WACO, Texas - The top-ranked Baylor Lady Bears earned the No. 1 overall national seed for the NCAA Tournament in Monday’s selections and placed in the Greensboro Region for a first-round matchup against Southland Conference champion Abilene Christian (23-9).
Times have not been released, but Baylor will host the first and second rounds at the Ferrell Center on Saturday, March 23, and Monday, March 25, with the winner advancing to the regional in Greensboro, N.C., the following weekend.
Baylor, the Big 12 regular season and tournament champion, is making its 16th consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance and 18th in 19 years, all under coach Kim Mulkey. The Lady Bears have won a national-best 23 games in a row, beating Iowa State, 67-49, in last Monday’s Big 12 Championship final in Oklahoma City.
Abilene Christian is making its first appearance in the NCAA Division I Tournament in just its second year of eligibility. Seeded fourth for the Southland Conference Tournament, the Wildcats upset top-seeded Lamar, 88-79. in the semifinals and sixth-seeded Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, 69-68, in Sunday’s final.
In the other first-round matchup in Waco, eighth-seeded California (19-12) will face ninth-seeded North Carolina (18-14). This is Cal’s third trip to Waco for the NCAA Tournament in the last six years, with the Golden Bears losing to Baylor, 75-56, in the second round in 2014 and getting blown out by the Lady Bears, 86-46, two years ago.
The rest of the Greensboro Region includes second-seeded Iowa, No. 3 seed North Carolina State, fourth-seeded South Carolina, fifth-seeded Florida State and No. 6 seed Kentucky. Iowa, North Carolina State and South Carolina are the other host sites for the first and second rounds.
Also earning No. 1 regional seeds were Mississippi State, Notre Dame and Louisville. The Final Four is scheduled for April 5-7 in Tampa, Fla.
Baylor is trying to advance to its fourth Final Four and first since 2012, when the Lady Bears were 40-0 national champions.
Tickets for the first and second round games in Waco are on sale at www.baylorbears.com/tickets. Tickets for the regional and Final Four will go on sale later Monday, with single-session tickets going on sale at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday. Deadline for ticket requests is this Friday, March 22.
BAYLOR NCAA NOTES:
