For the first time since 2010, 13th-year head coach Rich Murph and the University of Redlands women's basketball team are headed to the NCAA Division III Women's Basketball National Championship Tournament. The Bulldogs will tip-off on Friday, March 6, at 5 p.m. PST against No. 8 University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. The Bulldogs earned a double-championship on a 21-6 overall record and a 14-2 mark in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) play, while the Warhawks claimed the regular-season title in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) with a record of 23-3 overall and 13-1 in conference.
The Maroon and Gray garnered an automatic bid to the tournament after not only winning the SCIAC regular season but also battling to win an intense SCIAC Postseason Tournament (PST) Championship.
The Bulldogs won their final four games of the regular season to clinch the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament. After defeating No. 4 seeded Pomona Pitzer Colleges, 53-51, they outlasted third-seeded Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges in overtime by a score of 62-55.
In the SCIAC PST Championship game, sophomore guard Alyssa Downs (South San Francisco, CA) led the team with 22 points on 5-for-9 shooting from beyond the arc. She was also named the eventual SCIAC PST Most Valuable Player. Sophomore forward Hannah Jerrier (Canton, MA) enjoyed a pair of dominant games on both ends with 17.0 rebounds and 3.5 blocks. She tallied a career-high 18 rebounds in the semifinal win and a career-best five blocks in the championship. Senior guard Cassandra Lacey (Victorville, CA) stepped it up with 19 points in the championship game, including 15 points in the second half and overtime.
For the season, Downs paces the team with 14.4 points per game. She is the strongest shooter in the SCIAC statistically with a 40.2% clip from three-point range and 2.8 made triples per game. She also gets it done at the foul line with a percentage of 84.7% on the year. Lacey joins Downs in double-figures with 11.5 points per game. She plays unselfishly with a team-high 2.3 assists per game and serves as the strongest perimeter defender with almost a steal per contest to lead the team. Jerrier averages 7.4 points and 8.2 rebounds while leading the conference with a 53.9% shooting percentage.
The Warhawks enter the Tournament after only one loss in the WIAC during the regular season. They went on to fall to that same team in the conference postseason tournament semifinal game last week.
Wisconsin-Whitewater is led by senior guard Becky Raeder (Sheboygan Falls, WI), who finished the season fourth in the conference with 13.2 points per game. She also ranked third in the WIAC with 2.62 assists and leads her team with 40 steals. The Warhawks also look to first-year forward Aleah Grundahl (Deforest, WI) for 9.8 points per game on the season. She also reels in 5.1 boards per game. Defensively, Wisconsin-Whitewater leans on junior center Johanna Taylor (Wauwatosa, WI), for her conference-leading with 2.5 blocks per game, while finishing second in the WIAC with 6.8 rebounds per game.
The winner of Friday's matchup advances to the second round to face the winner of Trine University (IN) and Benedictine University (IL) on Saturday, March 7, at 3 p.m. PST.
Live stats and streaming will be available at no cost through the host's site or through GoRedlands.com