Women's Elite Eight Info/Notes - 3/21/19

• St. Anselm, the 2019 East Regional champion, drew the #7 seed in the Elite Eight in Columbus, Ohio and will face the #2 seed, Southwestern Oklahoma State University, at 2:30pm on Tuesday afternoon. Unsurprisingly, the two teams have never played each other before. The winner gets to face the winner of the IUP (#3) vs. Azusa Pacific (#6) contest in the semifinals... The Lady Bulldogs (based in Weatherford, Oklahoma, only a few miles west of Oklahoma City), the South Central regional champion, boast a 33-game winning streak. SWOSU lost its opening game to Emporia (KS) State, 68-60, but haven’t lost since. They won the Great American Conference title (both regular season and tournament) and earned the #2 seed in the NCAA regional playoffs. Victories over Emporia State and defending national champion Central Missouri sent the Lady Bulldogs into the Sweet 16 against #1 seed/host Fort Hays State. A big third quarter (27-14) and 32 points from regional Most Outstanding Player Hayden Priddy proved enough to get the job done and send SWOSU to its first Elite Eight. 5-9 senior Priddy (17.4ppg) is one of three double figure scorers for head coach Kelsi Musick along with 6-2 senior Hailey Tucker (18.6ppg) and 5-8 junior Tyra Aska (12.5ppg). The Lady Bulldogs make more than nine three-pointers per game, get to the line a ton (almost 24 FTA per game, about seven trips more than their foes) and average 84.7ppg as a team… Two institutions, St. Anselm (East) and Nova Southeastern (South), won both the men’s and women’s regional championships this week, the first time this has ever occurred in the East Region… The Hawks were assigned the #7 Elite Eight seed (ahead of Nova Southeastern, also a #7 regional seed), the lowest that the region has received in the three seasons the Elite Eight has been re-seeded after the regionals. Queens (#5 in 2017) and Stonehill (#4 last season) both lost opening round games despite garnering higher seeds… In fact, since Bentley won the national championship in 2014, the East has only won one Elite Eight game, in 2016, when Bentley edged Virginia Union…. St. A’s is the second team representing New Hampshire to reach the Elite Eight, Franklin Pierce turning the trick three straight years (2008-2010)… Lubbock Christian is the only team still left in the field that has won a Division II national crown (2016). Drury (2004, representing the South Central region before re-alignment) is the only other team to make it as far as the title game… Along with the Hawks, three other teams are taking their Elite Eight bow. All together the remaining teams have a combined ten previous Elite Eight visits (see below)… Hawks junior center Samantha Ryan enters the Elite Eight with 1,130 points (#16 in program annals) and 707 rebounds (#11) and has also produced twenty-three double-doubles this season, second-most in the nation.