Women's Hoops to Take on Babson in NCAA Tournament First Round

BRIDGEWATER, Mass. -- The NCAA Division III Tournament pairings have been announced and the Bridgewater State University women's basketball team will travel to Amherst, Massachusetts on Friday night to take on the Beavers of Babson College in an opening round contest.

The first round game will take place at Amherst College (6:00 PM) with the winner advancing to the second round on Saturday night (8:00) against either host Amherst or St. Joseph’s College of Brooklyn.

Bridgewater State (19-7) will be making the programs second straight NCAA Tournament appearance, third in the last five years and seventh overall.  The previous six appearances came in 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 2008 and 2011. 

The Bears earned the automatic qualifier to the NCAAs by winning the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference (MASCAC) Tournament championship on Saturday with a 47-42 road victory over number three seed MCLA.  Bridgewater entered the tournament as the top seed as they posted a 10-2 MASCAC mark during the regular season.

The BSU women's basketball team is under the watchful eye of 15-year head coach, Bridgett Casey.  The three-time (2008, 2010, 2012) MASCAC Coach of the Year sports a career mark of 220-166 (.570) including a conference regular season record of 113-67 (.628).  Casey's 220 wins are by far the most in BSU women's basketball history as she is the only Bridgewater coach to reach the 200-win milestone.  

On the court, Bridgewater State is led by First Team All-MASCAC forwards Shelly DePina (Sr., New Bedford, Mass.) and Michaela Cosby (Jr., Walpole, Mass.), All-MASCAC Second Team guard Jenna Williamson (So., Ludlow, Mass.) as well as forwards Monica-Sabina Bharoocha (So., North Smithfield, R.I.) and Megan Boutilette (Sr., Charlton, Mass.).

The MASCAC Tournament MVP, DePina is averaging 14.5 points, 7.2 rebounds, 2.1 steals and 1.7 blocks per game while shooting 44% (136-312) from the floor, 71% (72-101) at the charity stripe and 32% (34-108) from behind the arc.  She currently ranks second in the MASCAC in blocks, sixth in scoring, field goal percentage and three-point shooting, eighth in made trifectas and tenth in rebounding.  DePina is fifth all-time at BSU in scoring with 1,143 points and third in rebounding with 692 boards.

Cosby has notched 13.2 points, 5.7 rebounds 2.9 assists and 2.5 steals per game and connected on 48% (124-258) of her field goal attempts and 78% (96-123) from the free throw line.  She is fourth in the conference in field goal percentage, fifth in free throw shooting, sixth in steals, ninth in both assists and blocked shots (20) and tenth in scoring.  Cosby has amassed 706 points over her first three seasons with the team.

Williamson enters the tournament with per game averages of 13.5 points, 4.0 rebounds and 3.3 assists to go along with a .347 (51-147) shooting percentage from three-point range as well as a .786 mark at the free throw line.  She ranks second in the MASCAC in three-point shooting, fourth in made threes, sixth in assists and ninth in both scoring and field goal percentage.

Bharoocha is third in the conference in assist to turnover ratio (1.2) and seventh in the conference in both field goal percentage (.429) and assists (79). Boutilette ranks second in steals (81) and sixth in rebounding (8.2 rpg) and blocked shots (29).

Sporting an overall record of 25-2 and currently ranked 13th in the nation by D3hoops.com, Babson earned an automatic bid to this year’s tourney by winning its fourth consecutive New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) Championship. The Beavers are coached by Judy Blinstrub, who enters her team’s first-round game with her alma mater Bridgewater State with 499 career victories.

The Beavers are led by senior captain and two-time All-American Nicki Wurdeman (Rowley, Mass.) who is averaging 17.9 points, 9.4 rebounds, 2.2 assists, 1.9 blocks, and 1.6 steals per game. In addition to moving into first place on Babson’s all-time leading scoring list this winter, she also became the first player in school history to score 2,000 career points.

Joining Wurdeman in the front court is fellow senior Kathleen King (Framingham, Mass.) as well as junior center Sarah Collins (Weymouth, Mass.).  King averaged 15.6 points, 9.9 rebounds, 3.5 assists, and 2.5 steals per contest this year while also becoming the second player in program history to surpass both 1,000 points and 1,000 rebounds in her career. Collins heads into the tournament averaging 16.6 points, 11.2 boards, 2.7 assists, 3.2 blocks, and 2.1 steals per game while ranking seventh in the nation with a .578 field goal percentage.

Collins also reached the 1,000-point mark this winter (1,131) joining both Wurdeman (2,002), and King (1,754).  They comprise the first known instance of one team simultaneously boasting two 1,000-point scorers and one 2,000-point scorer in Division III women’s basketball history. In addition, Wurdeman needs just six more rebounds to reach 1,000 in her career heading into the tourney.

This will mark Babson’s fourth straight NCAA Tournament appearance and its seventh overall. The Beavers reached the sectional semifinals in 1993 and 1994, lost in the first round in 1999 and 2009, and then advanced to the Elite 8 in each of the last two years.

Bridgewater and Babson have met 20 times beginning with the 1987-88 season with the Beavers holding a 16-4 edge in the all-time series.  The two teams, however, have not played since 2008-09 and have split the last four meetings with the home team winning each time.