Northland beats Dallas-Cedar Valley for third place

by Scott DCamp Sports Editor The Northland Community & Technical College Women's Basketball Team bounced back from a Friday night semifinal loss to Minnesota West with a 79-64 win over Dallas College - Cedar Valley in the third place game of the 2024 NJCAA Women's Basketball National Championship, Saturday afternoon at the Rochester Regional Sports Center. “Its always tough to recover from such a disappointing loss, but we started talking about it immediately after the semifinal,” said Northland Head Coach Shannon Nelson. “It’s OK for this to hurt, but we still have an opportunity to end our season with a win and take home hardware.” The Pioneers trailed 6-2 early in the first quarter but regained the lead with a 7-0 run. The Suns answered with a 7-2 run of their own to go in front 13-11 with 4:03 remaining in the quarter. The teams effectively traded scores for the remainder of the quarter, with the Suns holding a 19-17 advantage at the buzzer. The Pioneers allowed four points in the first 1:11 of the second quarter to go down 23-17, before finishing the quarter on a prolonged 21-8 scoring run. The Pioneers led 38-31 at the half, and broke the game open in the third quarter with a 22-7 scoring advantage over the Suns. Saturday's game was the fourth in four days for both teams, and both teams showed their fatigue at times. For the Pioneers, fatigue didn't really set in until the fourth quarter. They led 60-38 with 10 minutes left to play, but appeared to wear down against an athletic Suns team in the fourth. The Suns opened the quarter on a 6-0 run to get within six of the Pioneers. A pair of free throws by Emma Osborn and a bucket by Ashley Gereau temporarily pushed the lead back to 20 points. An 11-3 run by the Suns cut the Pioneers' lead to 12, 67-55, with 5:45 remaining. A made free throw and layup by Riley Mooney pushed the lead back to 15 points. The Suns had one more run in them, a 7-2 run, that made the score 72-62 with 2:32 remaining, but they weren't able to draw any closer as the Pioneers went five-for-five at the line to finish out the game. Osborn led the way with 22 points, including six three-pointers. Freshman Tiyana Schwinghammer scored 21 points and seven rebounds. Freshman Josie Iverson scored nine points while leading the team with 12 assists. Saturday's game was the final game in a Northland uniform for Osborn, Mooney, Gereau, Shavonda Bender, Lynelle Charnoski and Sunny Edin. “This group of sophomores is special,” Nelson said. “They stuck with us after a disappointing end to the season last year and came together to commit to coming back and taking another shot at a national tournament. They brought the freshmen into the fold immediately and made them feel welcome and a part of the team. They are the reason we came together so quickly and played so well as a team – because they genuinely liked each other off the court as well. We are honored they choose to be Pioneers and we are proud at the way they represented our program and college with class.” Tournament Awards The Pioneers received the sportsmanship award following the tournament. In an email to Athletic Director Abdul Chamma, Public Address Announcer Steve Cole stated: “I am writing to commend your women's basketball team on receiving the Sportsmanship Award at the tourney. I had a front-row seat to their games and was impressed on how your women's basketball coaches and players all demonstrated sportsmanship throughout the tourney. You have a great coaching staff, and they played very well and, more importantly, showed great sportsmanship.” “The team sportsmanship award was well deserved,” Nelson said. “Some may look at a sportsmanship award as some kind of consolation gift, but the fact that they awarded the third place team with it speaks volumes. We were told by many throughout the tournament how respectful and kind our players and team were. I hope the college and our communities are just as proud of the way they were represented as they are with the third place finish. We preach doing things the right way with integrity and we believe this team lived up to those ideals and then some.” Also receiving post-tournament recognition were Schwinghammer and Iverson, who were named to the All-Tournament Team. Iverson averaged 9.25 points and 7 assists per game over the course of the tournament, while Schwing-hammer averaged 18.5 points and 5.5 rebounds per game. “Tiyana and Josie made the All Tournament Team. Very well deserved and makes us excited about the future of our program,” Nelson said. Scoring 1 2 3 4 T (6) Cedar Valley 19 12 7 26 64 (5) Northland 17 21 22 19 79 Dallas College - Cedar Valley - Deja Thomas 16, Carmela Hayden 17, Mia Thomas 10, Taylor Elam 8, Vivian Nwabufo 2, Nekayla Williams 4, Keely Burks 7. Northland - Josie Iverson 9, Emma Osborn 22, Tiyana Schwinghammer 21, Shavonda Bender 8, Riley Mooney 6, Hannah Halvorson 4, Ashley Gereau 9. NJCAA Division III Women’s Basketball Championship • First round, Wednesday, March 13 - (8) Prince George’s 73, (9) Rhode Island 66; (5) Northland 84, (12) Nassau 49; (7) Jefferson (NY) 64, (10) RCSJ Glouster 45; (6) Dallas College - Cedar Valley 79, (11) Monroe College - Bronx 62. • Consolation, Thursday, March 14 - Rhode Island 69, Nassau 58; Monroe - Bronx 62, RCSJ Glouster 52. • Quarterfinals, Thursday, March 14 - (1) Minnesota West 90, (8) Prince George’s 53; (5) Northland 54, (4) Anoka-Ramsey 53; (2) Rochester 74, (7) Jefferson (NY) 54; (6) Dallas College - Cedar Valley 78, (3) Onondaga 61. • Consolation semifinals, Friday, March 15 - Anoka-Ramsey 60, Prince George’s 57; Onondaga 71, Jefferson (NY) 61. • Semifinals, Friday, March, 14 - Minnesota West 68, Northland 55; Rochester 65, Dallas College - Cedar Valley 48. • Fifth place game - Anoka-Ramsey 67, Onondaga 55. • Third place game - Northland 79, Dallas College - Cedar Valley 64;. • Championship - Minnesota West 76, Rochester 60.