Ithaca Women's Basketball Team to Face Colby-Sawyer in NCAA First Round
Full Bracket (PDF)
ITHACA'S INVITATION: The Ithaca College women's basketball team (25-2) has been selected for the NCAA Division III playoffs. The Bombers, who won the Empire 8 Championship Tournament to claim the league's automatic bid, will travel to a four-team regional at Southern Maine Friday and Saturday, March 1 and 2. Ithaca will face Colby-Sawyer (23-5) in one semifinal with Southern Maine (26-1) taking on Smith (22-4) in the other. Friday's semifinal winners will meet Saturday in the regional final.
ITHACA vs. REGIONAL FIELD: The Bombers have never played Smith. Ithaca is 0-4 against Southern Maine having lost to the Huskies in tip-off tournaments in 1991-92 and 2002-03, dropping a second-round NCAA playoff game in 2005 and most recently suffering a 79-59 loss on Dec. 31, 2005. The Bombers’ NCAA loss to Southern Maine came after its lone contest against Colby-Sawyer. Ithaca defeated the Chargers, 64-46, in the first round of the NCAA playoffs on March 2, 2005.
ITHACA vs. 2013 NCAA PLAYOFF FIELD: The Bombers edged Rochester, 57-55, on Jan. 2. The victory was Ithaca's first over Rochester since 1995, snapping an 11-game skid against the Yellowjackets.
ITHACA IN THE NCAA PLAYOFFS: The Bombers are making their 10th appearance in the NCAA Division III playoffs and ninth in the past 13 seasons. In 1997, Ithaca tied for the Empire Athletic Association title and won a tiebreaker with Hartwick for the league's automatic bid. Seeded sixth in the eight-team East Regional, the Bombers upset third-seeded Binghamton 73-66, and then lost at second-seeded William Smith 81-57. In 2001, the Bombers won the Empire 8 championship and advanced to the second round of the NCAA playoffs, beating the University of New England 79-61, before losing at College of New Jersey 68-58. A year later, the Empire 8 champion Bombers received a first-round bye and lost 73-67 to Ohio Wesleyan in the second round. The 2003 season was Ithaca's first selection as an at-large team to the NCAA playoffs. The Bombers beat Brockport 81-68, and St. John Fisher 86-79 in overtime, to advance to the program's first “sweet 16” before losing 57-51 at Rochester. A year later the Bombers lost 64-60 to Cortland in a first-round game. In 2005 Ithaca beat visiting Colby-Sawyer 64-46 in a first-round game and lost 55-52 at Southern Maine in the second round. The 2007 team lost to Gwynedd-Mercy in a first-round game and in 2010 Ithaca lost to DeSales in the opening round. Most recently, host Ithaca defeated Elms, 84-37, in the first round of the 2012 tournament, before falling to Bowdoin, 55-51.
THE 2013 PLAYOFFS: The Division III championship provides for a 64-team, single elimination playoff field. The 64 teams include 43 winners of conferences whose champions have been awarded automatic qualification (including Empire 8 champion Ithaca, Little East Conference champion Southern Maine and North Atlantic Conference champion Colby-Sawyer), 20 teams who did not win their conference championship (including NEWMAC runner-up Smith) and one team that is either independent or a member of a conference whose champion does not receive automatic bids. A total of 16 schools are hosting regionals this weekend. Four-team sectionals will be held at four campus sites on Friday and Saturday, March 8-9. Winners of the four sectional sites will advance to the national semifinals March 15. All games, except the finals, will be played on the campuses of competing institutions. The finals will be conducted at DeVos Fieldhouse on the campus of Hope in Holland, Mich. on March 16.
ITHACA LEADERS: The Bombers are paced by junior Kathryn Campbell with a team-best 12.6 points per game, while senior Devin Shea adds 9.7 and junior Mary Kate Tierney 8.9. Tierney has a team-high average of 6.6 rebounds per contest and junior Jenn Escobido chips in 5.8. Escobido has a squad-best 49 steals and Shea a team-high 33 blocks. Tierney has dished out 82 assists and Campbell 77. The Bombers are shooting 41.0 percent from the floor and 66.6 percent from the charity stripe. Ithaca ranks in the top 10 nationally in a pair of categories. The Bombers sit eighth with an assist-to-turnover ratio of 1.12 and 10th with a points-against average of 46.7.