The Howard Bison made history two-fold Wednesday night, not only competing in the first First Four game following the expansion of the NCAA women's basketball tournament to 68 teams, but also winning their first NCAA tournament game in program history by outlasting Incarnate Word 55-51.
The pair of 16-seeds, automatic qualifiers from the MEAC (Howard) and Southland Conference (Incarnate Word), clashed in Columbia, South Carolina, in the second First Four game of the evening. Dayton demolished DePaul 88-57 in Ames, Iowa, in the earlier contest.
The Bison were 0-5 in their previous trips to the Big Dance, the most recent of which occurred in 2001. They will now face No. 1 overall seed South Carolina on Friday in the round of 64.
The men's tournament started the First Four in 2011, and aside from last year amid the COVID-19 pandemic, all First Four games have been hosted in Dayton, Ohio.
The women's championship expanded the field from 64 to 68 teams this past offseason as inequities between the men's and women's tournaments came to light. The last four teams that receive at-large bids, as well as teams seeded 65 through 68, are slotted to play in the First Four, which like the first two rounds of the tournament, are hosted at campus sites.
In previous years, a 16-seed like Howard would automatically face a No. 1 seed in its first game. This time around, the Bison had to get through a surging Incarnate Word team, fresh off a historic run in the Southland Conference tournament to clinch the league's auto-bid despite sporting a losing record.
"We're just grateful and blessed," said Howard's Brooklynn Fort-Davis, who finished with 15 points and 11 rebounds. "We feel like superstars. We get to walk around with cameras everywhere, play on a big court, nice arena, nice lights."
That sentiment was shared on the losing side as well, even though Incarnate Word didn't come away with the win.
"I think it just really does mean a lot," said Incarnate Word's Tiana Gardner (16 points). "Not a lot of teams, not a lot of players get to do this, have this experience. The loss is pretty fresh, but it definitely doesn't take away from how far we've come and where we are now."
In the Wednesday game featuring two at-large teams, Dayton shut down DePaul's typically fast-paced, high-scoring offense while getting hot from deep itself. The Flyers, who were upset in the A-10 tournament championship by UMass, led big most of the way and will face No. 6 seed Georgia Friday in the first round.
"I told them, once you get in, you never know what can happen, and they showed that tonight," said Dayton coach Shauna Green. "We're going to take that confidence and momentum, and we're going to prepare and we're going to go play against a really good Georgia team. That's why it's called March Madness, because everyone has a shot and everyone has a chance."
DePaul also entered the tournament uncertain of its postseason fate after falling in the quarterfinals of the Big East tournament to Marquette.
"As embarrassing as that basketball was tonight, we belonged in this tournament, and I made sure the players knew that after this was over with," said DePaul coach Doug Bruno, who has led the Blue Demons to 25 NCAA tournament appearances. "That said, it would have been a lot more exciting to prove with your actions on the floor that we belonged.
"It was a very emotional week. We were hoping for the best, but we were prepared for the worst ... we just didn't play well down the stretch here and sit there for a week [between the conference tournament and NCAA tournament] and then you have the euphoria of going and now the crash and burn."
First Four play picks up again Thursday, with Longwood and Mount St. Mary's, both 16-seeds, tipping at 7 p.m. ET, followed by 11-seeds Missouri State and Florida State at 9 p.m.