Lady Lions prepare for first national basketball tournament

The Lady Lions basketball team qualified for their first-ever berth in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) Division I Championship Tournament.

The tournament will be held in Jackson, Tenn., March 17-23, and include a 32-team field.

The 32-team field is comprised of 16 automatic qualifiers from NAIA affiliated conferences and 16 at-large selections, which are determined using the final Top 25 ratings released on March 2nd.

Southwestern Assembly of God University qualified as the Red River Athletic Conference tournament runner-up.

Finishing the regular season 25-7, the Lady Lions are ranked nationally in the most recent NAIA Coaches Poll.

Senior Nicole Linen leads the nation in steals on a Top 4 ranked defense.

Chelsea Jones leads SAGU’s offense and is ranked #2 nationally from the three-point line.

"It has been great to see our players develop and the other teams in our league come to respect us as the program has reached a point that it is in the top 32 colleges and universities in the nation," commented Head Coach Arlon Beadles.

"Of our goals for the year, playing well and earning an invitation to a national tournament were at the top, so I know the ladies are proud of being a top team in the Red River Conference and now the NAIA."