Ara Baten called his team a 'special' group — after a special win on a special weekend.

The Odessa College women's basketball team upset No. 2 Trinity Valley 60-57 on Saturday in Midland's Chaparral Center, earning the Lady Wranglers their third win over top-15 teams in three days throughout a shining run to win the Midland College National Invitational Tournament for the first time in school history.

Trinity Valley Community College entered the weekend ranked as the second-best team in junior college basketball by the NJCAA. Unranked Odessa College ripped through No. 13 Eastern Arizona College 73-64 Thursday before taking down No. 6 Salt Lake Community College 59-49 Friday en route to Saturday's showdown.

Leticia Soares scored 18 points and pulled down 13 rebounds while Mariah McCully added another 15 points in Saturday's back-and-forth contest with Trinity Valley.

By the end, Odessa College (8-0) was lifting the tournament trophy after three wins over three of the nation's elite teams.

"You've got special kids and they come together and they decide they want to do something — and it's pretty cool," Baten said.

Of course, nothing came easy for the Lady Wranglers Saturday.

Odessa College held a five-point lead over Trinity Valley at halftime, but the Lady Wranglers saw that lead slip away as the Lady Cards retook the lead and seemed to take control of the game in the third quarter.

That's when Odessa College rose to the challenge and took the championship in the fourth.

"We're the type of team — we like to fight, we like to eat, we like to grind," McCully said after the win. "We just try to keep each other up."

Baten said Saturday's win was all on the players, and that resiliency they showed throughout the victory.

"I think sometimes the execution is still not perfect, we get lost on defense some and we make some mistakes — but we're resilient, we compete, and we do all those little intangible things that really, really good teams do," Baten said.

"If we can just clean up some of the basketball stuff, we've got a chance to be special."

McCully scored 12 in the first half while Soares added 10, lifting the Lady Wranglers to a 28-23 lead at the break.

But that's when the nation's second-ranked team made its move, as Trinity Valley opened the third quarter on a 9-3 run, while holding Odessa College to just one field goal and those three points through the first eight minutes of the quarter.

From there, the teams exchanged free throws until the score moved to 34-34. That's when McCully's three-point play put the Lady Wranglers back on top, as she drew a foul on a baseline shot, netted it, then made the free throw to make it 37-34 with 44 seconds remaining in the third quarter.

Then, after a defensive stop, LaLa Robinson's jump shot with five seconds left in the quarter put Odessa College up 39-34 going into the fourth.

Trinity Valley challenged again early in the fourth, hitting back-to-back baskets to tie the game at 39, but Odessa College had another answer.

Soares nailed a jumper at the top of the key to put the Lady Wranglers back in front, and then, after a Robinson 3-pointer, the Lady Wranglers corralled a steal before Destoni Willock found Chinna Fair in transition under the basket to put Odessa College in front 46-39 with 6:01 left in the game.

From there, the Lady Wranglers answered every challenge with a blow of their own. After Trinity Valley's Christalah Lyons cut the lead to 48-46 with a lay-in, Fair fired back with a 3-pointer to extend the lead back to five with just under 3:00 to go.

Trinity Valley again battled back to cut the lead to a single possession, when Lyons made it a 53-50 game with 1:40 left. But Soares found the basket again in response, and then came up with a steal in the Trinity Valley backcourt and took the ball all the way to the hoop to draw a foul, before sinking both free throws and putting Odessa College up by seven.

The Lady Wranglers hit free throws down the stretch as they needed; Fair's free-throw gave the game its final score with one-half second remaining on the scoreboard, and Trinity Valley's desperation heave fell wide.

"Just the resiliency — those are the things I'm really proud of them for," Baten said. "Those intangibles that those kids bring to the table that go beyond from what we do from an X and O standpoint. That's all about them."

The win marks the first time Odessa College has won Midland College's NIT.

"We made history," McCully said. "We're happy that we're showing our fans what they've been waiting for. They've been encouraging us to go for the national championship, so that's what we're grinding for."

This year marked the seventh edition of the tournament, which has brought some of the nation's best teams together for an early-season challenge. Odessa College has competed in each one, never winning until Saturday night.

"It's such a great tournament and such a neat thing for us to be a part of and it's really cool to win it," Baten said.

Of course, while happy with the win, Baten insisted the Lady Wranglers still have "a long way to go", and a long season ahead of them.

"We were better this week than we were last week," Baten said. "We want to be better next week than we are this week. If we just continue to do those things, and we can keep some of what they've got, and get a little better with the basketball, then we've got a chance."

Indeed, the ever-hungry Lady Wranglers echoed the sentiment. Soares said she and her teammates were excited and happy with the win — if only it meant the team is on the right path.

"We feel pretty good," Fair added. "We're still undefeated. It's only the beginning. We've got a long way to go. We're going to keep working. But we feel real good.

"Winning this for the first time for Odessa, it's really the best feeling. Coming in, working hard, we knew it was going to be a tough game. Trinity Valley is a really good team — so we just came and played as a team."

Article by Justin Lee OA.