Alabama women’s wheelchair basketball ended its season on a 13-game winning streak and with a national championship title after a nail-biting win over Illinois on March 19.

Not only did this national championship win mark the program’s eighth national title; it marked the third national title win in a row for the Crimson Tide.

There are seven new players on the team this year, and five of them are freshmen.

“We were just a completely new team from the last few years,” head coach Ryan Hynes said. “We knew we had a long way to go from day one to now. So, the coolest part for me was just seeing that growth and development day to day. We’re a different team than we were day one.”

The Crimson Tide finished the season with an overall record of 25-3 and a 13-1 conference record. The team dropped two games at home and one on the road, and had a 1-0 record at neutral sites.

Alabama entered the National Wheelchair Basketball Association Women’s National Tournament Bracket as the No. 1 seed to defend its 2021 national title. After a 69-32 drubbing of No. 4 Wisconsin-Whitewater in the semifinals, Alabama set up a showdown with Illinois in the championship game in Arlington, Texas.

The Crimson Tide faced the Illinois Fighting Illini four times in the regular season, with a record of three wins and one loss. The Fighting Illini outscored the Crimson Tide 15-6 in the third quarter to recover from a 30-19 deficit after the Tide dominated the first half.

The national championship win came down to a buzzer beater by senior Lindsey Zurbrugg. Hynes said that Zurbrugg and all team members have “put in a lot of work this year, and [the win] made for a very happy bus ride back, that’s for sure.”

It wasn’t the cleanest nor the most perfect game from the Crimson Tide, but the team’s collaborative effort was enough in the end. 

“We didn’t play a perfect game by any means, but everyone did their job, and we made all the plays we needed to make,” Hynes said. “The team message through the entire season, but especially in the leadup to the championship game, was to not worry about what other teams were doing, and to just play the way Alabama had played all season.” 

Hynes and the team particularly focused on “praising the little things” leading up to the program’s eighth title, including the steals, picks and defensive stops. While he celebrated the championship win, Hynes said the title win is just a symbol of the hard work the women on the team have put in from the end of the 2021 season to now.  

“I’m just super happy and pleased for them,” Hynes said. “[This win] is just a testament to all the work that everyone put in, from our managers to our players to our staff. Everyone worked to make this happen and make this possible, and I’m just so grateful for everybody.”

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