Mesa Sports Memory: Women's basketball wins national championship
In the early days of Mesa athletics, national championships were almost something to be expected. Between 1965 and 1980 MCC teams claimed 17 national titles.
To be honest, there was a reason that helped promote the early success. Actually, there were many reasons, most of them housed at the corner of Southern & Dobson.
However, the NJCAA itself was nowhere near as competitive as it is today with far fewer schools even competing.
Whatever the reason, Mesa went from 1981 until 2014 without winning a national championship. That is until a group of young women's basketball players ended the drought on March 22, 2014, in Overland Park, Kan. where they won the NJCAA Division II national championship and made their mark in MCC athletic history.
This group of primarily sophomores had come oh so close the previous year as freshmen, rolling all the way to the championship game before finally falling to Louisburg (N.C.), 75-65.
Thus, with the four of the top six scorers returning, plus the addition of a few talented newcomers, the stage seemed set. Even the NJCAA national ranking committee thought so, listing Mesa as No. 1 in the country in the pre-season poll.
But, head coach Kori Stephenson, and assistants Sam Stevens and Ben Nelson, had to figure out a way to make all that talent mesh.
They seemed to have met their goal as Mesa raced to the No. 1 seed in the Region I championships by a three-game margin and easily disposed of South Mountain, 74-54, in the semi-finals.
That set up what has become one of the top women's basketball rivalries in the nation, Mesa vs. Pima for the regional title. That has been the match-up every year but one since 2010.
Madi Austin's layup with 17 seconds left proved to be the game-winner in a 65-64 final, sending the T-Birds to the championship tournament for the third straight year and sixth time in school history.
Mesa entered the event as the No. 4 seed despite a 24-5 record.
The T-Birds made short work of Mercyhurst North East (Pa.), 70-48 in the opening round as freshman Kylie Herd led the way with 18 points.
That put Mesa in the quarter-finals against Chesapeake (Md.). MCC took a nine-point halftime lead and cruised to a 91-74 win. Austin led the way with 23 points, sophomore Peace Amukamara added 20 and Mariah Willadsen contributed 16. However, the competition was about to get tougher. Standing in the way in the semi-finals was top-seeded, and No. 1-ranked, North Iowa Area with its 33-2 record.
It turned out to be a great match. There were 24 lead changes and eight ties until Amukamara converted a layup off a steal with 8:36 to play to put the T-Birds on top to stay, 68-66. That led to an 85-73 win and a meeting with Highland (Kan.), another team with a 33-2 record and the No. 2 seed. It was a team that might as well have been paying at home, bringing a large contingent of fans from its campus, barely more than an hour away. In the semi-final Amukamara was tops with 23 points and Austin scored 16.
In the title game, Highland canned a pair of free throws with 22 seconds left to send the contest into overtime.
Willadsen's jumper near the start of the extra period sent MCC on a 7-0 run, en route to an 82-72 win.
This time Amukamara dropped in 28 points on her way to tournament MVP honors. Austin had 25 while Willadsen 16.
Then the honors began to pour in. Prior to the tournament Amukamara. Austin and Willadsen had all been chosen all-conference and all-region. The first two were also both named to the all-tournament team and were selected as All-Americans.
Stephenson was selected national Coach of the Year.
As if to showcase just how much talent the T-Birds had, five players from that squad eventually moved on to four-year careers, four at the NCAA Division I level. Amukamara played two years at Arizona State, Austin and Willadsen teamed up at Northern Arizona and Herd, a freshman, wound up at San Diego State. Point guard Leslie Tademy concluded her career at Division II Dixie (Utah) State.
While the women's basketball title ended a long championship drought for Mesa, MCC fans didn't have to wait long for another. Barely two months later the T-Bird baseball team captured a national crown and in 2017 the men's golf team added yet another.
But, those are stories for another day.
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