Northeast Conference women's basketball tournament

The Northeast Conference women's basketball tournament is the conference championship tournament in women's basketball for the Northeast Conference. It is a single-elimination tournament that in its most recent 2024 edition involved 8 of the 9 then-current league schools, and seeding is based on regular-season records with head-to-head match-up as a tie-breaker.[1] While the NEC lost two members after the 2023–24 season, with Merrimack and Sacred Heart leaving for the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, it gained two members at the same time with the impending addition of Chicago State and Mercyhurst.

Northeast Conference women's basketball tournament
Conference basketball championship
SportBasketball
ConferenceNortheast Conference
Number of teams8
FormatSingle-elimination tournament
Played1986–present
Last contest2024
Current championSacred Heart
Most championshipsSaint Francis (PA) (12)
Official websiteNortheast Conference Basketball
Host locations
Campus sites (1987–present)

The tournament has been held since 1986, although the winner has only received the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA women's basketball tournament since 1994.[2] Between the 1987 and 1988, when the NEC was still called the ECAC Metro Conference, the tournament was known as the ECAC Metro Conference women's basketball tournament.

The highest seeds face off against the corresponding lowest seeds, with the two remaining teams facing off in the Finals to determine the champion.

Saint Francis has the most championships with 12. The next three schools in this category—Robert Morris (8), Mount St. Mary's, and Sacred Heart (5 each)—left the NEC between 2020 and 2024. No other program that will be an NEC member in the 2024–25 season has more than two.

Results

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Year Champions Score Runner-Up Venue
1987 Monmouth (1) 92–65 Fairleigh Dickinson West Long Branch, NJ
1988 Robert Morris (1) 63–60 Monmouth
1989 Wagner (1) 66–60 Robert Morris Staten Island, NY
1990 Fairleigh Dickinson (1) 70–65 Mount St. Mary's Emmitsburg, MD
1991 Robert Morris (2) 69–61 Wagner
1992 Fairleigh Dickinson (2) 78–55 Mount St. Mary's
1993 Mount St. Mary's (1) 82–61 Marist Teaneck, NJ
1994 Mount St. Mary's (2) 78–67 Saint Francis (PA) Emmitsburg, MD
1995 Mount St. Mary's (3) 80–61 Saint Francis (PA)
1996 Saint Francis (PA) (1) 83–75 Mount St. Mary's
1997 Saint Francis (PA) (2) 54–42 Monmouth Loretto, PA
1998 Saint Francis (PA) (3) 74–49 Wagner
1999 Saint Francis (PA) (4) 88–76 Monmouth Staten Island, NY
2000 Saint Francis (PA) (5) 74–60 Wagner Trenton, NJ
2001 Long Island (1) 70–61 Mount St. Mary's
2002 Saint Francis (PA) (6) 74–54 Long Island Loretto, PA
2003 Saint Francis (PA) (7) 58–41 UMBC
2004 Saint Francis (PA) (8) 70–55 Monmouth
2005 Saint Francis (PA) (9) 65–50 Robert Morris
2006 Sacred Heart (1) 69–65 Quinnipiac Fairfield, CT
2007 Robert Morris (3) 68–66 Sacred Heart
2008 Robert Morris (4) 86–75 Long Island Moon Township, PA
2009 Sacred Heart (2) 74–66 Saint Francis (PA) Fairfield, CT
2010 Saint Francis (PA) (10) 77–68 Long Island Brooklyn, NY
2011 Saint Francis (PA) (11) 72–57 Monmouth Loretto, PA
2012 Sacred Heart (3) 58–48 Monmouth Fairfield, CT
2013 Quinnipiac (1) 72–33 Saint Francis (PA) Hampden, CT
2014 Robert Morris (5) 78–64 Saint Francis (PA) Moon Township, PA
2015 St. Francis Brooklyn (1) 77–62 Robert Morris
2016 Robert Morris (6) 56–51 Sacred Heart Fairfield, CT
2017 Robert Morris (7) 65–52 Bryant Moon Township, PA
2018 Saint Francis (PA) (12) 66–56 Robert Morris Loretto, PA
2019 Robert Morris (8) 65–54 Saint Francis (PA) Moon Township, PA
2020 Canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic
2021 Mount St. Mary's (4) 70–38 Wagner Emmitsburg, MD
2022 Mount St. Mary's (5) 60–42 Bryant
2023 Sacred Heart (4) 72–60 Fairleigh Dickinson Hackensack, NJ
2024 Sacred Heart (5) 69–48 Le Moyne Fairfield, CT

Champions

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School Titles Years
Saint Francis (PA) 12 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2010, 2011, 2018
Robert Morris 8 1988, 1991, 2007, 2008, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2019
Mount St. Mary's 5 1993, 1994, 1995, 2021, 2022
Sacred Heart 5 2006, 2009, 2012, 2023, 2024
Fairleigh Dickinson 2 1990, 1992
St. Francis Brooklyn 1 2015
Wagner 1 1989
LIU 1 2001
Monmouth 1 1987
Quinnipiac 1 2013
  • Before the 2019–20 season, each of Long Island University's two main campuses (Brooklyn and Post) operated separate athletic programs, with only the Brooklyn campus (most recently branded athletically as LIU Brooklyn) being an NEC member. The merged LIU program inherited Brooklyn's NEC and Division I memberships, and also inherited the athletic history of the Brooklyn campus in all sports sponsored by that campus before the athletic merger.
  • Central Connecticut, Le Moyne, and Stonehill have not yet won an NEC tournament. Chicago State and Mercyhurst will play their first NEC seasons in 2024–25.
  • Bryant, Loyola Maryland, Marist, Merrimack, Rider, and UMBC never won the tournament as NEC members.
  • Schools highlighted in pink are former members of the NEC as of the next 2024–25 season.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "NEC Women's Basketball History".
  2. ^ "Northeast Conference WBB Record Book" (PDF). northeastconference.com. Northeast Conference. Retrieved 20 February 2023.