HAMPTON, Va. – The 2017 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) Tournament Champion Hampton University Lady Pirates earned a #15-seed in the Bridgeport Region and will travel to #2-seed Duke University on Saturday night in the NCAA Tournament.
The game will air on ESPN2 at 9pm Saturday night following the 6:30 pm opener between 7th-seeded Temple and 10th-seeded Oregon. Those winners will play on Monday, March 20 at a time to be announced.
Hampton (20-12) enters the matchup on a six-game winning streak after defeating Bethune-Cookman 52-49 on Saturday in the Norfolk Scope. Tournament MVP Jephany Brown and Mikayla Sayle had 10 points against the Wildcats, while All-Tournament selection Monnazjea Finney-Smith added nine.
The Lady Pirates are making their ninth NCAA Tournament appearance and have met Duke three times in the NCAA Tournament. Duke has won all three of those meetings including the last on March 24, 2013 by a 67-51 count.
The Blue Devils earned an at-large invitation to the tournament after compiling a 27-5 overall record and a 13-3 mark in the Atlantic Coast Conference. They lost to Notre Dame in the ACC Tournament title game 84-61. Duke is currently ranked No. 9 nationally in the Associated Press rankings and are eighth in the latest NCAA RPI with seven wins against top 50 teams in the RPI.
Duke is topped by the guard tandem of Lexie Brown (18.3 ppg) and Rebecca Greenwell (16.4 ppg) who have combined to hit 150 of Duke’s 177 3-pointers on the season. As a team, the Blue Devils are averaging 73.3 ppg and allowing 55.6 per contest.
Courtesy: Hampton Athletics
