After the Shippensburg University women’s basketball team’s loss to Gannon in the PSAC semifinals, the Raiders made the NCAA Atlantic Regional tournament for the first time since the 2016-2017 season when the Raiders lost to Mercyhurst in the first round of the tournament. 

This is the 10th time the Raiders made an appearance in the national tournament. They were ranked as the No. 4 seed and faced West Virginia State on Friday night.

The first quarter was extremely tight and low scoring as neither team could hang on to more than a two-point lead. The Raiders gained a four-point advantage when sophomore Abbie Miller made a layup and gave the Raiders an 8-4 lead. 

After a short scoring drought for both sides, the Yellow Jackets cut down the lead and eventually tied the game at nine with a three-pointer from Ashley Davis. Ariel Jones broke the tie with a three-pointer and gave the lead back to the Raiders, 12-9. 

Junior Treasure George drew a foul and made both free throws, which gave the Raiders a 16-14 lead going into the second quarter. 

In the beginning of the second quarter, the Raiders started to break away from the Yellow Jackets. The Raiders built up their lead to seven points and lead the Yellow Jackets 25-18 with a little over seven minutes left in the first half.

The Yellow Jackets fought back and tied the game at 32 with four minutes remaining in the first half. In the final seconds of the first half, Taja Colbert made a layup on a fast break and gave the Raiders a two-point advantage into the second half. 

In the second half, the Raiders started to pull away. The Raiders built a nine-point advantage at the end of the third quarter, 65-56. 

In the first few minutes of the fourth quarter, the Raiders built the lead up to 12 points. The Yellow Jackets got the lead down to three points with 24 seconds left. Senior Guard Ariel Jones made two free throws to seal the game for the Raiders. The Raiders beat the Yellow Jackets 87-83. 

“The NCAA tournament was one of our long-term goals we were very happy to be here but just being here wasn’t enough. I really felt like this group came out start to finish with a ton of grit and battled through a lot of adverse situations,” Raiders head coach Kristi Trn said. 

Jones had 25 points and 11 rebounds in the game and led the Raiders on the score sheet. Graduate student Erin Gibbons had 15 points and made three of her four three-pointers in the game. 

“Our main focus was to stop their runs. They are going to go on runs and hit shots we just had to tame that, stay calm, and play our game,” Jones said on how the Raiders stopped the Yellow Jackets’ runs. 

The Raiders then faced off with the top team in the Atlantic region, Glenville State, on Saturday night in the second round of the Atlantic Regional tournament. This game was very different than Friday night’s game as the Raiders struggled against the Pioneers.

The Raiders held a 15-9 lead as just over four minutes remained in the first quarter. The Pioneers quickly fought back and grabbed a six-point lead at the end of the first quarter with three points from Miles Chalon. 

 In the second quarter, the Pioneers took control of the game and led going into halftime 51-35. 

Things didn’t get any better for the Raiders as the Pioneers extended their lead to 27 points at the end of the third quarter 78-51. The game was settled by the start of the fourth quarter as the Raiders continued to struggle to cut into the lead. The Raiders ultimately fell in the second round of the Atlantic regional tournament to the Pioneers 107-76. 

Graduate student Lauren Pettis led the Raiders in scoring in the game with 19 points and 11 rebounds. Jones had 15 points in the game. 

The Raiders finish their season with a record of 25-7. 

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