Wednesday, March 07, 2007

DOTHAN, Ala. (Mar. 7, 2007) - The Lady Bucs start a new season on Thursday night as they try to become the first team in ETSU history to win a conference tournament championship and earn its first bid to the NCAA Tournament, when they take on Lipscomb in the quarterfinals of the A-Sun Tournament. Tip is scheduled for 7 p.m. EST inside the Dothan Civic Center.

ETSU finished the regular season with a four-game winning streak, and earned the third seed in the tournament for the second straight year after finishing the season 18-10, 14-4. The Lady Bucs put together back-to-back winning seasons for the first time since 1999-2000, and will look to avenge last year's heartbreaking opening round overtime loss to Mercer (59-56) in Dothan. An A-Sun Championship will also give ETSU 21 wins, tying them with head coach Karen Kemp's 1994-95 squad for the most wins in school history. Ironically, DeShawne Blocker can join the elite club both as a player and coach. Blocker was a key part of the success during the1994-95 club and is now an assistant this season.

Lipscomb received the sixth seed after dropping its final six games to finish the regular season 8-20, 6-12. The Lady Bisons did not make the conference tournament a year ago and will be making their first appearance since being ousted by Georgia State in the first round during the 2005 tournament. Catie Woods leads the team in scoring by averaging 10.9 points per game, while Penny Jones does the job on the boards, grabbing 6.2 an evening.

The teams split the season series this year with each of them winning on its home court. ETSU won the first game back on Jan. 4, as they knocked off Lipscomb, 71-51; however, the Lady Bisons got revenge almost a month later by upsetting the Lady Bucs, 57-52 inside Allen Arena. The Lady Bucs lead the young series, 3-1, and have forced Lipscomb to turn the ball over 116 times (29 per game) in the four meetings.

Fans not able to make the trip to Dothan will be able follow all the action of the tournament live via video stream by clicking on the link above. Twenty-four hour access can be purchased for $4.99 by visiting http://etsustream.intellithought.net/.