INDIANAPOLIS – In the second display of the NCAA Region Rankings, third-ranked Carson-Newman maintained its hold on the top spot in the Southeast Region in the listings posted on Wednesday afternoon.
The selection committee uses these rankings as a guideline to make up the NCAA Tournament field. The top eight teams in the region make the NCAA Tournament with three automatic bids going to the winners of the conference tournaments from the South Atlantic Conference, Conference Carolinas and the Peachbelt Conference.
For the No. 1 team in the region, that school gets to host the Southeast Region tournament over the second weekend of March with three wins needed to advance to the National Quarterfinals in Sioux Falls, S.D.
The Lady Eagles won a pair of games last week, by 21 over Tusculum and by 31 at Catawba on Saturday to move to 25-1 on the season with nine straight wins.
Based on the performance indicator that aggregates strength of schedule, quality wins and record of the last 10 games of the season, C-N's 17.462 is nearly a point higher than No. 2 Wingate's 16.542. It assigns numerical values to game results depending on the site and quality of opponent. A road win against a team that has a winning percentage of .750 or greater is worth 23 points, the highest margin.
The Lady Eagles have a chance to capture its fifth regular season SAC title Wednesday night. It would clinch at least a share with a win over Wingate on Saturday needed to seal an outright championship.
Regardless of what happens for C-N and assuming that Wingate beats Coker, Saturday afternoon's home game against the Bulldogs would give the Lady Eagles a chance to win the league outright.
Wingate has won 11 straight games, the 11th-longest string in America on the year and are ranked 15th in the D2SIDA Media Poll and 22nd in the WBCA Coaches' Poll.
Lander and North Georgia flipped third and fourth positions after the Bearcats won twice last week and the Nighthawks fell 84-82 in overtime at Georgia College on Saturday.
Limestone beat Barton last week as that duo flip-flopped fifth and sixth spots in the poll.
Flagler moved up to seventh after wins at Georgia Southwestern and at home to Francis Marion while Anderson lost at Wingate on Saturday.
Columbus State jumped into the poll after an overtime win at Georgia College completed a regular-season sweep of the Bobcats who dropped from ninth to out of the poll.
Tusculum remained in the 10th position with a 16-7 record on the year.
Action continues tonight for Mincey's unit as the school looks to snap a five-game skid in Harrogate with a 6 p.m. tip-off against Lincoln Memorial. The Eagle Sports Network's coverage starts at 5:45 p.m. on cneagles.com/live and 106.3 (WPFT-FM, Sevierville). Television coverage is on MyVLT as WVLT-TV will provide the broadcast.
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