The Heart of America regular-season champions from Central Methodist University added a Heart tournament championship on Monday with a win over …

Entering Monday’s final, the Eagles had won 15 games in a row since their last loss of the season, a 63-60 overtime setback to William Penn back on January 15.

With an 88-55 win over the Statesmen on Monday night, the Eagles (31-2) won the Heart of America tournament championship.

In the process, they avenged both regular season losses (for a second time), beating Evangel and William Penn by a combined total of 60 points.

“It was more than a little extra,” Eagle senior Mercedes Jefflo said about the motivation.

“Just to know that we lost to them... We felt like we shouldn’t have lost those games. Beating them by so much, it was the best thing, beating these two teams in the tournament.”

The Eagles shot 5-6 from the 3-point line in the first quarter and took a 34-8 lead over the 19th-ranked Statesmen. Lanay Rodney scored 13 points in the first quarter and finished the game with 26 points on 11-15 shooting.

The CMU defense allowed an average of 11 points over the first quarters of their three tournament games.

“I think sometimes when this team gives up some points, people think maybe our defense isn’t good... but it’s just the pace we play at,” coach Mike Davis explained. “I think teams that play us, it’s not an enjoyable thing to get ready to play our defense, and our girls were really good in the rotations tonight.”

Jefflo had 25 points and five steals along with a season-high 11 assists and five blocked shots.

“It was amazing, the fact that this was our last game in Puckett, and the fact that we got to cut down the nets, that was amazing,” Jefflo said.

Crimson Jones scored 11 points. Gloria Mulumba had 10 points and seven rebounds.

The Eagles emptied the bench with three and a half minutes left. All 14 available players played in the championship victory.

When Evangel visited Fayette earlier in the season, the Crusaders jumped out to a 27-19 first quarter lead and handed the Eagles an 89-84 loss, their first of the season.

Friday’s semifinal matchup played out a little differently.

With three minutes left in the first half, Lanay Rodney had 23 points and the Eagles had a 31-point lead. Rodney finished with 31 points and 13 rebounds as Central Methodist advanced to the conference tournament final with a 90-63 win.

“That’s a really good team, and they should be a national tournament team without question,” CMU coach Mike Davis said about Evangel.

“I think our group is getting more tuned in all the time. And we’re talking about tourney time, it’s tourney time.”

The Eagle defense was in tournament mode, holding Evangel under 26 percent from the field after the Crusaders shot over 46 percent in the first two matchups.

Eagle post Gloria Mulumba was solid on both ends of the floor with nine points, 11 rebounds and three blocked shots in just 18 minutes. Mercedes Jefflo had 17 points and nine assists. Ashley Martin was 4-5 from the floor and scored nine.

The Eagles defeated Benedictine 68-59 in the Heart quarterfinals.

Jefflo hit a pair of 3-pointers during a 14-2 start for CMU. Central Methodist held Benedictine to 16 points or less in each quarter. Jefflo was 9-10 from the free-throw line and scored 22 points. Rodney added 17 points and Crimson Jones scored 10 as the Eagles opened the conference tournament with a win.