The Harding women’s basketball team traveled to Bartlesville, Okla., to compete in the Great American Conference Tournament from March 2-4. This was the Lady Bisons’ sixth straight appearance in postseason play. They entered the tournament with a 16-10 overall record and a 9-7 conference record, placing the team at fourth seed.
Harding finished the regular season with first-place rankings in three categories — scoring defense, field goal percentage defense and blocked shots. Lady Bisons’ head coach Tim Kirby said the team arrived in Bartlesville with high expectations.
“We came in to the tournament as a No. 4 seed and played our way to the championship game,” Kirby said. “From the time we arrived on Wednesday night to the championship game on Sunday afternoon, the girls were excited and focused on accomplishing our goal of winning the tournament. We had some great individual performances, and our team responded to the tournament atmosphere in a great way.”
Harding’s first game of the tournament was a matchup with a familiar foe — Henderson State University. The Lady Reddies, a fifth seed team, had previously beaten the Lady Bisons in their last three meetings. Harding came away in the first round of the tournament with a 78-52 win over Henderson State. The Bisons went into halftime with a 40-20 lead and led by as many as 28 points in the second half. Freshman Arielle Saunders led the scoring with 20 points. Leading scorers included freshman Tabitha Haney (13), sophomore Kristen Celsor (12), senior Kallie Bartee (11), freshman Montana Lewis (10) and senior Cherilyn McMenamy (10).
“I don’t feel like I scored much during the tournament,” Celsor said. “But I loved that our seniors ended their college careers with amazing games. Cherilyn really went off, and Kallie knocked down some major 3 for us. Arielle also played some great games. She not only did great offensively, but really made some major plays on the defensive end that got us to that championship game. So every game was really about how well the team as a whole played.”
Advancing to round two of the tournament, Harding faced Southeastern Oklahoma State University. The Bisons battled to a 62-54 victory, sending them to the GAC championship game. Saunders had a career high 21 points and 17 rebounds. Southeast Oklahoma (11-17), the eighth seed team, had pulled off a surprising upset over the No. 1 seed team, Arkansas Tech University. The Savage Storm was leading 43-39 with 8:47 left in the game, but the Lady Bisons came back with a 9-0 run. With a little more than two minutes remaining, Bartee drained her third 3-pointer that led to a 7-0 run putting Harding up for good. Leading scorers were McMenamy (16), Lewis (9) and Celsor (7).
Playing in only their second tournament championship game in school history, Harding faced Southwestern Oklahoma State and lost 69-58. The Lady Bisons jumped out to an early 14-5 lead, but the Lady Bulldogs (20-9) answered with a 16-3 run over the next six minutes and went into the half with a 36-26 lead. Scoring the first six points of the second half put Southwestern Oklahoma up by 16. Harding battled back to within nine points but could not take the lead. Leading scorers were Saunders (19) and Celsor (11). Saunders and McMenamy were named to the Great American Conference All-Tournament Team. Members of the Lady Bisons’ team, like Bartee, said they were disappointed in the loss, but that it was still a major accomplishment for the team to get as far as it did.
“There was a definite sadness, but there was also a sense of pride for all we had accomplished this season,” Bartee said. “We have a lot of young players that will more than likely be back to that game and getting through all those emotions was important for them.”
The Lady Bisons finished the season with an overall record of 18-11.
