First-year coach Jen Brown's Queens Royals will try to send shockwaves throughout the South Atlantic Conference and the Southeast Region when her club visits UVA Wise Saturday for the opening round of the SAC Tournament. Queens won just one game in the regular season and enters the tournament having lost 11 consecutive contests. Two weeks ago, the Royals did a put a scare in the Cavaliers as Brown's club held a second quarter lead before eventually falling by double digits. Kalaya Hall was a big reason why Queens was able to stay close in the contest. The guard scored a team-high 23 points in the game while adding four rebounds and a quartet of steals to her stat line. On the season, Hall leads the team in scoring at 16.5 points per game. Defense has been an issue for the Royals this season. Queens is allowing 78.8 points per game as teams are making 45.8 percent of their field goal attempts and 37.3 percent of their attempts from the 3-point line. 

UVA Wise kept its hopes of an at large berth to the NCAA Tournament alive with an 80-72 wire-to-wire win over No. 25 Tusculum Wednesday. In the win, Jamie Cluesman's crew received a career-high 28 points and 15 rebounds from Kalee Johnson while Caitlyn Ross fired in 25 points and dished out 12 assists. The Cavaliers were efficient from beyond the arc, making 10-of-21 3-point field goal attempts while fighting hard on the boards, losing the rebounding battle by one 42-41. UVA Wise enters the league tournament as one of eight teams in the Southeast Region under consideration for a NCAA Tournament berth. Six of the teams will make the field that will be announced next Sunday. It's unclear what the Cavs must do to earn at large berth, but a deep run in the SAC Tournament could only bolster the team's chances. In a pair of wins over Queens this season, Ross was an offensive juggernaut. In Wise, the guard scored 12 points in just 19 minutes of play in a 40-point win for her club. Later in the year, she netted 28 points and grabbed eight rebounds while playing all 40 minutes in a 12-point win in Charlotte. Sharing the basketball has played a big role in the Cavs' success this season. Entering the league tournament, the team ranks second in NCAA Division II in assists per game at 18.8 a contest. Leading the charge is Ross who is fourth nationally at 6.9 assists per game. The winner of Saturday's contest will play the winner of the Mars Hill and Anderson game. If UVA Wise is victorious the game will be played in Wise on Monday; a Queens victory would send the Royals back on the road to face either Mars Hill or Anderson.