Scots Women’s Basketball Draws Georgetown in First round of NAIA Championship

Courtesy Lyon College Athletics Department

BATESVILLE, Ark. – With a 32-team field that includes 209 combined years of national tournament experience, the Lyon College women’s basketball team earned the No. 5-seed in the Third Quadrant and drew No. 4-seed Georgetown College (Ky.) in the opening round of the 2013 NAIA Division I Women’s Basketball National Championship tournament next week.

The tournament, which includes five first-time qualifiers, will take place in the Frankfort Convention Center (cap. 5,295) in Frankfort, Ky. on March 13-19. Lyon will face Georgetown on the second of two days of opening-round games on Thursday, March 14, playing at 7 p.m. (CDT).

If the Scots win their opening-round game, they will battle the survivor of the first-round matchup between No. 1-seed (No.3-ranked) Lubbock Christian (29-3) and No. 8-seed (RV) Southern University at New Orleans (20-4), which will be played on March 14 at 4:30 p.m. (CDT). The second-round matchup is scheduled for 7 p.m. (CDT) on Friday, March 25.

Other first-round games in the Third Quadrant include No. 3-seed (No. 11-ranked) Benedictine (Kan.) (27-5) taking on No. 6-seed (No. 24-ranked) Bethel (Tenn.) (21-10) at 9:45 p.m. and No. 7-seed (RV) Coastal Georgia (24-8) facing No. 2-seed (No. 6-ranked) Cumberland (Tenn.) (30-2) at 6:15 p.m.

All first-round games in the Third Quadrant will be played on Thursday.

First Quadrant games on Wednesday, March 13, include: No. 1-ranked Freed-Hardeman (31-1) facing unranked West Virginia U. Tech (17-13); No. 17 Wiley (Tex.) (29-3) taking on 14th-ranked Campbellsville (Ky.) (24-9); No. 9 MidAmerica Nazarene (Kan.) (30-2) battling No. 22 William Woods (25-6); and (RV) Southern Poly (Ga.) (25-5) taking on No. 8 Vanguard (Calif.) (23-3).

Second Quadrant games on Thursday, March 14, are: No. 5 Westminster (Utah) (27-3) battling (RV) St. Catherine (Ky.) (19-11); No. 21 Faulkner (Ala.) (25-6) squaring off against No. 12 Xavier (La.) (24-5); No. 15 Rogers State (Okla.) (23-9) taking on No. 20 Our Lady of the Lake (Tex.) (30-3); and No. 6 Cumberland (Ky.) (18-12) facing No. 4 Westmont (Calif.) (25-4).

Fourth Quadrant games on Wednesday, March 13, include: No. 7 Lee (Tenn.) (30-2) taking on No. 25 LSU-Shreveport (La.) (25-5); No. 23 Carroll (Mont.) (20-9) battling No. 10 The Master’s (Calif.) (25-5); No. 13 Columbia College (27-6) facing No. 18 Shawnee State (Ohio) (23-9); and (RV) Central Methodist (Mo.) (25-7) taking on No. 2 Oklahoma City (26-3).

Second-round games will all be played on Friday, March 15, with the Quarterfinals set for March 16, the semifinals are on March 18 and the title game is on March 19.

While Lyon is making its second national tourney appearance and second straight, Georgetown, receiving the Mid-South host berth, is making its ninth appearance and has an 8-8 all-time record at the tournament. But, like Lyon, the Tigers have never won a national championship.

Lyon College is led by its senior-laden starting lineup of Debbie Onukwube, Phagen Altom, Suzanne Fincham and Chris Smith, who have combined to score 44.4 points of the Scots’ 69.8 points per game and pull down 18.2 rebounds of the team’s 36.6 rebounds.

The Scots were hot most of the season, running off win streaks of four, five, seven and 12 games, with the latter coming down the stretch of the conference run. Lyon has only lost two of its last 21 games and is unbeaten (14-0) on the road in 2012-13.

The Tigers are a junior-laden squad, bookended by a senior and a sophomore. The junior trio of Andrea Howard (13.1), Kourtney Tyra (15.1) and Lizza Jonas (14.3) lead the team in scoring while senior Devon Golden (11) and sophomore Devanny King (11.5) round out the double-figure scorers on a team that averages 75.7 points per game. But defense is what the Tigers pride themselves on, allowing just 63.4 ppg.

There are 18 teams in the tournament that were there a year ago, but 30 of the squads have never won a NAIA National Championship. Five of the teams are second-year qualifying teams, three are third-year teams, 14 have five or more appearances and nine have 10 or more appearances in the national tournament.

Of the teams that have been to the tournament before, Southern University at New Orleans has the longest drought, not making an appearance since 2000.

The complete NAIA Division I Women’s Championship Bracket can be found at: http://www.naia.org/fls/27900/1NAIA/SportsInfo/Championships/2013DIWBB/2013DIWBB_Bracket.pdf?DB_OEM_ID=27900.