Wildcats earn regional bid
ACU back in regional tournament for first time since 1999
ABILENE -- It's been a long five seasons since the ACU Wildcats earned a berth in the NCAA Division II South Central Region women's basketball tournament.
The wait for another bid came to an end Sunday when the Wildcats earned an at-large bid to this year's tournament, which will begin Friday in Springfield, Mo., on the campus of Drury University. ACU enters the tournament as the No. 8 seed, and will take on top-seeded Drury in the quarterfinals Friday at 6 p.m.
Drury is the nation's top-ranked team, and at 29-1, is the champion of the Heartland Conference. The Lady Panthers beat ACU, 84-71, in Abilene on Nov. 27 in the season's fifth game. ACU finished the regular season at 20-9 and reached the Lone Star Conference Post-Season Tournament semifinals for the second time before falling to Angelo State, 74-61, in Friday's semifinals in Tahlequah, Okla.
The rest of the field for this year's regional tournament is No. 2 Washburn (Kan.) of the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association, No. 3 Angelo State (LSC champion), No. 4 Emporia State and No. 5 Central Missouri State of the MIAA and No. 6 Northeastern State and No. 7 West Texas A&M of the LSC.
Angelo State beat Northeastern State, 61-49, Saturday night in Tahlequah, Okla., to win the LSC title. The Rambelles and Lady Reds will meet in Friday's quarterfinals. This is the same scenario that played out last year as ASU beat NSU in the LSC championship match, but then lost to the Lady Reds in the first round of the regional. NSU went on to lose to Drury in the regional championship game. The Lady Panthers lost to California (Pa.) in the national championship game.
The last time ACU reached the regional tournament was after the 1998-99 season when the Wildcats won the LSC tournament title to earn an automatic bid. ACU head coach Shawna Lavender was a second-year gradaute assistant coach on that squad. This year, however, in just her second full season as the head coach, Lavender has taken a team picked to finish fifth in the LSC South Division to the regional tournament.
"I'm very proud of this team," said Lavender, who is 44-20 in two-plus seasons as ACU's coach. "There probably wasn't anyone outside of our team that gave us a chance to get to the regional tournament this season. But this group came together so well and played with a lot of passion and determination throughout the entire season. We're playing the No. 1 team in the nation on their home floor in the first round, so we've got nothing to lose. We'll have fun with the whole experience and give a great effort Friday against Drury."
The tournament semifinals will be played Saturday with the championship game on Monday. The winners of each of the eight regional tournaments will advance to the NCAA Division II Elite Eight, which will be played March 23-26 in Hot Springs, Ark.
