Championship Central |
Tournament Bracket
EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. – The semifinal slate for the 2018 Great Lakes Valley Conference Women's Basketball Championship Tournament has been set for Saturday, following victories for the top-four seeds after quarterfinal action on Thursday at the Vadalabene Center in Edwardsville, Illinois.
In the opening game of the tournament, No. 3 and 15th-ranked University of Southern Indiana had to come from behind early to earn the 64-54 victory over No. 7 William Jewell College. The Screaming Eagles used an 18-0 run that took up less than four minutes of the fourth period to turn a 45-38 hole into a 13-point lead late in the contest. Unanimous All-GLVC pick, Kaydie Grooms, led USI with 18 points, while Alex Davidson dropped 13 of her 15 points in the fourth frame.
The second game of the first session saw No. 3 Lewis University defeat No. 6 Truman State University, 71-61. GLVC Player of the Year, Jessica Kelliher, paced the Flyers offensively with 21 points, as the team used a 50-percent (15-for-30) shooting effort in the second half to secure the victory.
With the wins, USI and Lewis advance to face each other in the first semifinal matchup Saturday at 12 p.m. CT.
In the evening session, top-seeded and third-ranked Drury University opened with a decisive 86-54 win past No. 8 McKendree University, as Hailey Diestelkamp was a perfect 7-for-7 from the field, including 3-for-3 from long range as well as 3-for-4 at the foul line to total a game-high 20 points.
Fourth-seeded University Missouri-St. Louis led wire-to-wire and cruised to a 77-47 win over fifth-seeded Bellarmine University in the nightcap to close out the quarterfinals. Four players tallied double-doubles with Arielle Jackson led the charge with a game-high 19. Jordan Fletcher added 17 points on 7-for-10 (70%) shooting to go with nine rebounds.
Drury and UMSL will battle for a spot in the title tilt with a meeting at 2:30 p.m. CT Saturday in the second semifinal contest.
Semifinal winners will advance to Sunday's championship game at 1 p.m. CT.
All-Tournament passes are $45, while Session Flex Passes are $35, allowing you access to any two of the first six sessions, excluding Sunday's finals. Single-session tickets are $20 for adults and $5 for students with a valid ID and youth 6-17 in age, while children ages 5 and under are admitted free of charge, but must be accompanied by an adult.
Every tournament game will be streamed live and for free on the GLVC Sports Network at
GLVCSN.com, on the GLVCSN iOS and Android mobile apps, as well as all the OTT platforms via AppleTV, Android TV, Amazon Fire TV and Roku TV.
For more information on the 2018 GLVC Basketball Championship Tournaments, log on to
GLVCsports.com/2018hoops.