Native American Women Athletes in the 2016 NCAA Division I March Madness Tournament

The NCAA announced the 64-team field in the Women’s Basketball Tournament that will decide a national champion on the ESPN Selection Show yesterday evening as well as the sites of the first two rounds of the tournament.

First- and second-round games will be played at 16 home sites Friday, March 18 through Monday, March 21, with the 16 second-round winners moving on to the four regional sites.  The Lexington Regional (Rupp Arena, Lexington, Kentucky) and the Sioux Falls Regional (Denny Sanford Premier Center, Sioux Falls, South Dakota) will be played on Friday, March 25 and Sunday, March 27, while the Bridgeport Regional (Webster Bank Arena, Bridgeport, Connecticut) and the Dallas Regional (American Airlines Center, Dallas) will be held Saturday, March 26 and Monday, March 28.  The four regional winners will advance to the 2016 NCAA Women’s Final Four, April 3 and 5 in Indianapolis (Bankers Life Fieldhouse).

Yesterday, we featured the Native American men athletes who will be competing in the NCAA’s March Madness tournament that will be starting this week. Today, we reveal the women that will be competing below. Once the actual times and TV listings are released, we will update the profiles with the game information:

College Women

Caitlyn Ramirez (Seminole Nation of Oklahoma), is a 6-2 junior forward for the Troy Trojans who earned their way to the to the women’s March Madness tournament by winning the Sun Belt Conference championship. Ramirez was named to the Sun-Belt All-Tournament team where she scored 24 points in the semi-final game. On the season, Caitlyn has averaged 12.2 points per game and leads the team in rebounding at 7.0 rebounds per game. She is originally a transfer from Tyler Junior College out of Tyler, Texas where she was a  NJCAA Region XIV All-Conference and All-Region selection. The Trojans will face Oregon State in the NCAA First Round.  The Trojans earned a 15-seed in the Dallas Region and will face the 2-seed Oregon State on Friday at Gill Coliseum in Corvallis, Ore.  Tipoff is set for 4 p.m. CT in a game that will air on ESPN2.

Tesha Buck (Mdewakanton Sioux/Prairie Island Indian Community), is a 5-11 junior guard for the Green Bay Phoenix who earned their way to the NCAA women’s tournament by winning the Horizon League Championship. Buck helped the Phoenix get to the March Madness by scoring a game-high 14 points in the finals over UW-Milwaukee.  Green Bay (28-4) will enter the 2016 NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament as a No. 10 seed in the Sioux Falls Region and meet No. 7 seeded Tennessee (19-13) in the first round in Tempe, Ariz. The contest will take place at Wells Fargo Arena on Friday, March 18 at 4 p.m. CST., with the winner facing the winner of No. 2 Arizona State and No. 15 New Mexico State on Sunday, March 20th.

Abby Scott (Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs), is a 6-1 senior guard for the New Mexico State Aggies who made it to the Big Dance by winning the Western Athletic Conference Championship. The Aggies were back-to-back WAC champions again, both in the regular season and in the tournament. the 15th-seeded New Mexico State women’s basketball will square off against the second-seeded Sun Devils of Arizona State.  Tip-off is tentatively set for 5:30 p.m. (MT) between the Aggies and Sun Devils on ESPN2. Should the Aggies advance, they’ll play the winner between No. 7 Tennessee and No. 10 Green Bay on Sunday, March 20, at a time to be determined. NM State’s game on Friday is the second game of the day.