Web
Release
NCAA
Bracket
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - The America East Conference is sending at-least three
teams to the postseason for the fifth time in six years after both the NCAA and
WNIT brackets were revealed on Monday night. League champion University at Albany,
along with Boston University and University of Hartford, just the fourth trio
of 20-game winners in league history, all continue their seasons this week.
The Great Danes, which won their second-straight America
East crown Saturday and set a Division I program record for wins with 27, will
play in the NCAA tournament, while the Terriers will play in the Women’s National
Invitation Tournament (WNIT) for the fourth time in five years. Hartford also
earned its fourth appearance in the WNIT and qualified for the postseason for
the ninth-straight season.
Albany (26-3, 16-0) which earned the league’s automatic
bid to the NCAA tournament with a 61-52 win over Hartford on Saturday, are a
No. 14 seed and will face North Carolina, a No. 3 seed in the tournament’s
first round in Newark, Del., on Sunday, March 24 at 2:30 p.m. ET on ESPN2. The
game, along with the entire NCAA tournament, will be broadcast nationally on
the ESPN family of networks while also being available on ESPN3, and on
computers, tablets and smartphones via the WatchESPN app.
On Saturday, the Great Danes scored the final nine
points of the game against the Hawks en route to becoming the first America East
team since 1996 to go unbeaten in conference play and go to win the tournament
championship. Megan Craig, the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player, sparked
the momentum shift, stealing a pass and then finishing a layup to give Albany a
four-point lead with just over a minute to go. Championship
Central
This will be Albany’s second appearance in the NCAA
tournament, entering last year’s championship as a No. 14 seed as well. The
Great Danes were ousted by No. 3 seed Texas A&M in College Station, Texas,
last year. The winner of the Albany/North Carolina contest will face the winner
of Delaware and West Virginia on Tuesday.
Boston U. (23-5) will make its third-straight appearance
in the WNIT after capturing the league’s automatic bid by finishing second in
the regular-season with a 14-2 conference mark. The Terriers, who are 1-3
all-time in WNIT games, will host Sacred Heart at Case Gym on Thursday, March
21. It is the third time Boston U. will host a WNIT game.
Hartford (21-11) makes its second-straight WNIT trip and
a conference-record ninth-straight postseason appearance. The Hawks will host
Harvard at Chase Family Arena in West Hartford, Conn., on Thursday, March 21.
Game times for both WNIT games will be released on
Tuesday, March 19.
The America East has put multiple teams into the WNIT
three times, and all three times in has been Boston U. and Hartford.
Stay tuned to AmericaEast.com,
AExtra, Twitter and Facebook all week for postseason coverage.