Women's basketball team is No. 8 seed in FCSAA Division I Championship

The Eastern Florida State College women's basketball team punched their ticket into the FCSAA Division I Women's Basketball Championship.

The Titans will be the No. 8 seed in the tournament which begins Thursday at Northwest Florida State College in Niceville, Florida. Eastern Florida State College will play the hosts who come into the tournament as the No. 1 seed at 6 p.m. Thursday.

The Titans finished the regular season with a win on the road which helped them clinch the final spot in the tournament.

"It feels like we are a cat with nine lives this year and excited that we got the nod saying we are in and can relax, get healthy hopefully and compete with the best," Eastern Florida State College women's basketball coach Zack Banks said. "We have done a really good job of putting people in and they do the job just well enough to help us win and we have a great group of strong leaders who have not been injured. Their resilience is unbelievable, they come ready to play and it has paid off with a trip to the state tournament."

The teams met in late November in the Pensacola Thanksgiving Classic with the Raiders picking up the 64-40 win.

Northwest Florida State College is 24-3 this season and comes into the tournament winning eight in a row and are 9-1 in last 10 games. The Raiders are leading the state in field goal percentage, shooting 49.2 percent from the floor this season. Khoudia Diagne leads the team, averaging 16.7 points per game and was named the FCSAA Player of the Week on Monday.

It is the ninth straight year that the Titans have made the state tournament and first time under new head coach Zack Banks. The Raiders have sent the Titans home the past two seasons.

Tickets are $15 per person and tournament passes are $40 and can be purchased at the Raider Arena Box Office. Fans can also watch the games live online at the https://team1sports.com/fcsaa/ website.