PBC YEARBOOK
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PBC Women’s Basketball Championship Game: Lander vs. Columbus State
timeout. The Cougars lost the ball, Crum was fouled and made both
free throws to put the game away.
Five PBC Women’s Basketball Teams Selected to NCAA
Tournament
INDIANAPOLIS, IND – Five Peach Belt Conference women’s basketball
teams will see their 2015-16 seasons continue as they were selected
among the 64 teams to compete in the NCAA Tournament. It is the
second time the conference has sent five teams to the tournament,
the last coming in 2011.
The tournament will begin on Friday, March 11, in Gaffney, S.C.,
at Limestone College, who is the #1 seed for the Southeast Regional.
Lander, who won the PBC Tournament on Sunday, is the #2 seed with
Columbus State #3, Clayton State #4, Francis Marion #7 and Augusta
#8.
Lander, which swept FMU during the season earned the PBC’s
automatic berth into the national tournament when the Lady Bearcats
defeated Columbus State, 72-68, in the championship game on
Sunday. The victory was the 300th career win for Lady Bearcat head
coach Kevin Pederson. Lander makes their second straight NCAA Tournament appearance and seventh in the last nine years. The Bearcats
won the southeast regional in 2012 to advance to the Elite Eight.
Columbus State will be making its ninth overall appearance in
the NCAA Tournament. The Lady Cougars were the two-seed last year
and defeated Carson-Newman in the opening round before being
eliminated by Anderson. CSU won its sixth Peach Belt Conference regular season championship this year, and advanced all the way to the
PBC Tournament final before falling 72-68 to Lander earlier Sunday.
For the 11th time in 12 seasons, No. 24 Clayton State women’s
basketball has been selected for the NCAA Division II Tournament and
2015-16
will face Anderson as the No. 4 seed on Friday, March 11. The Lakers
earned the berth as an At-Large selection following a season that saw
them go 22-6 and appear in the USA Today Sports Coaches Poll three
times and the D2SIDA Media Poll five times, with a high of No. 19 and
No. 12, respectively. They also won 13 games in a row at one point,
achieved their 11th season of at least 20 wins and reached the semifinals of the Peach Belt Conference Tournament before falling to eventual
PBC Champion Lander.
An NCAA Tournament staple, Clayton State made “The Big Dance”
10 straight times from 2005-14, a stretch that included three Elite Eight
trips and the 2011 National Championship. The latter is still the only
Division II women’s basketball national title claimed by a team out of
the Southeast Region.
Francis Marion, which finished third in the Peach Belt Conference’s
East Division, owns a 21-8 record under first-year head coach Jeri Porter
and will face the second seed, Lander University (25-6), on Friday at a
time to be determined.
The Patriots, only one year removed from losing 20 games (8-20
mark), were picked to finish 13th out of the 14 teams in the Peach Belt
Conference pre-season coaches’ poll. The young FMU squad includes
only two senior and two juniors.
FMU is making its first tournament appearance since 2011 when
the program ended a run of four straight invites. This will be Francis
Marion’s 10th appearance overall since moving to NCAA affiliation in
1992. The Patriots earned invitations for five consecutive years between
1997 and 2001, reaching the round of Sweet Sixteen in four straight
years (1998-2001) and making the 1998 Final Four. In 2008, FMU hosted the regional as the sixth seed, and in 2010 the Patriots again reached
the Sweet Sixteen as the fourth seed in the Southeast. In 2012 as the
third seed, FMU advanced to the round of 32.
Augusta (22-8) went 21-7 in the regular season and 14-5 in the
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