KEY LINKS: NCAA BRACKET | TOURNAMENT SITE | WATCH LIVE | LIVE STATS: WEB | MOBILE | MEDIA | GAME NOTES
INDIANAPOLIS - The 21st-ranked Concordia-St. Paul women's basketball team (23-6) has earned an at-large berth with the third seed in the 2013 NCAA Central Region Women's Basketball Tournament. The tournament will be hosted by top-seeded Washburn University with quarterfinal games on Friday, March 15 in Topeka, Kan. at Lee Arena. Concordia will play sixth-seeded and 24th-ranked Augustana (24-6) in the quarterfinals at noon.
The quarterfinal match-up highlights the strength of the Central Region Tournament field as a whole as it pits the NSIC Regular Season Overall/South Division Champion against the NSIC Tournament Champion with the two teams being nationally-ranked in the Top-25. The same dynamic occurs between the No. 1 and No. 8 seeds, with MIAA Regular Season Champion, top-seeded and eighth-ranked Washburn playing MIAA Tournament Champion Emporia State, the No. 8 seed.
Augustana defeated Concordia 55-43 in the NSIC/Sanford Health Tournament Semifinals on Friday in Rochester, Minn., but Concordia is 2-1 against the Vikings on the season after sweeping the regular season. Augustana would also defeated #17 Minnesota State to capture the NSIC Tournament championship, receiving the automatic bid to the NCAA field.
The winner of the quarterfinal game will play the winner of No. 2 seed Central Missouri and No. 7 seed Southwestern Oklahoma on Saturday, March 16 in the semifinals. The championship game will be on Monday, March 18.
The Golden Bears picked up NSIC Overall and South Division Regular Season Championships in the 2012-13 campaign, which marked an 11-win turnaround from the 2011-12 conference season. Overall, the turnaround is currently a 12.5 game improvement.
The highlights of the season were a 15-game winning streak and a stretch of play that included winning 20-of-21 games.
Concordia is led by NSIC Coach of the Year,
Paul Fessler; and NSIC Player of the Year,
Anika Whiting (Ashland, Wis.). The program has captured five NSIC Regular Season Championships under Fessler.
The Golden Bears will be making their ninth NCAA Tournament appearance in 11 of years of NCAA Tournament eligibility - all under Fessler. The Golden Bears have never missed the tournament in consecutive seasons since gaining postseason eligibility.
Concordia is 7-8 in the NCAA Tournament, and 5-3 in the regional quarterfinals. This marks the third time Concordia has earned the third seed, with a 2-2 record overall, 1-1 in the quarterfinals. The last time Concordia drew the third seed, it reached the regional final in the 2009-10 season.
Concordia's last NCAA Tournament appearance was in 2010-11 as the fifth seed in a quarterfinal loss to Northern State.
The Golden Bears are 2-1 all-time against Northern Sun teams in the NCAA Tournament, and have never played Augustana in the tournament.
