Thousands of college basketball fans will be heading for central Iowa next month as Des Moines is one of the hosts of the regional N-C-double-A women’s tournament. Chris Connolly, general manager of the Iowa Events Center, says they’re still calculating the projected economic impact of bringing March Madness to the capitol city. “The event itself is absolutely huge,” Connolly says. “As far as predicting the number of people coming through, it’s really hard to predict at this time because we won’t know what teams will play here. We do know, the caliber of teams coming in will be phenomenal and that’s a great selling point.” The three other cities hosting regional tournaments are: Fresno, California; Kingston, Rhode Island; and Raleigh, North Carolina. Des Moines’ Wells Fargo Arena hosted the the first- and second-round games of the N-C-A-A women’s tourney in 2008 and had the highest attendance out of all eight sites. This time around, it’ll be the Sweet 16 and Final Eight rounds being held in central Iowa.

“Some of the likely teams that will be here in Des Moines, those folks travel, your Tennessees, your Yukons, your Baylors, even Notre Dame isn’t too far away,” Connolly says. “The economic impact will be huge. We’ll have people coming in from out of town, buying tickets, staying in the hotels, eating in our restaurants, it’ll be huge.” Pairings will be announced on March 12th and the games in Des Moines are scheduled for March 24th and 26th. “For the two sessions, which would actually be three games, the ticket packages are $45 for seats on the sides and $25 for seats in the end zones,” Connolly says. “That’s a great deal for three games of that caliber.” The regional champion will advance to the Final Four to be held in Denver, Colorado.

(by Matt Kelley/Radio Iowa)

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Darius Theus scored his only three field goals of the game in the final 4:45 Friday night, and Virginia Commonwealth held on to beat Northern Iowa 77-68. The Panthers (17-12), trying to bounce back from a 63-62 loss to Evansville earlier in the week, got 18 points from Deon Mitchell and 10 from Anthony James. They lost despite shooting 55.6 percent overall (25 of 45) and hitting 9 of 17 3-point shots. VCU was almost as good from deep, hitting 8 of 21 in Richmond.

BOYS BASKETBALL
South Sioux City, Neb. 76, Sergeant Bluff-Luton 42

GIRLS BASKETBALL

Class 1A Regional Semifinals
Bedford 72, Murray 28
Martensdale-St. Marys 36, Coon Rapids-Bayard 33
Corning 58, Tabor Fremont-Mills 39
Westside Ar-We-Va 80, Oakland Riverside 34

Class 2A Regional Semifinals
Hull Western Christian 74, Sioux Center 48
Kuemper Catholic, Carroll 75, Cherokee, Washington 60
IKM-Manning 81, Des Moines Christian 66
Panora Panorama 48, Leon Central Decatur 43
Lawton-Bronson 75, Missouri Valley 43
OA-BCIG 94, Shenandoah 43