‘Try again.’ Historic season for Transylvania women’s basketball ends in Elite Eight.
The Transylvania women’s basketball team promotes a culture of “try again.”
It’s something head coach Juli Fulks preaches to her players, an explanation for the significant and sustainable success Fulks has had at Transy in recent years.
But to try something again, you must first attempt it, sometimes for the first time.
On Saturday night, Transy played in the Elite Eight of the NCAA Division III women’s basketball tournament for the first time in school history.
The Pioneers entered the game with a perfect 27-0 record, the only women’s basketball team still unbeaten at the NCAA Division III level.
But Transy left the Clive M. Beck Center on the school’s campus near downtown Lexington with its first loss of the season, missing out on the first Final Four in school history after a 54-47 loss to Trine University of Angola, Ind.
It was a place Transy had never been before, and the hope for Fulks is that after coming up short at the first try, the Pioneers will soon be able to try again.
“Anytime anybody makes a mistake, the first thing they say is, ‘Let me do it again,’” Fulks said. “There’s no mental part of ‘I failed.’ It’s just, ‘OK, next time.’ Eventually today will be ‘OK, next time.’”
“It encourages you to not get down on yourself and keep doing it until you can get it right,” junior guard Madison Kellione, a former player at Harrison County High School who led Transy with 15 points on Saturday night, said. “I think that’s why we’ve had so much success is because when we mess up (Fulks) lets us try again until we get there. And I think that will go into the future as well.”
Transy’s season-ending loss to Trine (28-3) shouldn’t take away from a historic season for the Pioneers program.
Transy was the last remaining team to lose in NCAA Division III, and had scored at least 63 points in every game this season prior to Saturday’s Elite Eight loss.
The run to the Elite Eight was the deepest NCAA Tournament foray in program history, surpassing a trip to the Sweet 16 in 2019, which was the last time an NCAA Tournament occurred at the Division III level before this season.
In league play, Transy claimed the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference regular-season title and a fourth-straight HCAC Tournament title.
In doing so, the Pioneers extended one of the longest winning streaks in all of college basketball: Transy hasn’t lost a home conference game since Dec. 9, 2017, which was 1,556 days ago as of Sunday.
Transy’s 27-1 final record marks the best winning percentage for a season in school history.
“The first thing I said when we got in the locker room is, ‘That game doesn’t take away from the season we had,’” Kellione said. “We had a great run and I would not want to play on any other team than this team. We have such a tight group and it’s fun every day we get to take the court with each other.”
The undoing of Transy’s perfect season was a cold shooting night and foul trouble, which left the Pioneers chasing the game with unusual lineups on the court.
Junior forward Laken Ball picked up two fouls in the first quarter and had four fouls with more than five minutes still to play in the third quarter, and played just 19 minutes.
Ball averaged more than 25 minutes played per game entering Saturday.
“She’s a piece of what we do and we weren’t able to find answers without her,” Fulks said.
Transy led 19-8 after the first quarter, but lost the lead for good in the second quarter while being outscored 21-4 by the Thunder. Transy was then outscored 12-4 in the third quarter by Trine.
The Pioneers trailed by 14 points entering the fourth quarter. Despite keeping Trine from scoring for more than six minutes to start the final period, Transy could only get as close as five points to tying the game.
“We did everything we needed to do on defense. We just couldn’t put the ball in,” Fulks said.
In addition to Kellione’s 15 points, Transy got nine points from both Ball and junior guard Kennedi Stacy. Junior forward Dasia Thornton and Stacy also had 10 rebounds each.
“I know this group’s never going to quit and they didn’t quit. They put together a good run,” Fulks said. “Just needed a few more shots to fall. We had some great looks inside. ... We had some free throws. We just couldn’t get the ball to go in, and sometimes that happens.”
“That’s kind of the whole part of March Madness,” Fulks added. “At the end of the day that ball has to go in. When it doesn’t it makes things a lot harder.”
Even as the historic season came to a close, reasons to remember it were evident.
A full crowd packed the Beck Center on Friday and Saturday nights, the vast majority supporting Transylvania.
A loud student section Saturday featured fans in banana and Batman costumes.
A cheering section behind the Transy bench spelled out Fulks’ name in big letters, along with a cardboard cutout of her face.
Transy’s women’s basketball team went to a place it had never been before and came up short.
The value in this experience will be when it returns, which could be soon.
Transy will return four of five starters next season.
When reflecting on the season and its accomplishments, Fulks focused on off-court obstacles as much as on-court ones.
Fulks referenced one player’s father dying, and another player’s father suffering a severe stroke.
Fulks said that for two months of the season, Transy was focused mainly on just having players at practice.
“You don’t know how that stuff is going to affect each other, but they showed up and had each other’s backs,” Fulks explained. “I think in a lot of ways this year, this group played fiercely and didn’t feel the pressure because there were just so many other things that were going on that were much bigger and much harder (than) being on the court.”
