AMHERST, N.Y. – After winning their second East Coast Conference tournament championship in three years, Daemen College returns to the NCAA Division II Women's Basketball Championship for a third consecutive season which gets underway later this week with regional tournaments across the country. In a return to a traditional format, the full 64-team NCAA tournament bracket was announced late this evening in a selection show broadcast on NCAA.com.
The tournament field is broken down into eight regions, consisting of eight teams each. Daemen is one of 23 conference champions to earn an automatic qualifying bid to the tournament. The Division II Women's Basketball Committee selects the remaining 41 at-large bids.
For a second straight season, Daemen is the No. 8 seed in the East Region and will face the top-seeded Southern New Hampshire Penmen of the Northeast-10 Conference in a quarterfinal matchup this Friday, March 11. The contest will be held in the Stan Spirou Field House on the campus of Southern New Hampshire University in Manchester, N.H. Southern New Hampshire will also have hosting privileges for the entire regional tournament. Additional first-round matchups include No. 2 Chestnut Hill of the Central Atlantic Collegiate conference taking on No. 7 Pace of the Northeast-10 Conference, No. 3 USciences of the CACC meeting No. 6 Le Moyne of the Northeast-10 Conference and fourth-seeded Jefferson of the CACC facing fifth-seeded Bentley of the Northeast-10 Conference. As a whole, four teams will represent the NE-10, three represent the CACC and Daemen is the lone representative from the ECC.
Game times, ticket and broadcast information for the East Region Championship will be announced later this week.
Daemen will enter NCAA tournament play with a 20-4 record. After capturing a third consecutive ECC regular-season title with a 16-1 conference mark, the Wildcats went on to win the ECC tournament for the second time in three seasons this weekend in the friendly confines of Lumsden Gymnasium. Serving as the No. 1 seed, the Wildcats downed long-time rival and fourth-seeded Roberts Wesleyan, 84-62, in the semifinals. In Sunday's tournament final, the Wildcats had a late surge in the second half to defeat second-seeded Molloy in a 74-67 triumph. The Wildcats have won 18 of their last 19 contests since the first week of December and are the first program in East Coast Conference history to clinch the regular season crown in three straight years since former member New Haven from 2006-08 and the third overall since 1991. Since the 2018-19 campaign, the blue-and-white have recorded four consecutive seasons with a winning percentage and have posted two seasons of at least 20 wins (2020, 2022.)
Since becoming an official NCAA Division II member in the 2015-16 season, Daemen has brought national attention to Western New York and now return to the "Big Dance" for a third straight season. Daemen was set to face Stonehill in a NCAA East Regional quarterfinal matchup on March 13, 2020 before the NCAA Division II Women's Basketball Tournament was cancelled in its entirety due to the start of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Daemen then hosted the 2021 NCAA East Regional in Lumsden Gymnasium last March and punched their ticket to the Elite Eight held in Columbus, Ohio with wins against Georgian Court (73-54 on March 13) and again Roberts Wesleyan (58-40 on March 15) for a fifth and final meeting in the abbreviated 2020-21 campaign. The Wildcats then saw their season end with a 66-49 loss to the eventual national champion Lubbock Christian on March 23, 2021 but finished with a stellar 14-3 record.
Top-seeded and NCAA East Regional host Southern New Hampshire will enter the NCAA tournament with a 21-6 record. The Penmen had previously earned the top-seed in the NE10 Women's Basketball Championship but fell to fourth-seeded Southern Connecticut State in the quarterfinals, 71-64, on Feb. 28 – snapping a six-game winning streak as a result. SNHU's 21 wins this winter are the most in a single season in program history since the 1989-90 campaign, when they finished 22-8 overall. The 1989-90 season was also the last time the Penmen appeared in the NCAA Tournament before this season.
Friday will be the inaugural meeting between Daemen and Southern New Hampshire. Daemen is 0-2 against NE-10 teams this season – a 75-70 loss versus St. Anselm in the Redhawks Classic in Rochester, N.Y. on Nov. 12 and a 68-66 loss hosting Stonehill on Nov. 30 in Lumsden Gymnasium. These were two of just three losses to East Region opponents for the Wildcats this season (19-3 record.) The Daemen-SNHU winner advances to Saturday's regional semifinals to face either Jefferson or Bentley.
A full opening-round preview will be posted to daemenwildcats.com later this week.
Winners of the eight regional tournaments will advance to the Elite Eight which is slated for March 21-25 at the Birmingham (Ala.) CrossPlex.
Regional Schedule (all played at Stan Spirou Field House, Southern New Hampshire University, Manchester, N.H.)
Friday, March 11 – First Round games
12 p.m. Game No. 1. – TBA
2:30 p.m. Game No. 2 – TBA
5 p.m. Game No. 3 – TBA
7:30 p.m. Game No. 4 – TBA
Saturday, March 12 – Regional Semifinals
5 p.m. Game No. 5. (Winner Game No. 1 vs. Winner Game No. 2)
7:30 p.m. Game No. 6. (Winner Game No. 3 vs. Winner Game No. 4)
Monday, March 14 – Regional Championship Game
7 p.m. Game No. 7. (Winner Game No. 5 vs. Winner Game No. 6)
National Schedule (all played at Birmingham CrossPlex, Birmingham, Ala.)
Monday, March 21 – National Quarterfinals
Tuesday, March 22 – National Semifinals
Friday, March 25 – National Championship Game
Daemen College features the premier NCAA Division II athletics program in the Buffalo-Niagara region, sponsoring 18 intercollegiate teams. For the latest information on Daemen Athletics, follow the Wildcats via social media on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram, or sign up to receive customizable news alerts, e-mail newsletters and weekly schedule alerts.
Follow the Daemen College women's basketball program on Twitter and Instagram at @DaemenWBB.
