The Dillard Women’s Basketball Team Takes on Fisk In the Quarterfinals of the GCAC Women’s Basketball Tournament On Friday at Noon

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New Orleans –  The Dillard University women's basketball team (9-15, 2-6 GCAC) earned the fifth seed and will take on the fourth seed Fisk University Lady Bulldogs (9-18, 2-6 GCAC) in the GCAC Women's Basketball Quarterfinals on Friday, Feb. 25, at 12 p.m. at Mims Gymnasium on the campus of Philander Smith College.

The entire tournament is scheduled to be broadcasted by Wahlah!-TV.

About the Dillard Lady Bleu Devils
Dillard went 0-2 last week with losses to Philander Smith College (2/17) by a 68-57 score and to Rust College (2/21) 67-40. Taylor Dewitt led the club with her 12 points against PSC. Diniaa McZeal tallied 10 points. Cassidy Lowe hauled in a career-high 12 rebounds. Against Rust, Ayani Cockrell totaled 11 points. The program enters the GCAC Women's Basketball Tournament having lost six of the last seven games. The team ended up splitting with Fisk this season. The team fell 50-49 on Jan. 24, but picked up the revenge game victory on the road over the Lady Bulldogs 85-79 with McZeal scoring 25 points and hitting seven threes.

Dewitt was named the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference Co-Player of the Week on Dec. 21 after averaging 13 points and five rebounds per game. It was the first time that she has been honored by the league office in her career.

DU has 11 players that are averaging four or more points a game this season. McZeal leads the club with her 7.7 points per game. She also leads the team with 35 made threes. Dewitt is picking up 7.2 points a game. Cassidy Lowe is totaling 6.9 points per game. She also leads the club with her 11 blocks. JaQuanna Hunter is the leading rebounder at 6.5 boards per game. Jordyn Rowe leads the team with 39 assists. The program is shooting 36 percent from the field, 21.5 percent from three-point range and 62 percent from the free throw line. The team is also pulling down 41.8 rebounds and dishing out 14.29 assists per game.

Dillard went 2-8 last season in what was very much a start-and-stop season that featured 13 cancellation or postponements. The program returns 10 members of last year's squad this season including the team's leading scorer in Turner (10.4 points per game), the leading rebounder in Hunter (8.6 rebounds per game) plus the player, Haynes, that ranked second on the team in assists (26 assists). Other returners for Dillard include Dewitt, Ajayah Simpson, McZeal, Kyra McWhorter, Perry and Sydni John-Baptiste. The program also welcomes in seven newcomers in Hart, Lowe, Sequoia Emmanuel, Cockrell, Rowe, Alexis Gie and Erika Diaz.

The head coach of the program in his ninth season is Norbert Rome. This is his 14th consecutive season working the sidelines at Dillard as he served as an assistant coach of the program prior to being named the head coach prior to the 2012 season. In his time as a head coach, Rome has led the Lady Bleu Devils to a 118-138 overall record including a mark of 53-64 in the always rugged Gulf Coast Athletic Conference (GCAC). His teams have won 19 or more games in a season three different times including going 23-6 with a mark of 9-3 in the GCAC in 2017-18 on their way to winning both the GCAC Regular Season Title and GCAC Tournament Championship plus a berth into the NAIA Women's Basketball Tournament. He also individually secured 2017-18 GCAC Coach of the Year honors for the first time. He made it back-to-back years with the GCAC Tournament Championship in 2018-19 when the team went 21-12 overall with a 9-5 mark in GCAC as the team made its second straight berth into NAIA Women's Basketball Tournament

About the Fisk Lady Bulldogs
The program's head coach in her third year is Janine Davis. Fisk is based in Nashville, Tenn. and are in their first year since rejoining the GCAC. The program is 9-18 this season including a mark of 2-6 in the GCAC. Jaedyn Dunn leads the team with an averaging 11.4 points per game. She is also averaging 3.3 assists per game. Mya Allen is second on the team with her average of 10.5 points per game. She is also getting 6.4 rebounds per game and leads the team in steals with 42. Zip Davis is placed third on the squad with her average of 10.4 points per game. She also has 29 steals. Zayla Jones is second on the club with 41 steals.

A Dillard victory over Fisk University would propel DU to the GCAC Semifinals against the top seed Philander Smith on Saturday, Feb. 26, at 5 p.m. A win against Philander Smith in the semifinals would advance Dillard to the GCAC Championship game against either No. 2 seed Rust College, No. 3 seed Tougaloo College or No. 6 seed Edward Waters University. If Dillard wins the GCAC Tournament they will get the conference's automatic berth into the opening round of 2021-22 NAIA Women's Basketball Championship, presented by Ballogy.

Keep up with all the latest news and information on the Bleu Devils by following Dillard Athletics on Twitter at @GeauxDU, Facebook at Facebook.com/dillardbleudevils/ and Instagram at Instagram.com/dillardbleudevils/