Women's basketball team will be No. 2 seed in the national tournament

The Eastern Florida State College women's basketball team will be the No. 2 seed in the NJCAA Division I National Tournament.

The Titans, who won the Region VIII Tournament title Saturday night for the first time in program history, will be heading to Lubbock, Texas for the second straight season and will receive a bye in the first round as one of the top seeds.

Eastern Florida State College will play the winner of No. 15 Casper and No. 18 Walters State on Thursday, March 23 at Rip Griffin Center in Lubbock, Texas.

"The team has earned it, we played a really tough schedule and Region 8 is one of the top regions in the nation and to come out of it is always tough facing great coaches and great teams, so I am really proud of the team," Eastern Florida State College head coach MJ Baker said.

The Titans defeated Northwest Florida State College in the championship game on their home court, 48-43 on Saturday to win the title. They were led by sophomore Leilani Guion who had 13 points in the championship game and averaged 12 points per game in the tournament. The guard from Orlando was named the Most Outstanding Player of the tournament. Teammates L'or Eyeba Mputu, Elli Garnett and Shadaria Smith were named to the all-tournament team.

Head coach MJ Baker was awarded the Roonie Scovel Award, recognizing the FCSAA Coach of the Year on Saturday night. Baker has guided the Titans to a program-best 31 wins this season and is back in the national tournament, playing for another title.

Last season the women's basketball team made the national tournament for the first time in program history and reached the quarterfinals.