Two local student-athletes heading to the NCAA Tournament

ROCKFORD, Ill. (WIFR) - Boylan grad Peyton Kennedy and Hononegah grad Jordan King are heading to “The Big Dance”.

Kennedy helped the St. Louis Billikens to the program’s first appearance in the NCAA Tournament after earning the automatic bid in the Atlantic-10 Conference. They are the #13 seed in the Greenville Regional and they will face the #4 Tennessee Lady Volunteers on Saturday March 18.

This season, the junior’s played in 33 games for the Billikens, with three starts. She’s also averaging 9.8 points per game. In St. Louis’ 91-85 overtime win in the Atlantic-10 championship game over UMass, Kennedy tallied 15 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists and two steals in 40 minutes played.

The Billikens come into the tournament after beating UMass, the top seed in the conference, in the A-10 Championship. St. Louis was the #3 seed in last week’s tournament.

King and the Marquette Golden Eagles earned an at-large bid from the Big-East Conference. They will play in the Seattle Regional as the #9 seed. They will face the #8 USF Bulls on Friday, March 17.

The Rockton native was unanimously selected to the All-Big-East First Team earlier this month. In her senior season, King’s averaging 16.3 points per game and has the 5th most assists per game in the conference with 3.9. King also leads the team in three-point percentage (37.5%) and steals per game (1.9) at the time of her selection.

Marquette comes into the tournament after losing in the Big-East semifinals to #9 UConn and post a 21-10 overall record, 13-7 in conference play.

The NCAA Committee moved from four regionals to two regionals this season. They will be in Greenville and Seattle.

The last four team’s standing in this year’s bracket will head to Dallas, Tx. for the Final Four.