Denison Collects NCAC Women's Basketball Title, Enters Tourney as Top Seed

CLEVELAND, OH – Denison caps the 2025-26 North Coast Athletic Conference regular season with the program’s fifth-overall NCAC women’s basketball championship title after compiling a near-perfect 13-1 record against league foes.

Wittenberg leads all NCAC women’s basketball squads with 14 titles all-time, while DePauw owns 11 conference crowns, followed by OWU with seven, Allegheny with six, Denison with five, Kenyon with three and Wooster with two.

As league champions, the Big Red have earned the top seed and hosting rights for the 2026 NCAC women’s basketball final four. The seeding for the tournament follows the regular-season standings with the top-six teams earning a berth into the postseason. The tie between John Carroll (11-3) and Ohio Wesleyan (11-3) for second and the tie between Oberlin (4-10) and Wittenberg (4-10) for fifth was broken via the conference tiebreaker system for seeding purposes only.
 
In the quarterfinal round on Tuesday, February 24, No. 6 Oberlin travels to No. 3 John Carroll, while No. 4 DePauw (9-5) hosts No. 5 Wittenberg. Both games are set to tipoff at 7:00 p.m. During the regular season, the Blue Streaks swept the Yeowomen, 83-40 on Jan. 21 and 81-41 on Feb. 18, while the Indiana Tigers collected two wins over the Ohio Tigers, 51-32 on Jan. 14 and 73-43 on Feb. 11. The quarterfinal game at John Carroll will be part of a doubleheader with the men, who will play before the women’s contest at 5:00 p.m. One ticket will be good for both quarterfinal matchups.   
 
The semifinals will be held on Thursday, Feb. 26, in Granville, with top-seeded Denison taking on the quarterfinal winner of DePauw versus Wittenberg at 5:00 p.m., while No. 2 Ohio Wesleyan will square off against the winner of the John Carroll versus Oberlin quarterfinal for a 7:30 p.m. showdown. The gym will be cleared between the first and second game and separate tickets will be required for each semifinal game.
 
The tournament final is set for 3:00 p.m. on Saturday at Denison, as the semifinal winners will compete for the tournament title and receive the NCAC’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. The game will be part of a doubleheader with the men, who will play after the women’s final at 7:00 p.m. The gym will be cleared in between those games and separate tickets will be required for both contests.
 
TOURNEY TALK: DePauw is the two-time defending NCAC Tournament champion after earning a tightly contested 46-44 victory over Wittenberg in the 2025 tournament final to claim the Tigers’ ninth tourney crown. DePauw, Wittenberg (9), Denison (7), OWU (6) and Allegheny (5) have combined to win 36-of-40 women's tournament titles, while Kenyon (2), Oberlin (1) and Wooster (1) account for the four other tourney trophies ... Top-seeded Denison, which last won the tourney title in 2011, and second-seeded Ohio Wesleyan, the 2023 champion, have both qualified for the tournament 40 out of the 41 competitive seasons, every year it has been contested (with one season cancelled due to Covid 19) … The John Carroll Blue Streaks, in their first NCAC season, will be making an appearance in the conference tournament as the three seed … Fourth-seeded DePauw enters its 14th NCAC Tournament carrying a 30-4 record in tournament action and the league's highest winning percentage at .882, while Wittenberg is second in tournament play with a .683 winning percentage (56-26). Ohio Wesleyan has gone 53-33 in the tournament (.616) and Denison owns a 42-32 record in tournament action (.567) …The fifth-seeded Wittenberg Tigers, who advanced into the 2025 tourney final as the No. 5 seed, have posted the most appearances in the championship game at 18, while Ohio Wesleyan has 17 and Denison has 13, followed by DePauw (9) Kenyon (6), Wooster (4) and Oberlin (2) … The Yeowomen, who won the tourney title as a three seed in 2018 and were the runner-up in 2023 as the No. 4 seed, enter the tournament in the No. 6 spot.
 

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