Concordia (Moorhead) women’s basketball earns at-large bid to Division III NCAA tournament

The Concordia (Moorhead) women’s basketball team received an at-large bid to the Division III NCAA tournament Monday, joining conference regular-season and tournament champion Gustavus Adolphus in the 64-team field.

On the men’s side, tournament champion Gustavus was the MIAC’s only representative. Regular-season champion St. John’s did not receive an invitation after losing to Hamline in the conference tournament semifinals.

Also making the Division III tournament from the UMAC were the Bethany Lutheran men (24-3), who are on a D-III-best 17-game winning streak and repeated as conference tournament champion, and the Minnesota Morris women (17-10), who earned their conference tourney title since 2015.

All five Minnesota schools will be playing in neighboring states Friday.

The Gustavus women (25-2) will play Trine (21-7) in Oshkosh, Wis. The winner of that game will face either Wisconsin-Oshkosh or undefeated Webster. Concordia (20-5) travels to Waverly, Iowa, to play Illinois Wesleyan (22-5), and Minnesota Morris will face host Wisconsin-Whitewater (22-4).

On the men’s side, Gustavus and Bethany Lutheran were both sent to Platteville, Wis. The Gusties (18-10) play Loras (23-5) in their first NCAA tournament game since 2012, followed by the Vikings playing host Wisconsin-Platteville (23-4). The winners face each other Saturday.

The Gophers’ Grace Curran went bogey-free in shooting a career-best, 6-under-par 66 in the third and final round of the Westbrook Invitational in Peoria, Ariz.

Curran finished the tournament in a tie for 18th. The Gophers as a team shot 18 under, good for eighth place in the 14-team tournament, 25 shots behind winner Kansas. The Gophers’ score of 846 was the second-best 54-hole score in school history.