‘We’re not losing this game.’ National champion Transylvania completes undefeated season.

With 100 seconds left in a tied basketball game, six women stood on the court of the spacious American Airlines Center, determined to make sure that whatever happened next shaped their lives for the better.

The Transylvania women’s basketball team’s Laken Ball, Kennedy Harris, Madison Kellione, Kennedi Stacy, Dasia Thornton and head coach Juli Fulks found themselves in as pressure-packed a situation as possible: a tied NCAA Division III national championship game between two undefeated teams, and momentum was swinging in favor of the opponent.

Adding to the chaos of the closing moments between Transylvania and Christopher Newport University? The fact that the Pioneers had won 31 of their previous 32 games this season by double digits, depriving Transy of any similar late-game scenarios.

The Pioneers handled the situation with the poise of a deserving national champion.

Transy scored 10 seconds after that on-court huddle, then executed again when the game was tied with less than a minute left to claim its first NCAA Division III national championship, 57-52.

“I don’t actually quite remember the exact words,” Thornton, a senior forward, said postgame when asked by the Herald-Leader to recall what was said between the players and their coach. “It was probably something along the lines of, ‘Just take it one possession at a time.’”

“Anytime we’ve ever been in a close game along our careers, we’ve always said, ‘We’re not losing this game,’” Kellione, a senior guard, added. “We stuck by that and we used that to drive us.”

The culminating moments of an undefeated 33-0 season saw Transy’s players trust in the process implemented by Fulks, whose continued success on the hardwood now has the payoff of a national championship.

Saturday’s title game — played in front of a lively crowd, the majority of whom wore black in support of the Pioneers — tested the core tenets Fulks has preached.

Transy trailed by nine points in the first quarter and led by 13 in the third quarter.

Both margins were rendered irrelevant when the game was tied with less than 60 seconds to go.

A layup by Thornton — Transylvania’s talismanic post player who holds aspirations of one day becoming the president of the United States — with 43 seconds left gave the Pioneers the lead for good.

A defensive stop followed, and Kellione kept her cool from the free-throw line to help seal the win.

“It’s something that I can add onto my résumé,” Thornton said of how the national title could help her become president.

In a college basketball-crazed state, the Transylvania women’s program has clearly distinguished itself as the most consistent, something that was already true, regardless of Saturday’s result.

Transy has won 60 of its last 61 games overall. The last four seasons have seen the Pioneers compile an overall record of 99-10.

Five consecutive Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference titles showed Transylvania had the chops to compete with college basketball’s best.

Now a national title has arrived in the school’s first trip to the Final Four.

When asked by the Herald-Leader what separated this season’s Transylvania team from the others, Fulks spoke about rebounding and playing a defensive zone.

Then, she spoke about the Pioneers as people.

“They’re just competitors and they hate to lose and they don’t lose very often,” Fulks said. “I think that mentality has carried us any time that we’ve struggled.”

Transylvania’s star players shine bright on biggest stage

A quality befitting any successful college basketball team is having its best players show up in the biggest moments.

A trio of Transy stars more than met that qualification Saturday,

Kellione — who averaged 15.3 points and 3.5 rebounds per game — led all scorers in the national championship game with 17 points, and she also added seven rebounds. She was named the Most Outstanding Player of the NCAA Tournament, a far cry from being sidelined during her freshman season with a torn right ACL.

Stacy had 11 rebounds along with a whopping eight steals as she displayed her mile-a-minute playing style.

Thornton — who averaged 12.2 points and 9.8 rebounds per game — provided exactly what was expected of her: 13 points and 10 rebounds. She was the only player in the game to record a double-double, and did so while consuming her signature Dunkin’ Donuts vanilla iced coffee on the bench, albeit in an NCAA-approved cup.

And this is to say nothing of Fulks, whose serene coaching style allows her to adapt to her players, and vice versa.

A private moment in this vein became public during Transylvania’s postgame press conference.

Last May, members of the team took a leadership class, which included studying the book “The Five Dysfunctions Of A Team” by Patrick Lencioni.

Fulks had her players fill out a “dream card” before and after studying the book.

On Saturday, Transy’s three players at the media press conference — Kellione, Stacy and Thornton — brought their dream cards with them.

Previously, the cards were taped to the back of Fulks’ office drawer.

“It says national championship on every one of them,” Fulks said. “Right or wrong, we pulled (them) out before the game. So we took the court, and I think everybody was crying.”

“It means the world to us to actually see a dream come to fruition and to see all our hard work pay off,” Kellione said. “Nearly every day in practice we’re talking about our goal, and we did everything we could to reach it.”

Fulks makes impact with players, on and off the court

Full-circle moments were everywhere to be found with the Pioneers on Saturday, especially when it came to those three seniors praising Fulks for what she’s done for them.

“She is the most amazing coach I’ve ever played for,” Kellione said, and Fulks bowed her head when the compliment was paid. “She’s a great role model and she’s there for us on the court, off the court. Just the effect she’s had on each of our lives is something we’re always going to remember, and I know we can call her any time when we’re done here and she’ll pick up the phone.”

“I’m grateful that she has bought into me as a person and as a player,” Stacy added. “She’s learned to trust me and I’ve learned to trust her.”

And for Fulks herself — who previously coached for 10 years at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon, and played in a Division III Final Four in 1997 — it was a chance to celebrate an accomplishment decades in the making.

“She knows our best interests. She tries to develop us into becoming the players that we are today,” Thornton said. “She’s definitely worked with us. Not just on the court, but off the court and made me become a better person overall.”

Greet the national champion Pioneers when they return

While Saturday’s national championship game was played in front of plenty of fans in Dallas — including the Transylvania volleyball team — watch parties closer to campus also brought together Transy alumni and fans.

From Lexington to Louisville, and all points in between, Transylvania fans tuned into the CBS Sports Network and wore black to support the Pioneers.

“It’s pretty overwhelming on some levels to see what this group has been able to do across the state,” Fulks said when the Herald-Leader asked about the totality of what her team has done this season.

“It’s a compliment to this group to have so much support.”

The Transylvania women’s basketball team will return to the school’s campus on a bus late Sunday night.

There will be a welcome home rally on Wednesday, April 5, at 3:30 p.m. at the Clive M. Beck Center on the school’s campus.

That previously scheduled rally now becomes the celebration of a national champion, with more parties to come in the future.

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