Sophomore Colleen Planeta’s game-winning basket with 11 seconds remaining helped the Point Loma Nazarene University (PLNU) Sea Lions women’s basketball team clinch the Golden State Athletic Conference (GSAC) tournament championship with a nailbiting 53-52 victory over Vanguard and secure the team’s 22nd consecutive victory.
“It is very difficult to defeat a team three times in one year,” said PLNU assistant coach Alan Nakamura. “Do we change anything? The losing team always learns more after the game.”
The Sea Lions held a 29-22 lead at halftime but found themselves down by five points with just over five minutes to play.
PLNU was able to sweep all three of its opponents in the GSAC tournament: Biola, The Master’s College (TMC) and Vanguard. They defeated each team by wide margins at home in the regular season: 80-51 over Biola, 70-46 over TMC and 86-65 over Vanguard. Victories on the road against the same three teams were a different story. The Sea Lions beat Biola by 7 and claimed one-point victories over TMC and Vanguard. The GSAC championship game was a challenge for PLNU to get to after a semifinal round win over TMC that was not as easy as the final score may indicate. The Sea Lions were down by 14 in the first half but outscored TMC 47-19 in the second half.
After the Sea Lions’ domination of the GSAC during the regular season, the conference tournament appeared to be a slam-dunk after PLNU notched a 19-1 regular- season conference record and a 25-2 overall record. As a result, PLNU dominated one of the toughest conferences in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics.
There are five teams in the top 20, which include PLNU (28-2), Vanguard (24-5), Azusa Pacific University (23-6), Westmont College (20-7) and The Master’s College (20-11). Despite its loss to PLNU, Vanguard has also clinched a berth in the NAIA tournament.
Point Loma’s season has been sparked by four seniors that have been playing together since they were sophomores: Kati Hilbelink, Kerra Sutton-Wodarski, Danielle Arriola and Brittany Dove. Hilbelink, Sutton-Wodarski and Planeta were named to the All-GSAC team while coach Bill Westphal, now in his ninth season, was named the GSAC Women’s Coach of the Year.
“We have excellent leadership that can get up for big games,” said Nakamura. “Our team has composure and they don’t panic.” Sutton-Wodarski led the Sea Lions in points this season with 369 and contributed on defense with 139 rebounds. Planeta, a sophomore forward, was second on the team in scoring with 301 points and led PLNU with 156 rebounds. To round things out, Hilbelink scored 259 points and added 53 rebounds.
Dove has been out for most of the season due to injury.
The Sea Lions will most likely receive a bye as a No. 1 seed in the NAIA Tournament and will play again late next week.