by (Cedar Rapids, IA) – The Haskell Indian Nations University women’s basketball team advanced to the Associations of Independent Institutions (A.I.I.) conference championship game on Sunday afternoon by defeating Indiana University Northwest 83-81 in a close game that came down to the end on Saturday.
The Lady Indians were paced by junior center Keli Warrior (Ponca Tribe) who had 23 points and pulled down a game-high 7 rebounds. Tyler Sumpter (Paiute) had 15 points for Haskell after scoring twenty-four in the previous tournament game against Northern New Mexico College.
The Lady Indians, who are competing in their first year with the A.I.I. conference, trailed the Redhawks 17-23 after the first quarter and where down as much as eight points. In the second quarter, Haskell was able to battle back and take a 42-40 half-time lead as the Haskell bench contributed to getting Haskell back in the game.
All season long the Lady Indians have come out strong in the third quarter and put teams away, the effort was no different here as hot shooting by Haskell extended their lead to 62-51 with 1:53 to go in the third. But the Redhawks would not go away easily and used a 8 to 1 run to only trail 63-59 at the end of the third.
In the final quarter, both teams would go on small runs as Haskell would extend it’s lead only to see Indiana Northwest claw back to within in a few points each team but in the end Haskell would maintain its lead the whole quarter to hold on for the 83-81 victory.
Rounding out the scoring for Haskell were Kortney Meat (9), Brandi Buffal and Arnetia Begay both had (8), Cerissa Honena-Reyes and Cheyenne Livingston each had (7), followed by Ember Sloan with (6).
With the win, the No. 21 ranked Lady Indians advance to the A.I.I. Championship game where they will face former MCAC conference partner (who also joined the a.i.i.) College of the Ozarks who are currently the No. 3 ranked team in the country.
Under the new rules of the A.I.I. Conference, the top 3 teams to finish in the tournament will all receive automatic bids to the 2016 NAIA National Tournament that will be held in Sioux City, Iowa in March.
So by virtue of entering being in the conference championship game Haskell will return to the NAIA National tournament for the first time since the 2010 season.
