Before Mississippi University for Women disbanded its intercollegiate athletics program after the 2002-03 season, the school's women's basketball program brought the first beams of national attention to athletics at the University. So, it somehow seemed only fitting that – when intercollegiate competition was finally reinstated some 14 years later – it would be women's basketball that would once again be the first to shine brightly by winning the United States Collegiate Athletic Association (USCAA) championship in its first year back as a program in 2018-19.
After all, before there was the AIAW – and long before the NCAA adopted athletics for women – The W won the 1971 National Invitational Women's Intercollegiate Basketball Tournament national championship. Just a year before Title IX became the law of the land, the Blues – as the team was known then - rolled through that NIT tourney and left some big-name programs in their wake. On its march to the school's first national championship in any team sport, The W defeated the likes of defending champion Cal State-Fullerton, East Stroudsburg State, North Carolina-Greensboro, and West Chester State. During the regular season, The W picked up wins over Ole Miss, Texas, Tarleton State, Texas Tech, and Southern Mississippi.
Fast forward to the 2018-19 women's basketball season, with a pre-existing high bar already in place for the program's restart campaign. And the Owls did not disappoint, amassing a 21-6 record that culminated in the USCAA crown after finishing the year on a seven-game win streak.
When The W ladies arrived in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, for the USCAA championships, they quickly set the tone for the tournament, which was akin to General Sherman going through Atlanta. MUW won its three games by an average of 24.0 points per game. The W topped Silver Lake College, 83-48, in its opening game, followed by a 73-59 win over Paul Quinn College in the semifinals.
In the title tilt, the Owls screeched past the University of Maine-Fort Kent, 69-46, including dumping 31 points on UM-FK in the fourth quarter alone.
Three MUW players – Qiayon Bailey, Tenahzia Hinkson, and Keyahna Jones – all earned USCAA All-American honors. Howard White was the USCAA Coach of the Year.
And The W women's basketball team provided a pivotal foundational piece for the fledgling Owls Athletics program to build upon during its new phase of the program's history.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
(First in a series of vignettes counting down the top-10 storylines and moments from The W Athletics program's first decade, after being reinstated in 2017-18. Previously, MUW had a long and storied tradition in athletics, dating back to the early 1900s and all the way through 2003, when intercollegiate competition was discontinued at the school.)
