The AC Women’s basketball (ACWBB) team faces Mary Hardin-Baylor in the first round of the NCAA tournament this Friday at Trinity University. Game time 5 p.m. Host Trinity faces UT Dallas immediately after. The winners of these two games will square off Saturday for a trip to the NCAA Sweet Sixteen. The bad news? All three of these opponents are really good, with a combined 64 wins. The good news? AC has already beaten all three this season.
Earning a Sweet Sixteen berth on the home court of an opponent will obviously be a challenge. But the Roos have been there before.
Austin College transitioned from NAIA to NCAA Division 3 in 1998. That year, AC Women’s basketball won 21 games and clinched a conference championship. The NCAA tournament berth that followed took the Roos to Ashland, VA, home of host Randolph-Macon University. After defeating Southwestern in the first round, AC faced the Yellow Jackets of Randolph-Macon on their home court in front of a vocal and partisan crowd. It didn’t matter. Austin College won 64-52 and advanced to the Sweet Sixteen. The opponent waiting for the Roos there? The #1 team in the nation.
After dropping their 1998 opener, the Titans of Wisconsin-Oshkosh had won 26 games in a row. They were just four wins short of a national championship, but were taking nothing for granted. Before their matchup with Austin College, the Oshkosh Northwestern newspaper ran a story about the upcoming game. It was headlined “Oshkosh sees mirror image in Kangaroos.”
“The Titans learned their lesson like an A student and this year’s team heads into the Sweet Sixteen game Friday against Austin College, a well-balanced and frightening juggernaut.”
“It’s like looking in the mirror. When the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh women’s basketball team takes on Austin College Friday in a Sweet Sixteen game of the NCAA Division III tournament, it faces a similar foe in the Kangaroos. ‘We looked at them originally on paper, and said ‘Holy cow, that’s just like us,’ with a 5’8” guard and 6-foot post player,’ Oshkosh coach Pam Ruder said. ‘The difference is what (Christine) Holler adds to her team. As she goes, so it seems the rest of her team goes.’ Holler leads Austin at 18 points per game. Guard Marisa Hesse is second in scoring at 15.7 points and forward Natasha Rodgers is adding 13.1 points and 10.3 rebounds.”
Even though both schools were over 1,000 miles away, an amazing 1,500 fans were there to take it all in anyway. The game was a defensive struggle, and the Roos stayed with the Titans for much of the night. By the end, however, Wisconsin-Oshkosh began to pull away. AC’s season ended on the short end of a 13-point loss. But what a season. A Conference title. The NCAA tournament. The Sweet Sixteen. 1,500 fans. Against the #1 team in the nation.
Mary Hardin-Baylor is the ASC conference tournament champion; a second AC victory over the Crusaders will be tough. In the other game, UT Dallas head coach Polly Thomason will be doing her best to beat Trinity on their home court. You may know Coach Thomason as the Roo basketball veteran on the 1998 AC team that reached the Sweet Sixteen against Wisconsin-Oshkosh. It’s anyone’s guess who will advance out of San Antonio.
However, if the 2020 AC team finds itself facing rival Trinity and a vocal home court Tiger crowd with the Sweet Sixteen on the line, remember your ancestors Roos. Remember the 1998 AC squad that had to face a tough Randolph-Macon team on their home court in Ashland, VA. Remember how they came away with a hard-earned victory in that hostile environment to advance to the Sweet Sixteen. And remember how every Roo back then was amazed to learn that yes, in Virginia, there really is a Santa Claus.
The 2020 Roos have already won 23 games, secured the SCAC conference tournament championship, and have made their way to the NCAA tournament just as in 1998. No matter when the 2020 season of AC Women’s basketball ends, it will have been an incredibly successful one. And a fun one to follow.
