Watch the Full Replay of the Game

Grand Rapids, MI – It was a storybook-like ending for the Montclair State women's basketball team on Saturday. And for their two main characters, their careers ended happily ever after.

Senior MELISSA TOBIE scored 20 points and added 16 rebounds, five assists and five steals while senior JANITZA AQUINO added 19 points as the Red Hawks knocked off Tufts University, 56-48 in the NCAA Division III Women's Basketball Championship Third-Place Game at Calvin College's Van Noord Arena. (Click above for Post-Game Press Conference)

The victory finished off the finest season in program history as Montclair closed out its 2014-15 campaign at 31-2. MSU, which set a school record for victories, was playing in its first NCAA Division III Final Four and its sixth overall tournament appearance. Montclair State also matched the best finish by a New Jersey Athletic Conference team in the NCAA Tournament.

The Jumbos(30-3) scored the first basket however the Red Hawks put up the next nine points, including a three-pointer by Tobie from the left corner for a 9-2 lead with 16:10 to play in the opening period. Tufts countered with the next eight to take the lead with 12 minutes left and the teams went back and forth trading the lead several times before MSU regained the advantage with 3:05 left on a basket by ZOE CURTIS.

Tobie, named to the All-Tournament Team, added a layup less than a minute later and her free throw with 45 seconds to go before halftime staked Montclair State to a 23-19 lead at the break. Tobie had eight points and seven rebounds with Aquino adding four as MSU shot just 32 percent (8-of-25) from the field but managed to turn 11 Jumbos miscues into 11 points.

In the second half, Tufts opened with the first score however, its two leaders, Aquino and Tobie combined to score the next nine points for the Red Hawks helping Montclair State widen its lead to 32-23 with 16:19 left. Tufts crept within 34-31 three minutes later but Aquino delivered a staggering blow hitting from behind the arc extended the lead back to six points.

Aquino would score again on a layup and a steal and layup by Tobie with 8:34 remaining pushed the Red Hawk advantage to double digits, 43-33. Aquino hit the final of her trifectas giving Montclair its largest lead of the game 50-37 with 5:17 left with Tufts getting no closer than eight points the rest of the way.

There was one matter still to be decided. Entering the game Tobie needed 13 rebounds to reach the 1,000 for her career and had 12 when Aquino hit the three. After the teams traded turnovers, the Jumbos' Josie Lee fired a jumper that went off the mark with Tobie grabbing the rebound and making history on several fronts. She became the sixth player in MSU history to record 1,000 career rebounds and the first since Jessica Garrabrant in 2008.

Tobie, who last week recorded her 2,000^th career point, also became the 15^th player in Division III history to scored 2,000 points and grab 1,000 rebounds. She joined Carol Blazejowski (3,199 pts., 1,036 rebs from 1974-78) as the only Montclair State player to accomplish that feat.

Tobie, who recorded her 20^th double-double of the season, added three more board finishing her career with 1,003 before she and Aquino were subbed out with 35 seconds remaining to a standing ovation from the MSU crowd.

KATIE SIRE grabbed six rebounds while KATE TOBIE added four steals for Montclair State, which hit on 16-of-21 attempts from the free throw line.

For MELISSA TOBIE and Aquino, it capped off a tremendous run of success for the Red Hawks the last four seasons. The duo combined to lead Montclair State to a 107-14 overall record and three consecutive NJAC championships and NCAA Tournament appearances. After reaching the Sweet 16 in 2013, Montclair advanced to the Elite 8 last season and for the first time, the Final Four in 2015.

Tobie, the three-time All-American and NJAC Player of the Year, capped off another outstanding campaign as she scored 535 points, grabbed 335 rebounds and added 111 assists, 103 steals and 77 blocks. She joined Blazejowki, Tracey Brown and Kim Wilson as the only players to record multiple seasons of 500-plus points and she is the first player to record 500 or more points, 300-plus rebounds and over 100 assists and steals in the same year.

Not to be outdone, Aquino, an All-American, All-Region and First-Team All-NJAC pick, reset her own single-season mark for three-point field goals with 83 and broke the all-time mark in the same category with 183 makes from behind the mark. She became the 19^th player in program history to score 1,000 points and finished with 1,418 placing her seventh on the MSU career list.

Tobie and Aquino each broke the 500-point mark for the season marking the first time the Red Hawks have had two players in the same season surpass that total.

The meeting between the Red Hawks and Tufts was the second all-time. Montclair State won the previous meeting in 2003 with a 777-3 win in the championship game of the MSU Tip-Off Tournament.