The seeds for the Big Sky women’s basketball tournament are set. Montana will be the No. 1 seed as the Lady Griz host the No. 8 seeded Idaho State Bengals.
Sacramento State locked up the No. 2 seed with a win over Northern Arizona on Saturday. UNC topped North Dakota and earned the No. 3 seed based on its 1-0 record vs. Eastern Washington. The Eagles took possession of the No. 4 seed with a win over Weber State.
In the battle for the fifth seed it was North Dakota who came out on top. UND picked up the No. 5 seed thanks to a 3-1 combined record over NAU and Montana State. Northern Arizona had a combined record of 2-1 over UND and MSU to earn the No. 6 seed and MSU moved into the No. 7 seed with a win over Montana on Saturday.
The battle for the eighth seed was interesting. Idaho State fell at rival Idaho on Saturday. However, ISU moved on to the Big Sky tournament due to tiebreaking rules. ISU and UI were both tied with 8-10 records and split the season series after the dust settled at the end of the season. The Big Sky rules state that in the case of a two-team tie, each team’s record versus the team (winning percentage) occupying the highest position in the final regular standings, and then continuing down through the standings until one team gains an advantage will determine a winner.
ISU and UI were both 0-2 versus Montana while UI was 0-2 versus Sac State and ISU was 0-1 against the Hornets. However with UNC and EWU both holding a 12-6 record in the standings, the Big Sky rule book states the following:
“When arriving at another group of tied teams while comparing records, use each team’s record (winning percentage) against the collective tied teams as a group (prior to that group’s own tie-breaking procedure), rather than the performance against individual tied teams.”
ISU and UI were both a combined 1-2 against EWU and UNC. Based on the teams records against the teams tied at 9-9 (UND, NAU and MSU) Idaho State had the best combined record with a 4-1 combined mark against the tied teams. Idaho, however was 1-3 against the teams with 9-9 records, thus allowing the Bengals to move on the to the Big Sky tournament as the No. 8 seed.
The Big Sky Tournament schedule is listed below. Both dates and game times are subject to change.
Wednesday, March 11 – Missoula, Mont.
Quarterfinals
Game One: No. 7 Montana State vs. No. 2 Sacramento State – 11 a.m.
Game Two: No. 6 North Dakota vs. No. 3 Northern Colorado – 1:30 p.m.
Game Three: No. 5 Northern Arizona vs. No. 4 Eastern Washington – 5:30 p.m.
Game Four: No. 8 Idaho State at No. 1 Montana – 8 p.m.
Friday, March 13
Semifinals
Winner Game One vs. Winner Game Two – 11 a.m.
Winner Game Three vs. Winner Game Four – 1:30 p.m.
Saturday, March 14
Championship
Semifinal Winners – 2 p.m.