Separated by nearly 2,700 miles, Glenville State University and Western Washington University share a common goal Friday with the women’s basketball programs to meet at 8 p.m. in the Division II National Championship.
The contest at the Birmingham Crossplex will air nationally on CBS Sports Network. Both teams are in pursuit of their first National Championship, while the Pioneers are making their first appearance in a national final.
“I’m thrilled that we’re still playing,” said Glenville State head coach Kim Stephens. “It’s like a dream come true. It’s kind of bigger than we can ever imagine in our program. We were in the locker room after the [semifinal] game and our girls were over the moon excited. I had to stop halfway through my speech and say, ‘I can’t believe it.’ They all got excited when we said that. They’ve been excited the whole time and we’re excited to live another day and play another game.”
A No. 3 seed upon qualifying for the Elite Eight, Glenville State (34-1) overcame a two-point halftime deficit to beat No. 2 Grand Valley State 77-53 in Wednesday’s national semifinal. That followed a 103-56 win over No. 6 West Texas A&M in a quarterfinal.
Much of the Pioneers’ success stems from a unique style of play featuring constant fullcourt defensive pressure predicated off the team’s abundance of depth. Stephens often opts for wholesale substitutions and 12 Glenville players see the floor for at least 6 minutes per game, while none average more than 23 minutes.
Zakiyah Winfield leads the squad with a 17.9 scoring average. Re’Shawna Stone (16.5), Dazha Congleton (12.1) and Taychaun Hubbard (11.2) round out the Pioneers’ double-figure scorers on average.
Stone and Winfield led the way in the win over Grand Valley State with 19 and 16 points, respectively, while Fairmont Senior alum Abby Stoller added 15. Stoller has the team’s sixth-best scoring mark at 7.4 points.
“We want to play fast. We want to use the whole court,” Stephens said. “We play a lot of players. We want to get up and down and be really aggressive. We are a deep team and the unique thing that you probably don’t see a whole lot is we’re both very deep teams and we both play a lot of players. We just do it wholesale and they do it a little more subtly. We might be a tad more aggressive there and that’s unique.”
The fifth-seeded Vikings (25-5) have been victorious in a pair of close calls in Birmingham. Western Washington got past No. 4 Valdosta State 58-55 in Monday’s quarterfinal, before defeating No. 1 North Georgia 74-68 in a semifinal.
Eleven Vikings played at least 5 minutes in Western Washington’s semifinal win, with the team’s top two scorers — Emma Duff and Brooke Walling — keying the victory. Walling, who averages 10.2 points, led the way with 19, while Duff, the team’s top scorer at 15.5 points, contributed 18 as the duo provided half of the team’s scoring output.
Western Washington is a defensive-minded team yielding only 57.3 points on average. The Vikings have held opponents to 34.5 percent field-goal shooting, including 24 percent on 3s, over the course of the season. The title game will be somewhat of a contrast in styles as GSU averages 95.7 points, while surrendering 62.5.
“We’re so excited to be here,” Vikings’ head coach Carmen Dolfo said. “Both teams have worked so incredibly hard to get here. Being able to watch Glenville, they do it together and they do it as a team, and that’s something that Western does as well. We’ve really played together and counted on all of our players and that’s pretty exciting to be able to do that.”
Stephens, who brings a 157-21 record into Friday’s title game, was recently named the 2022 Women’s Basketball Coaches Association NCAA Division II National Coach of the Year.
She has helped guide the Pioneers qualify for the NCAA Tournament in each of her six seasons at GSU, and is hoping her team can finish off a memorable season in style.
“We’re definitely very well backed. We brought our band and cheerleaders on a ten-hour bus ride for all of us,” Stephens said. “We’re bringing two 15-passenger vans again. Those poor souls on that band ride. We have so much support from our athletic director, president and donors. Our alumni have been great. They’ve been phenomenal and very supportive — alumni of women’s basketball and alumni of all athletics. Everyone in West Virginia right now seems to be very excited, which is cool for us.”