Sunday, March 10, 2024
by Evan O'Kelly, Assistant Commissioner For Communications

PORTLAND, Ore. – After clashing in Saturday’s GNAC Women’s Basketball Championships title contest, Western Washington and Montana State Billings will see their 2023-24 seasons continue at next week’s NCAA West Region Championships as the eight-team field was announced on Sunday evening. 

The Vikings, who edged MSUB 52-50 to hoist the trophy on Saturday in Ellensburg, Wash., claimed the No. 3 seed and will take on No. 6 seed Cal Poly Pomona. The Yellowjackets meanwhile claimed the No. 4 seed and will square off against No. 5 seed Chico State.

The tournament will be hosted by Azusa Pacific University, which claimed the No. 1 overall seed in the west region. Details on game times and tickets will be provided prior to the tournament tipping off on Thursday at the Felix Event Center.

Western Washington claimed the GNAC’s automatic berth into the championships by virtue of Saturday’s 54-52 win over Montana State Billings in the GNAC Championships title game. The Vikings are headed to their third straight regional tournament and their 15th overall since the formation of the conference in 2001-02. WWU enters the regional tournament with a record of 23-6 overall, and went 14-4 in GNAC play to place second in the standings.

The Yellowjackets will look to bounce back from Saturday’s tough defeat, and they are headed to the regional tournament for the second year in-a-row and fifth time since they joined the conference in 2007-08. The Yellowjackets won their second GNAC regular-season title, going 16-2 in conference play. MSUB has already broken the program record for wins in a season, going 26-6 up to this point. MSUB has fond memories of its last playoff game in Felix Event Center, which was a 71-70 win over Alaska Anchorage on March 12, 2018 to claim the program’s second west region championship title.