NAIA DII WBB National Championship begins Wednesday with 3 RSC teams
NAIA DII WBB National Championship begins Wednesday with 3 RSC teams
NAIA DII WBB NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP -- WATCH LIVE I LIVE STATS I BRACKET I SCHEDULE
Wed., March 7
7:30 p.m. CT -- No. 2 Dakota Wesleyan (S.D.) def. No. 7 IU East (22-10), 78-62 Box Score
Thur., March 8
12:00 p.m. CT -- No. 1 College of the Ozarks (Mo.) (30-1) def. No. 8 Alice Lloyd (24-5), 78-51 Box Score
7:00 p.m. CT -- No. 4 Morningside (Iowa) (21-11) def. No. 5 Rio Grande (30-3), 97-69 Box Score
By NAIA National Office
SIOUX CITY, Iowa -- The 27th annual NAIA Division II Women's Basketball National Championship, presented by Mercy Medical Center and Seaboard Triumph Foods, tips off Wednesday at the Tyson Events Center. The single-elimination event runs through the championship final on March 13.
The first 30 games of the national championship will be broadcast live on www.NAIANetwork.com – the NAIA's official video platform. The championship final is distributed on ESPN3 for the fifth-straight season on March 13 at 6 p.m.
This year's field consists of 22 automatic berths and 10 at-large spots. Automatic qualification was given to conference regular-season champions, regular-season runners-up, tournament champions or tournament runners-up depending on the league. At-large teams were determined by using the final regular-season Coaches' Top 25 Poll.
No. 3 seeded Indiana Tech (29-4) and No. 6 seeded Bryan (Tenn.) (25-9) - out of the Liston Bracket - will be the first teams to compete at the Championship at 8:30 a.m. Bryan secured their automatic bid by virtue of winning the Appalachian Athletic Conference Tournament. Indiana Tech received their automatic bid by being the Regular Season Champions of the Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference.
The No. 1 overall seed Southeastern (Fla.) takes the court tomorrow against No. 8 seeded Cornerstone (Mich.) at 5:15 p.m. The Fire are the only team coming into the tournament as the only undefeated team this season. The Fire earned their automatic bid as both The Sun Conference Regular Season Champion and also as the Tournament Champion.
Two-time defending champions Marian (Ind.) open their tournament Thursday, March 8th at 5:15 p.m. against St. Thomas (Fla.). The Knights went 32-2 in the regular season and captured their automatic bid by being the Crossroads League Regular Season Champion.
The Great Plains Athletic Conference boasts the most teams in the tournament this year wth five.
Alice Lloyd (Ky.), Anteope Valley (Calif.), Northwest Christian (Ore.), and Stillman (Ala.) are all making their first ever national tournament appearance.
In total, 22 of the 32 teams are returning from last year's tournament.