INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – The 2015 Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference women's basketball champion, Southwestern University, will make its first appearance in the NCAA Division III Women's Basketball Championship Tournament since 1998 as they take on the 11th-ranked Texas-Tyler Patriots in Richardson, Texas. Interactive Bracket | Printable Bracket
Southwestern (15-12, 11-3 SCAC) earned the SCAC automatic bid to the NCAA playoffs after dominating Trinity in the SCAC Championship Game en rout to a 71-58 victory. Jordan Owens was named Most Valuable Player of the SCAC Tournament as she scored 19 points and pulled down 12 boards in the championship game. Annie Bourne and Audrey Garcia also earned spots on the All-Tournament Team.
Texas-Tyler (26-2, 19-1 ASC) returns to the NCAA Tournament for the second year in a row. Last season, the Patriots defeated Maryville and Rhodes to earn a spot in the Sweet 16 where they eventually fell to top-ranked Thomas More. Texas-Tyler earned an at-large bid.
The host school, Texas-Dallas (24-4, 17-3 ASC), earned an automatic bid into the tournament after defeating the Patriots, 82-74, in the ASC Championship Game on Saturday. The Comets are the only team to defeat Texas-Tyler, beating them earlier in the year, 55-47.
The Comets will take on Rhodes (20-8, 8-6 SAA), who earned an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament after routing Millsaps College, 62-46, in the SAA Championship Game on Sunday. The Lynx are the three-time SAA champion, but have been ousted in the second round the last two seasons including a 77-74 loss to Texas-Tyler two years ago.
The Pirates have already seen two of these teams earlier this season. Southwestern fell to Texas-Dallas in the second game of the regular season, 66-44. They took on Rhodes a week before Christmas where the Lynx were victorious on their home floor, 70-60.
Forty-four conferences have been awarded automatic qualification for the 2015 championship. The final 20 berths were reserved for Pool C, which includes institutions from automatic-qualifying conferences that are not the conference champion, and any Pool B teams. Based on sponsorship numbers for 2014-15, there were no Pool B berths for this year’s championship.
Sixteen first/second-round sites will be conducted March 6-7. Second-round winners will advance to one of four sectional sites March 13-14. Winners of the four sectional sites will advance to the national semifinals March 20-21. All games, except the semifinals and final, will be played on the campuses of competing institutions. The finals will be conducted at Van Noord Arena on the campus of Calvin in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
