NASHVILLE — March is on the horizon, and for the second straight year, the Tennessee State women's basketball team has earned a bid to the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament. The Lady Tigers enter as the No. 7 seed and will take on No. 6 SIUE in the first round on Wednesday afternoon to kick off the madness at the Ford Center in Evansville, Ind.
 
The Matchup: Tennessee State (11-17, 7-11 OVC) vs. Southern Illinois-Edwardsville (8-21, 7-11 OVC)
INFO: OVC Tournament
Date/Time: Wednesday, March 1 at 3:30 p.m.
Location: Ford Center Center || Evansville, Ind.    
 
TV: ESPN+
Live Stats
 
ROUND ONE (No. 6 SIUE): TSU will take on SIUE in their round-one matchup to open the OVC tournament. The two squads split on the season, with SIUE winning the first matchup in January, 76-69. Erica Haynes-Overton finished with 30 points in the loss. TSU had a bounce-back win over the Cougars just two weeks ago, winning 87-83. Four Tigers finished in double figures, with EHO finishing with 19, followed by Gia Adams (18), Saniah Parker (16), and Lyric Cole (13). While SIUE only finished with eight wins on the season, seven did come in OVC play after a tough non-conference slate.  
 
TOURNEY TIME: This will be the 28^th OVC tournament appearance for TSU. The Tigers are 10-17 in OVC tournament games since 1987. The Tigers are 4-6 in their last 10 games played in the tournament. TSU was knocked out in the quarterfinals a season ago as they fell to Austin Peay 67-53. The Tigers won their first OVC tournament game in seven seasons when they defeated EIU in the first-round last season. TSU is 1-1 against SIUE in the OVC tournament, having last picked up a semi-final win in 2015. 
 
EXPERIENCED GROUP: TSU returns eight players from last year's squad that went two rounds deep in the OVC tournament, led by sophomore guard Gia Adams. Adams did not play like a freshman in last season's tournament as she posted double figures in both games with 19 against EIU and 15 against APSU. TSU also returns Sierra McCullough and Saniah Parker whom both played valuable minutes last March, along with Cole and the other side for APSU.
 
FEBRUARY FINISH: Head coach Ty Evans made a statement this February as his squad finished the month with a 4-4 record heading into the OVC tournament. Heading into last year's tournament, the Lady Tigers went 0-8 in February. Evans's Tigers also had an 0-8 mark in February of 2021. The ability of the Tigers to finish games has been a big reason for the February success, as they won three of their final five games.
 
BACK-TO-BACK: With this year's appearance in the OVC tournament, Ty Evans becomes the first TSU head coach to lead a team to back-to-back OVC tournaments since 2014-15 and 2015-16.
 
MISSION COMPLETE: Erica Haynes-Overton closed out the OVC regular season with a 20-point performance, which marked her 17th straight game of 10+ points, giving her double figures in all OVC games. EHO led the league in scoring during OVC play with 17.1 points per game. She finished with 20+ points six times in that 17-game span.
 
REGULAR SEASON BY THE NUMBERS
 
66.3: TSU finished the regular season with the third-best scoring offense in the OVC with 66.3 points per game.
 
595: The number of free throws TSU attempted this season, which is the highest in the league.
 
12.2: The average number of offensive rebounds the Lady Tigers pulled down per game which was the highest among OVC teams.
 
558: The number of turnovers TSU forced this season. The Lady Tigers were second in the league in turnovers forced per game with 19.2.
 
287: The number of steals the Lady Tigers tallied. EHO led the team with 65, followed by Parker with 43.
 
2: The number of top-10 scorers TSU finished with this season. EHO finished second in the league with 15.3 ppg, while Adams slithered into the sixth spot with 13.8 ppg.