RSC Women's Basketball Weekly Report: Week 9 -- Feb. 3, 2017 #RSC #RSCWBB
RSC Women's Basketball Weekly Report: Week 9 -- Feb. 3, 2017 #RSC #RSCWBB
FLORENCE, Ky. -- Week 9 of the River States Conference Women's Basketball Weekly Report brings you an update on the conference as the calendar turns to February and hits the final stretch of the season. This weekly feature appears on RiverStatesConference.com.
DIVISIONAL MATCHUPS
The rest of the season will be exclusively matchups within the RSC East and West Divisions, repsectively. We've reached the second half of the home-and-away series for the divisional opponents. With cross-division matchups already in the books, from here on out its a chance for making up ground head to head for playoff spots within the divisions.
In the RSC East Division, this weekend has four of the six teams in Pittsburgh with No. 21 IU East and (RV) Ohio Christian playing at Point Park and Carlow with each team playing two games. The other two teams will square off in the RSC Game of the Week with Rio Grande at WVU Tech.
The RSC West Division has six teams in action for Saturday's three divisional matchups. IU Southeast is at Cincinnati Christian, Brescia goes to IU Kokomo and Asbury visits Alice Lloyd. Midway has the weekend off after playing Thursday night at Asbury.
AT THE TOP
Separation has been built at the top of each division with No. 21 IU East (20-5, 11-1 RSC) leading the RSC East by 3.0 over a pack of teams that are next in the standings. The Red Wolves are 10-1 since Christimas and still have only the one conference blemish at Midway last week. But the Red Wolves as 13-0 at home and have the inside edge on the No. 1 overall playoff seed, which would come with home-court advantage in the postseason.
In the RSC West, IU Kokomo (16-9, 9-4 RSC) is in first place by a half game over Midway (18-8, 9-5 RSC) in a close race at the top. The teams will play each other next weekend Feb. 11, but both will play a few times before then. IU Kokomo is 9-3 at home, and Midway is 12-4 on the road. Those teams have separated by 2.5 to 3.0 games over the rest of the division for a cushion in the standings.
Whichever team has the best RSC record during the regular season will be guaranteed a spot in the NAIA Division II national tournament at the conference's regular-season champion. IU East, IU Kokomo and Midway lead the race for that.
PLAYOFF HUNT
With the top four teams in each division making the RSC Tournament, there are as many as 11 teams in the conference still alive for the playoffs. After the divisional leaders mentioned above, the next teams are all bunched up in playoff races.
The RSC East Division has four teams within a game of each other. (RV) Ohio Christian has won seven of its last eight conference games to put its record at 8-4 RSC. The Trailblazers are currently tied for second place with WVU Tech (8-4 RSC), which had been on a bit of a losing slide before picking up a win over Alice Lloyd in its last game last weekend.
Point Park (7-5 RSC) and Rio Grande (7-5 RSC) enter the weekend tied for fourth place. Rio Grande is on the upswing as winners of five of its last six. Point Park is 2-3 in that same stretch.
The RSC West has Asbury (6-7 RSC) and IU Southeast (6-7 RSC) as the second two playoff teams behind IU Kokomo and Midway. Asbury moved into the top four with two wins last weekend and is still there despite a loss to Midway on Thursday. IU Southeast had won three in a row to move up the standings but needs to end a mini slide of two games to maintain its spot.
Cincinnati Christian (4-8 RSC) and Alice Lloyd (4-9 RSC) are currently on the outside of the playoff picture, but they both play the teams that are directly in front of them this Saturday. Cincinnati Christian hosts IU Southeast, and Alice Lloyd hosts Asbury.
NAIA DII TOP 25 POLL
There was no NAIA Division II Women's Basketball Top 25 Poll this week as it was the week off in the NAIA's new format this year of releasing rankings every two weeks. The next poll will coming out Tuesday, Feb. 7. The RSC remained represented last week with No. 21 IU East holding in its spot. The Red Wolves have been at No. 21 for a few poll straight. Ohio Christian was once again "receiving votes" and just outside the Top 25. This is with the Trailblazers on a 7-1 stretch since early January.
STRETCH INTERNET
Five of the eight games on the schedule Friday and Saturday will be broadcast on Stretch Internet, the official video streaming provider of the RSC and the RSC Championships. Log on to the RSC Game Central presented by Stretch Internet to keep up with broadcast listings at http://portal.stretchinternet.com/RSC. Stretch Internet is also the video home to the NAIA NAIANetwork.com.