Women's Basketball | 3/9/2019 8:01:00 AM
SIOUX CITY, Iowa—Of the eight remaining teams in the NAIA Division II Women's Basketball National Championship, half are No. 1 seeds and three more are No. 2 seeds.
Then, there's Southeastern's opponent for Saturday; third-seeded Antelope Valley.
It's hard to call a team that was ranked 12
th in the final Top 25 a Cinderella, but the Pioneers are one of the last eight standing in just their third season of competition.
UAV won its second consecutive California Pacific Conference regular season and tournament titles this season, and defeated Morningside 100-93 for its first win in the NAIA Division II National Championship in program history. The Pioneers defeated Oregon Tech 81-69 on Friday to advance to the quarterfinal.
The Pioneers rank second in scoring at 89.1 points per game, and are the third-highest scoring team at the Tyson Events Center this week at 90.5 points per game in the tournament.
All five starters were in double figures against Morningside with Samantha Earl leading with 32 points and eight rebounds. Alexia Budd had a double-double of 19 points and 10 rebounds.
The Fire are making their third consecutive trip to the quarterfinal round, and are seeking their first trip to the semifinal round in program history. Each of the last two seasons, the Fire have come up 14 points short to the team that went on to win the national championship.
Post presence on both ends of the court has been huge for Southeastern, scoring 96 points in the paint over the last two games, and have blocked a tournament-high 10 shots. Additionally, the Fire are sixth in the tournament in rebounding at 44.5.
It starts with the play of
Marlena Schmidt who has consecutive double-doubles, and ranks third in the tournament in rebounding at 13 per game.
Keeping the Pioneers off the glass will be key to success, as they average 17.8 offensive rebounds per game, ranking second nationally.
Southeastern has spread the wealth scoring the basketball with
Makenzie Cann,
Elsa Paulsson-Glantz,
Raegan Linster, and
Emma Karamovic all joining Schmidt in double figures in scoring in at least one game this week.
Of the other seven teams, Southeastern faced four in the regular season, going 2-2 against that group. Both of SEU's regular season losses will meet in the final game of the Naismith Bracket at 2 p.m. when Concordia faces Indiana Tech. The Fire rallied to defeat Taylor in November, which takes on the team that eliminated Southeastern in 2018, Dakota Wesleyan.
College of the Ozarks, which the Fire beat during the SEU Classic in December will face Northwestern in the final game of the day.
The Fire and Pioneers tip off at 4 p.m. Eastern.
