ELIZABETH CITY, N.C. — Two years ago, as a coach with no prior head coaching experience, Elizabeth City State took a chance on Tynesha Lewis.
Since then, she’s brought the Lady Vikings to two consecutive CIAA appearances. In her second season, her team made school history notching the programs first ever CIAA championship.
“You’re not really going to appreciate the sunshine if you don’t have any rain,” ECSU guard NyAsia Blango said on the team’s loss in last year's CIAA championship.
Coach Lewis wanted that feeling to stay with her players, so she called a timeout in the final minute and told them to soak in the feeling.
“We just sat there during the timeout and didn’t say any words and just watched Lincoln over there celebrate,” she said.
“We bottled all that up as motivation for the next year and this group knew that anything other than a championship wasn’t going to do it.”
With just five returners, the Lady Vikings rebuilt their entire team and still found their way back to the CIAA title game with a 22-10 regular season record.
This year’s championship opponent was Shaw, a team the Lady Vikings lost to in both previous meetings, including one week prior on Senior Night.
“Shaw never saw us play well. We didn’t play well there, and we didn’t play well here so my message before the game was just introduce them to ECSU women’s basketball because they haven’t met you yet,” said Lewis. “And that’s what they did.”
With some stingy defense, limiting Shaw to 25% shooting for the contest, and an all too familiar feeling of being on the other side, Elizabeth City knocked off the Lady Bears 55-40, making history in the process as the programs first team to ever win a conference title.
“It was just like finally, we got what we worked all year for,” Blango said, who was named Tournament MVP.
“I love being the first. One thing about being the first is that there will never be another," Lewis said.
"There might be a second, third, or fourth but there will never be another first when your name is etched in history forever.”
Now, this year’s ECSU women’s basketball team can be introduced as both the first Lady Vikings squad to ever win the CIAA title and the first to reach the NCAA Division II Tournament.
The Lady Vikings will take on Glenville State on Friday, March 10, at 5:00 p.m. at the Waco Center on the campus of Glenville State.