Pikeville, KY – The Mid-South Conference released the opening round bracket for the 2022 MSC Women's Basketball Tournament Sunday morning which features the Bears seeded sixth. UPIKE will matchup with 11-seed Shawnee State in opening round play on Monday, February 21st.

Being the higher seed, the Bears will host the opening round and the game will be held in the UPIKE gym with tip-off set for 6PM.

The Bears finished the regular season with a conference mark of 11-11 just a game back from 5th seed Bethel who defeated the Bears in their final regular-season contest. UPIKE takes the sixth seed over Freed-Hardeman (11-11) because of the Bears winning both regular-season contests over the Lions.

The one through four seeded teams will have a bye in the opening round and automatically advance to the quarterfinals set in Bowling Green this weekend. Thomas More took the top seed, Campbellsville is the second seed, Cumberlands (KY) takes third, and Georgetown is the fourth seed.

The Matchup

UPIKE has taken care of business in both regular-season matchups with SSU this season by an average margin of 26.5 points. In the first contest between the teams, the Bears shot 47% and were led by Alexis Reed with 20 points in the victory on the road. UPIKE walked away with an 81-61 win. In February, the two teams met again in Pikeville where the Bears won 85-42 thanks in part to a huge rebound advantage of 45-21.