Charlotte 49ers women’s basketball team makes NCAA tournament as a 14 seed

Hunter Bailey
·2 min read

The Charlotte 49ers’ women’s basketball team is headed to the NCAA Tournament for the third time in program history, and the first time since 2009.

Less than 24 hours after clinching the Conference USA Championship, Charlotte (22-9, 15-3 C-USA) earned the No. 14 seed in the Bridgeport Region and will match up with 3 seed Indiana (22-8, 11-5 Big Ten) in Bloomington, Ind., on Saturday.

Charlotte enters the tournament on a four-game win streak and will face a challenging road with the likes of No. 1 seed North Carolina State and No. 2 seed Connecticut highlighting the region.

“Every time we’ve faced adversity, we’ve overcome it,” C-USA coach of the year Cara Consuegra said. “When you talk about this season, so much of it is about overcoming adversity. This season has been hard, it’s not like we’ve had an easy schedule. It’s been difficult.”

Consuegra spoke about the response by the 49er faithful.

“The outpouring of support over the past 48 hours has been incredible to see,” Consuegra said. “We feel like the city and community have rallied around us. For us, we’re excited to go and play, but it’s never just about us. We want to go put on for Charlotte and make Niner nation and our community proud.”

Charlotte overcame a 15-point deficit to defeat Louisiana Tech for the C-USA title, 68-63, on Saturday. Tournament MVP and C-USA Player of the Year Octavia Jett-Wilson scored 31 points in the championship game, 75 total points in the three-game tournament.

Following the conclusion of the regular season, Jett-Wilson stated that winning the conference and making the NCAA Tournament would mean “everything.”

“Being able to punch that ticket to get to where we are now – I’m lost for words,” Jett-Wilson said Sunday night. “I don’t think that y’all know the excitement. I didn’t even sleep last night. I rode home with the trophy and I can’t believe I woke up with this trophy beside me.

“We’ve come too far to only come this far. We needed Niner nation more than anything these past few days. I think that’s what so incredible about this school, we are all a family.”

Charlotte is winless against the three NCAA tournament-qualifying team it has faced this season: North Carolina, Iowa State and Deleware. The 49ers will look to earn their first-ever NCAA tournament win Saturday.