The 1983 North Central College women’s basketball team won the 1983 NCAA Division III National Championship with an 83-71 win over Elizabethtown College in Worcester, Massachusetts. They became the first North Central women’s program to win a team national championship. The Cardinals had the only college basketball team in the nation to boast four 1,000-point career scorers in the starting line-up.
North Central posted a 16-6 regular season record before winning three straight games in the Chicago-Metro Tournament Championship with a 79-73 win over Carroll College (Wis.) to earn an automatic bid to the postseason.
They hosted both the Central Regional and West Quarterfinal at Gregory Arena. In the first game of the Central Regional Tournament, Bonnie Hansen led the Cardinals with 28 points on their way to a 78-65 victory over Buena Vista College. Camie Loudenbeck (32 points) and Bonnie Sanders (21 points) secured the Regional Championship with an 82-79 win over Central College.
Taking on the University of Minnesota-Morris to advance to the national semifinal, the Cardinals set an NCAA Division III record in a 100-82 rout over the Cougars behind Kim Wallner’s double-double (26 points, 10 rebounds).
In the national semifinal, Sanders and Loudenbeck each scored 23 points to propel North Central to an 84-74 win over Knoxville College.
The national championship game, televised on ESPN, which at that time was a four-year-old sports cable station. Taking on Elizabethtown College, the defending champions, North Central led 39-32 at halftime. The Cardinals opened up the second half on a 15-0 run on their way to an 83-71 victory. Hansen and Sanders led North Central with 25 and 24 points, respectively. Sanders and Wallner were named to the All-Tournament team while Sanders was named ESPN’s MVP of the Game.
Wallner (2,241 points) and Sanders (1,986 points) rank 1-2 in program history for career points with Loudenbeck (1,541 points) ranking fourth and Bonnie Hansen (1,414 points) ranking sixth. Hansen still holds the program record for points in a single-season with 22.9 points per game. This was all in a league without the three-point line. The team ranks in the top five of single-season records in six offensive categories.
Dr. Wayne Morgan, who won 75 percent of his games as a basketball coach, also guided the Cardinals softball team to fourth in the NCAA Division III Softball National Championships in 1983.
Full roster: Head Coach R. Wayne Morgan, Assistant Coach Karl Schleich, Luvina Beckley, Tammy Binder, Bonnie Hanson, Cheryl Juris, Sharon Kennedy, Camie Loudenbeck, Lorie Lowry, Kathy Phelps, Brenda Sanders, Dawn Schabacker, Kim Wallner, Margie White, student manager Lynne Siesser
