Joplin, MO: The Rock Valley College Women's Basketball team advances to the sweet sixteen round of the NJCAA DII National Tournament. The Golden Eagles, the #17 seed would defeat the #16 seed Niagara County Thunder Wolves in NJCAA DII Women's Basketball first round 89-85 in an overtime thriller.

The Golden Eagles would take an early lead jumping out on the Thunder Wolves by a score of 26 to 15 at the end of the first quarter. "We had energy, we were fired up for the moment and it showed with how our first half level of play was." stated Head Women's Basketball Coach Darryl Watkins. The Golden eagles would eventually build a 15 point lead heading into halftime 44-29.

The second half would be a tale of two games as Niagara would battle back cutting the Golden Eagle lead to four points heading into the 4^th quarter. Niagara would eventually take the lead with 2 minuets left in the game going up two points before a big 3pt shot from sophomore guard Mia Moore giving the Golden Eagles a 1 point lead. Niagara would score on back to back mid range jumpers from guard Isabella Karabetsos to give the Thunder Wolves a 3 point lead. At that moment Sydney Carlson would hit the biggest shot of the season to tie the game for Rock Valley to tie the game at 77 and eventually send the game into overtime.

The Golden Eagles would go on to command overtime and win by a final score of 89-85 over Niagara.
Rock Valley was lead by sophomore, Mia Moore with 33 points, 12 rebounds and 3 assist. Also making double figures for the Golden Eagles were, Amadea Montijo with 19 points, and 5 steals, Sydney Carlson with 10 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assist and Jhanel Coleman with 10 points. Missing double figures was Kennedy Buck with 9 points, 4 rebounds, 3 steals.

UP NEXT
The Golden Eagles will face off against the #1 overall seed Kirkwood Community College on Tuesday morning in the Leggett & Platt Center at 11am. Rock Valley and Kirkwood met back in November of this season where the Eagles beat the Golden Eagles 71-45.