Ithaca Earns Hosting Rights; Draws RIT in NCAA First Round
INTERACTIVE BRACKET | NCAA RELEASE
ITHACA, N.Y. – The Ithaca College women's basketball team (24-3) has earned the right to host the first two rounds of the NCAA Division III Championship and will play Rochester Institute of Technology (19-8) inside Ben Light Gymnasium on Friday, March 3. Bowdoin College (21-4) and SUNY New Paltz (18-8) will also travel to Ithaca for the four-team regional. The winners of the two contests will play on Saturday, March 4. Game times will be announced later.
ITHACA VS. REGIONAL FIELD: Ithaca went 1-0 against the regional pod this season, as it only played New Paltz and defeated the Hawks, 78-50, on January 10. The Bombers did, however, travel to Bowdoin during the 2014-15 season for the NCAA Tournament and fell to the Polar Bears, 71-66. RIT is a familiar foe to the Bombers, as the two schools used to play each other in the Empire 8, and will renew that rivalry next season when Ithaca joins the Liberty League. Ithaca is 44-2 all-time against the Tigers.
ITHACA VS. 2017 NCAA PLAYOFF FIELD: The only other team the Bombers played this season that made the 64-team field was the University of Rochester on December 10. Ithaca topped the then No. 9 ranked Yellow Jackets, 73-67, in Rochester.
ITHACA IN THE NCAA PLAYOFFS: The Bombers are making their 13th appearance in the NCAA Division III Championship and 12th since the 2000-01 season. Ithaca is 12-12 all-time in the NCAA Tournament and most recently made the Field of 64 during the 2014-15 season. That season, the Bombers defeated Mount Saint Vincent College, 82-72, in the first round, and then dropped a 71-66 decision to Bowdoin. Ithaca's deepest run in the tournament took place during the 2013-14 campaign, as the Bombers reached the "Elite 8" after wins over Sage Colleges (67-30), Haverford College (54-43) and Amherst College (74-71 OT). The program's first NCAA victory came back in 1996-97 against Binghamton (73-66), which was the first-ever appearance for the Bombers.
THE 2017 CHAMPIONSHIP: 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 bids and 21 teams who received at-large 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 10-11. Winners of the four sectional sites will advance to the national semifinals on March 17. The final will take place Saturday, March 18. All games, except the semifinals and final, will be played on the campuses of competing institutions. The finals will be held in Van Noord Arena on the campus of Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Mich.
BOMBER LEADERS: Ithaca will bring a 13-game winning streak into the NCAA Championship after defeating Stevens, 77-74, in the Empire 8 Conference title game last Saturday in Hoboken. N.J. It is the seventh Empire 8 crown that Ithaca has captured since 2003-04. The Bombers will be led into this season's tournament by a pair of first-team all-conference selections, senior
Ali Ricchiuti, who was named the Most Valuable Player of the Empire 8 Tournament, and junior
Jordan Beers. Ricchiuti averages a team-high 10.9 points per game (42.6 field goal percentage) and is second in assists with 64, while Beers tallies 10.7 points per contest (46 3-pointers made). Senior
Erin Ferguson adds 10.5 points and 5.6 rebounds per outing in the low-post, while junior
Julie Yacovoni, an Empire 8 All-Tournament selection, is a versatile player for the Bombers on both ends of the floor (8.3 PPG, 4.1 RPG, 2.2 SPG and 1.1 BPG). Eight other players on the team have contributed at least 2.9 points per contest, and all play more than 10.4 minutes per game. Ithaca is also one of the nation's scrappiest defensive teams, as the Bombers rank seventh in steals, eighth in steals per game, 11th in turnover margin and 12th in turnovers forced.