DEKALB, IL – Last week, Northern Illinois University women's basketball alumna Ally Lehman won the 2019 Armed Forces Basketball Championship as a member of the All-Army women's team. Lehman graduated in 2017 as NIU's all-time leader in assists with 538, but it was one she got from NIU Head Coach Lisa Carlsen about two months ago that got her back in the game.
 
Lehman is currently a first lieutenant in the United States Army with the 101^st Airborne at Fort Campbell in Kentucky. It was during a training exercise in late March that she found out about the All-Army basketball team.
 
"I found out about it when I was at JRTC," Lehman said. "It's supposed to train you for deployment, so you have no contact with the outside world and missions all day and all night. The OC's and I got talking about sports and I mentioned I played at NIU. One of them mentioned that they had a friend play for All-Army and loved it."
 
"As soon as I got out of the box, I had about a day to get my application turned in. On the application you list your high school accomplishments, your college experience, and they ask for a letter of recommendation. Coach Carlsen wrote me a phenomenal letter of recommendation that really put me near the top. It ended up being a late application, but her letter moved them to open a spot for me and I flew out to Pennsylvania for the trials. From there, they make six total cuts in a two-week process. We got a week to practice together, then you go down to Florida to play."
 
After doing some quick research on the Armed Forces Championship, Carlsen wrote Lehman's recommendation. While listing some of her career achievements like her career record for assists, her 1,461 points, and her two career triple-doubles, Carlsen also made sure to point out Lehman's passion for both basketball and serving the country as a soldier.
 
"She was excited to make it," said Carlsen. "It looked like, through the adventure on social media, that they had a great time in preparation. She looked good. I watched the first couple games and she was arguably one of the best players on the floor."
 
The All-Army team took on the Navy, Air Force, and Marines in a double round-robin tournament June 2-7 at Naval Station Mayport in Florida. Lehman's Army team went 5-1 in its six preliminary games, scoring over 80 points in each win. In the championship game on June 8, Army defeated Navy for the second time at its home station 71-62 to win the championship. Lehman averaged six points and six rebounds per game in the tournament.
 
"A majority of the team played Division I," Lehman said. "A few went abroad to play semi-pro, but everyone on the team had a bachelor's degree so we had all specialists and above. We had a wide variety with college experience, so they were used to the intensity and the speed of the game."
 
"What's crazy to me is the talent level we actually had and we had one week to put it all together. It was a really proud moment, knowing how many people are in the Army. There's post basketball throughout the nation, so that's at least 50 applicants with Division I experience. Just to make the cut to get to trials was enough, but to make the level of All-Army was something else. It was an awesome experience."
 
Lehman will now have an opportunity to play at the International Military Sports Council (CISM) World Games in China later this year.
 
--NIU--