Wednesday, March 04, 2009

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The Atlantic Sun Conference stages its 24th annual Women's Basketball Championship inside Lipscomb’s Allen Arena in Nashville this week. The 2009 tournament marks the second time the women’s championship will be contested in Tennessee, and both men's and women's championships have joined, representing the second time in the league’s history that both men's and women's seasons will culminate simultaneously. The 2008 champion, ETSU returns to defend its crown as the top-seed in this year’s tournament, but runner-up Jacksonville and host Lipscomb are just two of the seven teams hoping to unseat the Lady Bucs.

ETSU is trying to become the first team since Georgia State in 2003 to defend its title. The Panthers won three consecutive tournament championships from 2001-03. The Lady Bucs lost to only one team in the tournament field this season, falling twice to Mercer; including a 90-79 setback in the regular-season finale in Johnson City, Tenn. ETSU has won five-straight games in Allen Arena.

Stetson head coach Lynn Bria leads Stetson to the Atlantic Sun Championship for the first time, but she is no stranger to A-Sun postseason play. Bria spent three seasons (1996-99) as the head coach at former Atlantic Sun Conference member UCF. Bria’s 1999 squad claimed both the regular-season and tournament titles. Bria earned Coach of the Year honors from the league in that 1998-99 season, and in just three seasons ranked second on the Golden Knights’ all-time victories list.

The Jacksonville Dolphins amassed 13 conference victories, posting an above .500 conference mark for the third straight season and just the third time in the program’s 10 year history. Head coach Jill Dunn's squad is looking to become the third two seed in six seasons to hoist championship hardware in Nashville this weekend. Florida Atlantic was the most recent two seed to pull off that feat, claiming the title in 2006. This year’s tournament host Lipscomb started the trend, taking the championship in its first-ever A-Sun tournament appearance in 2004.

The Lady Bisons enter the tournament as the number-seven seed and have lost three of their last four contests. In addition to stiff competition, they will face adversarial history as well. FIU's 1998 tournament victory was the last time a host institution earned the A-Sun's automatic bid. Only four previous host institutions captured the championship trophy in the tournament’s 22 year history, and only two since the 1987 season. The Lady Bisons begin their quest against rival Jacksonville Wednesday, March 4 at 6:00 p.m.

The 24th annual Atlantic Sun Conference Women’s Basketball Championship will display the conference's finest talent, as five of the seven squads boast 2008-09 Player of the Week honorees. Mercer’s Second Team All-Conference junior LaToya Jackson topped the conference, winning three Player of the Week awards, and ranks in the top-10 in the league in scoring, assists, free throw percentage and 3-point field goal percentage. Jackson's Second Team All-Conference and Bear teammate Dominique Chism notched a weekly honor as well and ranks in the top-five in the league in scoring and field goal percentage. Player of the Year Siarre Evans led the top-seed Lady Bucs in both scoring and rebounding for the campaign, and is the only player in the league averaging a double-double. Defensive Player of the Year Latisha Belcher and First Team teammate TaRonda Wiles join Evans as weekly honorees, and rank in the top-10 in the league in scoring. Second-seed Jacksonville (Courtney Jackson), Belmont (Amber Rockwell) and Stetson (Sharensha Smith) earned weekly honors over the course of the season as well.