1981 SEC women's basketball tournament
American college basketball midseason tournament
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The 1981 Southeastern Conference women's basketball tournament was the postseason women's basketball tournament for the Southeastern Conference (SEC) held at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, from January 29 – February 1, 1981. The Auburn Tigers won the tournament by beating their rivals, the Alabama Crimson Tide in the championship game, however [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19]
| 1981 SEC women's basketball tournament | |
|---|---|
| Classification | Division I |
| Teams | 10 |
| Site | Pete Maravich Assembly Center Baton Rouge, LA |
| Champions | Auburn (1st title) |
| Winning coach | Joe Ciampi (1st title) |
| MVP | Becky Jackson (Auburn) |
| Attendance | 1,600 |
Notably, women’s basketball was not officially sponsored by the SEC until the 1982-83 season.[20] Also, the winner did not earn an automatic bid to the 1981 AIAW National Division I Basketball Championship.[21]
Seeds
All teams in the conference participated in the tournament. All teams were seeded by a vote of the 10 SEC coaches on Jan. 22. The criteria used for balloting included SEC competition, the difficulty of schedule, the won-lost record and statistical information throughout the season. Each coach could not vote for his or her team.[22]
| Seed | School | Overall Record |
Conference Record |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tennessee‡† | 25–6 | 3–0 |
| 2 | Kentucky† | 25–6 | 0–0 |
| 3 | Auburn† | 26–7 | 4–2 |
| 4 | Ole Miss† | 14–12 | 2–1 |
| 5 | Georgia† | 27–10 | 1–2 |
| 6 | LSU† | 17–15 | 1–3 |
| 7 | Mississippi State | 17–12 | 3–1 |
| 8 | Alabama | 21–12 | 3–2 |
| 9 | Vanderbilt | 12–16 | 2–2 |
| 10 | Florida | 11–17 | 0–6 |
| ‡ – SEC tournament No. 1 seed. † – Received a bye in the conference tournament. | |||
Schedule
| Game | Matchup# | Score |
|---|---|---|
| First Round – Thurs, Jan 29 | ||
| 1 | No. 8 Alabama vs. No. 10 Florida |
67–54 |
| 2 | No. 7 Mississippi State vs. No. 9 Vanderbilt |
84–76 |
| Quarterfinal – Fri, Jan 30 | ||
| 3 | No. 1 Tennessee vs. No. 8 Alabama |
71–77 |
| 4 | No. 2 Kentucky vs. No. 7 Mississippi State |
106–82 |
| 5 | No. 3 Auburn vs. No. 6 LSU |
73–71 |
| 6 | No. 4 Ole Miss vs. No. 5 Georgia |
68–75 |
| Semifinal – Sat, Jan 31 | ||
| 7 | No. 8 Alabama vs. No. 5 Georgia |
80–66 |
| 8 | No. 2 Kentucky vs. No. 3 Auburn |
66–70 |
| Championship – Sun, Feb 1 | ||
| 9 | No. 8 Alabama vs. No. 3 Auburn |
50–61 |
| # – Rankings denote tournament seed | ||
Bracket
| First round Thurs, Jan 29 | Quarterfinals Fri, Jan 30 | Semifinals Sat, Jan 31 | Championship Sun, Feb 1 | ||||||||||||||||
| 1 | Tennessee | 71 | |||||||||||||||||
| 8 | Alabama | 77 | |||||||||||||||||
| 8 | Alabama | 67 | |||||||||||||||||
| 10 | Florida | 54 | |||||||||||||||||
| 8 | Alabama | 80 | |||||||||||||||||
| 5 | Georgia | 66 | |||||||||||||||||
| 4 | Ole Miss | 68 | |||||||||||||||||
| 5 | Georgia | 75 | |||||||||||||||||
| 8 | Alabama | 50 | |||||||||||||||||
| 3 | Auburn | 61 | |||||||||||||||||
| 2 | Kentucky | 106 | |||||||||||||||||
| 7 | Mississippi State | 82 | |||||||||||||||||
| 7 | Mississippi State | 84 | |||||||||||||||||
| 9 | Vanderbilt | 76 | |||||||||||||||||
| 2 | Kentucky | 66 | |||||||||||||||||
| 3 | Auburn | 70 | |||||||||||||||||
| Third place | |||||||||||||||||||
| 3 | Auburn* | 73 | 2 | Kentucky | 62 | ||||||||||||||
| 6 | LSU | 71 | 5 | Georgia | 73 | ||||||||||||||
Asterisk denotes game ended in overtime.
All-Tournament team
- Mary Beasly, Alabama
- Leslie Payne, Alabama
- Becky Jackson, Auburn (MVP)
- Angie Hannah, Auburn
- Valerie Still, Kentucky