photo by: Cynthia Hernandez/Journal-World

The Haskell Indian Nations University women's basketball team celebrates their victory over Northern New Mexico in the Continental Athletic Conference championship on Sunday, March 2, 2025, at Coffin Sports Complex in Lawrence, Kansas.

The Haskell Indian Nations University women’s basketball team knocked off top-seeded Northern New Mexico 57-52 in the Continental Athletic Conference championship game on Sunday night at Coffin Sports Complex, earning an automatic bid to the NAIA Tournament after a one-year absence from the competition.

The Fighting Indians’ season continues, as does the tenure of head coach Adam Strom, who has committed to continue to coach the team despite having been laid off by the university as part of a slew of recent firings of Haskell employees.

Senior guard Mahpiya Irving led Haskell with a season-high 20 points and nine rebounds on a night when the Fighting Indians shot 30.8% and the Eagles shot 28.8%. Juniors Tierzah Penn and Myona Dauphinais added 11 and 10 points, respectively.

The only other player in double figures was Northern New Mexico’s Briana Marquez, who went 4-for-4 on 3s as the rest of her team was a combined 3-for-23.

Haskell had trailed 41-38 entering the final quarter but opened the period with 10 straight points. Northern New Mexico cut its deficit back to three points with 21 seconds left on a layup by Maesyn Lopez, but Irving and Janae Kalama made two late free throws each.

The Fighting Indians made a similar sort of response in the first half, when they trailed 17-10 to close the first quarter but managed to tie the game midway through the second on a bucket by Dauphinais and effectively traded baskets for the rest of the period.

Marquez scored five points as part of an 8-0 run that put Northern New Mexico up 41-33 but did not score for the following seven minutes and 34 seconds.

The NAIA selection show will occur at 6 p.m. on Thursday, and then the first round of the tournament is set for March 14-15. Haskell’s last trip to the tournament in 2023 was as a No. 16 seed, and it lost 84-59 to top-seeded Central Methodist.