Kortney Smith wasn’t going to let a few bumps and bruises keep her off the floor in Haskell Indian Nations University’s women’s basketball game against Waldorf College.

The Indians’ junior point guard played all but three minutes – when she was receiving treatment after taking a charge halfway through the first half – in Haskell’s 61-54 victory over the college from Forest City, Iowa.

“One thing about Kortney is, not only is she a good athlete and a well-conditioned athlete, but she’s been doing those things since she was little,” HINU coach Phil Homeratha said. “The first time I ever saw her, she came through her grandpa’s house doing handsprings. She grew up on a horse and was a barrel racer, so she’s been around stuff her entire life to where she’s a natural athlete and very resilient.”

Despite some obvious lingering effects from her fall in the first half, Smith scored 14 of her game-high 21 points in the second half. Most of Smith’s 21 points came from the charity stripe as she converted 12 of 14 free throws for the game.

After falling behind by 10 points during Smith’s absence, the Indians got the momentum back on their side by closing out the final four minutes of the half on an 11-0 run to take a 29-28 lead into the break.

“I think that was from our press,” Homeratha said. “It’s not an all-sell-out press all the time, but their big girls have to come down the floor now, and they can’t get their high-low game set up. If we let them do that, we’re going to send them to the foul line.”

The Haskell full-court press also was effective in the second half as HINU held Waldorf scoreless over a seven-minute period and prevented a Warriors basket over a nine minute stretch.

Most importantly, the Indians were 9-of-10 from the free-throw line when the Warriors began fouling in desperation over the final two minutes.

“We shot good from the free-throw line tonight,” said Homeratha, whose squad was 20-for-26 from the line. “I knew it was going to come down to a game after they beat us by seven earlier this year. So it was important we made those.”

The Indians were fortunate the Warriors had issues shooting the ball – making just 30 percent of their shot attempts – with the way Waldorf was rebounding the ball.

Waldorf snagged 42 rebounds in the contest, with 19 of them coming on the offensive glass.

“I challenged my girls at half time. I said ‘You’re playing weak. You’re not playing very physical,'” Homeratha said. “I told them, ‘Give me a foul where you put your butt in somebody and clear them out of the lane.’ I talk to them about this every day. In the first half, that just killed us. We’re way ahead if we eliminate that.”