The Valdosta State women’s basketball team will face No. 1 seed Rollins College tonight at 7 p.m. in the South Region championship game. The game will be played at Rollins’ Warden Arena in Winter Park, Fla.

For fans interested in attending the game, the Valdosta State Athletic Department will be providing bus transportation to the event. The bus is scheduled to leave Valdosta at 2 p.m. and the cost is $10, along with the $10 admission to the game. Reservations for the bus are on a first-come, first-serve basis and can be made by contacting the athletic department at 333-5890.

The Lady Blazers enter tonight’s championship game having played three of their more impressive half’s of the season; overcoming a 10-point deficit to Fort Valley State Friday afternoon and beating Florida Southern Saturday night.

Rollins has been stellar in its two games of the tournament, defeating West Alabama (71-44) and Delta State (69-59). The Tars are 8-2 across the past 10 games, and are 26-5 on the season. Despite the success this season, Rollins is aware that tonight’s matchup with VSU will not be easy.

After all, of the seven other teams that made up the South Region tournament, the Lady Blazers have beaten five of them — Delta State, Alabama-Huntsville, West Alabama, Fort Valley State and Florida Southern. The Lady Blazers have an opportunity to beat Rollins tonight, which will earn them a region championship and an appearance in the Division II Elite Eight in San Antonio, Texas next weekend.

“Kiley’s teams have always been known for being very tough, very good defenders, very good rebounders, fundamentally sound,” said Rollins head coach Glenn Wilkes Jr., following his team’s victory over Delta State Saturday night. “My goodness, he wins 20 games every year. I know they’ll be very well prepared, and we have a tremendous amount of respect for them. For them to come in here and beat a really good, solid Florida Southern team, they’ve got to be for real. No doubt, we know we’ve got our work cut out for us.”

VSU’s big three — Sczeny Hartry, Brittany Ferguson and Brittney Nelson — have carried the team throughout the tournament. The three combined for 51 of the team’s 59 points against Fort Valley State and 43 of the team’s 67 points against Florida Southern. Nelson has posted a double-double in both victories, making her presence known on the glass.

For Hartry and Ferguson, a victory tonight would extend their senior seasons, something both players want to keep going.

“I really can’t explain (how much this means to me),” Hartry said after Saturday’s win. “I’ve never experienced anything like this, as far as this team, our chemistry, the coaching staff. It seems like everybody’s all in, willing to do what it takes for us to get as far as we can. And we’ve been playing amazing. I’m not ready to stop playing.”

“Any chance in life, I think, you get an opportunity to make the kind of friends I’ve made this year, and over the last two years, and being able to do something that I love — basketball — it’s just been a tremendous ride,” Ferguson said. “And like (Sczeny) said, I don’t want it to stop any time soon”

For Nelson, she becomes the second member of her family to appear in a region championship game while wearing a VSU uniform. Her brother, Ryan Nelson, was a member of the men’s basketball team that claimed the South Region championship in 2010.

As for the women, tonight’s appearance in the championship game is the first since 20008, when the Lady Blazers fell to Delta State.

Tonight’s game will be carried on 92.1 FM, 1150 AM and 96.1 FM. A live webcast will be made available, free of charge, through the Rollins athletic website (Rollinssports.com).