ARCATA, Calif. -- There was so much at stake for the Humboldt State women's basketball team in its final regular season home game in Lumberjack Arena.
A piece of the California Collegiate Athletic Association title, seeding heading into the conference tournament, a possible first-round bye, avenging an early season loss against conference foe Cal Poly Pomona and Senior Night.
With all the added pressures, the Lumberjacks were able to withstand the Broncos' late comeback to win 86-80 win to clinch their first CCAA Regular Season Championship since joining the conference.
"I'm pretty sure this game ranks as the top game in my entire life," said senior
Megan Shields. "I don't think there's any other way to describe the feeling of playing in Lumberjack Arena. It was crazy and a great atmosphere. I wouldn't pick anywhere else to play my last conference game."
The playoff-atmosphere game went down to the wire. Despite HSU being up by as many as 13 points in the second half, Pomona narrowed the gap to just one possession with two minutes to play after Jada Blackwell hit a three-point play.
But the Jacks wouldn't falter under pressure. In the last two minutes, HSU drove to the basket trying to create contact, and hit six-out-of-seven free throws.
"I thought our kids showed a lot of composure late and they cut it to one, but we never relinquished the lead," said HSU Head Coach
Joddie Gleason. "I think that just shows a lot of composure down the stretch and that they can make plays to close out the game."
HSU was led by Shields, who scored a team-high 21 points in just 17 minutes.
Neika Puryear added 13 points, while
A'Jaee Foster finished with 12.
With the win the Jacks improve to 19-3 in the conference and 22-4 overall. The Broncos drop to 17-5 in the CCAA and 19-7 on the season.
Blackwell, the conference's leading scorer, led all scores with 30 points for Pomona.
Although the score was close at the end, Shields said their entire team was confident that they were going to pull off the victory.
"It was important to win, not only for ranking purposes, but just for us," Shields said. "Coming off this win and going into the conference tournament is going to be huge, knowing that we can beat them and not losing twice to them."
Next up for the Jacks is the conference tournament in Stockton, Calif. where they will get a first-round bye .
"It was just a great game all together," said Foster. "We're ready to win (the conference tournament) too. The fans were behind us, so that made the game more intense. It felt like an NCAA championship game. It was packed."
"The way we were playing, we were playing to the end. I felt like we were a team from the beginning, and we were focused. We weren't worried about anyone else. It was all about us. It makes me feel so good about the way the team played tonight. The way we played tonight is the way we need to play every night. And if we play like this every night, there is no way that anyone can beat us."
