As Penn State Beaver knows, not all college basketball national championships were canceled

In all her years of playing basketball, Penn State Beaver senior Cheyenne Lopez never cut down a net. That changed last Wednesday, and in earning that privilege, Lopez and the Lions might have become the answer to a trivia question.

What was the only women’s basketball team to win a national championship in 2020?

The NCAA men’s and women’s Division I and II tournaments were set to begin this week, but because of concerns over the spread of covid-19, the NCAA canceled those tournaments. The Division III tournaments were stopped in midstream, and the NAIA also canceled its men’s and women’s tournaments.

The United States Collegiate Athletic Association, however, staged its Division II men’s and women’s tournaments March 11 at Penn State Fayette. The next day, the USCAA decided to suspend its sports activities, meaning the Division I championships were not played.

In a March 12 release, the USCAA left the door open for playing the Division I championships at a later date. For now, Penn State Beaver is the only women’s basketball national champion for 2020.

Lopez said as soon as she left the on-court celebration, she had numerous phone calls and messages from family and friends from her hometown of Roswell, N.M.

“They’re out there telling everyone their daughter or grandchild is winning national championships,” she said.

This season was the first of a second stint at PSB for coach Tim Moore. He served on PSB’s staff as an assistant for three years and head coach for six before spending two seasons at Carlow.

He returned this season after Sean Strickland, the former men’s coach at Pitt-Greensburg, left Penn State Beaver to join the Muskingum women’s staff. Moore had recruited many of the current players, so familiarity wasn’t a problem.

“I knew to an extent … but I wasn’t really sure what to expect,” he said. “I knew how focused they were and how much they were driven to win.”

A stretch in early January showed Moore his team’s potential. In succession, the Lions defeated Maine-Fort Kent, which qualified for the USCAA Division I championship, and two of the better Penn State branches, Brandywine and Lehigh Valley.

Penn State Beaver (27-4) won the Penn State University Athletic Conference with a 17-0 mark, then captured the PSUAC Tournament title at Bryce Jordan Center. Junior guard Diamond Thomas (Carlynton) and sophomore Alexis Cross earned first-team All-American honors.

The biggest prize was still to come.

The Lions won their three USCAA Tournament games by an average of 14.3 points. Thomas earned tournament MVP honors, posting 19 points, nine rebounds, five assists and five steals in the 79-61 title-game win over Central Maine Community College.

“I guess it was surreal,” Thomas said. “We battled. Every team we played gave us a battle. Just having that moment with the final seconds counting down … it was amazing. Everything we talked about, we worked for, and we got it.”

Lopez saved her best for last. She had 26 points and 11 rebounds in the national championship game.

“She could very easily have been an All-American this year, but she played all year with two bad knees,” Moore said. “Our trainer doesn’t think she has any cartilage left in her knees. We had to monitor her minutes.”

Said Lopez: “It was pretty tough because I felt like I wasn’t doing a lot of justice for my team. But after a while, I realized I did what I had to, and that was my role. I was trying to save myself a little more for every game. When that final game came, my mindset was, ‘This is what you saved all for.’ “

Lopez said she also played with a partially torn MCL most of the season. She will be visiting a doctor in a couple of weeks, and, she said, surgery seems likely.

Her basketball career is over, but she is at peace with that notion.

“Saying goodbye to basketball wasn’t that hard,” she said, “because it ended the way I wanted.”