College Women’s Basketball News – Guilford Heads to Kentucky For NCAA Division III Tournament

GUILFORD RECEIVES NCAA DIVISION III WOMEN’S BASKETBALL PLAYOFF BID
Quakers open play this weekend at Centre College in Danville, Ky.

GUILFORD’S INVITATION: By virtue of its Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) Tournament title, Guilford College’s women’s basketball team (22-6, 16-4 ODAC) has received the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA Division III playoffs. Guilford will make its third NCAA appearance in school history and first since 2002. The Quakers also played in the 2001 NCAA Tournament.

Guilford plays Centre College (24-3) Friday (3/2) at 7:00 p.m., or 30 minutes following the end of the other first-round game between Ferrum College (23-5) and Washington University-St. Louis (20-5), which starts at 5:00 p.m. The winners of both games meet Saturday at 5:00 p.m. in the second round. Each of the first- and second-games will be played in Centre College’s Alumni Gymnasium.

TICKET INFORMATION: General admission tickets cost $6. Student and senior citizen (ages 65+) tickets are $3 and children under two are free.

All tickets will be purchased on site at Centre College. The ticket office opens Friday at 3:30 p.m. Guilford fans may reserve tickets by e-mailing Guilford athletics director Tom Palombo at tpalombo@guilford.edu by noon Wednesday (2/29).

SERIES RESULTS: Guilford and Centre have met twice in women’s basketball and the series is tied at 1-1. The Colonels won the first meeting in 1988, 101-61. The Quakers captured the second meeting in 1997, 71-62.

Guilford leads the all-time series with Ferrum, 6-2. The teams scrimmaged prior to the official start of this season and last played a regular-season contest in 2007. The Quakers have never met Washington-St. Louis in women’s basketball.

GUILFORD VS. 2012 NCAA PLAYOFF FIELD: The Quakers have not faced another team in this year’s field of 64. Guilford scrimmaged Ferrum in a preseason exhibition.

GUILFORD IN NCAA PLAYOFFS: The Quakers are making their third NCAA playoff appearance and have an 2-2 record in NCAA games. In 2001, Guilford won its first ODAC crown and made its NCAA tournament debut with an 80-57 home win over Meredith College. The victory sent the Quakers to Abilene, Texas, for a second-round contest against Hardin-Simmons University. Hardin-Simmons advanced to the Sweet 16 round with a 106-77 victory. In 2002, Guilford again won the ODAC title scored a 54-47 home win over Methodist College a first-round NCAA game. The win earned another trip to Hardin-Simmons, where the Cowgirls’ prevailed, 72-71.

THE 2012 NCAA PLAYOFFS: The Division III championship provides for a 64-team field. The NCAA granted 43 conference champions automatic qualification for the 2012 championship. One independent teams and 20 other at-large picks from the remaining independent teams and automatic-qualifying conferences who did not receive their conference automatic qualification were selected with specific selection criteria approved by the Division III Championships Committee. Sixteen sites host four teams for first- and second-round competition March 2-3. Second-round winners advance to one of four sectional-round sites March 9-10. Winners of the four sectional games move on to the finals March 16-17. All games, except the finals, will be played on the campuses of competing institutions. The semifinals and final will be conducted at DeVos Fieldhouse on the campus of Hope College in Holland, Mich.

GUILFORD LEADERS: Ninth-year head coach Stephanie Flamini’s team enters the tournament with a 22-6 overall record, its best ledger since the 2001-02 team won a school-record 25 games. The Quakers captured the program’s third ODAC Tournament last weekend with three straight wins and have won seven of their last eight contests.

Sophomore center Gabby Oglesby earned the ODAC’s Women’s Basketball Player of the Year Award Feb. 22 at the league’s annual awards banquet, the fourth Quaker so honored. The First Team All-ODAC pick leads the Quakers in scoring (14.8 ppg.), rebounding (7.8 rpg.), field-goal percentage (.519) and blocked shots (66). She tops the ODAC and ranks 40th nationally in blocks per game (2.4 bpg.). Her field-goal percentage is 41st in the nation. She has a team-high six double-doubles this year and was named the Most Outstanding Player of this year’s ODAC Tournament. Oglesby has set Guilford standards for blocks in a game (7 vs. Randolph-Macon, 1/6/12), season (66) and career (125) this season.

Senior guard Jazlyn Gibbs won Second Team All-ODAC laurels for the second straight season this year and was named to the All-ODAC Tournament Team. Gibbs is Guilford’s 10th two-time All-ODAC performer after averaging 13.9 points per game and shooting better than 39 percent from three-point land. Her .394 three-point shooting percentage leads the ODAC and stands 31st in NCAA Division III through games of Feb. 26. She is third in the league with 2.1 threes per game and also contributes 3.4 rebounds and 1.6 assists per outing. Her 60 three-pointers this year rank second in school history, two shy of the Guilford record. Gibbs has 21 games with 10 or more points and became Guilford’s 16th career 1,000-point scorer this year. She enters the NCAA Tournament ranked 10th all-time at Guilford with 1,101 career points.

Sophomore forward Morgan King was also named to the All-ODAC Tournament squad after averaging 11.3 points, 6.0 rebounds and 1.7 blocks per game in the three Guilford wins. For the season, King stands third on the team in scoring (9.6 ppg.) and second in rebounding (6.2 rpg.) and blocks (1.5 rpg.). Her 38 blocked shots this season stand third in school history.

KENTUCKY BOUND: Guilford leaves campus for Kentucky by charter bus late Wednesday (2/29) afternoon. The 430-mile journey is expected to last nearly eight hours. Fans are invited to cheer on the team as it leaves Alumni Gym at 4:30.

Guilford’s men’s basketball team made the same trip in 2009. Centre hosted the Quakers’ first- and second-round victories over Transylvania University and Averett University as Guilford made the first of two straight national semifinal appearances.