The IU Northwest Lady Redhawks did nearly everything imaginable to both win, and lose a game on Saturday night. With the game on the line, junior-forward, Jenelle Kapelinski came up with the biggest shot oh her career to rescue the RedHawks and secure a 81-79 "nail-biting" win over visiting Judson University (Elgin, IL). With the game tied at 79, IU Northwest held the ball for the final possession. Sophomore point guard Nina Wills found a flashing Kapelinski at the free throw line who dashed to the basket and banked in a rolling, left-handed hook over Judson's Rachel McBride with just 5 seconds to go. A potential game-winning 3-point attempt by Judson's Aubrey Parsons came up short at the buzzer and the RedHawks held on the victory.
IU Northwest committed 27 turnovers and surrendered 19 offensive rebounds to Judson who shot a blistering 42 percent from behind the arc (18-43). Despite shaky perimeter defense and Judson's full court defensive pressure, IU Northwest persevered thanks to a career night for sophomore-forward, Sharon Houston and Kapelinski's heroics. Houston shrugged off a severe cold and dug deep, playing 36 minutes en route to a career-high 40 points and grabbed 23 rebounds before eventually fouling out with 2 minutes to play. Houston was honored prior to the game and was presented the basketball she used to score her 1,000th career point on December 18, 2009.

The RedHawks trailed 43-36 at the half thanks to Judson's torrid 3-point shooting (9-20). "We stayed in our zone in the second half due largely to foul trouble for our starters, we had to hope Judson would cool off and they never did. We have faced some good shooting teams in the past that have had big shooting nights against us and we became frustrated and quit on ourselves, we didn't quit tonight our kids deserve a lot of credit for fighting until the end," said Head Coach Ryan Shelton.

Kapelinksi's shot wasn't the only clutch shot of the night, just more than a minute to go and the scored tied at 73, senior-guard Jessi Jenkins timed her only field goal of the night just right swishing a deep 3 to give the RedHawks a 3-point lead. Within seconds another Judson 3-pointer tied the game at 76. On the ensuing possession Houston was fouled under the basket sending her to the line where she connected on a pair of free throws to put the RedHawks back in front by 2. Judson missed a go-ahead three point attempt, however an IU Northwest turnover resulted in an easy Judson layup that tied the game at 79 with 26 seconds to play leading to Kapelinski's big moment. Houston led all scorers with 40 points, sophomore-guard Juliette Keller added 12 and Wills 10. Kapelinski finished with 9 points and freshman-center Ish Shah Terry chipped in 7 and 10 rebounds. IU Northwest improved to 9-6 on the season and have won 4 of their last 5.

The RedHawks return to action Tuesday, January 5th as part of a men's and women's double-header visiting Kuyper College. The women's game begins at 5pm and the men's game tips at 7pm at the IU Northwest Savannah Center.