By JOHN BOHNENKAMP

EVANSVILLE, Indiana — It was up to Mia Nicastro to carry the Ohio Valley Conference women’s basketball tournament championship trophy out of the post-game press conference.

“It’s a little heavy,” said Nicastro, hobbled by a sprained ankle that not long before had scared the Ford Center into an eerie silence.

The weight of that championship, and its regular-season copy, has been carried by Western Illinois all season — the beginning-to-end ride at the top of the standings from the win at Lindenwood in December that could have unraveled all of the Leathernecks’ hope to the regular-season loss against those same Lions last week that led to a share of the crown.

The Leathernecks walked out of Saturday’s tournament championship game, a winner-take-all third matchup with Lindenwood, with the final prizes — the trophy, and the automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament that goes with it.

The 71-65 win was built with the seniors who have stayed together in an era when so many are looking elsewhere, a sixth-year player who wanted a Division I opportunity, and younger players who aren’t so young because of the playing time they’ve gotten.

“These kids,” coach JD Gravina said, “just weren’t going to lose.”

The Leathernecks (26-5) have never let up since OVC play started.

Not when junior Raegan McCowan, their leading scorer the last two seasons, injured her elbow in the 74-65 win at Lindenwood on December 18 and wouldn’t return for the rest of the season.

Not when they were stung in road losses to UT-Martin, Morehead State and Tennessee State, and not when they fell 50-49 to Lindenwood last Saturday when they nearly rallied from a 16-point deficit.

It was a similar comeback by the same number that worked — down 16 in the third quarter in Friday’s 74-66 win over Southeast Missouri State — that made Gravina think that this was really going to be possible.

“It felt a little bit like fate,” Gravina said. “A little bit like destiny.”

“I think, just having the experience this season of being in close games, I think it sets us apart,” guard Allie Meadows said.

The championship was what they wanted, yet they still hadn’t come to the realization yet that, yep, this was all theirs.

“I’m kind of out of words,” Gravina said.

“I’m still looking at the scoresheet, saying, ‘Did we just play this game?’ said forward Mallory Shetley, a sixth-year transfer who came in to play a significant role off the bench but ended up starting 21 games in McCowan’s place and eventually becoming the most valuable player of the tournament. “But that was … that was amazing.”

“Mal said she was speechless,” Meadows said. “It’s true. I’m still trying to catch my breath after this game.”

Nicastro has already played in one NCAA Tournament in her career, during her freshman year at Saint Louis. This trip, though, will feel different, she said.

“Like you said, I’ve done it once before, but this time is so much more sweeter,” Nicastro said. “Because I know the work that we have put in — this is such a special and talented group of girls that are just all such good people, such good basketball players, that deserve this.”

Nicastro was the OVC’s player of the year this season, and she’s fourth in Division I play in scoring, but she has often talked about how coming to the Leathernecks saved her career.

She led the Leathernecks in this game with 21 points and 12 rebounds, but it was her return after a scary ankle injury that provided an emotional lift for a team that had led the entire game, but needed everything to fight off every thrust from the Lions (25-8).

Lindenwood outscored the Leathernecks 43-35 in the second half. Six of the Lions’ 14 second-half field goals were 3-pointers, five from Ellie Brueggemann, who finished with 21 points.

“There were a few times they made their runs, and I’m really proud of the team for just staying poised and not letting it get in their heads, not letting the moment get too big, and just playing our game,” Nicastro said.

Nicastro was injured with 8 ½ minutes to go in the game, but came back less than two minutes later. She had eight of the Leathernecks’ final 10 points.

“I hate being cliché,” Gravina said. “But it was heroic.”

The Leathernecks will be making their third NCAA Tournament trip in the program’s Division I history, the first since 2017.

Three members of that 2017 team that won the Summit League title — Olivia Braun, Emily (Clemens) Wieskamp and Taylor (Higginbotham) Griffith — sent videos during the week that Gravina played for the team.

“It was just really good to connect those groups,” Gravina said. “One thing that was cool is Olivia was in her office, and then she showed she had the picture on the wall of when they had won to go to the NCAA Tournament. She said, ‘This memory is a part of my life every day.’”

This game was one the Leathernecks said they would remember.

Western Illinois led by as much as 16 points in the first half before leading 36-22 at halftime. Lindenwood made the run the Leathernecks were expecting, but the Lions would never get the lead. The closest they got was 59-58 with 5:31 to play, but Shetley’s jumper with 4:11 to play and Nicastro’s basket in the lane a minute later started the Leathernecks on their game-clinching 8-1 run.

Four of the five starters for the Leathernecks are seniors or older — Nicastro, Shetley, Meadows and Addi Brownfield. Guard Kaylen Reed is in her third season, and guard Madison Davis, a sophomore, has logged almost 1,100 minutes.

That experience, Gravina said, matters.

“People have no idea how hard it is,” he said. “I mean, look how hard it is to play at that level for a whole season and win yourself into the No. 1 seed and then still show up and do this.”

“I came to Western as a freshman, and it was always a goal in mind (to get to the NCAA Tournament), and to finally reach that goal four years later, it’s just an insane feeling,” Brownfield said. “Honestly, right now just soaking in all the emotions, celebrating with my team, and just being so proud of how far we’ve come, it’s special. Working our way to this point, it’s something not a lot of people can say that they’ve done.”

“Addi and I have had a blast here from our freshman year, and this has always been a dream,” said Meadows, who had 10 points in the game, as did Davis. “The fact that we could get it, it’s just amazing.” 

The game was finally secured when Davis rebounded the shot from Lindenwood’s Aleshia Jones with 10 seconds left. Davis dribbled out the clock, throwing the ball into the air as time ran out and the Leathernecks celebrated at mid-court.

“It was like a wave off my shoulders,” Brownfield said. “Just this huge sigh of relief. I cried happy tears. I was jumping up and down.

“It’s going to be a feeling I remember for the rest of my life.”

Photo: Western Illinois’ women’s basketball team celebrates winning the Ohio Valley Conference tournament on Saturday. (Photo from the Ohio Valley Conference)