By: Urbana Athletic Communications
GAME COVERAGE
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Tournament Central
Records: Urbana: 17-11 (13-9 MEC) / Concord: 20-8 (16-6 MEC)
URBANA, Ohio – Led by Player of the Year
Tyra James and the all-time leading scorer in MEC games
Sylvia Hudson, Urbana University women's basketball team has earned its highest seed ever in the Mountain East Conference Tournament.
Tomorrow night, the No. 5 seed Urbana (17-11, 13-9 MEC), will take on No. 4 seed Concord at WesBanco Arena in a primetime matchup that pits the league's third-ranked scoring offense (UU) against the third-ranked scoring defense (CU). Tipoff for the quarterfinal contest is slated for approximately 8:15 p.m. ET in Wheeling as both teams earned first-round byes at the 2020 championship.
UU makes a return to the tournament riding one of the top turnaround seasons in all of college basketball and looks to avenge a pair of close losses to Concord. The Blue Knights went 5-3 over the final eight games of the regular season after suffering a 92-90 overtime loss in Athens back on Feb. 1. All-MEC honorees
Tyra James (24.6 ppg, 10.9 rpg, 4.6 apg) and
Sylvia Hudson (20.1 ppg, 8.6 rpg) lead the way for Urbana.
Concord (20-8, 16-6 MEC) carries momentum into the postseason after winning seven straight, including a dramatic 103-102 upset over MEC regular season champion Glenville State the last time out. The Mountain Lions, who paced the MEC in field goal percentage (.483) and field goal percentage defense (.356), are led by All-MEC selections Madison May and Riley Fitzwater. May (22.0 ppg) is the league's second-leading scorer behind James.
Thursday night's game will be the first meeting between the two programs in the postseason. Urbana is 2-4 all-time at the MEC Tournament while Concord holds a 1-5 ledger.
1) A WIN WOULD… send Urbana to the MEC Tournament semifinals for the first time. A victory would also tie the fifth-most wins in a season by a Blue Knights squad.
2) SERIES VS. CONCORD: Concord has claimed four straight wins and holds an 8-6 advantage in the all-time series between these programs. Urbana won five of the first seven meetings. The Mountain Lions edged the Blue Knights in overtime at the previous two matchups in Athens.
3) POSTSEASON HISTORY: Urbana has won a pair of conference tournament titles in its past, including the 2013 GMAC championship with a 70-63 triumph over Trevecca Nazarene. The Blue Knights also finished runner-up at the 2012 Ohio Division II Independents' Championship. Urbana is 7-7 in postseason play since becoming a full-fledged Division II member:
- 2011: 1-2 (OIC fourth place)
- 2012: 2-1 (OIC runner-up)
- 2013: 2-0 (GMAC Champs)
- 2014: 1-1
- 2015: 0-1
- 2016: 1-1
- 2017: n/a
- 2018: 0-1
- 2019: n/a
4) TURNAROUND YEAR: Urbana has recorded one of the strongest turnaround seasons in college basketball with a 13-game improvement in the wins column. That's the second-best turnaround and tied for the second-most wins among Division II women's basketball programs that won fewer than 10 games last season. The top turnaround belongs to former MEC Coach of the Year Adam Collins, who led his Southern Arkansas squad to 14 more wins this season with a 17-11 record after going 3-25 a year ago.
TOP THREE TURNAROUNDS IN DIVISION II (AMONG TEAMS WITH LESS THAN 10 WINS LAST SEASON)
Southern Arkansas
2019: 3-25
2020: 17-11
Urbana
2019: 4-22
2020: 17-11
Arkansas Monticello
2019: 8-20
2020: 18-10
5) DYNAMIC DUO: Tyra James and
Sylvia Hudson, who have both been selected for National Player of the Week this season, are the nation's top-scoring duo across all divisions of NCAA women's hoops as the only pair of teammates each averaging 20 points per game.
They feed off one another, and in fact, they are only the second duo in the seven-year history of the MEC to hit the 30-point mark on the same night. They are the first MEC teammates to do it twice. West Liberty's Liz Flowers (30) and Kailee Howe (31) did it once on Feb. 20, 2016 against Glenville State.
As of Feb. 17, only one other pair of teammates among 304 Division II teams had scored 30 points in the same game this season: Pitt-Johnstown's Gabrielle Smith (34) & Alli McGrath (30) did it against Fayetteville State on Nov. 9.
James is the Urbana single-season scoring record holder and Hudson is the all-time career scoring leader at UU.
