 62-21 rout over the Navajo Technical College. They defeated Chief Dull Knife 56-35 and wrapped up pool play with an 80-26 thrashing of Fort Peck College.
Summary,
American Indian Higher Education Consortium National Basketball Championships
Santa Fe, N.M., March 18-21
Pool Play,
SKC 62, Navajo Technical College 21
SKC 51, Northwest Indian College 47
SKC 56, Chief Dull Knife College 35
SKC 80, Fort Peck College
Quarterfinals
SKC 96, Turtle Mountain Community College 67
Semifinals
SKC 73, Blackfeet Community College 62
Championship
SKC 72, Oglala Lakota College 57
