Olivet Nazarene Makes History With Women's Basketball Tournament Title
BOURBONNAIS, Ill. --- Top-seeded Olivet Nazarene University made history on Saturday afternoon, capturing both the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference women's basketball regular-season and tournament championships in the same season for the first time in school history. The Tigers did so by eking out an 81-80 victory over No. 3 seed Indiana University South Bend in the tournament title game at McHie Arena.
The one-point win was the second one this month against the Titans and resulted in a season sweep of the three games played between the two teams this year. ONU also bested IUSB 86-85 on Feb. 11.
Indiana South Bend (23-8) had two good looks at the basket in the closing seconds, but missed on a three-pointer with five seconds to play and a rebounded shot with one second left. That denied the Titans of gaining the conference's second automatic bid to the NAIA National Tournament Opening Round. Instead, it will go to University of St. Francis, which placed second during the regular season.
The game was back-and-forth for much of the first half before Olivet Nazarene (25-6) took the lead for good on an Ava Mikesell three-pointer with under one minute remaining in the second quarter.
ONU eventually got the margin up to as many as 10 points at 60-50 with 1:35 left to play in the third quarter before Indiana South Bend kept chipping away. Trailing by nine points with 5:26 remaining, the Titans used a pair of three-pointers and one traditional three-point play to make it an 81-80 game with 45 seconds left.
Olivet Nazarene then missed on its final scoring opportunity with 29 seconds remaining to keep IUSB's hopes alive. The Titans, however, came up empty on their final two shots in falling one-point short in the end again.
As always, points off turnovers were crucial for the Tigers. They outscored IUSB 31-11 in that category courtesy of 24 Indiana South Bend miscues. ONU also hit 16 of its 34 three-point attempts (.471), while the Titans were 12-of-28 (.429). Overall, IUSB shot 50 better than percent from the field (.508, 30-of-59) to Olivet's .414 reading (29-of-70).
ONU had a balanced attack in the scoring column with six players contributing at least eight points. Lindsey Nell led the way with 14 markers, five rebounds and four assists. She was also 4-of-6 from three-point range. Olivia Dirkse collected another 13 points.
For Indiana South Bend, Aubrie Booker was unstoppable to the tune of 32 points on 12-of-20 shooting (5-of-11 from beyond the arc). Teammate Tenleigh Phelps also supplied a double-double of 21 points and ten boards.
Olivet Nazarene, which captured its first tournament title since 2021, now heads to the NAIA National Tournament Opening Round March 13-14. Playoff sites and pairings will be announced on Thursday.
The complete tournament results follow:
Tuesday, February 24, 2026
Game #1: No. 1 seed Olivet Nazarene 109, No. 8 seed Holy Cross 87
Game #2: No. 5 seed Governors State 60, No. 4 seed Saint Xavier 61
Game #3: No. 7 seed St. Ambrose 68, No. 2 seed St. Francis 66
Game #4: No. 3 seed Indiana South Bend 71, No. 6 seed Viterbo 65
Thursday, February 26, 2026 (at site of highest remaining seed)
Game #5: No. 1 seed Olivet Nazarene 82, No. 5 seed Governors State 68
Game #6: No. 3 seed Indiana South Bend 74, No. 7 seed St. Ambrose 65
Saturday, February 28, 2026 (at site of highest remaining seed)
Game #7: No. 1 seed Olivet Nazarene 81, No. 3 seed Indiana South Bend 80