Today, the University of the Incarnate Word will take the floor in the championship game of the 2011-12 Lone Star Conference Women's Basketball Championship tournament in Allen, Texas at 1 p.m. – pitting the 6th-seeded Cardinals against the tournament's No. 1 seed, Tarleton State.
Incarnate Word (16-12 overall) has already eliminated the No. 3 seed in Midwestern State (75-71 on Thursday) and the No. 2 seed in West Texas A&M (73-71 on Saturday) and has a chance to not only win the LSC title by eliminating the top three seeds, in order, but to become the Lone Star champion in the squad's first trip to the tournament in only the program's second season in the LSC.
The Cardinals are currently riding a four-game winning streak, going back to the last two games of the regular season, and are hoping to stop a four-game losing skid to the TexAnns going back to the 2010-11 season.
Sunday's championship also puts UIW up against a team that beat them in both regular-season matchups. In Stephenville, the Cardinals were soundly beaten, 83-64, on December 10, 2011. But on the return trip, Incarnate Word stood toe-to-toe with the eventual regular-season champs, losing 68-64 in the McDermott Center on February 4, 2012.
Now, UIW will have another chance to show the conference that they belong in the talk as one of the best teams in the league as their speed and athleticism have given their first two opponents fits, and the Cardinals' inability to hold on to double-digit, first-half leads has given their coaches just as many headaches.
In both the quarterfinal and semifinal matchup, Incarnate Word pressured their opponents to halftime leads of 47-36 (over Midwestern State) and 43-28 (over West Texas) – 11 and 15 points, respectively. In the MSU game, the Mustangs would eventually come back and take the lead before UIW could fight back, take the lead and hold off the comeback attempt. Against WT, the Cardinals never lost that lead they'd earned from the first half – but came to within one point of doing so with 00:04 seconds to play.
Against Tarleton State, UIW has had two players score 20-plus points against the TexAnns with Katy Cooke scoring 21 in the first matchup in Stephenville and Ifunanya Mora netting 21 against TSU in the game played in San Antonio.
For those of you wanting to enjoy the game with other UIW fans, Cardinal Athletics and Incarnate Word Student Life are co-hosting a championship game Watch Party at the Student Center Lounge.
As has been the case from the very first game of the tournament, the Lone Star Conference will have Live Stats available to view here, the game will be free to view online here, and KUIW will be on-site calling the action on internet radio.
Tipoff is scheduled for 1 p.m. and the winner will advance to the NCAA Division II Regional Tournament via the LSC's automatic bid into the national tournament.
NOTE: It was incorrectly reported that today's game will be on broadcast television via FOX Sports Southwest. Live video will only be available online (link provided above). The Lone Star Conference and UIW Athletics apologizes for the confusion.
