Eyes on the prize, Lady Bison No. 1

PABLO — The last time the Salish Kootenai Lady Bison had a chance to earn a spot in a national championship game they were stopped short by Turtle Mountain Community College of Belcourt, N.D. in the semifinals.

So if winning an American Indian Higher Education Consortium national championship in front of the home crowd at Pablo wasn’t enough, beating TMCC 92-69 in the final might have made things that much more special.

And that was the scene in Pablo on Sunday.

A tenacious group of Lady Bison looked past a losing season, the stigma of being an underdog, and emerged as champions.

SKC women’s head coach Juan Perez and his team earned a first-place seed in pool play with a 89-40 win over Blackfeet Community College of Browning in the quarterfinals, a 74-52 win over Oglala Lakota College of Pine Ridge, S.D. in the semis, won their final, watched the men take a championship, and finally had a moment to settle down after the award ceremony.

“I’m feeling really good,” Perez said. “I’m running off adrenaline and the excitement of winning.”

And beating TMCC was a great challenge to overcome in the process.

“We had a lot to prove,” he said. “We had to make a point.”

Making a point started with a pregame speech.

“I told the girls in the locker room before the game, ‘We’ve had a lot of tears, aches, pains, a little blood here or there all leading up to one game to play. If the scores right on the scoreboard everything we’ve gone through will be nothing compared to the feeling if we win it.’”

All of Pablo has that feeling now, with the Lady Bison winning their second national championship in three years and the first at home.

Winning the championship came at the end of an outstanding effort by many, none more so than tournament MVP, SKC’s Dani Augare, who found another level to score 37 points after being sick all weekend.

It had been a long time coming for Augare, who had played with the team last season, but missed the AIHEC tournament.

“It was my first AIHEC tournament, so it was fun” she said. “We came a long way from where we started out. We had injuries, lost girls from the team - for us to come this far after those struggles is a great accomplishment.”

SKC’s Carla McLean was given all-tourney honors, dominating the inside to lead in rebounds and score 22 points in the win. She said the tournament

“It’s very special. After all our hard work after a rough start at the beginning of the season, we all pulled together and won. We did what we had to do. It’s nice to win in our own house,” she said.

The tournament’s other MVP was Angie Redstar, who scored seven in the game.

Perez said Redstar remembered the year before.

“Being the elder stateswoman on the team, she knows she might not have many games left. She did not want to leave here with second place,” Perez said.

SKC’s Carmelita Matt finished with ten points, point guard Charla Brown had seven, Brooke Filesteel had five and Amy Stiffarm and Marianne Addison had two points a piece.

St. Ignatius graduate, Matt said the win meant a lot to her school.

“There’s bragging rights,” she said. “It shows that we deserve this gym and we deserve this facility. We really worked hard for it.”

Matt had been at the school for four years, but had never played to a championship until now.

TMCC had earned there spot in the championship, making quick work of both its opponents in the quarter and semifinals. There was no doubt they were the team to beat. And SKC did it in style.

In the first half, the Lady Bison jumped to a 50-33 lead, with 18 points from Augare already 10 of 12 freethrows made at the line.

After giving up five unanswered, SKC’s McLean and Augare took turns scoring while Brown ran things from the top of the key.

In no time, the lead was back up to 15.

A big three point-shot from SKC’s Angie Bush was all that interrupted a scoring spree by Augare in the next six minutes, save for the few baskets TMCC was able to sneak by the swarming Lady Bison “d.”

Once the Lady Bison had a 20-point lead, it was just a matter of running down the clock to championship time.

If there was hope for a comeback in the last few minutes, Addison’s three freethrows, monster trey and one final basket put in an end to it.

And just to finish what she stated, Augare scored the final two points in the victory.

The Lady Bison had their championship.