FORT WAYNE, Ind. – The No. 13-ranked Indiana Tech women's basketball team won its third straight Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference (WHAC) Tournament title Monday evening as they defeated Concordia University-Ann Arbor 65-59 inside the Schaefer Center.
 
Taya Andrews led all players with a career-high 24 points while Erika Foy had 17 points, 11 rebounds and four blocks for her seventh double-double of the season. Alexis Hill chipped in 13 points, four rebounds and four assists.
 
Tech got off to a hot shooting start as they went 6-12 from the floor in the first quarter, but turned the ball over seven times that resulted for six points for the Cardinals, who trailed 13-10 at the break despite shooting just 30.8% from the floor in the period. Four lead changes and three ties set the stage for what would be a back-and-forth title game between the two programs.
 
After ending the first quarter on a 7-2 run to go up 13-10, Tech grew its lead to six points following a three-pointer from Laney Steckler at the 4:39 mark. The hot shooting from the Warriors continued as they went 8-13 from the floor, but the Cardinals began to find their touch as well with 16 points in the period. After six lead changes in the first three minutes of the second, the Warriors maintained their lead throughout the rest of the half and took a 32-26 lead into the locker room.
 
The Cardinals held tough with the Warriors through the third quarter, but despite cutting the deficit down to two points twice in the period, could not get the score even or take the lead as Tech's defense stiffened up to the tune of a 6-20 performance from the Cardinals in the third.
 
The fourth quarter belonged to Andrews as she scored 11 of her 24 points in the final 10 minutes of play. Concordia tied the game up at 45 two possessions into the period, but a jumper from Andrews ensured the lead stayed with the Orange and Black that was followed up with a triple from the Fort Wayne native and two free throws from Hill to make it a 52-45 lead with 8:02 to go. Tech seemed to earn control of the game as an old-fashioned three-point play from Andrews pushed the lead to 61-53 with just a tick over 50 seconds left on the clock, but the Cardinals would not go down without a fight. Back-to-back three-point plays from Concordia's Katie Snow brought the visitors within four points and just under 28 seconds to play, but those would be the last buckets they would score as Tech held on to win the conference tournament and clinch the WHAC's second automatic bid to the NAIA National Championship.
 
Tech (26-2) now awaits to see their destination in the NAIA National Championship Opening Round, where they can go to one of eight sites, with the winners of those sites advancing to Sioux City, Iowa where the final 16 teams will look to finish out the tournament. The NAIA National Championship Selection Show will air on the NAIA's Facebook page on Thursday, March 4 at 7 p.m. ET.