The NIU women’s basketball team’s 87-75 tournament-winning victory over Washington University Sunday afternoon proved that tournament MVP Lisa Foss won’t back down from a good fight.

“When I absolutely knew we were going to win that game was when Lisa missed that foul shot,” NIU head coach Jane Albright said about her senior guard. “Because I saw the look on her face (when) she was running back playing defense. That made her mad.

“I like Lisa when she gets mad. I liked it when their girl blocked her out at the foul line talking a little junk to her. You also know Lisa is going to get the last laugh.”

Foss certainly did get the last laugh. En route to a career- high 41 points, Foss carried NIU to victory by hitting 14 out of 21 field goals, and 13 out of 14 free throws.

“Not one time during the game did I think we were going to lose,” Foss said. “I just knew that once we got together we’d be fine,” she said. “I never felt like we were in a bad situation or anything. We just had to calm down and just score.”

NIU would have been in a bad situation if Foss would have received one more foul. She received her fourth foul with a little over 8 minutes to play in the game and the score tied. Yet, Albright didn’t really consider taking her out of the game.

“Well, (for) about a half-second I thought of it,” Albright said. Albright said she called Foss over after her fourth foul and warned her against fouling out.

Albright half-jokingly said, “I told her I really would have probably killed her. I would have been in jail somewhere for murder if she had fouled out.”

Whatever Albright told Foss was understood. Foss didn’t commit another foul for the entire game.

Washington’s game plan was to prevent Foss from even touching the ball, and Foss appreciated her teammates’ help in foiling their goal.

Foss said, “That’s a compliment to my teammates that they helped get me the ball for sure, and then I had good screens.”