CLINTON – Presbyterian College women’s basketball, which made program history by earning its first berth in the NCAA Tournament, has a chance to win a game there as well.

The Blue Hose will play Sacred Heart in the First Four at 7 p.m. Wednesday in Columbia. The winner will be a No. 16 seed to face No. 1 overall seed South Carolina there at 2 p.m. Friday.

The First Four is made up of the four lowest-ranked conference champions among the automatic qualifiers. Presbyterian (20–14) won the Big South Conference championship as a No. 5 seed after going 8-8 in league play during the regular season. Sacred Heart (24-9) was 14-1 in the Northeast Conference.

Presbyterian has been a member of NCAA Division I since 2007. The Blue host made Division II tournament appearances in 1994, 1995, 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2002.

LITTLE TEAM WITH BIG DREAMS: Long shot Presbyterian Blue Hose ready to crash March Madness, Women's NCAA Tournament

Alaura Sharp is in her sixth season as coach. Bryanna Brady and Tilda SJokvist lead the Blue Hose in scoring with 12.4 points per game and also in rebounding, 4.6 and 4.4 respectively. Brady, a 6-foot-3 graduate school center, leads with 27 blocked shots. Sjokvist, a sophomore guard, leads with 118 assists.

Presbyterian has won eight of its past nine games, including a 60-37 rout of No. 3 seed Radford in the conference tournament championship. The Blue Hose won 20 games this season for the first time.

This article originally appeared on Herald-Journal: Presbyterian vs. Sacred Heart in March Madness, 2024 NCAA Tournament