About 10 minutes remained in the N.C.A.A. women’s regional semifinal between Louisville and Baylor in March. Baylor was the defending national champion. Brittney Griner, its 6-foot-8 center, had blocked more shots in her career than any male or female player in college basketball history.

On the fast break came Shoni Schimmel, Louisville’s 5-9 point guard. Many players would have been intimidated by Griner. Not Schimmel, an American Indian who belongs to the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla in eastern Oregon. She grew up playing an intrepid style of the sport known as rez ball.

“It’s run and gun, shoot whenever you’re open, trust in your heart,” Schimmel said.

That night in March, she was not open, but she did trust in her heart.

On the break, Schimmel dribbled behind her back, trying to elude the retreating Griner. Slicing through the lane, Schimmel turned away from the basket and blindly flicked a shot over her head and Griner’s outstretched arm, banking it off the backboard. No play made in sports over the past year was more fearless or brash.

The shot not only went in, it lured Griner into a foul. Schimmel barked at Griner and sank the free throw.

Schimmel’s 22 points led Louisville to an 82-81 upset and even bigger news in her family: her parents’ wedding.

During the 26-hour drive from Portland, Ore., to Oklahoma City, where the regional was played, Schimmel’s father, Rick, said jokingly that Louisville would beat Baylor because the game was on “Easter Sunday, a day of miracles.”

Ceci Moses, who had been his companion for 25 years and had eight children with him, replied, “If they win, I’ll marry you.”

Two days after the victory, the couple married in a chapel. Shoni and her younger sister Jude, also a Louisville guard, could not attend because of a shootaround. That night, after Louisville defeated Tennessee to reach the Final Four, Moses flashed her wedding ring to her daughters as they helped cut down the net in celebration.

Louisville advanced to the national championship game, losing to Connecticut. Never before had American Indian women reached such prominence in basketball. Shoni and Jude Schimmel offered an inspiring variation to the bleak narrative of alcoholism and teenage pregnancy often described on reservations.

“It’s a blessing to show other people you can make it,” Shoni Schimmel said at the time. “Coming off a reservation, you can do whatever you want. You’ve got to set your mind to it and believe in yourself.”

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