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EVANSVILLE, Ind. (WEHT) — The Ohio Valley Conference tournament will tip-off championship week in the world of college basketball and for the first time in program history, the University of Southern Indiana women’s team can punch their ticket to the big dance.
“Somebody in this league is going to be cutting down nets on Saturday,” said head coach Rick Stein. “You know the big dance is waiting. And certainly it is exciting that we have the opportunity. Now we’ve got to fight and win three games to do it.”
After spending most of the regular season fighting for the top spot in the conference, USI will enter the tournament as the third seed. Not exactly what the Screaming Eagles wanted for themselves, but at the end of the day it does come with a bye in the first round of the tournament.
Southern Indiana center, Chloe Gannon said, “I love being the higher seed. But I love playing, so I would have been fine with playing tomorrow. But I think it’s a good thing that we’re getting that, like feeling that momentum before we get on the court.”
Last season, the Screaming Eagles entered as the fifth seed and played their way into the semifinals, where they would lose against the eventual champion, Tennessee Tech. Now they’ll get their preferred path to the title game and get a little more rest before playing their first game.
“Heck no!” said Stein. “You play all year to earn the bye. You know if it didn’t matter then teams wouldn’t be fighting for placement. Obviously everybody wants to win the regular season, they want to win the league and have a chance to be OVC champions. But the cool thing is you get to this point and now there’s another chance to be OVC champions.”
Tuesday the conference released their end of the season All-OVC honors, which included star guard, Ali Saunders on the first team and Gannon on the second team.
Southern Indiana will be in attendance when the tournament tips off Wednesday, March 4th, to watch the UT Martin and SIUE matchup that will determine who they face in the quarterfinals on Thursday at 3 p.m.
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