LITTLE ROCK, AR (News Release) – The UALR women’s basketball team earned a No. 11 seed in the 2015 NCAA Tournament when the NCAA released the tournament bracket on Monday night. The Trojans will play No. 6 seed Texas A&M on Saturday in Tempe, Ariz., home of No. 3 seed Arizona State. The matchup will take place at 3 p.m. CST.
The game will be televised on ESPN2.
If UALR advances to the second round of the tournament, it would play the winner of No. 14-seed Ohio and the host Sun Devils on Monday.
UALR and Texas A&M have played six times in their history, and the Aggies have a 5-1 record against the Trojans. The teams last met in 2011 in Little Rock.
This will be the Trojans’ fourth trip to the NCAA Tournament. UALR’s only NCAA Tournament victory came in 2010 when it was an at-large bid to the tournament. As a No. 11 seed that season, the Trojans defeated No. 6 seed Georgia Tech in the first round before losing to No. 3 seed Oklahoma in the second round on the Sooners’ home court.
More recently, the Trojans were a No. 14 seed in 2012, losing a first-round game to No. 3 seed Delaware at the Jack Stephens Center. The team was a No. 12 seed in 2011 when it lost to Green Bay in the first round.
UALR earned its automatic bid to this year’s NCAA Tournament when it claimed the Sun Belt Tournament Championship on Saturday night. The Trojans bested Arkansas State 78-72 in a thrilling, back-and-forth contest, winning the league tournament for the third time. Taylor Gault was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player while Alexius Dawn, Ka’Nesheia Cobbins and Gault all earned a place on the All-Tournament Team.
As a whole, UALR broke multiple program records for success this season including wins in a season (28), wins in the regular season (25) and wins in conference play (18). Those 18 victories in league play also tied the all-time Sun Belt record. Coach Joe Foley is in his 12th year with the team, and he has 699 career wins entering Saturday’s matchup with Texas A&M.
The Trojans are fifth in the nation in scoring defense, allowing just 51.0 points per game. The team is also excellent from the 3-point line this year, ranking 10th in the country with a 3-point shooting percentage of 37.5 percent. The team also won the Sun Belt Tournament regular-season championship outright for the first time in program history.