A quick note: The women divide the bracket into four sections (just like the NCAA Tourney), and seed the teams in each section one through eight, whereas the men seed the top 16 throughout the entire bracket. For example, the #8 seed in the women’s tournament is the lowest seed in the bracket, and one of the four lowest seeds in the tournament; while the #8 in the men’s bracket is the 8th highest seed in the tournament.
#1 Seed Hastings (30-3) vs. #8 seed Maine-Fort Kent (19-8)
Lindsay Ducey and company draw the sacrificial lamb from the Sunrise Conference. Hastings should take care of business and win by at least 20.
Prediction: Hastings 80-Maine-Fort Kent 50
#1 Seed Northwestern (26-5) vs. #8 seed Indiana Northwest (22-10)
Two of the Red Raiders five losses have come to Hastings, thankfully for Randa Hulstein, Becca Hurley, and company Indiana Northwest is not in the same universe as Hastings. Northwestern rolls onto the second round.
Prediction: Northwestern 100- Indiana Northwest 65
#3 seed Briar Cliff (25-7) vs. #6 Holy Names (23-9)
These two teams have one common opponent in Concordia, but outside of that there aren’t a lot of stats available for Holy Names to really compare the two teams. Holy Names did defeat Concordia in a very low scoring 49-42 game, and Briar Cliff was swept in two games versus Concordia, but I don’t think that really translates to this game. It appears that Holy Names likes to play high pressure half court defense judging by the fact that they are 7th nationally in steals, 4th in shooting percentage allowed, and 11th in three point percentage. Unfortunately for Holy Names, this probably plays right into the hands of Briar Cliff. Briar Cliff practices against high pressure defense every day, and has to deal with high pressure pressing teams such as Morningside several times each year. There appears to be some potential for an upset here, but the Chargers have the best player on the floor, and quite possibly the best player in the tournament in Liz Grider, as well as the advantage of playing in front of their home crowd. Holy Names might hang around for a half or so, but I think Briar Cliff will control the tempo, and I just don’t see them dropping this one.
Prediction: Briar Cliff 75- Holy Names 60
#4 seed Morningside (20-11) vs. #5 seed Kansas Wesleyan (22-7)
Morningside is probably the biggest enigma of the tournament. They several players back from last years undefeated national championship team, yet they are wildly inconsistent. They have proven all year that they can beat anyone (they gave Hastings their only conference loss), but if the threes aren’t falling they are vulnerable to anyone. These two teams share common opponents in Dana, Dordt, and Midland Lutheran. Kansas Wesleyan split two games with both Dana and Midland Lutheran; and beat Dordt by one in Fremont. Morningside blew out Dana, beat Midland Lutheran, and split two games with Dordt. Kansas Wesleyan only averages 69 points per game, compared to 77 points per game from Morningside. I think this game plays out similar to the Briar Cliff game, with Kansas Wesleyan hanging around in the first half, but not having enough firepower to keep it close in the second half.
Prediction: Morningside 80- Kansas Wesleyan 65
#3 seed Indiana Wesleyan (26-6) vs. #6 seed Concordia (21-10)
Trivia question #1: Who is the only non-GPAC team to win a national tourney since 2001? If you guessed Indiana Wesleyan than you are 100% correct! Both Concordia and Indiana Wesleyan come into this game winning eight of their last ten games. Both of these teams want to keep the score down in the mid 60’s to low 70’s, but it appears that Indiana Wesleyan will have the best player on the floor in Elaine Hessel who averages 19 points while shooting 60% from the field. This game should go down to the wire, and I think that Indiana Wesleyan probably pulls this one out in the end.
Prediction: Indiana Wesleyan 72- Concordia 68