This weekend, the Union women’s basketball team will host the South Regional Tournament for the third time in four seasons with a trip to the NCAA Division II Elite Eight on the line.
The South region consists of the Gulf South, Sunshine State, and Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conferences. The three conference tournament winners (Union, Florida Southern and Clark Atlanta) get automatic bids and the other five teams were selected by the tournament selection committee.
Union’s first round matchup will be Friday at 5 p.m. against Clark Atlanta Lady Panthers in what seems to be the biggest mismatch of the tournament on paper. CAU has a solid 20-8 record, but this is a case of an okay team in a bad conference. They are only 5-5 against teams outside of the SIAC, which failed to send an at-large team to the tournament. The five losses included games against GSC opponents West Georgia and Shorter, who Union beat handily.
If the Lady Panthers want to have any chance to advance, they will have to shoot better than their poor season average of 37 percent and 27 percent from three.
Despite the apparent mismatch, though, Union was in the same position as the first seed just two years ago when it lost to a then-eighth-seeded Tampa squad, so the Lady Bulldogs know they have to stay focused if they want to avoid a similar result.
“We never look past any team because any team can be beat on any given day or night,” senior forward Bria Gaines said. “We focus on the task at hand and then we worry about what is next.”
What is next, should Union advance, is a Saturday primetime matchup against the winner of the Embry-Riddle vs. Eckerd contest. That game could be almost as ugly as the school’s names, as both teams feature strong defenses that will rarely let their opponent crack 65 points. Eckard will be looking for revenge in this one, as the Lady Eagles knocked them out of the SSC Tournament just last week.
Fortunately for Union, a strong defense hasn’t necessarily been their kryptonite, as the Lady Bulldogs have scored at least 72 in all three of their losses. The key to beating Union this season has been scoring–opponents are 3-2 against the Lady Bulldogs this season when they score over 75 points (West Alabama represents the only two losses) and 0-26 when they score 75 or less points. With that in mind, Union’s toughest matchup could come on Monday night against the high-flying offense of either Florida Southern or North Alabama.
A Union vs. North Alabama final is no doubt what GSC fans would love to see, especially since that matchup never came in the GSC Tournament after an early exit by UNA. The Lady Bulldogs split the season series against the Lady Lions, winning one on the road and losing a thriller at Fred DeLay that featured an eight-point comeback in the last two minutes of the game.
Another factor to keep an eye on is the health of Union’s leading scorer and the GSC Player of the Year, Chelsey Shumpert. Shumpert sat out in the second half of the GSC Championship game on Sunday after banging knees with an opposing player. Head coach Mark Campbell told Jackson 24/7 that Shumpert did not suffer any ligament damage and will play in the tournament. If the injury causes any setbacks though, the extra playing time will likely be distributed between freshmen Emily Beard and Avree Carpenter.
For a full list of games and tip-off times, click here to visit the South Region home page provided by UU Athletics.
