Location: Joplin, MO
Dates: March 9-12, 2022
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Tournament Information
The women's basketball team will fight for their first national title in program history at this week's NCCAA DII National Tournament. The Bruins come into the national tournament as the #8 seed and will begin competition on Wednesday for an afternoon game against #1 Champion Christian College.
"This team has fought through some valleys this year and it has been awesome to see them persevere and never give up," said Head Coach Mike LeViere. "At the beginning of the year, going to nationals would've been something we would have aspired to, so it is nice to see that goal come to fruition. These young ladies have had to overcome injuries and line up changes and performances that weren't up to their expectations of themselves. They've always worked hard and continued to learn and get better."
Coach LeViere continued by saying that "there aren't any expectations for our performance in terms of winning and losing. We expect each of us to work hard at being the best we can be, and we will need to continue to be really focused and concentrate on the task at hand. We're going to play really good defense, move without the ball on offense and find the open person, and value the ball by rebounding and not turning it over. We have talked a lot this year about focusing on the things we can control and not worrying about the things we can't. That is easy to say but hard to do, in basketball and in life. We will need to do that this week."
The tournament kicks off with the #8 Bob Jones facing off against #1 Champion Christian College. The Bruins enter the tournament as South Region Champions. At the South Region tournament, the Bruins narrowly beat Toccoa Falls College 62-61 to advance to the Region Championship. On Saturday, February 26, the Bruins upset the top-seeded Pensacola Christian College Eagles to capture the NCCAA DII South Region Championship. This is the third region championship in program history for the women's basketball team.
Their first opponent, Champion Christian College, comes into the week after winning the Southwest Regional tournament and upsetting Ozark Christian College 76-72. The schools met two years ago where the Bruins edged out the Tigers 62-59 in the consolation game of the 2020 NCCAA DII National Tournament.
The winner of Tuesday's game will advance to the semifinals on Friday where they will play either #4 Arlington Baptist University or #5 Grace Christian University. In 2018, the Bruins fell to Arlington Baptist University in the NCCAA DII National Semifinal. Grace Christian University and Bob Jones have met three times over the past two years with the Bruins falling 61-91 in their last meeting on November 22, 2021.
The championship game is scheduled to be played on Saturday at 5:00 p.m.
"There are a lot of really good teams at this tournament but we have faced good teams all year," said Coach LeViere. "We are focused on us and our effort and will let the results speak for themselves."
The top 8 teams in the country will be competing this weekend and below is the seeding for the tournament.
- #1 - Champion Christian College
- #2 - Pensacola Christian College
- #3 - Ozark Christian College
- #4 - Arlington Baptist University
- #5 - Grace Christian University
- #6 - Campbellsville University Harrodsburg
- #7 - Trinity Bible College
- #8 - Bob Jones University
"Whether or not we come out ahead on the scoreboard, we want to play to our potential. If we do that, we can walk away content that we have succeeded because we have strived to do our best."
The NCCAA DII National Tournament begins Wednesday, March 9 in Joplin, Missouri.
Live stats will be available during the game, and fans can purchase a video pass to watch the games
here. Bracket and tournament info is available at
thenccaa.org.
