The Stony Brook women’s basketball team roared in excitement on the hardwood of Island Federal Arena Monday night. For the first time in program history, their names were called for the NCAA Women’s Tournament.
The no.14-seeded Seawolves are tabbed to face the no.3-seeded Arizona Wildcats on Monday at 2 p.m. in San Antonio, TX.
The team gathered together in their home arena to celebrate (while staying socially distanced), knowing it was just over a year ago when their first opportunity to potentially play in the NCAA Tournament ended due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Stony Brook completed the 2020-21 season with a 15-5 record and 11-3 record in the America East. The team earned the second seed for the postseason behind the 17-3 (13-2) Maine Black Bears. The Seawolves hosted and defeated the UMass Lowell River Hawks 75-55 in the conference semifinals, after four teams opted out of completing the regular season due to the pandemic. Stony Brook defeated Maine 64-60 in the conference finals and earned its second-consecutive title.
Stony Brook was awarded the America East Championship by virtue of being the top seed last season when the pandemic canceled the championship game.
The Seawolves starting backcourt consists of junior guards Asiah Dingle and Anastasia Warren, who paced the team with 51 combined points in the title game. They were both named to the conference all-championship team.
The Stony Brook frontcourt primarily consists of junior guard Earlette Scott and senior forwards Hailey Zeise and India Pagan. Zeise was named to the America East All-Defensive and All-Championship team this past season. The team enters this weekend with the fourth-best national opponents points per game average, surrendering only 50.7.
Arizona concluded the past season going 16-5 overall and 13-14 in the Pac-12 Conference. The Wildcats fell 58-49 to the No.9-ranked UCLA Lady Bruins in the conference semifinals, but earned an at-large bid for the NCAA Tournament. The team finished with the 11th-best rank in the nation according to the Associated Press Top-25 rankings. Stony Brook did not receive an AP vote this season.
The Wildcats are led offensively by senior guard Aari McDonald, the conference’s top-scorer for the second consecutive season. McDonald was named the 2021 Pac-12 Player of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year and Ann meyers Drysdale award winner (given to the nation’s top shooting guard) after scoring 406 points this season.
McDonald finished third on the team with 108 rebounds, behind forwards Trinity Baptise (120) and Cate Reese (109). Senior forward Sam Thomas led the Wildcats with 26 blocks followed by freshman Lauren Ware with 25.
Stony Brook is one of just four programs making its debuts in the ‘Big Dance’ this postseason. Its 14-seed is the highest an America East conference team has earned since UAlbany was the 12-seed in 2016. That team went on to upset 5-seed Florida 61-59 in the first round.
The game is set to air on ESPN2 and will also be broadcasted on WUSB 90.1 FM.
