Lady Cats & Tornadoes Meet Friday in Crisp Arena
MCKENZIE, Tenn. - The 2026 NAIA Women's Basketball Championship First and Second Rounds, presented by Ballogy gets underway Friday.
The Bethel Lady Wildcats are the No. 1 seed in the Duer Quadrant and will host the No. 16 seeded Talladega (Ala.). The Cats will play Talladega at 5:30 p.m. Friday March 13th in Crisp Arena. Bethel has a home mark of 184-43 in the arena since it opened in 2012.
It will be Bethel's 16th appearance in the national tournament. The Cats had a magical but well-earned run to the Fab Four last year before losing to eventual national champion Dordt.
Talladega will be making their seventh appearance in the tournament.
No. 9 Seed Huntingdon (Ind) will meet # 8 seed Oregon Tech at 7:30 p.m. Friday night.
The two winners of Friday's games will play Saturday March 14 at 4 p.m.
Huntingdon will be in the tournament for the 8th time while Oregon Tech will be appearing for the 9th time in the big dance.
Fans can purchase tickets online prior to the game or at the door at:
https://www.bethelathletics.com/tickets
It is a cashless gate.
Fans can watch the games at: https://urbanedgenetwork.net/upcoming?school=naia-championships
Live stats:
https://www.bethelathletics.com/sports/wbkb/2025-26/boxscores/20260313_1gb3.xml
1st & 2nd Round Schedule Page | Bracket]
Friday, March 13
Talladega vs. Bethel -5:30 p.m.
Oregon Tech vs. Huntington – 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, March 14
Women's Championship –4 pm
The 2026 NAIA Second Round winners will meet in Sioux City, Iowa, at the NAIA Championship final site presented by Bomgaars and Sterling. The 45th annual championship occurs at the Tyson Events Center from March 19-24.
Lady Wildcats:
Last year marked Bethel's first appearance in the national championships since the 2021-22 season. The Cats made it two years in a row after going 25-5 this season. Bethel was ranked No. 3 in the nation in the last NAIA Women's Basketball Top 25 poll.
Bethel averages 73.6 points per game and yields 60.1 per outing.
The Cats shoot 44 percent from the floor while their opponents shoot 36 percent from the field.
Bethel shoots 35 percent from behind the arc. Opponents average 29 percent from long distance. Mikee Buchanan leads the squad in three-point attempts and in made three pointers with 76. The team had hit 244 treys on the year. The team averages eight made per game.
The Lady Cats have been excellent from the free throw line at 76 percent. Madison Hart leads the Lady Cats in free throw attempts while Micah Hart leads the squad in free throws made.
Bethel averages 37 rebounds per game while opponents have averaged 33 per contest. Mikee Buchanan leads the team in rebounding with 6.2 per outing.
The Cats average 14 assists per game. Hallie Turner leads the team in assists with 103 on the season.
Buchanan is second in scoring at 15.4 points per game. Madison Hart averages 14.1
Back on January 17th Bethel's Micah Hart became the 20th player in program history to join the 1,000-point club when she led the Lady Cats with a 37-point performance in a victory over Lindsey Wilson in Columbia, Kentucky. Her sister, Madison, joined the club last season.
The three-time Player of the Week in the MSC was named the league's Most Valuable Player. She led the league in scoring with an average of 18.7 points per outing. Hart averaged 20.7 points in league play.
The Cats were 9-3 in the MSC.
Eleven Lady Wildcats earned conference all-academic status.
Madison, Micah, and Mikee were named to the Mid-South 1st Team All-Conference squad.
Bethel's Adalyn Koelling was named to the MSC Champions of Character Team.
Coach Chris Nelson is in his 20th season as head coach of the Lady Wildcats and has a career mark of 428-214.
Tornadoes:
The Tornadoes are 17-10 on the season and finished as the tournament runner-up in the HBCUAC.
Talladega averages 66.7 points per game and pulls down 38.3 rebounds per outing.
Ceara Myers lead the Tornadoes with 13.6 PPG and 8.3 RPG. The Tornadoes bring a balanced attack with four players averaging nine plus points per game and a physical presence on the glass. One of those players is guard Teanna Watts who averages 11.1 points per game and almost four rebounds per outing.
The Tornadoes are making their first tournament appearance since 2022 after reaching the HBCU Athletic Conference Tournament final.
Coach Andre Payne is in his first season as Head Coach of the Tornado Women's Basketball program. He also serves as the athletic director of the school.
Talladega is located in Talladega, Alabama.
Oregon Institute of Technology: The Lady Owls enter the tournament 19-11 and were 14-6 in the tough Cascade Collegiate Conference.
Tech heads to the tournament for the ninth time and are making their third-straight appearance – looking for their fourth first-round win (2016, 2019, 2024).
Guard Tatum Schmerbach was named Cascade Conference Women's Basketball Player of the Year. Schmerbach was one of three Lady Owl players selected to the All-CCC team, as Olivia Sprague earned her fourth All-CCC award, while Jozie Ramos was selected for the second consecutive year. She averages 18.7 points per game which is currently the highest scoring average since women's basketball returned to the Basin in 2002. Schmerbach, who blew past the 1,000-point mark early in the season, sits two made field goals away from establishing a new single-season record (235). She has scored in double-figures in 36-straight games dating back to last season, the second-longest streak in program history. Schmerbach led the CCC in assists (136).
It is the second time the Owls will have visited the Volunteer State. They fell to Freed-Hardeman 68-51 back in November in Henderson. They also dropped games at Cumberlands (KY) and at Lindsey Wilson on their southern swing.
Coach Joy Lease is in her fourth season with the women's basketball program and third as head coach. She has a 69-24 career mark with the Lady Owls.
OIT is located in Klamath Falls, Oregon which is just a mere 2, 300 miles from McKenzie.
Huntingdon University of Indiana:
The Foresters (18-11), from the Crossroads League, ended a 10-year tournament drought last season, advancing to the second-round of the 2025 event. The current team looks to snap a 4-game losing streak to end the regular season, looking for production from a stellar front line – as 6-foot forward Addie Shank (10.6 ppg, 8.5 rpg), 6-foot-1 forward Annaka Nelson (12.5 ppg, 4.2 rpg) and 6-foot-1 forward Liv Raby (13.0 ppg, 7.0 rpg) key the HU attack. Raby scored her 1,000th career point vs. Grace on January 31
Program Records this year :
Made three-pointers in a game - Kyndell Jochim: 10 vs. Rochester Christan on November 8
Assists in a game - Kyndra Sheet: 16 vs. Grace on January 31
Made three-pointers in a game (as a TEAM) – 20 vs. Rochester Christian on November 8
A couple of interesting facts about the HU coaching staff's connection to Tennessee: Head Coach Darby Maggard played at Belmont and then was an assistant at UT Martin before being named the head coach at HU. Gabi Melby transferred from UT Martin (when Maggard was hired at HU) to finish her career at Huntington. She is now the program's GA.
Did you Know?
This year's First Round field includes 35 automatic qualifiers and 29 at-large selections. Automatic berths were given to teams that either won their respective conference tournament title or regular season championship, finished runner-up at the conference tournament, or were otherwise selected by the conference. The NAIA Women's Basketball National Selection Committee determined the at-large bids. The selection committee consists of one representative from each geographical area and six at-large members, comprised of coaches and administrators from around the country.
The Crossroads League leads the way with seven teams qualifying for the national tournament, while the Cascade Collegiate Conference, Great Plains Athletic Conference and Mid-South Conference all qualified six teams. The only team in the MSC which failed to qualify for the tournament was Cumberland University.
There is one new team entering the championship field, Texas A&M - San Antonio, that is checking in for the first time. On the other end of the field, Campbellsville (Ky.) returns to the field for the 34th time. The Tigers hold the most appearances in championship history. College of the Ozarks (Mo.) also boasts 30 appearances in the championship field.
Brescia (Ky.) last appeared in the championship field in 2008 and ended an 18-year drought with their qualification to the 2026 championship with an automatic bid after being the River States Conference Tournament Runner-Up.
Eleven teams in the field boast one or more titles. Northwestern (Iowa) has claimed five Red Banners and is followed closely by Hastings (Neb.), which has three of its own. Two-time defending national champion, Dordt (Iowa), returns to the field after earning back-to-back Red Banners in Sioux City. Marian (Ind.) and Indiana Wesleyan have also won multiple titles, while Concordia (Neb.), Dakota Wesleyan (S.D.), MidAmerica Nazarene (Kan.), Saint Francis (Ind.), Shawnee State (Ohio), and Freed-Hardeman (Tenn.) each have one.