By: Damien Dennis
The Wolves have punched their ticket to the NJCAA Division III National Tournament.
After falling just short last season, the Joliet Junior College women's basketball team made sure to not let history repeat itself as the Wolves cruised past Mountain View on Saturday, 73-52, to win the Central District title and advance to the championship bracket.
"Today showed how versatile we are as a team and what we have to offer," said
Lovely Tua-Link, who recorded 13 assists in the game. "We worked hard to get to where we are today. Our effort and our commitment played a big part in today's game and we as a team finished strong."
After a bit of an early back-and-forth, the Wolves led most of the way, going up by as much as 22 points in the final minute of action. The Wolves scored 40 points in the pain and 24 off the bench to Mountain Views' 26 and 7, respectively.
Demi Page led all scorers with 20 points, with
Jazlynn Foster following just behind with 17 points.
Kiyah Robertson finished with 15 points and nine rebounds.
"I felt like we came out with good energy and we set the tone in the first quarter," Page said. "We communicated, we played together and that let the rest of the game flow naturally."
The Wolves finished shooting 45.3% from the floor and going 8-of-11 from the foul line.
On Friday, the Wolves avenged last year's season-ending loss against Cedar Valley with a 69-60 victory over the Suns to advance. In that game, Robertson crossed the 500-mark for career rebounds.
