NCAA Women's Division III Basketball Championship
 |
|
| Sport | College basketball |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1982 |
| No. of teams | 64 |
| Country | NCAA Division III (U.S.) |
| Most recent champion(s) |
Thomas More |
| Official website | NCAA.com |
The NCAA Division III Women's Basketball Championship is the annual tournament to determine the national champions of women's NCAA Division III collegiate basketball in the United States. It has been held annually since 1982, when the NCAA began to sponsor women's sports at all three levels.
Washington–St. Louis are the most successful program, with five national titles. The current champions are Thomas More, who won their second consecutive national title in 2016.
Held in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania, the 1982 Women's Final Four Basketball Tournament was the first sponsored by the NCAA. Featuring host Elizabethtown College, Clark College (Massachusetts), Pomona College (California) and the University of North Carolina Greensboro (North Carolina), the tournament was played in a classic field house over a three-day period. In the first game of the National Semi-Final, Elizabethtown took control right from the tip-off against Clark College and easily cruised to a 71-51 victory. In the second game of the Final Four, Pomona College took the lead early in the game but North Carolina Greensboro battled back to tie the game at 56 with six minutes to play. Greensboro then went on a run and pulled away for a 77-66 win. Elizabethtown and Greensboro turned the championship game into an epic battle of lead changes and shifts in momentum. Last second heroics by Greensboro sent the game into overtime, but Elizabethtown came up with the final stop in overtime to win 67-66 in overtime. Television coverage was provided by a fledgling ESPN while exclusive radio coverage was provided by KSPC Radio - Pomona College's tiny KSPC sports broadcasting group with Geoff Willis (Pomona College '83) and James Timmerman (Pomona College '82) providing the play by play and color. ESPN was so embryonic that the game was broadcast multiple times during the following two weeks and ESPN hired the KSPC Radio staff to help with background and color research about the players and the teams.
^ 2015 championship vacated by Thomas More
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