College Basketball: Three Philadelphia Women's Squads Ready for Postseason Play
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Temple, Drexel, and St. Joe's are all still alive in the women's basketball postseason.
The Owls picked up an at-large selection to the NCAA Tournament, and Tonya Cardoza's Owls are a 10-seed in the Dayton Region. They will open play on Saturday against 7-seed Arizona State in Salt Lake City, Utah.
This will be the eighth straight NCAA Tournament appearance for the Owls, who bring a 23-8 record into the postseason. Temple lost in the semifinals of the Atlantic-10 Tournament to Dayton. Arizona State was upset by Cal in the quarterfinals of the Pac-10 Tourney. They are 20-10 coming in.
Temple head coach Tonya Cardoza says the Sun Devils present a big challenge.
"They're a really athletic team," she told KYW Newsradio. "They have good guard play, balanced scoring with post players as well. They play pretty good pressure defense, so it should be a really good matchup."
Hear Matt Leon's full interview with Tonya Cardoza in this CBS Philly SportsPod...
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St. Joe's and Drexel have both been selected for the WNIT. The Hawks will play VCU in the first round, on Thursday night, at Hagan Arena. Hawks head coach Cindy Griffin is happy to still be playing.
"I am pleased," she told KYW Newsradio. "I'm really happy that we have a chance to continue playing. We have such a young team that I think it's important for these players in particular to taste postseason and hopefully experience some success in the postseason."
Hear Matt Leon's full interview with Cindy Griffin in this CBS Philly SportsPod...
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These two teams actually met in the first round of last year's WNIT, VCU picking up the win. St. Joe's is 19-11 heading into this one.
Drexel is also 19-11 as they head down to visit Florida Gulf Coast for their first round WNIT matchup on Friday.
Dragons head coach Denise Dillon talks about keys to victory for her squad against the perimeter driven Eagles :
"Defensively we need to be ready. We're not going to be outsized or outmatched in the post, which is something we have battled all season. So now it's coming down to just using our defensive strategy to slow this team down and working all five together, switching screens, communicating, and stopping them in transition."
Hear Matt Leon's full interview with Denise Dillon in this CBS Philly SportsPod...
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Florida Gulf Coast is 27-3, and they have won 41 straight at home, which is the third-longest active streak in the country.
They also love to shoot the three. In one game they hoisted up an NCAA season-high 55 shots from behind the arc.
Reported by Matt Leon, KYW Newsradio 1060.
