Lady Gamecocks to face Appalachian State in first round at home
Dawn Staley's third year in Columbia has brought a return to the postseason.
The USC women's basketball team will host Appalachian State tonight at 7 p.m. at the Colonial Life Arena in the first round of the 2011 Women's National Invitational Tournament.
The Lady Gamecocks earned the bid as the SEC's automatic qualifier on the strength of having the best league standing of any non-NCAA Tournament team in the conference.
"We're happy to be able to play into the postseason this year, although it is bittersweet in that it wasn't our primary objective," Staley said in a release. "We felt like we had a good enough resume to be in the discussion for the NCAA Tournament, and I feel like we were. That said, we are one of a lot of good teams in the WNIT field, and we are excited to get started this week."
The Lady Mountaineers (25-6) won the Southern Conference regular season title but fell short of earning the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament, losing to Samford 57-54 in the SoCon Tournament title game. This is ASU's second-straight postseason appearance — it won last year's inaugural Women's Basketball Invitational.
ASU is led by sophomore forward Ashlen Dewart, a Spartanburg native and former Dorman High standout. Dewart averages 15.9 points and 6.4 rebounds a game. Two other Lady Mountaineers — Anna Freeman (14.4) and Sam Ramirez (15.7) — also average double figures.
USC (17-14) leads the all-time series between the two schools 10-4. In the last meeting, the Gamecocks defeated ASU 82-66 during the 2003-2004 season.