WILMINGTON, Del. – Bolstered by a dynamic triple-double performance from Julia Martinez, third-seeded Saint Louis outgunned No. 1 overall Massachusetts in the highest-scoring Atlantic 10 Championship final since 1995, clinching the program's first-ever league title behind a 91-85 overtime victory Saturday afternoon at CHASE Fieldhouse.
With the win, the Billikens receive the Atlantic 10 Conference's automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament, another first for SLU. The NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament bracket will be officially released at 8 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. CT the evening of Sunday, March 12 on ESPN.
For the A-10 All-Championship team, Martinez was joined by SLU teammates Brooke Flowers and Kyla McMakin while UMass' Ber'Nyah Mayo along with Richmond's Addie Budnik rounded the squad. Martinez, who concluded the three-contest tournament averaging 12.6 points and 8.6 boards per game in addition to 22 total assists and 12 steals, earned recognition as the A-10 Championship Most Outstanding Player.
Saint Louis head coach Rebecca Tillett, who took over the Billikens program less than a year ago, now serves as the first head coach since Dayton's Shauna Green in 2017 to secure the A-10 Championship during her initial campaign within the league.
“When you’re working with a team, you’re striving to hit that mark of playing at our absolute best for a long period of time,” Tillett said. “With this team, that message keeps resonating with us.”
Martinez guided the Billikens throughout the contest, notching her first-career triple-double behind a 17-point, 13-board, 12-assist effort. The triple-double serves as just the second in Saint Louis history following a Brooke Flowers 10-point, 18-rebounds, 11-block outing earlier this season in a victory over George Mason.
McMakin led all scorers with 27 points, setting the single-season program record in the process, while Flowers recorded 13 points with seven boards, delivering on her preseason promise to her teammates to win a championship.
“It feels unreal,” Flowers, the A-10 Co-Defensive Player of the Year, stated. “I’m so thankful to everyone in this program and my teammates for making all of this possible. All of our hard work and everything we’ve gone through together has just brought us to this moment. I’m so thankful I decided to stay here for my final year of basketball, it couldn’t have turned out any better.”
Kennedy Calhoun and Peyton Kennedy contributed 15 points apiece as well to the Saint Louis victory.
Notably, the Billikens also shot at a stunning 81.8 percent from the charity stripe, critically sinking 10-of-12 throughout the overtime period.
On the opposite side, Sydney Taylor paced the Minutewomen with 18 points, including a clutch triple from the top of the key to send the game into overtime. Repeat Atlantic 10 Player of the Year Sam Breen also put together a solid performance, posting a 17-point, 11-rebound double-double on the afternoon.
Angelique Ngalakulondi added 15 points while Mayo chipped in with 14 points of her own. Destiney Philoxy chalked up 12 points and Stefanie Kulesza tied a career high with six rebounds.
“I left the locker room, obviously a team that is highly upset, and I told them to hold up their heads and that it’s been a great ride,” Massachusetts head coach Tory Verdi said. “I appreciate the journey that they’ve taken us on and they should be proud, we’ve won a lot of games. Today wasn’t our day. I’m super proud of our fight and effort. It’s really hard to win championships, and while we’re not leaving as A-10 champions, being champions in the regular season is something we’re proud of.”
Just the third-ever overtime championship final in conference history, the contest finished with 14 total ties along with nine lead changes.
Both teams got off to fast starts on the offensive end, with UMass establishing both an inside and outside presence by converting its first five shots from the field, while the Billikens struggled to connect from three-point range.
The Minutewomen led by as many as five points in the first quarter, but a late SLU charge led to a knotted the score after one quarter. UMass punched back in the second frame, but Saint Louis utilized a 16-6 run to open up a four-point advantage. Massachusetts recovered back to an even mark at the midway break behind multiple back-to-back successful plays, capping the stretch with a Makennah White buzzer-beater.
Following a relatively balanced third, SLU bounded out to an eight-point edge early in the fourth, but a Minutewomen rally down the stretch vaulted UMass on top, memorably finishing off a Breen three-pointer.
McMakin again steadied with Saint Louis attack with a pull-up jumper, resecuring a one-point advantage for the Billkens; a pair of made free throws late stretched the edge to three, a margin closed by Taylor on her game-tying buzzer-beater.
“It was just knowing that we had five minutes left to play and it wasn’t over yet,” Taylor said.
Following a slow start for both squads, McMakin continued her clutch play late-game play, burying a go-ahead shot from beyond the arc to kickstart a 12-0 Billikens run. During that stretch, Martinez one-handed a key rebound, dishing out a pass to Peyton Kennedy for two free throws that put the game away.
“Everyone was telling me that we needed a rebound,” Martinez recalled. “I know getting that ball and us getting another 20 seconds on offense is what was going to help this team, so I just did my best to get that board, saw an opening to get it to Peyton and that’s exactly what I did.”