Lady Saints earn fourth seed in national tournament

by Chance Plett and Darren Reed
Sports editor - Crusader editor

Backed by 23 points and 15 blocks from tournament MVP Margaret DeCiman, the Lady Saints defeated Dodge City Tuesday to win the Region VI tournament for the second time in three years and earned the Lady Saints a No. 4 seed in this year's national championship tournament.

On its way to the Region VI championship, Seward County defeated Neosho 96-44 in the first round of play. In the quarterfinals, the Lady Saints beat Pratt 60-58, and then defeated Independence 65-49 in the semifinals. In the tournament championship game Dodge City held close to the Seward in the first half, but ultimately fell to the Lady Saints 56-38.

With the Region VI title, Seward advances to the national tournment, which begins March 16 at the Bicentennial Center in Salina.

The fourth-seed Lady Saints will play 13 seed College of Southern Idaho (26-6) at 6:15 p.m. March 16. The CSI Lady Golden Eagles became the Region XVIII champions of the Scenic West Athletic Conference with a 62-56 win over Salt Lake Community College March 6.

The Lady Golden Eagles were the No. 1 seed in the Region XVIII tournament, thus earning the team a bye the first round. CSI then played only two teams, Dixie State College and SLCC, to win the tournament.

This will be the Lady Golden Eagles fourth trip to the national championship tournament. The Lady Golden Eagle basketball team is the only CSI sports program which has not won a national championship since the schools conception in 1967.

The Lady Saints won the national tournament in 2002, bringing home SCCC's first national championship.