Top seeded Western Illinois advances to the NCAA Women’s tournament with a 77-69 overtime win over the second seeded IUPUI in the Summit League Championship game in Sioux Falls.
2017 Summit League tournament MVP Emily Clemens followed up her semi-final triple double against Omaha with a near miss on a double-double with 20 points and 9 assists.
IUPUI just about stole this game thanks to late free throws by Holly Hoopingarner and Alex Brown. But Taylor Hanneman connected on a three pointer as time expired to send the game to overtime.
In the extra period Taylor Higginbotham, Taylor Hanneman and Morgan Blumer all connected from deep for a 9-0 run to start ovetime. It was simply too much for the Jaguars to overcome as their leading scorer Danielle Lawrence, and their leading 3-point shooter, Sydney Hall had both fouled out.
Western Illinois had lost 13 of the last 14, including five straight to IUPUI before this victory in the Summit League Championship. This was the Fighting Leathernecks first conference title since 1995.
