?

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – The No. 23 Nova Southeastern University women's basketball team, the three-time reigning and defending South Region Champions, begin their quest for a fourpeat on Friday afternoon, with their opening round matchup against Delta State set for a 1 p.m. EST tip in Jackson, Tennessee.
 
The Sharks (23-6), the Sunshine State Conference regular season champions, are seeded sixth in the South Regionals, slated to take place at top seed Union's Fred DeLay Gymnasium beginning on Friday. They will first face Delta State (22-6), who picked up automatic qualifying status when they won the Gulf South Conference Tournament, and are the third seed in the bracket.
 
The game is scheduled for a 1 p.m. EST tipoff as Jackson is a time zone behind Fort Lauderdale. The winner of the opening matchup will go on to face the winner of SIAC Champion Benedict, the second seed, and No. 7 Florida Tech, who received another at-large bid from the SSC.
 
NSU won the 2015 South Region title on this very same floor, defeating top seed Union last year in the championship round. That came after wins against Kentucky State and Rollins in the opening two rounds, in their only other trip to Jackson. Similarly, the only time the Sharks have ever faced Delta State came in a South Region setting, but in Fort Lauderdale. Three seasons ago, in their first run to a region title, NSU prevailed in the championship game against the Lady Statesmen at the NSU Arena, 78-56.
 
The Lady Statesmen took home the GSC postseason title with an overtime victory over No. 1 seed Union, 69-63. Senior guard Chelsey Rhodes played all 45 minutes and led all scorers with 29 points. Just as the Sharks had Kayla Wright (Jr., Lauderhill, Fla.) earn SSC Player of the Year honors, Rhodes was given the same award from the GSC. She slots first in the conference in scoring at 20.6 per game, a mark that is ninth-best in DII.
 
In the two teams' only other meeting, Rhodes scored six points, while three current Sharks also appeared in the title game: Taylor Buie (R-Jr., Puyallup, Wash.), who came off the bench with 16 points, and the team's two fourth-year seniors, Molly Blomer (West Chester, Ohio) and Alexis Murphy (Carlisle, Ohio), who saw a bit over 20 minutes of action combined. That trio has been a part of all three South Region Championship-winning squads for NSU.
 
Game time is 1 p.m. EST, noon local time, to open up Friday's slate of games. All of the ways to follow along are at the top of this page.