Mercer women will open NCAA tournament against Big 10 program
The Mercer women’s basketball team is set for a return trip to the NCAA tournament. The 15 seed Bears will square off against Iowa at 2 p.m. Friday in Iowa City, Iowa. The game be broadcast on ESPN2.
It’s the team’s second appearance in the Division 1 tournament after winning its second consecutive Southern Conference Championship.
The Bears (25-7) finished the season on a 17 game win streak and will be looking to pull off the upset this time around in the tournament. Last year was the team’s first appearance in the tournament and they fell to the University of Georgia in the first round 68-63.
The Iowa Hawkeyes (26-6), come into the contest on a five game win streak after winning the Big 10 tournament and have been slotted as the No. 2 seed. The Hawkeyes are lead by Megan Gustafson, the ESPNW Player of the Year, who averages 28 points and 13 rebounds per game.
Mercer will rely on the senior-laden group to try and pull off an upset against a talented Iowa team that will be a heavy favorite.
“I think the coaches are going to come up with a great game plan,” senior center Rachel Selph said. “We will just be focusing in practice and be ready for them hopefully.”
ESPNU accidentally aired the 2019 Women’s NCAA Tournament bracket on Monday afternoon three hours before the scheduled show.
ESPN apologized: “In working with the NCAA to prepare for tonight’s Women’s Selection Special we received the bracket, similar to years past. In the midst of our preparation, the bracket was mistakenly posted on ESPNU. We deeply regret the error and extend our apology to the NCAA and the women’s basketball community. We will conduct a thorough review of our process to ensure it doesn’t happen in the future. We will now broadcast the full bracket at 5 p.m. ET on ESPN2, and the regularly-scheduled show on ESPN at 7 p.m.”
The early announcement might have put a bit of a damper on the celebration but Gardner says she wasn’t planning to get too hype like last year.
“I wasn’t going to jump, I was going to be cool this year.”
Gardner says that she doesn’t follow Iowa closely to know all the details of the team but she will be looking to study film on the Hawkeyes starting as soon as possible.
“They are a great program. Very well coached,” Gardner said. “Any team we could have drawn in the tournament in the field of 64 was going to be a challenge. We are excited to be going.”
This story was originally published March 18, 2019 at 5:18 PM.