Monroe Lady Mustangs – National Champions!

For the second time in three years, the Monroe College Lady Mustangs are the NJCAA, Division III women's basketball champions. On Saturday evening, the #1-seeded Lady Mustangs defeated the #2 seed, tournament host Mohawk Valley Community College (Utica, NY), 79-48 to win the title.

To qualify for the championship, Monroe, the #1 seed in the tournament, defeated #8 Holyoke CC (MA) 89-39 in the quarterfinals and #5 Brookdale CC (NJ) 82-62 in the semifinals.

Monroe won the Championship in 2006 also by defeating Mohawk Valley. This was their fifth consecutive appearance in the National Tournament and third time in the last four years that they played in the Finals.

Monroe’s championship season was marked with a number of achievements. They won their 100th consecutive conference game and ended the season with that streak at 103. They added on to their NJCAA record with 46 consecutive home wins. Also, they were 3-1 against Division I teams.

Saturday night’s championship game was a hard-fought, foul-plagued contest that was more difficult than the lopsided final score would indicate.

Monroe opened the game with a quick 5-0 burst and led throughout the game, but because the referees were calling fouls much closer than the aggressive Lady Mustangs were accustomed to, ultimately they had to abandon their vaunted pressure defense in favor of a traditional 2-3 zone, a defense Monroe has not employed since the first days of practice in October.

Also, 4-minutes into the game, Monroe's star sophomore point guard Tierra Cleaves took a knee in the thigh and spent the rest of the game alternating between five-minutes of ice-packs and five-minutes of playing time. On the court she was limping noticeably.

Cleaves' heroic performance was one of the many stories of the game for Monroe as they had to find resourcefulness in their deep bench and adapt their style of play.