The third day of the NAIA Women’s Basketball National Championship is when things really started to get interesting. The first round, which covers two days, held pretty much to expectations as there were no major upsets. All four of the 1 seeds and all four of the 2 seeds advanced to the second round. But Friday brought with it some upsets, surprises, and unbelievable finishes.
In the day’s most exciting (and controversial) game 1 seed Davenport lost to 4 seed Briar Cliff. Davenport tied the ball game up 65-65 with five seconds remaining but then fouled a Briar Cliff player on the inbounds. BC hit two game winning free throws that put them into Saturday’s quarterfinals. Davenport was certainly a major contender for the national title but now their season is over.
The Cinderella story of the tournament is Eastern Oregon. This 6 seed upset 2 seed Concordia (MI) in an overtime thriller. One of the Mountaineer coaches while walking off the court said with both surprise and excitement that she will need to go buy some more outfits as she hadn’t packed for a stay through Saturday.
As the tournament moves into Saturday’s quarterfinal round here are the seeds that remain:
1 seeds: Indiana Wesleyan, Ozarks, and Concordia (NE)
2 seeds: Grandview, Northwestern
3 seed: Mount Mercy
4 seed: Briar Cliff
6 seed: Eastern Oregon
After Saturday only four of these teams will survive and move onto Monday’s national semi-finals. We hope to be here with WIWU on that Monday still covering the Wildcats and their quest for a championship.
Go Wildcats!
Roger Alcock
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