The Big South basketball season has reached its climactic conclusion. The conference tournaments tip-off on March 5 and run until March 9. High Point holds the No. 1 seed in men’s and women’s basketball, while Asheville and Winthrop hold the second and third-place spots. On the women’s side, Longwood and Radford make up the rest of the top three.
The Men’s Bracket
The first men’s game is the play-in round between the eighth and ninth seeds. Gardner-Webb will take on USC Upstate and the winner will get High Point in the quarterfinals. The quarterfinals occur on March 7, with High Point the heavy favorites to beat the winner of the first game. Radford will face Presbyterian in the fourth and fifth places. Second-seeded UNC Asheville will face seventh-seeded Charleston Southern and Big South Player of the Year Taje’ Kelly. The final first-round game will be third-place Winthrop against sixth-place Longwood. The semifinals will take place on Saturday, with the final at noon ET Sunday.
The Favorite: High Point
High Point once sat at a 3-2 conference record after dropping a road game to Longwood. That fact seems a distant memory as the Panthers have rolled their way through the rest of the season and now sit with a 14-2 record. Alan Huss was named coach of the year in the conference, with center Juslin Bodo Bodo named defensive player of the year. High Point, like last year, is the heavy favorite to cut down the nets, and they’ll be doing whatever they can to make sure this is the year it punches the ticket to March Madness.
Men’s players to watch:
Taje’ Kelly, Charleston Southern, Senior: Kelly has been at Charleston Southern for four seasons and has excelled in every single one of them. This season has been especially outstanding, as the 6-foot-7 forward averaged 22.5 points and almost 10 rebounds per game in conference play. Though he is a physical mismatch inside, Kelly has a good three-point shot and can play on the perimeter if needed.
Jordan Marsh, UNC Asheville, Sophomore: Marsh was the Big South Newcomer of the Year award winner in a very unsurprising turn of events. He led the entire conference in points per game at just over 23. Though this was his first year in the Big South, Marsh looked right at home in Asheville as the Bulldogs grabbed the second seed in the tournament.
Kezza Giffa, High Point, Senior: Giffa earned preseason player of the year back in October and made the all-conference first team at the end of the season with relative ease. The Paris-born guard averaged 15 points per game in Big South play and was, as expected, instrumental in their second-consecutive regular season crown.
The Women’s Bracket
High Point and Longwood raced neck and neck throughout the season for the regular-season title. The Panthers of High Point ended up with the number one seed and are facing the winner of eight-seeded Presbyterian vs. ninth-seeded UNC Asheville. Fourth-seeded Charleston Southern faced fifth Winthrop. Second-seeded Longwood faces who they played on March 1, seventh-seeded USC Upstate, while Radford rounds out the quarterfinals by playing sixth-seeded Gardner-Webb.
The Favorites: High Point, Longwood
High Point and Longwood split their season series in 2025, with both teams winning on the road. Longwood’s Kiki McIntyre, who leads the entire country in steals, was the conference’s defensive player of the year. High Point finished the Big South regular season with a 13-3 record. Neveah Zavala, who averaged 11 points per game this season had a 33-point performance in a loss to Longwood.
Women’s players to watch
Ashley Hawkins, Gardner-Webb, Senior: Hawkins lived up to the hype she received in the preseason, as she was named player of the year in the Big South. Hawkins averaged 19 points per game in 2024-25, including a 47-point outing in the non-conference slate against Queens. She scored 76 points in the final three games of the season.
Kiki McIntyre, Longwood, Graduate Student: McIntyre leads the entire country in steals in a Longwood team that is also one of the best turnover-forcing teams in the country. Under the leadership of Big South Coach of the Year Erika Lang-Montgomery, McIntyre averaged four steals a game, including recording 10 steals in the conference opener against Presbyterian. McIntyre was named Big South Defensive Player of the Year.
Neveah Zavala, High Point, Junior: Zavala and High Point dominated the second half of Big South play this season. Zavala has shot 48% from the field this season and scored over 15 points on eight occasions. She also averaged 5.4 rebounds per game on her way to being named on the all-conference first team.
