Women's Basketball Prepares for NCAA Division III Tournament Round of 16
The Wittenberg women's basketball team is enjoying a "great adventure," according to Head Coach Pam Smith, which continues this weekend at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine. The Tigers play the University of Scranton at 5 p.m. Friday, March 12, in the third round of the 2004 NCAA Division III Tournament.
SPRINGFIELD, Ohio - The Wittenberg women's basketball team is enjoying a "great adventure," according to Head Coach Pam Smith, which continues this weekend at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine. The Tigers, regular season and tournament champions of the North Coast Athletic Conference for the second consecutive year, will play the University of Scranton at 5 p.m. Friday, March 12, in the third round of the 2004 NCAA Division III Tournament.
The four-team NCAA Division III Bowdoin sectional site will be the most closely watched of the four slated for this weekend. Wittenberg is the only one of the four teams without a national ranking, despite a 21-game win streak that includes last Saturday's 51-48 upset victory at ninth-ranked Messiah College. The host Polar Bears are 27-0 and ranked first in the nation, the University of Southern Maine is ranked second and Scranton is third. This will be Wittenberg's first appearance in the Round of 16, while the other three participants in the Bowdoin sectional are regulars in the national tournament.
Two-hundred tickets reserved for the hearty Wittenberg fans able to make the long trip to Maine this weekend are on sale Wednesday in the HPER Center lobby. Prices are $5 for general admission and $4 for students and seniors.
Wittenberg, which has a 3-7 NCAA Division III Tournament record in eight appearances in the national tournament, reached the third round by defeating Penn State-Behrend, 81-49, at home on Wednesday, March 3, and Messiah on Saturday, March 6. The Tigers are 25-5 overall in the 2003-04 season heading into a showdown with Scranton, the regular season and tournament champions of the Freedom Conference with a 26-2 overall record. The Lady Royals received a first-round bye in the NCAA tourney before defeating Gwynedd Mercy College on Saturday by a score of 60-58.
Bowdoin and Southern Maine will square off 30 minutes after the conclusion of the Wittenberg/Scranton game on Friday. The winners will play the sectional championship game at 5 p.m. Saturday at Bowdoin. The winner of that game will advance to the Final Four at Virginia Wesleyan University's Jane P. Batten Student Center in Norfolk, Va. on Friday and Saturday, March 19-20.
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