Women are in: March Madness returns to Hutton Center

ORANGE, Calif. -  The Chapman University women's basketball team has earned its ninth consecutive berth in the NCAA Division III championship tournament and will host SCIAC champions Occidental College in the first round of the playoffs at the Hutton Sports Center on Wednesday night. Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m. in the first NCAA tournament game the Panthers have hosted since defeating La Verne in overtime in 2007.

The winner of the Chapman-Occidental game will travel to George Fox (Ore.) to face the undefeated and No. 3-ranked Bruins in the second round on Saturday night.

Chapman (19-8) earned one of three Pool ‘B' at-large berths into the playoffs. The Panthers have never faced Occidental in the NCAA tournament, but are 5-0 all-time against the SCIAC in the postseason. The Panthers have never missed the playoffs under head coach Carol Jue and have reached the second round in three of the past five years.

Chapman is led by senior point guard Lauren Kamiyama, who is averaging 9.4 points per game and 4.5 assists per game. Junior guard Linda Ly was named MVP of the Division III Independents Postseason Tournament last weekend and currently leads the team with 11 points per game. The Panthers rank No. 33 in Division III in turnover margin, a result of its high-pressure defense.

Wednesday night's first round game will be a rematch of the Panthers' 78-58 win over the Tigers in Orange last December. Occidental (22-5) went on to win the regular season and postseason SCIAC championships.