SANTA FE, N.M. - Winning the American Indian Higher Education Consortium National Championship Tournament was important for the Salish Kootenai College men's and women's basketball teams. They wanted to send SKC President Joe McDonald into his retirement on a good note. McDonald even traveled to see the games in person.

Both teams traveled south and swept the team and individual awards. This is the second year in a row both teams have taken home the title.

The women won with a decisive 72-57 win over Oglala Lakota College, while the men worked to a 109-103 victory over Northwest Indian College.

In addition to the two team titles, two Oustanding Player Awards were taken home to Pablo. Carla McLean and Gus McDonald each garnered the honors after successful team tournaments.

Lady Bison head coach Juan Perez said McLean's leadership and play on the court are two reasons she won the honor.

"She was always the go-to person down low for us," he said. "Nine out of 10 times, she would score."

McDonald joined the Bison after Christmas break and head coach Zachary Camel said he peaked at the right time.

"He's a real good team player," Camel said.

Lady Bison

After every game at the tournament, Lady Bison head coach Juan Perez wasn't handed any stat sheets. He wasn't given a breakdown of shooting percentages or fouls and wasn't able to see who attempted the most shots or made the most free throws.

And that's the way he liked it.

"It's about the team," he said. "It's just the final team scores that matter."

SKC worked as a team to repeat as champions this year. After winning 20 consecutive games, Perez has preached a team mentality. The Bison's last loss came over two months ago against Little Bighorn College. At the time, SKC was 3-7 on the season and looking to make some adjustments.

Fast forward to last weekend and the Bison were in top form, entering the tournament with a 16-7 record and never looking back.

The Bison traveled to Santa Fe, N.M., and played seven games in four days. Exhaustion wasn't an issue to Perez, who was confident in his team's conditioning even though Santa Fe sits at an elevation of 7,000 feet, more than double that of Pablo.

"We work hard," he said. "It paid off."

When the team arrived on Wednesday, the players had a shoot-around to get loose and work out any jet leg, but the change in elevation was noticeable.

"We could tell we were higher," Perez said. "It was tough for some to catch their breath. I wasn't worried though, we were superior to the other team's conditioning."

The Bison rolled through pool play, going 4-0 and taking a top seed. SKC beat Navajo Technical College 62-21, Northwest Indian College 51-47, Chief Dull Knife College 56-35 and Fort Peck College 80-26.

Perez said some of the pool play games weren't very challenging for his team, but that wasn't necessarily a bad thing.

"I'm glad that some of those games were easy," he said. "It let the girls get their legs under them and we were able to fine tune some things."

The Bison worked on pushing the ball and improving their defense for tougher teams.

Before bracket play started, Perez told his team that the past doesn't matter.

"I told them ‘today is a new day. These teams want to knock out the champions.' Those bracket games were all tough games," he said.

In the first round, SKC beat Turtle Mountain College 96-67.

"The final score doesn't reflect how tough that game was," Perez said.

The Bison watched Turtle Mountain during pool play but the opponent came out stronger than SKC anticipated.

During the last 10 minutes, the Bison pulled away and put some distance in the score.

In the semi finals, the Bison matched up with Blackfeet Community College, a team the Bison had beat once during the season. Since that match-up, BCC had picked up a new player that improved its offense.

"They had that new girl," Perez said. "But, we knew the people we needed to contain. We knew what we needed to do."

The Bison got the job done with a 73-62 score and a berth to the title game against Oglala Lakota College. The Bison had beat OLC twice during the regular season.

The championship went back and forth and the Bison saw themselves down by 10 points during the first half.

"[OLC] is a good team," Perez said. "We knew it was going to be a tough game."

SKC rallied behind a strong defense. During the first half, the Bison ran man-to-man coverage but OLC kept slipping through the cracks. After halftime, the Bison switched to a zone defense and was able to contain their opponent. SKC rallied during the last five minute of the game to put it out of reach for OLC with a 72-57 win.

Perez said he felt relieved after SKC won the trophy.

"I didn't know how the new girls would respond to the competition," he said. "They did great."

After many highs and lows, capped off by a second championship in as many years has left Perez pleased with the season. The best part is the team, he said.

"They stuck together," he said. "They were a team. Anytime you can come away from a season and have the players be friends is great," he said. "Finishing on a 20-game winning streak doesn't hurt either."