RSC Women's Basketball Championship: Point Park opens up at SMWC in quarterfinals

2023-24 RSC WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP
(Feb. 26-March 5 at Campus Sites)

Feb. 28 -- Quarterfinals
No. 6 Point Park (18-8, 11-6 RSC) at No. 3 St. Mary-of-the-Woods (Ind.) (18-10, 13-5 RSC), 5:30 p.m. ET
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MIDDLETOWN, Ohio -- Point Park University women's basketball is going to the RSC Championship in back to back seasons. It's the first time in five years the Pioneers have made it two straight times. 

Point Park (18-8, 11-6 RSC) earned its way into the very competitive, 10-team bracket as the No. 6 seed. The Pioneers go to No. 3 St. Mary-of-the-Woods (Ind.) (18-10, 13-5 RSC) in the RSC quarterfinals on Wednesday, Feb. 28. Tipoff is 5:30 p.m. ET.

The RSC Championship opens up Feb. 26 with a pair of first-round games pitting No. 10 at No. 7 and No. 9 at No. 8. The winners there feed into the quarterfinals, a round that Point Park advanced to right off the bat. 

The RSC semifinals are March 2, and the finals are March 5. The higher seed hosts each postseason game along the way. The RSC Championship winner earns automatic qualification to the NAIA National Championship beginning March 15-16 at sites around the country.

POINT PARK VS. SMWC

The playoff matchup with St. Mary-of-the-Woods (Ind.) is a meeting of 18-win teams. The Pomeroys finished second in the RSC West Division to get the No. 3 seed overall. 

Point Park placed fourth in the RSC East, a division that had four of the top six seeds in the 10-team bracket. That puts the Pioneers on the road in a rematch of what was an RSC first-round meeting between these teams last year.

The Pioneers and Pomeroys have some history with some big games. Last year's playoff game had No. 7 seed Point Park win at home over the No. 10 Pomeroys, 84-61.

The lone regular season matchup this year between the teams was a thrilling, 78-71 home win for Point Park back on Jan. 25. The Pioneers came back from a 12-point deficit in the third quarter. That was with a big run to turn things around.

Point Park is 4-0 all-time versus St. Mary-of-the-Woods (Ind.), a school that is in its third year since joining the RSC. Point Park won the only road meeting versus the Pomeroys on Jan. 26, 2023. 

RSC BRACKET

The Point Park-SMWC winner will move on to the semifinals March 2. That side of the bracket includes No. 2 seed Oakland City (Ind.) -- the RSC West Division champion -- awaiting the winner of No. 10 IU East at No. 7 IU Southeast from Monday night. 

The No. 1 overall seed is Rio Grande (Ohio), the RSC East Division champion. The RedStorm are waiting on the winner of No. 9 Alice Lloyd (Ky.) at No. 8 Midway (Ky.). 

The other quarterfinal game is No. 5 Ohio Christian at No. 4 Shawnee State (Ohio), a matchup of two teams from the very strong RSC East. Shawnee State beat Rio Grande in the final game of the season to earn a home game.

The top five teams from each division qualified for the championship. Seeding was determined by the RSC point system to order the teams 1-10 regardless of division. 

The points system also determined the RSC regular-season champion, which is Rio Grande, and the NAIA automatic qualfiication that goes with it. If the RedStorm win the championship tournament, the tournament runner-up will earn the RSC's second auto bid to nationals.

RSC CHAMPIONSHIP COVERAGE

All games of the RSC Women's Basketball Championship will be live streamed on the RSC Game Central. Subscribe at the RSC website for $7.95 per game or $19.99 for the entire tournament. 

The Point Park Sports Network is planning an audio-only broadcast of Point Park at SMWC. The radio broadcast will air free of charge from the PPSN website and PointParkSports.com.