WATCH THE LIVE WEBCAST OF THE SAINTS IN THE NCAA TOURNAMENT
March 3, 2011
Bowdoin College will provide a live video webcast, as well as live statistics, for all games from the NCAA Division III women's basketball regional at Morrell Gymnasium this weekend in Brunswick, Maine. Emmanuel College will take on Mount Saint Mary College on Friday, March 4th, at 5:00 p.m. Host Bowdoin College will then play Salve Regina University at 7:00 p.m. Friday night's winners will play at 7:00 p.m. Saturday for a trip to the "Sweet Sixteen."
A complete tournament preview is available below, courtesy of Bowdoin College Athletic Communications.
The Bowdoin College women's basketball team (22-5) enters the NCAA Tournament for the 11th straight season as an at-large bid out of the New England Small College Athletic Conference...the Polar Bears have won at least one NCAA Tournament game in each of the past ten seasons, the longest streak in Division III basketball, just ahead of Washington (Mo.) University, with nine...Bowdoin has a 23-11 all-time record in 11 previous tournament appearances, including a 13-1 NCAA tournament record in Morrell Gymnasium...One of the most successful teams in the nation over the last decade, Bowdoin is 125-11 at home since the beginning of the 2002-03 season and has won at least 20 games in ten of the last 11 years...a pair of Polar Bears earned All-NESCAC honors in post-season awards as senior Katie Bergeron was named to the First Team and junior Jill Henrikson garnered Second Team recognition...Bergeron, who surpassed 1,000 career points on January 29, has been clutch down the stretch, averaging 16.8 points and 6.2 rebounds in Bowdoin's six-game winning streak leading up to the NESCAC title game...Bowdoin enters the NCAA Tournament with the third-highest strength of schedule of any team in Division III (.630)...the Polar Bears rank third in the nation in assist/turnover ratio (1.25) and are fifth in Division III. committing just 13.6 turnovers per game...in just her third season, head coach Adrienne Shibles is 68-17 (.800 winning percentage) with three consecutive NCAA Tournament bids.
The Salve Regina University women's basketball (25-3) carries a school-record 20-game win streak on its sixth trip to the NCAA Division III Tournament...the Seahawks advanced to the tournament with their 76-74 victory over University of New England in The Commonwealth Coast Conference (TCCC) Championship...TCCC Player of the Year Erin Phillips led the Seahawks with her 30-point effort in the championship game...Phillips, who also pulled down a team-high 13 rebounds, enters the NCAA Tournament for the second time with a season scoring average of 16.9 points per game, the only Seahawk in double-digit scoring...several of her teammates have stepped up big in recent games including Marissa Pendergast who led the Seahawks in scoring (19 points) in a semifinal win against Regis...Kimberly Horan has doubled her previous career-best 3-point output (36 in 2010-11) and has made nearly half that total (16) in the last seven games, including a 5-of-9 effort from behind the arc in last Saturday's championship...All-TCCC guard Kaitlyn Birrell ranks 28th in the nation for steals per game (3.5) while All-TCCC center Lindsay Shorey, who misses a national ranking because of fewer games played, averages 3.1 blocked shots per game...Salve Regina leads the nation in blocked shots per game (7.2) for TCCC Coach of the Year Cori Hughes.
The Emmanuel College Women's Basketball Team (21-7) is making the program's 16th appearance in the NCAA Tournament...the Saints have previously advanced as far as the Final Four in 2001 and the Sweet Sixteen in 2007...Emmanuel is currently in its 11th-straight twenty win season...the Saints received an automatic bid to the national tournament by virtue of winning the Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) Championship...this was Emmanuel's 13th GNAC title...the Saints ran the table in conference play, finishing the regular season with a perfect conference record of 12-0...Emmanuel landed four players on the GNAC All-Conference Team, including junior guard Meghan Kirwan (14.5 ppg, 6.5 rpg), who received 1st Team honors, as well as seniors Casey Shevlin (4.5 apg) and Kristin LeBel (11.7 ppg) and sophomore Fiona O'Dwyer (13.8 ppg, 7.5 rpg), who were named to the 3rd Team.
Mount Saint Mary College (25-2) returns to the NCAA Tournament for the 12th consecutive season...in 11 previous appearances, the Knights are 3-11 and have been as far as the second round on four occasions... a year removed from losing in the Skyline Conference championship game, a loss that snapped a string of ten consecutive conference titles, the Knights returned with a vengeance. They ran the table in the Skyline, winning eighteen conference games by an average margin of 35.4 points per game...predicated on intense defense, Mount Saint Mary finished the regular season as the Division III national leader in field-goal percentage defense (29.7%) for the fourth consecutive season...the Knights, who enter the tournament with a 19-game winning streak, also lead the country in scoring defense (41.7 ppg) and scoring margin (28.9)...junior Jen Mocanu claimed Skyline Conference Tournament MVP honors by scoring 55 points in two games, including 31 in the championship. She leads a balanced attack at 13.6 points per game...junior Amanda Horvers pours in nearly 2.5 three-pointers per game and scores 12.8 points per contest...senior Jess Tice, the school's all-time leader in blocks, averages 11.8 points, 6.7 rebounds, 2.4 blocks, and 2.0 steals.