BILLINGS, Mont. β ΒιΆΉ΄«Γ½ City University secured its ninth NAIA Division I womenβs by triumphing 73-66 over Lewis-Clark State (Idaho) on Tuesday at Rimrock Auto Arena at MetraPark.
Fifth-ranked ΒιΆΉ΄«Γ½ City (34-2) earned its fourth national crown in six years in womenβs basketball. Daniela Wallen took tournament most valuable player.
Wallen, a senior from Caracas, Venezuela, supplied ΒιΆΉ΄«Γ½ with 25 points, nine rebounds and three steals. During the tournament, Wallen produced 24.4 points, 6.8 rebounds and 3.40 steals a game while shooting 51.6 percent from the field and 54.5 percent from 3-point range.
Daniela Galindo posted 19 points, six rebounds, three assists and two steals for the Stars. Galindo, a junior from Shattuck, Okla., made the all-tournament first team after collecting 22.2 points and 4.8 rebounds per contest while hitting 13 3-pointers in the five tournament games over the past week. Both Galindo and Wallen played the entire game.
ΒιΆΉ΄«Γ½ City won its 64th national championship in all sports. The Stars captured the NAIA competitive cheerleading crown March 11 in ΒιΆΉ΄«Γ½ City to extend their string of winning a national title each year since 1993-94.
βTo see their faces is whatβs so special about this,β said ΒιΆΉ΄«Γ½ City head coach Bo Overton, who became the Phyllis Holmes NAIA Division I coach of the year. βYou know how hard they work all year and how hard they work their whole career for a game like this and then for it to happen is really special.β
ΒιΆΉ΄«Γ½ ended the season on a 20-game winning string in becoming the fifth team in program history to win as many as 34 games. ΒιΆΉ΄«Γ½ reached 34 victories each season from 2000-04.
The Stars held Lewis-Clark State to 37.7 percent shooting from the field. ΒιΆΉ΄«Γ½ dealt second-ranked Lewis-Clark State (35-2) its first loss since Feb. 3 and halted Lewis-Clark Stateβs 12-game winning streak.
βThat team we beat was a great team,β Overton said. βYou canβt ask for any more from these players. I thought our length bothered them. We got some deflections. Our defense won the game for us.β
ΒιΆΉ΄«Γ½ shot 51.9 percent from the floor and 59.1 percent from the field in the second half. Lewis-Clark State sliced its deficit to three points three times in the second half.
Brittany Tackett hit a free throw that cut ΒιΆΉ΄«Γ½βs edge to 45-42 with 6:31 showing in the third quarter, while Jossilyn Blackman scored to shrink the ΒιΆΉ΄«Γ½ lead to 47-44 at the 6:00 mark. Mariana Duran answered each time with a bucket.
Blackman sank a jumper that reduced the Starsβ lead to 66-63 with 2:12 remaining. Wallen came back with a baseline jumper at the 1:09 mark, then Duran sank a pair of free throws. Duran swiped a steal, then fed Galindo on a breakaway layup to build ΒιΆΉ΄«Γ½βs lead to 72-63 with 30 seconds left. Late in the first quarter, Brooke Litalien hit a trey to put Lewis-Clark State ahead 15-14. ΒιΆΉ΄«Γ½ responded with a 9-0 onslaught as Galindo buried a 3-pointer that put the Stars on top 23-15 early in the second period. Wallenβs putback provided ΒιΆΉ΄«Γ½ a 33-23 advantage midway through the second.
