PABLO — You would not think a small town like Pablo would be home to a basketball program that performed on the highest stage of its league.
WATCH THE VIDEO:
But that is the case for the Salish Kootenai College Lady Bison, who won the American Indian Higher Education Consortium National Championship (AIHEC) in both 2024 and 2025.
SKC coach Melissa Tiensvold says the team rallied after making the tournament a few years earlier and coming up short.
“All those girls kind of got together and were like, we're not going to lose at the AIHEC tournament again,” Tiensvold said. “So I had the same girls for two or three years, and it was an amazing group of girls that just got there, got in the gym, worked out a tremendous amount of time, you know, they were exceptional.”
These players work hard not only on the court but off it as well.
With a small budget, the team often holds fundraisers to help benefit themselves and their community.
“A couple of times a week, maybe every day of the week, we'll come up to the kitchen in the gym and we'll cook lunch for everybody in the whole school and sell that to make money and also feed the community,” SKC forward Ashley Tryon said.
However, funding was not the only challenge the Lady Bison endured in their championship runs.
The team’s will was more than ever when one of their teammates tragically died early in the 2024-2025 season.
“That was probably one of my hardest years of coaching from that,” Tiensvold said. “But we regrouped. It was tough, we didn't know if we wanted to come back, and they just finally regrouped and we're just like, 'Let's do this and let's do this for Maddie.”
The Lady Bison played with Maddie Miller in their hearts and won their second straight national championship for her.
For the players, like Sulci Skunkcap, spending all this time together and living this shared experience made the win a little more special for everyone involved.
“Basketball is the heart of every reservation,” Skunkcap said. “To do that and to go on to a national level and win that for not just us and just not just this community but just for us in Montana to realize that we did this, it was something that we can carry with us for the rest of our lives.”
