Columbia, Missouri (NWBA) - The Illinois players knew it was coming but that didn't mean they could stop it.

The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater (UWW)'s Derrick Bisnett would set up at an angle to the basket and calmly kiss shot after shot off the backboard and in. The senior big man hit 13 of 18 shots - 72 percent - in scoring 36 points to lead all scorers in UWW's 68-55 win over the University of Illinois in the NWBA's National Intercollegiate Wheelchair Basketball Tournament (NIWBT) championship final. He added 6 rebounds and 5 assists. 

Dave Fleming added 15 points and Kyle Gribble 10 points, 8 rebounds and 4 assists for the Warhawks. Illinois was led by Canadian national team player Nik Goncin's 29 points with Ryan Neiswender scoring 10.

This followed a semifinal performance where Bisnett scored 14 points, hitting 7 of 11 shots, to go with 11 rebounds and 11 assists in a win over host University of Missouri.

It wasn't just Bisnett though.

In the final, UWW hit 54.5 percent of their shots as a team while their defense held the Illini to 32 percent for the game. Whitewater hit 52 percent in the semifinal. That came from faith in their game plan and the patience to see it through.

"We were very selective on the offensive end," Warhawks coach Jeremy Lade told FIBA.com. "We didn't settle for any shots and we made the other team play defense."

With experience on the USA U23 and U20 levels as well as previous NIWBT championships, Bisnett, a senior, has played in big games and has proven himself a big game player. His basket with less than three seconds left won last year's championship game against the University of Texas-Arlington. Along with being named the outstanding player of the NIWBT, he received both All-American and Academic All-American honors. 

The championship marked a repeat for the Warhawks, their fifth national title in the last seven seasons under Lade, a veteran USA national team player. It marks their 12th overall which brings them even with Illinois for the most men's championships. They finish the season with 32 wins against 4 losses (26-1 against collegiate teams). Two of those losses came in the first three games.

Bisnett told the UWW student newspaper that the team focused on building team chemistry.

"We all came together and talked about the things we needed to do to become successful. Before, there was a lot of individual movement on the floor and by the end of the season, it all culminated in the championship game."

The University of Texas-Arlington beat Missouri in the third place game 84-53.

Wisconsin had also been dominant on the women's side, winning three consecutive titles with a world class lineup that included Becca Murray and Desiree Miller from the USA national team, Mareike Adermann of Germany and Mariska Beijer of the Netherlands. Only Beijer, a junior, remained.

So this year it was the University of Alabama reclaiming the top spot which they had held from 2009 to 2011, with a 58-52 win over the University of Illinois.

The University of Alabama women are the 2015 NIWBT champions. It is their fourth title in seven tournaments since the women's championship debuted in 2009. Photo courtesy of Caitlin McDermott's family

The Crimson Tide returned their entire team from last year's final including Canadian national team players Cindy Ouillet, Maude Jaques and Erica Gavel, Australia's Cobi Crispin, and Great Britain's Laurie Williams. Caitlyn McDermott was on the 2010 USA gold medal winning World Championship team and Mackenzie Soldan is currently on the USA team. Karolina Lingyte played for Lithuania in FIBA's U16 European Championship in 2005 before taking up the wheelchair game after an accident changed her circumstances.

Alabama finished 26-3 for the season. Wisconsin took third place with a 57-56 win over UTA behind 30 points from Beijer.

FIBA