NEW ORLEANS — Women's basketball city rivals will meet for a third time this season when top-seeded Xavier University of Louisiana meets SUNO at 5 p.m. EST Friday in the opening round of the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference Tournament at Jacksonville, Fla.
     The GCAC announced pairings, venues and times late Tuesday. Top-seeded XULA (23-6) and eighth-seeded SUNO (6-22) will play in the Adams-Jenkins Sports and Music Complex (1859 Kings Road, zip code 32209) at Edward Waters College.
     XULA clinched a tie for the GCAC regular-season championship with a 55-54 home victory last week against SUNO, then won it outright Monday with a 66-57 home victory against Philander Smith. The championship is the Gold Nuggets' 30th of the Title IX era and their first in the GCAC regular season since 2012-13.
     "We've really been a work in progress the whole year," 20th-year head coach Bo Browder said. "I felt like we had a good team on opening night, and it looked like our chemistry kept getting better as the season went along. I think we surprised a lot of people, but we're not surprised because we knew about the kind of team we would have if we worked hard and played together."
     Although SUNO finished 12 games behind XULA in the regular-season standings, the Gold Nuggets needed fourth-quarter rallies to beat the Lady Knights twice this year. In addition to last week's one-point decision, XULA won 45-40 at SUNO Jan. 28.
     Jas Hill, a 5-foot-7 junior guard/forward from Mobile, Ala., leads the Gold Nuggets in scoring with 15.0 points per game. Essence Wells (5-10 junior guard, Irving, Texas) averages 8.8 points, and Kyla Duncan (5-10 freshman forward, Metairie, La.) averages 6.6. Mikayla Bates (5-7 senior guard, Baton Rouge, La.) leads the Nuggets with 5.4 rebounds per game and 51 steals.
     The Gold Nuggets have made 186 3-pointers, breaking the school season record of 167 set in 2003-04 and tied in 2011-12.
     The XULA-SUNO winner will meet fourth-seeded Edward Waters or fifth-seeded Philander Smith in the semifinals at 5 p.m. EST Saturday. The championship game will tip off at 2 p.m. EST Sunday. The tournament champion will receive the GCAC's automatic bid to the NAIA Division I National Championship March 13-19 at Billings, Mont.