NCAA Final FourLocation:Â Sioux Falls, South Dakota
Arena:Â Sanford Pentagon
Time:Â 9:30 p.m. ET (8:30 p.m. CT)
TV:Â CBS Sports Network
Radio:Â WTKG-AM 1230
Online Radio:Â iHeart RadioLive Stats:Â NCAA.comOnline Video Stream:Â None
Designated visiting team:Â
Grand Valley State Lakers
26-9, won 4 in a row, 6-0 on neutral courts
Midwest Region Tournament champions
#7 seed in Midwest Region
No national ranking
Second NCAA Final Four appearance
Designated home team:Â
Alaska Anchorage Seawolves
37-2, won 6 in a row, 9-0 on neutral courts
West Region Tournament champions
#2 seed in West Region
#4 national ranking
Third NCAA Final Four appearance
The Grand Valley State women's basketball team will take on #4 Alaska Anchorage in the NCAA Final Four on Wednesday night (Mar. 23) in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. With a thrilling 59-56 victory over #19 Pittsburg State in Tuesday's Elite Eight, the Lakers will compete in the second NCAA Final Four in program history. Tipoff between the Lakers and the Seawolves is set for 9:30 p.m. ET.
There are links available above to follow along with Wednesday's contest. The game will be aired nationally on CBS Sports Network, but there is unfortunately no online video stream available to fans. Laker fans can also listen to the radio broadcast on WTKG-AM 1230, as fifth-year play-by-play announcer
DJ Foster will call all the action from the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
GVSU won its fourth consecutive NCAA Tournament game as the underdog on Tuesday night, holding Pittsburg State - the second seed from the Central Region - to a season-low 56 points and just five points in the final 5:09 of the game. A layup with 1:09 to play from junior guard
Bailey Cairnduff gave the Lakers a lead they would not relinquish, while forward
Taylor Parmley's two free throws with 16 seconds to play were the final points of the game. Pittsburg State's game-tying three-pointer was off the mark and GVSU had pulled off its fourth straight upset.
Entering the NCAA Elite Eight, Grand Valley State was the #7 seed in the eight-team Midwest Region Tournament before beating second-seed Lewis, sixth-seed Saginaw Valley State, and fourth-seeded Drury. Of the four teams remaining in the national semifinals, Bentley and Lubbock Christian are both #1 regional seeds and will compete in Wednesday's first semifinal at 6:00 p.m. ET. Alaska Anchorage is the #2 seed from the West Region, while the Lakers are the Cinderella team as the #7 Midwest Region seed.
Grand Valley State had just one player in double-digits on Tuesday night against the Gorillas, but Parmley - a redshirt freshman - led all players in the game with 19 points and 11 rebounds for her first collegiate double-double. The 11 rebounds are a career-high for Parmley, who grabbed four of the Lakers' 10 offensive rebounds in the win. GVSU used those offensive boards for a 14-4 edge in second chance points, while Parmley's point total helped the Laker reserves own a 21-9 advantage in bench points.
Juniors
Piper Tucker and
Janae Langs each scored nine points, while Tucker added nine rebounds and Langs pulled down five boards, including the final rebound of the game on Pittsburg State's missed game-tying three-point attempt. Cairnduff nailed a pair of three-pointers and scored eight points, while junior guard
Taylor Lutz scored seven points and added five boards, but more importantly held PSU's leading scorer Mikaela Burgess scoreless in the first half of Tuesday's game. GVSU's leading scorer this season - junior
Kayla Dawson - logged 32 minutes on Tuesday after playing just 36 combined minutes in the three regional tournament games, due to injury. Dawson notched five points against PSU.
The shorthanded Lakers (who played just seven players; Lutz and Tucker played all 40 minutes) outrebounded Pittsburg State 42-32 and held the Gorillas to just 34.5 percent shooting and their lowest point total of the season. GVSU shot 43.1 percent from the field. The game was incredibly close throughout, as neither team led by more than six points. There were 11 lead changes and eight tie scores, including at 53-53 before Grand Valley State scored six of the last nine points in the game.
Alaska Anchorage had the largest margin of victory in Tuesday's quarterfinal round, as the Seawolves bounced Francis Marion 79-55. Francis Marion was also a #7 regional seed out of the Southeast Region, but were unable to keep up with the Seawolves and their fast-paced tempo. Alaska Anchorage averages over 80 points per game and is beating its opponents by a margin of 26.5 points per contest.
The Seawolves received double-digit scoring efforts from three players on Tuesday night and shot 51.6 percent from the field. Alaska Anchorage is led in scoring on the year by senior Megan Mullings, the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Player of the Year, who averages 15.8 points and 6.2 rebounds in just 22.6 minutes per game. She is shooting 61.7 percent from the field and is 136-of-203 at the free throw line this season. Guard Jenna Buchanan has made 105 three-pointers in 2015-16 and scores 12.1 points per game, while Jessica Madison adds 10.3 points per game and has drained 67 trifectas this year.
Alaska Anchorage has 11 players averaging more than 10 minutes per game, while the depleted Lakers played just seven players in Tuesday night's victory. With a 37-2 record, the Seawolves have only lost at Western Washington 71-62 on Dec. 5 and at home to Simon Fraser 67-66 on Feb. 27 in the regular season finale. In each of the last two seasons, UAA has reached the #1 national ranking at some point during the year.
The winner of tonight's games between Lubbock Christian (Tex.) and Bentley (Mass.) and the other semifinal between GVSU and Alaska Anchorage will square off on Monday, Apr. 4 in Indianapolis, Ind. for the Division II National Championship. For the very first time, the Division II and Division III championship games will be played in conjunction with the Division I Final Four, behind held in Indianapolis. The Lakers have advanced to one other NCAA Final Four in school history; that was back in 2005-06, when GVSU won the Division II National Championship with a 58-52 victory over American International.
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