MELBOURNE - With the completion of the 2015-16 regular season on Saturday, the Sunshine State Conference officially unveiled the eight teams that will play in this coming week's 2016 SSC Women's Basketball Tournament.
Unlike the past three seasons when the entire tournament was held at the Silver Spurs Arena in Kissimmee, the higher seeded teams will host quarterfinal round games on Wednesday, March 2, before the final four teams will advance to play in the semifinal and finals at the ICI Center on the campus of Embry-Riddle in Daytona Beach. Prior to playing the past three years in Kissimmee, the tournaments were held at member institutions from 2002-12.
SSC Women's Basketball Tournament Bracket
SSC Tournament Central
SSC Women's Basketball Tournament Record Book
The top eight women's teams in the final league standings will begin their quest for an SSC Championship on Wednesday, March 2 in the quarterfinals. The semifinals are scheduled for Saturday, March 5 and the championship game, which is slated for 4 p.m. on Sunday, March 6. The winner of the SSC Tournament receives the SSC's automatic bid to this year's NCAA Division II Tournament.
Florida Southern (23-4, 12-4 SSC) will be one of the four teams hosting a quarterfinal round game on Wednesday as the Moccasins, who finished tied for second in the league standings with Florida Tech, but earned the No. 3 seed due to being swept by the Panthers in the regular season, will face No. 6 seed Rollins (13-13, 7-9 SSC) at Jenkins Field House. Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m. The Mocs swept both regular season meetings against the Tars as they earned a 72-66 win in Winter Park on Jan. 20 and then collected a 74-50 win in Lakeland on Feb. 10.
The Mocs have lost three straight SSC Tournament games since advancing to the championship game in 2012 where they fell 71-68 to Rollins in Lakeland. FSC, who is 2-1 all-time in the tournament as a No. 3 seed, has claimed an SSC best 10 tournament titles since the league began the postseason event for women's basketball in 1982. In fact, besides FSC, only five other league schools have won multiple league titles, including Nova Southeastern claiming the last two tournament championships.
FSC has posted a 42-24 all-time record in the SSC Tournament and is making its 35th all-time appearance in the tournament this season. Along with winning 10 titles (1985, 1986, 1987, 1989, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1998, 2003, 2011), the Mocs have had eight runner-up finishes (1982, 1983, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1993, 1999, 2012).
Meanwhile, Rollins is making its 35th all-time appearance in the SSC Tournament this season as the Tars have posted a 47-26 record in the tournament and has won eight championships, which is most recent coming in 2013 and they have also claimed a league-best 10 runner-up finishes.
The winner of the FSC-Rollins quarterfinal game will face the winner of the Florida Tech-Eckerd quarterfinal game in the second of two semifinal contests on Saturday, March 5 at 7:30 p.m. The Florida Tech-Eckerd quarterfinal game will be played in Melbourne on Wednesday, March 2 at 7 p.m.
Florida Tech (18-8, 12-4) finished tied for second in the SSC standings with the Mocs, but was awarded the No. 2 seed thanks to its two victories over the Mocs as the Panthers collected a 73-61 win in Lakeland on Dec. 5 and the posted a 58-53 overtime win in Melbourne on Feb. 6, while Eckerd (12-13, 6-10) earned the No. 7 seed following its 88-72 loss on Saturday in Miami Shores against Barry. Florida Tech swept both regular season meetings against the Tritons as the Panthers won 69-49 in St. Petersburg on Dec. 2 and also won 62-55 in Melbourne on Jan. 30.
On the other side of the SSC Tournament bracket, No. 1 seed and 18th-ranked Nova Southeastern (22-5, 13-3), who claimed its second straight and third regular season title in the last four seasons this year, will face No. 8 seed Lynn (4-22, 2-14) at 7 p.m. in Davie, while No. 4 seed Barry (19-8, 10-6) will host No. 5 seed Tampa (16-12, 9-7) in a 5:30 p.m. game in Miami Shores. Those two winners will play in the first semifinal on Saturday, March 5 at 5 p.m.
Nova Southeastern, who has won two straight SSC Tournament Championships, is making its 12th appearance in the tournament and has posted a 14-8 record and took championships in 2008, 2014 and 2015, while Lynn is making 17th appearance and first since 2014 and has posted a 3-16 record and took home the championship title in 2010. In the regular season, the Sharks won both meetings as they posted a 67-58 win in Davie on Nov. 18 and then picked up a 68-51 win in Boca Raton on Jan. 27.
Barry is making its 25th appearance in the tournament and has posted a 14-23 record, including finishing as runner-up at last season's tournament. The Buccaneers have claimed one title (1991) and have had three runner-up finishes (1997, 2010, 2015), while Tampa is making its 35th appearance in the tournament and is 31-29 in the tournament and has won four titles (2000, 2006, 2007, 2009) and has claimed five runner-up finishes (1985, 1986, 1995, 2008, 2014). The Spartans swept the season series against the Bucs as they picked up a 70-52 win in Tampa on Jan. 6 and then collected a 69-60 win in Miami Shores on Feb. 20.
All semifinal and final games will be broadcast on the web at www.sunshinestateconference.org. Each of the four quarterfinal hosts are expected to offer both live stats and live video broadcasts of the games.
At last year's SSC Tournament, Nova Southeastern collected a 61-51 win over No. 7 seeded Barry to win its second consecutive and third all-time SSC Tournament Championship.
