INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference regular season and tournament champion Trinity University (26-1) has earned its third-straight berth into the 64-team NCAA Div. III Women’s Basketball Tournament, as the league’s automatic qualifier. NCAA Release | Interactive Bracket
The Tigers earned the SCAC automatic bid by virtue of their 64-54 win over Colorado College Sunday afternoon. The SCAC championship was the third consecutive league crown for Trinity and assured the Tigers of their 13th appearance in NCAA postseason play.
Trinity will host Texas-Dallas (19-9) for its NCAA opening round contest, the automatic qualifier out of the American Southwest Conference (ASC), on Friday in San Antonio, Texas. Friday will be the will the third meeting between the two programs with the Comets winning the previous two matchups back in 2018 and 2020. Overall, the SCAC is 5-9 all-time against ASC foes in the NCAA Tournament.
On the other side of the bracket, Hardin-Simmons (23-3) will take on Redlands (19-7). The winners of Friday’s contests play on Saturday with a berth to the round of 16 on the line.
Trinity will enter the NCAA Tournament led by a pair of First Team All-SCAC performers in SCAC Player of the Year, Ashlyn Milton and Maggie Shipley. The duo, who both earned All-Tournament Team honors last weekend, combine to average 25.1 points, 7.9 rebounds and 3.8 assists per contest. Defensively, the Tigers average 18.6 steals per game, third best in the NCAA, led by Maggie Robbins who averages 4.3 per contest.
The Tigers led by head coach Cameron Hill are riding a six-game winning streak and are coming off their deepest run in the NCAA Tournament since winning that National Title in 2003, last year when they won three games and advanced to the sectional final.
Sixteen first/second-round sites will be conducted March 3-4. Second-round winners will advance to one of four sectional sites March 10-11. Winners of the four sectional sites will advance to the national semifinals March 18. All games, except the semifinals and final, will be played on the campuses of competing institutions. The semifinals will be conducted at Oosting Gymnasium in Hartford, Connecticut, hosted by Trinity College (Connecticut).
For only the second time in the 41-year history of NCAA women’s basketball, the NCAA Division II and III national championships will be decided at the Women’s Final Four site. Both games will be Saturday, April 1, at the American Airlines Center, with the Division III championship game tipping at 11 a.m. Central time, followed by the Division II title game at 2:30 p.m. Central time. Both games will be broadcast on CBS Sports Network.
