UTSA to meet UConn in NCAA Tournament First Round – UTSA Athletics
SAN ANTONIO–The No. 16 seed UTSA ladies’s basketball workforce is about to face No. 1 seed UConn on March 21 at 2 pm CT in Storrs, Connecticut, at Gampel Pavilion as a part of the NCAA Tournament First Round.
The recreation will probably be broadcast dwell on ABC with Ryan Ruocco (play-by-play), Rebecca Lobo (analyst), and Holly Rowe (reporter) on the decision. Neal Raphael will ship all of the motion on the radio in the higher San Antonio space on The Bull 93.3 FM and worldwide on the iHeartRadio app. Live stats for the competition could be discovered at goUTSA.com/wbbstats, and tickets can be found for buy at goUTSA.com/wbbtickets.
The Roadrunners (18-15, 9-9 American) will seem in the NCAA Tournament for the third time in this system’s historical past, and the primary since 2009. UTSA obtained an computerized bid to the match after profitable 4 video games in 4 days because the sixth seed on the American Championship, with a 54-40 win over No. 1 seed Rice.
Previously, UTSA obtained computerized bids for profitable the Southland Conference Tournaments in 2008 and 2009, and for the primary time in program historical past, UTSA is competing in postseason play for the third consecutive 12 months after taking part in in the WNIT in 2024 and the WBIT in 2025.
With the choice, UTSA Head Women’s Basketball Coach Karen Aston He turns into the fifteenth coach to take three completely different packages to the NCAA Division I Tournament, having finished so at Charlotte in 2009 and at Texas for six consecutive years from 2014-19.
Senior Cheyenne Rowe carries momentum after being chosen because the Most Outstanding Player of the American Conference Championship, the place she averaged 16.3 factors per recreation, with 8.3 rebounds per recreation throughout the match. Senior Ereauna Hardaway and junior Idara Udo have been named All-Tournament Performers, as Hardaway tallied 14.7 factors per recreation, with 9 assists and 5.3 rebounds per recreation, and Udo averaged a double-double with 10.3 factors per recreation and 10.0 rebounds per recreation. Also taking part in a significant function, sophomore Mia Hammonds He had 8.3 factors per recreation and shone defensively, with six steals and 4 blocks.
The Huskies (34-0, 20-0 Big East) enter the match as the highest general seed, whereas additionally rating first in each the AP Poll and the USA Today/WBCA Coaches Poll.
Led by the winningest coach in NCAA basketball historical past, Geno Auriemma holds a 1284-165 document and has UConn in the match for the thirty seventh consecutive season. The Huskies are the No. 1 seed for the twenty third time, and so they’ve competed in each NCAA Tournament because the 1988-89 marketing campaign. The squad has reached an NCAA document, 24 Final Fours and has gained a document 12 National Championships. They enter the match undefeated for the tenth time in program historical past.
They lead the nation in a number of statistical classes, together with subject purpose proportion (52.5), assists/turnover ratio (1.86), subject purpose proportion protection (33.3), scoring protection (50.4), scoring margin (+38.4), steals per recreation (15.6) and three-level proportion (39.6).
UConn has two USBWA First-Team All-Americans on its squad, with Azzi Fudd and Sarah Strong receiving the accolade earlier in the week. Fudd can be an AAU Sullivan Award finalist, a Katrina McClain Award finalist, and on the Naismith Trophy Late-Season Team and the Wooden Award Ballot. Strong, in the meantime, was a unanimous Big East Player of the Year and the league’s Defensive Player of the Year en route to National Player of the Year honors by The Athletic and ESPN.
Strong paces the workforce with 18.5 factors per recreation at 60.1% capturing, and seven.6 rebounds per recreation, additionally main the squad. Defensively, Strong has swiped 111 steals and has blocked 53 pictures throughout the marketing campaign. Fudd averages 17.7 factors per recreation and is certainly one of three gamers with over 100 assists. Strong has dished out 135 dimes, and KK Arnold leads the group with 158.
The winner between the Roadrunners and Huskies will advance to the Second Round, the place they’re going to play the victor between No. 8 seed Iowa State and No. 9 seed Syracuse on Monday at Gampel Pavilion with a tip time to be decided at a later date.
Keep up with UTSA Women’s Basketball all season lengthy on goutsa.com and by following this system on Facebook at /UTSAWBBX (Twitter) @UTSAWBBand on Instagram @UTSA_WBB.
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