Welcome To The Big Show!
MOORHEAD, Minn. (2/25/13)-- Concordia earned one of the 20 at-large bids into the NCAA Tournament it was announced on Monday. The Cobbers will be participating in the national playoffs for the third time in the last five years and are headed to their 18th overall NCAA Tournament.
Concordia NCAA Selection Show Highlights & Interviews
NCAA Tournament Interactive Bracket
NCAA Tournament Media Release
Concordia will play No.21-ranked UW-Stevens Point at Simpson College (Iowa) in Indianola, Iowa in the first round of the tournament on Friday, Mar. 1 at 5 p.m. Host Simpson (25-2), who is currently ranked 12th in the latest D3hoops.com poll, wiill square off against Westminster (Mo.) (17-10) on Friday at 7 p.m. The winners of the first round games will meet on Saturday, Mar. 2 at 7 p.m.
The Cobber/UW-Stevens Point game will be broadcast live in the FM area on 1660 AM.
The Cobbers are 21-6 on the year and won the MIAC regular-season championship for the first time since 1989-90. Concordia last participated in the national playoffs in 2011 when they earned the MIAC's automatic qualifier and then fell to Simpson in the first round.
UW-Stevens Point earned their trip to the national playoffs by winning both the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) postseason tournament title for the sixth straight season. They are 23-5 on the season and head into the NCAA Tournament having won five straight games and eight of their last nine. The Pointers are making their sixth consecutive NCAA appearance and 10th overall appearance. UWSP has won a pair of NCAA Division III championships (1987 & 2002).
Concordia is led by senior tandem of Tricia Sorensen and Emily Thesing. Sorensen led the team in scoring in 2012-13 with a 13.9 points per game average. She scored in double figures in all but five of the Cobbers' games this season. She scored at least 20 points on four occasions and had a season-high 23 points against Bethel on Nov. 28. Sorensen reached both the 1,000-point and 500-rebound plateaus during the year to become only the 10th player in program history to reach that milestone. Thesing was second on the team in scoring with a 13.0 ppg average. She led the team in 3-point field goals with 51 and has connected on 113 3-pointers in her career.
UW-Stevens Point is led by senior Sam Barber who led the WIAC in scoring with an 18.7 points per game average. She scored in double figures in 27 of the team's 28 games and had at least 20 points on nine occasions. She is coming off a career-high scoring game in the WIAC title contest. Barber tied her career high with 34 points in the team's 76-71 overtime win over UW-Whitewater. Barber also finished fourth in the conference in rebounding (7.3 rpg) and recorded three double-doubles on the season.
The Cobbers and Pointers have met only twice before with UWSP winning both games. The most recent match-up between the two teams came in the second game of the 2009-10 season when the Pointers won 69-67 in Stevens Point, Wis. The only other game in the series, and only NCAA Tournament meeting, came back in the 1987 national championship game when UW-Stevens Point prevailed 81-74 in Scranton, Pa.
Concordia and UW-Stevens Point have only one common opponent this season. Both teams played St. Thomas during the season. The Cobbers split the regular-season series with the Tommies before losing in the MIAC title game while the Pointers lost 73-70 at St. Thomas on Nov. 25.