Williamson’s Tigers are back!

MT. PLEASANT — In March of 2021, Iowa Wesleyan University made waves when it announced the surprising return of longtime women’s basketball head coach Steve Williamson. Less than one year later, Williamson and the Tiger women have planted the Iowa Wesleyan name right back onto an NAIA national tournament bracket.

The Tigers simply outclassed the rest of the field at the Continental Athletic Conference tournament over the weekend, dominating all three games en route to a conference championship.

“I never in my wildest dreams thought it would have been done in my first year,” Williamson said. “These kids are amazing.”

As they’ve done all year, the Tigers entered the tournament with just seven players, but a perfect CAC record in the regular season- earned them the No. 1 seed. The Tigers pummeled eighth-seeded Fisher College 81-53 on Friday, bounced fourth-seeded Washington Adventist 76-58 on Saturday, and dumped second-seeded Haskell Indian Nations University 84-59 in Sunday’s championship.

Sunday’s championship earned the Tigers the CAC trophy, but the win Saturday had already clinched a national tournament spot, as the CAC gets two bids into the field.

“To accomplish something as great as going to a national tournament with seven players is awesome,” Williamson said. “They bought in to what we wanted to be, and what we wanted to do, and they found a way.”

Brittany West, one of four former William Penn players which transferred to Iowa Wesleyan with Coach Williamson, led the Tigers in every game. She scored 25 points against Fisher, 25 against Washington Adventist and 24 against Haskell. Kyla Moore scored 21, 22 and 19 respectively.

“They're winners,” Williamson said. “Those two kids have no give up, no quit.”

The four William Penn transfers; West, Moore, Breanna Wendland and Maci Kuchta were all named to the All-Tournament team. West was given the tournament’s Most Valuable Player Award.

West, the only senior on the team, got emotional on Saturday night as the clock wound down. She is now a two-time NAIA tournament qualifier, but will be stepping on the national scene for the first time, as the 2019 tournament was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“When Coach hugged me, I was like 'we made it,’” West said. “All the emotions rushed to my head. It just felt too good.”

Wendland had big scoring outputs in the semifinals and finals, going for 20 points on Saturday and 16 on Sunday. Kuchta reached double-digits twice, scoring 13 each on Friday and Sunday.

Brielle Baker scored 26 points in the tournament. Former Mt. Pleasant standout Maddie Williamson scored seven, and Cassi Kraft finished with four.

It will be Iowa Wesleyan’s ninth national tournament appearance under Coach Williamson. The Tigers haven’t appeared in the NAIA tournament since 2011.

After Sunday’s win, Coach Williamson credited his short-handed team for pulling through, and also gave credit to a rocking atmosphere at Ruble Arena, which hosted 14 games over a three-day span.

“It's unreal, the atmosphere we had here tonight,” Williamson said. “This is what we had back in the day.”

The Tigers go into the national tournament with a 19-5 record. They will have a week-long wait until they find out the site, and the first round opponent for the NAIA tournament, which begins on March 11.