Three small college women’s basketball teams from Maine were selected this past week for the USCAA Division II National Tournament in Richmond, Virginia.
Central Maine Community College, Southern Maine Community College, and the University of Maine-Augusta, all who play in the Yankee Small College Conference, received bids to the 10 team National Tournament which runs from March 7-10th. There were two automatic qualifiers, the champions of the Penn State University Athletic Conference (Penn State Beaver) and the champions of the YSCC (CMCC) and also eight at large bids.
The Central Maine Community College Mustangs (25-3), who won their fifth straight postseason conference title and is also the #2 seed in the tournament gets a first round bye. The Southern Maine Community College Seawolves (20-4) are the #6 seed and opens play in a first round game on Tuesday, March 8 at 10 p.m. against #3 University of Cincinnati-Claremont (13-6). The University of Maine-Augusta Moose (17-8) go in as the #7 national seed, and will face #10 Penn State Fayette (15-9) in a play-in game on Monday, March 7 at 6 p.m. Those games are held at Richard Bland College in Petersburg, Virginia. The winner of the UMaine-Augusta and PSU-Lafayette game is scheduled to meet Central Maine Community College in a second round game on Tuesday, March 8 at 8 p.m. in the double elimination format. The national championship game is set for Thursday, March 10.
In YSCC regular season matchups all three teams beat up on one another as UMA defeated CMCC twice, the Mustangs defeated SMCC three times (including the conference championship), and the Moose dropped all three meetings with the Seawolves (including a conference semifinal).
In the most recent USCAA Division II women’s basketball national coaches poll, CMCC was in at #2, SMCC tied for #3, and UMA was #8. The Mustangs have made four straight appearances in the national championship game, winning it all in the 2018-19 and 2016-17 seasons. The Seawolves are making their third straight trip to the tournament, while the Moose are making their first appearance since the 2017-18 season.
