For the fourth-straight season, the Tompkins Cortland Community College women's basketball program has qualified for the Mid-state Athletic Conference postseason tournament. The Panthers qualified by finishing the regular season in third place in the conference with an MSAC record of 7-5. The Panthers will play #2-seed Jefferson Community College in the conference semifinal Saturday at 2 p.m. The tournament is hosted by top-seed Onondaga Community College. Onondaga will play #4-seed Corning Community College in the other semifinal game Saturday. The championship game will be Sunday at noon at Onondaga.
After losing both conference games played before the winter break, the Panthers went 7-3 this semester to finish 7-5 in the MSAC. Jefferson went 9-3 in conference play, including winning both of the two regular season games with Tompkins Cortland. Jefferson won 74-65 earlier this week in Watertown, and the Cannoneers beat the Panthers 73-53 in Dryden last semester. In both games, Jefferson jumped ahead early and the Panthers weren't able to recover.
The current string of four straight MSAC playoff appearances is the longest in Panthers basketball history. Last year the team was the #3 seed and upset #2 Onondaga in the semifinals to advance to the conference championship game for the first time. The Panthers came up just short of winning the MSAC last year, losing 64-61 in the championship game against top-seed Finger Lakes Community College.