The first team from Arkansas to officially punch its ticket to March Madness hails from Hot Springs.
The National Park College women’s basketball team earned an automatic bid into the National Junior College Athletics Association Division 2 Women’s Basketball National Tournament with a 73-60 win over Jefferson College in the Central Plains District Championship. The Nighthawks are 21-10 and will travel to Hickory, North Carolina, for the NJCAA women’s tourney, which runs March 16-21. NPC is the 18-seed in the 20-team field and will face No. 15 Chattahoochee Valley Community College on Monday, March 16, at 3 p.m.
The win over Jefferson marks the program’s first district title and first trip to the national tournament.
“I’m extremely proud of this group and its resiliency to overcome adversity,” NPC women’s basketball head coach Eddie Broughton Sr. said. “It has shaped us and built us into something that can be pretty scary going into the national tournament. We have worked hard to achieve this moment. We’re looking forward to it, we’re excited and we’re ready to go.”
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