Northwest Florida outlasts Trinity Valley for second championship in three years

Sometimes, in order to become a dynasty, the current one has to be vanquished first.

No team in Division I women’s junior-college basketball qualifies as a dynasty more than Trinity Valley Community College. But now they have some company.

Sakima Walker scored a game-high 23 points and grabbed 13 rebounds to earn tournament Most Valuable Player honors, and Mya Pierfax drained two free throws with 5.5 seconds left in overtime, and Northwest Florida State captured its second national championship in three years with a 66-63 overtime victory Monday night in the title game of the NJCAA Tournament at the Rip Griffin Center.

Destiney McPhaul and Zayla Tinner added 11 points each for the Lady Raiders (29-4), who overcame a sluggish start and held off the Lady Cardinals (34-3) down the stretch. Northwest Florida also won the 2021 national title, also beating Trinity Valley in the championship game.

“Well, I don’t know if we’re a dynasty," Northwest Florida coach Bart Walker said, "but man, I’ll tell you what, that was two teams that just laid everything out there. My hat’s off to Trinity Valley and (head coach Precious Ivy).

"Two’s nice. It kind of validates something. We really wanted one, and the girls said we’ll go get it for you. They did it, and I’m so proud of them.”

In a game that saw nine lead changes and eight ties, neither team led by more than five points in the second half. Sakima Walker had seven of her points in the extra period, including a go-ahead 3-point goal from the top of the key with 36.3 seconds left that put the Lady Raiders in front for good at 64-63. Pierfax then added her two free throws.

Trinity Valley had two chances to take the lead in the final seconds, but lost track of the shot clock and turned the ball over with 5.5 seconds left. The Lady Cardinals got the ball back on an out-of-bounds call on Northwest Florida, but Kaila Kelley’s 3-point attempt from the left corner was long, sending the Lady Raiders into celebration mode and avenging a regular-season loss to the Lady Cardinals on Thanksgiving weekend.

"It feels great. This is everything I’ve dreamed of," Sakima Walker said.

Northwest Florida also had to survive Trinity Valley’s opportunity to win in the last half-minute of regulation. Tied at 54, the Lady Raiders had a chance to go ahead with 26.7 seconds left but Celia Riviere missed a layup.

Ashanti Barnes, who had 13 points, grabbed the rebound. After a timeout, Briana Peguero, who had a team-high 14 points for the Lady Cardinals, missed a layup, but Trinity Valley got the rebound. However, time ran out as the ball was turned over, sending the game to overtime.

“It was back and forth,” Sakima Walker said. “We just had to go keep going back to what we talked about in our scout and our five keys to the game we had on the board. It led us here, we played together, kept our composure.”

Trinity Valley has won the NJCAA title eight times and finished runner-up eight more times, making all 16 of those title-game appearances beginning in 1994. The Lady Cardinals reached the final game for the ninth time since 2011, but have lost the last five, all to teams from Florida's Region 8.

Abby Cater scored 12 points for Trinity Valley. Kelley and Makiyah McCollister added 11 points each.

The game could not have started any better for Trinity Valley, which raced out to a 9-0 lead in the first four minutes. Peguero opened the game with five straight points, including a deep 3 from the right wing, and the Lady Cardinals caught Northwest Florida flat-footed.

The Lady Raiders recovered in time to stay within striking distance, matching Trinity Valley the rest of the quarter to trail 16-8. But when Cater drained a 3 from the top of the key with 8:14 left in the second quarter, it looked like the Lady Cardinals were about to run away with it.

That’s when Northwest Florida remembered what it does best — feed Walker in the low post. She had the Lady Raiders’ first four points of the period including a layup that fueled an 11-0 run to give them their first lead at 21-19 with just over five minutes left in the first half. Jaela Davis had five of the 11 points in that outburst, including a 3 from the left wing that put Northwest Florida in front.

"That was kind of the way we started the season was find a way," Bart Walker said. "We’ve had a lot of adversity with injuries, and people have had to play different roles. They jumped on us early and we found a way to be resilient. I told them they’re going to be good and they’re going to find a way to make some runs, but we made one in the second quarter. I feel like we fought to the end and got rewarded for it.

"The first word I put on the board was 'poise'. We wanted to stay poised no matter what. They stayed poised, didn’t get rattled and fought through it."

From there, the teams traded scores as Northwest Florida kept Trinity Valley from answering the run and held the Lady Cardinals to single digits in the quarter. After shooting 5 of 11 from the floor in the first quarter, Trinity Valley hit just 3 of 12 in the second. Conversely, Northwest Florida overcame its rough-shooting first quarter where it hit 3 of 14 by making 7 of 15 in the second quarter.

Northwest Florida also dominated in the paint, outscoring Trinity Valley 14-6, nine of that from Walker to lead all scorers at the half. Cater led Trinity Valley with seven.

Northwest Florida took a 30-25 lead to early in the third quarter when Riviere hit a layup, but Trinity Valley answered with five consecutive points to tie the game, and the teams traded baskets the rest of the way. In the end, Northwest Florida made one more play than Trinity Valley.

"We matured a lot and we had to match their physicality," Bart Walker said. "That was the biggest thing was we got tougher as the season came on. We found our team heart this week, and that’s why we won this."

This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Northwest Florida outlasts Trinity Valley for second championship in three years