History was made in Champaign, Ill., last Saturday when the women’s wheelchair basketball team won its first national championship. The Warhawks defeated the three-time defending champs, the University of Alabama, 63-34.
“I could not be more excited and proud for our girls and for the program going forward,” coach Dan Price said. “To win a national title in only our fourth year as a program is amazing and this moment is why we get up at 5:30 a.m. every morning.”

The first test of the Final Four was the University of Illinois on Friday. The ’Hawks dispatched the Fighting Illini 61-43. They only managed to tie the ’Hawks once all game, and never took the lead.
It was a close game in the first half as the Illini went into the break down 30-20. The ’Hawks largest lead of the game was a 53-33 margin in the second half.The Fighting Illini’s 36 rebounds and 35.1 shooting percentage fell short of the ’Hawks totals of 41 rebounds and 46.8 shooting percentage.
“We faced a fired up Illinois team at home,” Price said. “Our defense did a great job of holding their shooting percentage down, and our rotations and transitions were great.”
The win set up a rematch with the team’s nemesis, the University of Alabama. The ’Hawks had already lost to the Crimson Tide twice this season, and fell to them in the title game last year.
Heading into the matchup, Price said both teams knew each other very well and that the most consistent team would come out on top.
“Alabama always gets to our shooters very well so we wanted to start off fast with a lot of energy,” Price said. “We had a three-hour film session the other day where we saw some things we could take advantage of.”
The result was different for the third showdown of the season between the ’Hawks and the Tide, and it was the most important yet.
The second game of the weekend turned out much like the first, with the ’Hawks crushing the opposition. Their defense proved to be too much for the Tide’s offense as they were held to just 16 points in the first half, and only managed 18 points in the second half. Alabama was 17 of 58 from the field with a 29.3 field goal percentage.
For the ’Hawks, junior Becca Murray had game-highs of 26 points, 14 rebounds and seven assists. Junior Mareike Adermann was second to Murray in the game with 17 points and 13 rebounds.
This is the first championship for the team since its creation in 2008. This season also marks the first senior class to graduate from the program. One of the seniors to leave the team as a champion is Sarah Binsfeld.
“It’s awesome to see where the program started and to see it come this far,” Binsfeld said. “We came into this weekend with one goal in mind, to win, and we said this time it’s our turn.”
“This whole experience has been amazing, and we had a great group of girls and coaches,” Binsfeld said. “I mean the way the support for the team has grown as time went by and the program was more recognized has been great.”