Lady Saints Picked 7th in KJCCC

Coming off a perfect 37-0 season that ended in the program’s first National Championship, Hutchinson Community College has been picked to defend their 2024 Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference Division 1 Women’s Basketball regular season title following a vote of league coaches ahead of the 2024-25 season.

Securing 10 of 13 possible first-place votes to tally 165 total points, the Blue Dragons were picked no worse than third by any coach in the conference preseason poll as HCC finished 27 points ahead of second-place Dodge City Community College. The Conquistadors were picked to finish as KJCCC runners-up despite not earning a single first-place vote as DCCC edged out Barton Community College who rounds out the top three in the preseason standings with 131 total points and one first-place vote.

Following Barton is Garden City who earned 127 total points with one of the remaining two first-place votes as the Broncbusters were picked sixth or higher in 12 of the 13 ballots submitted to finish one point ahead of Butler Community College who was picked fifth with 126 total points. A sizeable point gap then saw Coffeyville picked sixth with 104 points to finish as the final team to eclipse the 100-point mark in the preseason poll followed by Seward County (99 points) and Cowley Community College who received 80 points the final first-place vote to round out the top eight.

Other teams in the preseason order of finish include Cloud County Community College in ninth (78 points) Colby in 10th (45 points), a tie for 11th between Independence and Pratt while Fort Hays Tech Northwest was picked 13th with 22 total points

The 2024-25 women’s basketball season will get underway on Friday, November 1st with nine of the 13 league teams in action on the opening day of the season. In total, 18 games will take place involving league teams over the opening weekend of the season as teams will have the first two-plus weeks of the regular season to compete in non-conference matchups before seeing a 24-game KJCCC schedule kickoff on Wednesday, November 20th with four matchups between conference schools.

After wrapping up the regular season on Wednesday, March 5th, postseason play will begin on Saturday, March 8th with the top four teams in the final regular season standings receiving a first-round bye in the NJCAA Region 6 Tournament. Teams that finish fifth through eighth will host teams that finish ninth through 12th in the regular season standings with the winners moving on to face the four teams that received byes on Tuesday, March 11th before seeing action move to a neutral site for the semifinals and finals. The semifinals and finals are scheduled to take place March 14-15 inside Gross Memorial Coliseum on the campus of Fort Hays State University with the NJCAA Division 1 Women’s Basketball National Tournament set to take place March 25-31, 2025 in Casper, Wyoming.