by (Lawrence, Kansas) – The No. 20 nationally ranked Haskell Indian Nations University women’s basketball team (23-6), who are coming off their first ever Association of Independent Institutions (A.I.I.) Conference Championship, learned who their opponent will be for the 2016 NAIA Division II Women’s Basketball National Championship that will be held at the Tyson Events Center from March 9 – 15 located in Sioux City, Iowa.
The NAIA Division II selection show released the tournament bracket and the Haskell Lady Indians, who were seeded No. 6 in the Liston Bracket, will face the No. 10 ranked Dakota Wesleyan Tigers (25-8) who were awarded a No. 3 seed, at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday at the Tyson Events Center in Sioux City, Iowa.
The Lady Indians comes into the game ranking third in the NAIA in steals per game and 10th in scoring margin at 15.44.
The Tigers have never faced Haskell in women’s basketball and enters the tournament after finishing tied for second in the GPAC, which sent six teams to the tournament.
Haskell head coach Shane Flanagan said, “We’re the six seed and at this point I’ll take just playing in the tournament, so I am okay with it, do I think we maybe we could be a higher seed? sure, but it takes time to build a reputation for being a good program and this is just part of it. The girls are happy with where we are at, I’m happy with where we are at.”
The field is comprised of 22 automatic berths and 10 at-large selections. Automatic qualification is given to conference regular-season champions, tournament champions or tournament runners-up depending on the league. At-large teams were determined using the final regular-season Coaches’ Top 25 Poll released today.
This will mark the second time in school history that the Haskell women’s team will make an appearance in the NAIA National tourney, the last time being in 2010.
The NAIA Network – the association’s official video streaming home – will video-stream all 28 games live leading up to the semifinals and final on ESPN3. The video platform, powered by Stretch Internet, allows users access to live video, statistics, and social interaction on a number of devices, including mobile. Single day passes can be purchased for $9.95, while an all-tournament package is available at $29.95. For more information and the pre-register, click here.
I believe this is the first time we have Native American Team winning a Championship. Congratulation to the school and all Team members.
“ONWARD HASKELL”