Bristol, TN - The Covenant College Lady Scots basketball team completed its amazing run on Saturday afternoon, winning their third game in three days, and winning the Appalachian Athletic Conference tournament championship with a 78-66 victory over Tennessee Wesleyan College. The win was Covenant's eighth straight, and allows them to advance to the NAIA National Tournament, held in Sioux City, Iowa March 11-18.
The Lady Scots (20-12) were led once again by senior guard Liz Martin who finished the night with 34 points, four rebounds, and three assists. In the three tournament games Martin scored 108 points, and was selected as the AAC Tournament MVP. Junior forward Erika Forland had another solid night playing great defense, scoring eight points, and pulling down five rebounds. Forland finished the tournament with 40 points and 38 rebounds, and was an all-tournament selection.
Ashley Wilson, a freshman guard from Lakeland, Florida, had a gutsy tournament and played big in the championship win with 15 points, five rebounds, three assists, and two steals. Freshman guard Hannah Craft scored six points and led the Lady Scot rebounding effort with nine boards.
Covenant never trailed in the contest, but saw the Lady Bulldogs (20-13) cut the lead to 57-55 with 6:17 left in the game. Covenant coach Roy Heintz took a timeout, and said what he saw and heard from his players was pivotal in his belief that they would ultimately win.
"We come to the bench for the timeout, and Tennessee Wesleyan has battled back into the game. We played overtime the night before, and I have three players sitting before me that played all forty-five minutes of that overtime game, and almost the whole game tonight," said Heintz. "Even though we have three freshmen starting and eight of our eleven players have never played intercollegiate basketball before this season, what I saw was poise and great resolve. They were encouraging each other, and were ready to finish the job."
"I told our players that if they could come out of our timeout and put together one more run, they could finish our opponent - and that is exactly what they did. They are just amazing! This team has earned everything they have achieved, and they were absolutely focused on winning this conference championship and advancing to the national tournament."
Coming out of the timeout, Covenant inbounded the ball on their sideline and a driving Liz Martin found freshman guard Margaret Cross in the right corner, where Cross calmly sank a 3-point shot to open up the margin. After another defensive stop, the Lady Scots got the ball to Craft, the first-year guard from Chicago, in the left corner, and Craft coolly buried her 3-pointer to open up a 63-55 lead and Covenant never looked back.
Entering the tournament as the fifth-seed, Covenant defeated fourth-seed Union College on Thursday morning, and then followed that with an exciting overtime thriller over the top-seeded host King College. For the Lady Scots, the third day was the charm, as they completed their tournament sweep over the sixth-seeded Lady Bulldogs. Their tournament championship means that March Madness reigns on Lookout Mountain, and for the first time since 1997 a Lady Scots basketball squad goes to the NAIA national tournament.
