Kirkwood heading back to national tournament

CEDAR RAPIDS — Kirkwood women’s basketball has earned the chance to defend its national championship.

The top-ranked team in Division II of the National Junior College Athletic Association, the undefeated Eagles, officially clinched a spot in the national tournament after steamrolling United Tribes Technical College, 90-49, in a district championship game Saturday at Johnson Hall.

“They’re pretty resilient,” said Kirkwood Coach Kim Muhl, who has directed the program for the past 36 years. “We’ve got a lot of kids that can score. That always helps when somebody is not scoring. And they like each other. That’s a big thing. They really guarded today.”

This will be Kirkwood’s fifth trip in a row to nationals and 23rd in program history. The Eagles (31-0) will try to win the 10th national championship in program history — and third in the last four years — when the national tournament begins March 17 in Joplin, Mo.

Kirkwood has won an NJCAA Division-II women’s basketball record 52 games in a row.

“We can play with anybody,” said Kirkwood sophomore guard Jenna Twedt, a Benton Community graduate. “I think we are one of the ‘best of the best.’ If we keep playing the way we do and stay confident in each other, we’ll do just fine.”

The victory was the 71st home win in a row for Kirkwood (also a NJCAA Division-II women’s basketball national record). Twedt led all scorers with 25 points, while sophomore post Lizzy Puot added 20. Twedt and Puot are two of six players on the Kirkwood roster that were on last season’s national championship team that finished 35-2.

“It means a lot,” Puot said. “We worked hard since the jump and coming off of last year, we went through a lot of adversity and we just want to make sure, us sophomores, make sure we’ll have a lot of leadership, we’ll have a lot of strength just coming in with our team. The goal was to build a stronger chemistry.”

Former Cedar Rapids Kennedy prep Kaliyah Sain registered 14 points and led Kirkwood with eight rebounds and six assists, while freshman Olivia Wren recorded four steals.

Alionna Lawrence posted 16 points and 11 rebounds for United Tribes Tech, which ended its season at 17-14.

Should Kirkwood win it all again, it would be the first team in NJCAA Division-II women’s basketball to complete an undefeated season since it went 37-0 in 2017.

“Just go one game at a time,” Muhl said. “Don’t get cocky because basketball, any sport, is pretty humbling quick. They bought in to being humble. That’s a big thing.”