Women's Basketball | 2/27/2017 3:42:00 PM
ROCHESTER, NY – The RIT (19-8) women's basketball team will play Ithaca College (24-3) in the First Round of the NCAA Division III Women's Basketball Championship on Friday, March 3 at 7 p.m. at Ben Light Gymnasium in Ithaca, N.Y. Bowdoin (21-4) and SUNY New Paltz (18-8) will also meet at Ithaca in a first round game on Friday. The two winning teams from Friday will meet in a second round contest on Saturday, March 4 at 5 p.m.
It is the first time in the 30-year history of the program that the Tigers have qualified for the NCAA Tournament. The Tigers earned the automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament with an 85-72 win over Clarkson University in the Liberty League Championship last Saturday to earn the Tigers their first league title.
Cori Okada (Fullerton, CA/Troy) scored 21 points and had eight assists in the title game earning Most Outstanding Player honors.
Jessica Glaz (Rockaway Beach, NY/Scholars Academy) and
Taylor Burns (Rochester, NY/Greece Odyssey) were both All-Tournament Team selections. Glaz tallied 27 points, while Burns tallied 13 points and grabbed 11 rebounds in the championship game.
Forty-three conferences were awarded automatic qualification for the 2017 championship. There is one berth reserved for Pool B and the final 20 berths are reserved for Pool C, which includes institutions from automatic-qualifying conferences that are not the conference champion and any Pool B teams.
RIT comes into the NCAA Tournament 19-8 overall and has won five straight games, and nine of its last 10 contests overall, outscoring its opponents 758-521 during that span. RIT led the Liberty League in scoring, averaging 73.1 points per game. The Tigers are shooting 43.5 percent as a team from the floor, 35.5 percent from beyond the arc.
Okada leads RIT in scoring, averaging 14.3 points per game. She leads the team with 4.6 assists 4.6 and is shooting 47.9 percent from the floor. Glaz is second on the team in scoring averaging 13.0 points per game. She is hitting 42.1 percent from beyond the arc, and leads the team averaging 1.4 steals per game.
Tara Lynch (Green Township, NJ/Newton) is third in scoring, averaging 12.6 points per contest, and leads the team shooting 49.5 percent from the floor. Senior
Julia Bender (Webster, NY/Webster Thomas) is second in rebounds 4.9 per game, third in assists (2.0), and steals (1.1).
Ithaca earned the automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament with a win over Stevens Institute of Technology 77-74 in the Empire 8 Championship last Saturday. Ali Ricchiuti led the Bombers with 23 points and six rebounds. This will be the 13th appearance by Ithaca in the NCAA Tournament and first since the 2014-15 season.
Ithaca enters the tournament with a 24-3 record. The Bombers have won 13 straight games, outscoring their opponents by an average of 70.0-55.0 in that span. Ithaca enters Friday averaging 71.6 points per game, while allowing 56.8 points per contest. The Bombers are shooting 41.6 percent from the floor, and 26.6 percent from behind the arc.
Ricchiuti leads the team in scoring, averaging 10.9 points per contest. Jordan Beers averages 10.7 points, while Erin Ferguson is third in scoring averaging 10.5 points per contest. Ferguson leads the team averaging 5.6 rebounds, while Erin Whoop dishes out a team-best 2.6 assists per game.
This is the first meeting between Ithaca and RIT since the 2010-11 season when the Tigers were a member of the Empire 8. RIT's last win over Ithaca came during the 2006-07 season.
SUNY New Paltz earned the automatic bid into this year's tournament with a 58-57 win over SUNY Geneseo in the SUNYAC Championship. The Hawks enter the NCAA Tournament with a 18-8 overall record. Bowdoin earned an at-large bid into this year's tournament and enter Friday with a 21-4 overall record.
Tickets for Friday's game can be purchased at the door. Adults are $7, and Youth, Seniors and Students are $4.
