South Georgia Tech top seed for NJCAA Tournament
The women's basketball NJCAA Tournament opens Wednesday at the Rip Griffin Center with South Georgia Tech as the top seed in the 24-team field.
If the Lady Jets can live up to the seed, they'll win the NJCAA title for the first time.
The NJCAA Tournament is a single-elimination bracket contested over six days. The field consists of 16 district champions and eight teams that received at-large invitations. The top eight seeds have first-round byes with four of the eight not playing until Thursday and the other four not playing until Friday.
Lubbock has hosted the tournament every year since 2016, though the event was canceled in 2020 because of the Covid outbreak. Gulf Coast State, located in Panama City, Florida, won three of the first four years in Lubbock, in 2016, 2017 and 2019. Tallahassee interrupted the run by winning the title in 2018.
Champions the past two years were Northwest Florida State and Tyler Junior College, Tyler becoming the first Texas school to win it all since Trinity Valley Community College won in 2014 for the third year in a row. Trinity Valley, located in the East Texas city of Athens, has won the tournament eight times, all since 1994, and lost in the championship game seven times, including four times in Lubbock.
The championship game, scheduled for 8 p.m. Monday, will be nationally televised for the first time on ESPNU as a part of a multi-year agreement with ESPN.
South Plains College, though it finished 20-10 and lost in the Region V tournament championship game, didn't make the national tournament. The Region V teams in the field are No. 10 seed Collin, No. 14 seed McLennan Community College and No. 20 seed New Mexico Junior College.
NJCAA TOURNAMENT
at Rip Griffin Center
(Seedings, records in parentheses)
First Round
Wednesday's Games
Barton Community College (16) (28-5) vs. Moberly Area (17) (28-3), 10 a.m.
Shelton State (9) (30-3) vs. Monroe College (24) (16-14), noon
Casper College (15) (30-3) vs. Walters State (18) (25-4), 2 p.m.
Collin College (10) (29-2) vs. Cochise College (23) (27-5), 4 p.m.
Dodge City Community College (13) (29-3) vs. New Mexico Junior College (20) (25-5), 6 p.m.
Eastern Arizona (12) (29-1) vs. North Dakota State College of Science (21) (29-4), 8 p.m.
Thursday's Games
McLennan Community College (14) (27-4) vs. Murray State, Okla. (19) (26-6), noon
Gulf Coast State (11) (24-4) vs. Three Rivers (22) (22-5), 2 p.m.
Round of 16
South Georgia Tech (1) (32-1) vs. Barton-Moberly Area winner, 2 p.m.
Northwest Florida State (8) (25-4) vs. Shelton State-Monroe winner, 4 p.m.
Eastern Florida State (2) (31-1) vs. Casper-Walters State winner, 6 p.m.
Wabash Valley (7) (30-1) vs. Collin-Cochise winner, 8 p.m.
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: South Georgia Tech top seed for NJCAA Tournament
