RSC Women's Basketball Weekly Report -- Week 7 -- Jan. 19, 2017 #RSC #RSCWBB
FLORENCE, Ky. -- Week 7 of the River States Conference Women's Basketball Weekly Report takes a look at the conference as we hit the third weekend in January. This weekly feature appears at RiverStatesConference.com.
IN THE LEAD...
Leaders have emerged in both the RSC East and West Divisions with first-place No. 21 IU East (8-0 RSC) opening up a 3.0 game lead in the RSC East and IU Kokomo (7-2 RSC) and Midway (6-2 RSC) separating from the pack in the RSC West. With an unbeaten conference record, IU East has control of its division with the others chasing. Likewise, IU Kokomo and Midway are 3.0 games clear of everyone else in their division.
The teams mentioned above have the inside edge on the division titles and possibly the best conference record across both the divisions, the latter of which comes with an automatic bid to the NAIA DII national tournament. IU East had an important win over IU Kokomo earlier this week, a victory that could give the Red Wolves the playoff home court throughout and possibly the best RSC regular-season record if those teams remain atop the divisions.
NEXT IN LINE...
Behind the leaders in each division are a pack of teams that are separated by just 1.0 game. The RSC East has four teams from second through fifth place all within a game of each other. (RV) Point Park and Ohio Christian are both 5-3 RSC followed by Rio Grande and WVU Tech both 4-4 RSC.
Very similarly, the RSC West has four teams in places third through sixth that are within one game of each other. Asbury leads that group at 4-5 RSC followed by IU Southeast (3-5 RSC), Cincinnati Christian (3-5 RSC) and Alice Lloyd (3-6 RSC).
The top four teams in each division make the eight-team RSC Tournament. The current standings lay out an exciting race the rest of the way, both at the top and for the last few playoff spots. Even the last-place teams of Brescia and Carlow can hold out hopes being 2.0 and 3.5 games out of the postseason, respectively, with 10 games to go.
ON THE MOVE...
A few teams are on big moves within the River States Conference. Midway has won four conference games in a row -- all on the road -- to move up to 6-2 RSC and within a half game of first place in the RSC West. Ohio Christian has won sixth straight, and the last five of those have come in RSC play to go from 0-3 to 5-3 RSC. IU East's unbeaten conference record of 8-0 RSC includes seven straight wins overall as the Red Wolves continue their roll.
IMPORTANT WEEKEND
With the standings being as they are, this weekend is a big one, especially for the five teams that will play two games on the weekend. Playing both Friday and Saturday will be Midway, IU Southeast, Brescia, Point Park and Carlow. There are a total of eight conference games over two days with three on Friday and five more on Saturday.
Friday night's action has three games tipping off at 6 p.m. ET with Carlow at IU Southeast, Point Park at Brescia and Rio Grande at Midway. Saturday features Cincinnati Christian at No. 21 IU East and IU Kokomo at Ohio Christian with those four teams getting in action. Midway's second game of the weekend is hosting WVU Tech while Point Park and Carlow reverse their road matchups from Friday night that featured Brescia and IU Southeast.
NAIA DII TOP 25 POLL
There was no NAIA Division II Top 25 Poll this week as the NAIA has gone to a format this year that has rankings released every two weeks. The exception to that was the month off during the semester break. The next national rankings will be released this coming Tuesday, Jan. 24. The RSC has had two teams mentioned in the rankings for much of the year with that being No. 21 IU East and (RV) Point Park in the last poll that came out Jan. 10.
STRETCH INTERNET
Five of this weekend's eight RSC women's basketball matchups will be broadcast on Stretch Internet, the official streaming home of the RSC and the RSC championships. Log on to the RSC Game Central presented by Stretch Internet at http://portal.stretchinternet.com/RSC for broadcast listings. Stretch Internet is also the official streaming partner of the NAIA and NAIANetwork.com.