| Alexis Popelar scored 18 of her 28 points in the
second half for Hardin-Simmons. Hardin-Simmons athletics file photo |
They each start with eight teams at one site, and whomever is standing at the end of this war of attrition gets to cut the nets down and claim an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
For the American Southwest Conference and Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference, the process started today, all day.
- Friday's men's scores
- Friday's women's scores
- Friday's men's wrapup
- Selection Monday schedule
- Who's clinched?
In the ASC, that site is Howard Payne's Brownwood Coliseum, while the SCAC has congregated at Millsaps. In the ASC, two teams advanced from the East Division and two from the West, as the top two teams in each of the two brackets moved on. Top seed Howard Payne overcame a rough shooting night with utter dominance on the boards (57-33) to beat University of the Ozarks 59-42. Friday the Yellow Jackets will face East No. 2 seed Texas-Dallas, which beat McMurry 63-49. West top seed Hardin-Simmons got 28 points from Alexis Popelar, 18 of them in the second half of a 77-71 win against Mississippi College. And East top seed Louisiana College bounced back from an early-week loss at Misssisippi College and advanced past Mary Hardin-Baylor 64-54.
For the SCAC, well, DePauw is 80 minutes of basketball away from taking one final SCAC trophy and going home. The Tigers started their final SCAC tournament with a dominating 67-42 win against Colorado College. They'll face Trinity (Texas), which cruised past Rhodes 85-51. Hendrix and Centre advanced as well.
Southern Maine's long run of NCAA tournament appearances could be over. The Huskies, who were ranked tenth in the most recent Northeast region rankings, were eliminated from the Little East tournament by Eastern Connecticut 78-64. The last time Southern Maine missed the NCAA tournament was 1994.
Agnes Scott upset Maryville (Tenn.) in the Great South Athletic Conference (GSAC) semifinals 81-68. The Scots were undefeated in the GSAC regular season. Agnes Scott advances to play Piedmont for the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.