Sports
Women’s Basketball Going West
By: Clay Benjamin
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After a season for the ages, and a Mid-American Conference Championship under their belt, Ohio women’s basketball found out its NCAA Tournament fate on Monday night.
The Bobcats nabbed a No. 14 seed in the Greensboro region and will travel to Tempe, Ariz., to take on No. 3 Arizona State in the first round of the tournament.
The game is set for Saturday, and tip-off is set for 6:30 p.m. ET and will be broadcast on ESPN2.
The Bobcats found out their fate in front of 300 family and friends at the uptown Athens Buffalo Wild Wings on Union Street.
“The support from the fans is awesome,” senior guard Mariah Byard said. “The people with us tonight have been with us all year and my past four years and their support has been great.”
The Sun Devils are 27-5 and are coming off of a loss to Stanford in the Pac-12 Tournament.
“The first thing I thought of when I saw our name was, ‘Wow! We are going to Arizona, it’s going to be hot’,” sophomore forward Quiera Lampkins said. “But seeing our name up there is a big deal from where we were last year.”
At 27-4, the Bobcats are making their first NCAA tournament appearance since 1995.
“It’s so surreal,” sophomore guard Yamonie Jenkins said. “To come from where we came from last season to now, and just to see our name actually come up on TV and know that we are going to play in the national tournament is great.”
The Sun Devils are led sophomore forward Sophie Brunner, who averages 11.7 points a game. Also averaging at least 10 a game are guards Katie Hempen and Promise Amukamara at 11.5 and 10.9 points per game, respectively.
“If I had to describe this team as a wing flavor, I would choose Asian zing,” Jenkins said. “We have sweet players and we have spicy and aggressive players and we all work well together.”
The Bobcats will try to put the sweet and spicy play to work in full force against the Sun Devils.