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MARYVILLE

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News Brief

March 11, 2024MARYVILLE, Mo.

Northwest women's basketball dances into NCAA Tourney

Northwest Missouri State will face Fort Hays in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

The Bearcat women's basketball team waited anxiously for the NCAA Tournament bracket to be unveiled Sunday night.
 

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After a rigorour regular season and a chaotic conference tournament weekend, Northwest Missouri State finally received the news they've been waiting to hear: the Bearcats are back in the NCAA Tournament.

"There were a ton of emotions, and we knew it was realistic that there was a chance we wouldn't get in," senior Jill Fleming said Sunday night. "So the excitement and emotion when we found out that we did – it's just amazing. It's an incredible feeling. We've worked really hard this year. I'm just super proud of the girls."

The NCAA Tournament selection show watch party – 13 years after the last national tournament berth for the Bearcats – didn't come without its nerves.

After Northwest lost in the MIAA Tournament semifinals, GAC front-runners Southern Nazarene and Harding both lost in their conference semifinal games, opening the door for another team to steal that automatic bid, and ultimately kick out a deserving MIAA team.

"Harding and Southern Nazarene both got upset, and so we were just kind of sitting there like 'where does this leave us?' The thought was in the back of our head all day," Fleming said.

"Everything that could've went wrong to possibly have us get out went wrong," senior Jayna Green added, "so, I mean, just kind of feeling grateful right now."

The at-large tournament bid for Northwest (23-6) means Missouri Southern (20-9) is done. Bearcat head coach Austin Meyer knew it wasn't a guarantee that the tournament berth would go to his team.

"When you're setting this up and getting the whole team here, it's one of those things – do we do it if there's a chance we don't don't get on there. But that's life. You're going to have things go against you, and luckily for us that wasn't the case tonight. But it was great to see their reaction."

Now the work on the next chapter begins for the group that resurrected Bearcat women's basketball.

"Just knowing that the (MIAA Tournament) game that we lost isn't going to be our last game," Green said, "we have a chance to come out and be better, play better, and kind of go out on our terms is massive."

Friday, March 15
No. 3 Fort Hays State (24-7) vs. No. 6 Northwest Missouri State (23-7), 12 p.m.
No. 2 Missouri Western (25-5) vs. No. 7 Minnesota State (26-5), 2:30 p.m.
No. 1 Southern Nazarene (28-2) vs. No. 8 Henderson State (20-11)
No. 4 Pittsburg State (24-7) vs. No. 5 Harding (25-5)

Saturday, March 16
Winner Game 1 vs. Winner Game 2, 5 p.m.
Winner Game 3 vs. Winner Game 4, 7:30 p.m.

Monday, March 18
Central Region Championship, 7 p.m.