The women’s basketball team at Saint Joseph’s College of Standish became a “victim” of Monday’s late-winter snowstorm when the Monks were unable to depart on their trip to the NAIA Division II National Tournament in Sioux City, Iowa.

Coach Mike McDevitt’s team was forced by the weather to reschedule its flights and reschedule its departure for early Wednesday and thus had its game postponed until Thursday at 3:15 p.m.

St. Joseph’s, the Maine Athletic Conference champion, takes a 22-4 record and a five-game winning streak into the contest against seventh-seeded Bethel College of Mishawaka, Ind., which boasts a 27-7 mark.

Saint Joseph’s is making its second straight trip to the NAIA nationals. It is the Monks’ ninth appearance overall.

The Monks take a fair amount of experience into the tournament, but likely will have their hands full against the Pilots, who were ranked No. 9 in the final NAIA Division II regular-season national poll.

MAC Player of the Year Stacey Gelinas of Biddeford, a junior guard, leads Saint Joseph’s with 13.8 points per game. However, the Monks have good balance with junior guard Sue Picard of Saco and senior guard Carolyn Brown of Auburn, both All-MAC selections, contributing 12.4 and 11.6 points per game, respectively.

Brown is among the nation’s leaders in free-throw percentage at .889.

Other key contributors for the Monks include senior forward Kendra Brown of Milford and senior forward Cassie Turcotte.

The Monks’ potent offense is averaging 77.5 points per game and they boast an impressive margin of victory of 17.7 points per game, which ranks seventh in the country.

Bethel finished as the runner-up in the Mid-Central College Conference, but was awarded one of 16 seeds in the tournament. Three of the Pilots’ losses were at the hands of other teams in the 32-team field.

Bethel’s plan of attack appears to revolve around 3-point shots. The Pilots have jacked up 658 3-pointers this season (19.4 per game) and have converted on 34 percent.

Bethel is paced by 6-foot senior center A.J. Whitehead, the MCCC Player of the Year and an All-American, along with Rookie of the Year Kelly Schoon and all-league pick Marissa Cook.

Whitehead is averaging 15.7 points and 8.4 rebounds. Schoon checks in at 7.5 points and 5.3 rebounds, while Cook is ninth in the nation with 5.9 assists per outing.

Bethel averages 72.5 points per game and have a 13.1-point average margin of victory. The Pilots are making their first trip to the national tournament.

High-tech selections

The selection committee for the NCAA women’s basketball tournament has gone high-tech.

With more televised games, committee members can watch more teams before picking the field. The result should be a more objective selection process, according to Maryalyce Jeremiah, who chairs the committee.

“Every member has a satellite system,” Jeremiah said Tuesday. “It gives us access to 35 or 40 sports channels. That has helped and the more [games] we get on, the better that will be.”

Committee members also attend games, but the time to do that is limited because of their full-time jobs. Television allows committee members to better evaluate a team’s potential.

Throw in all the power rankings, regional rankings and conference rankings that the committee uses and Jeremiah feels the process is as objective as it can be.

Jeremiah said the committee would like to see more NCAA tournament games televised and hopes that will be an important point in negotiating a new television contract.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.