The 2024 Northeast Conference Women's Basketball Tournament was the postseason women's basketball tournament for the Northeast Conference (NEC) for the 2023–24 NCAA Division I women's basketball season. The tournament began on March 11, 2024 with first-round games, followed by semifinals on March 14 and the final on March 17, with all tournament games being played in the home arenas of the higher-seeded school. Regular-season NEC champion Sacred Heart won the tournament, receiving the conference's automatic bid to the 2024 NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament. The championship game was also Sacred Heart's last in NEC play, as the university will join the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference in July 2024.
Seeds The top eight teams in the conference regular-season standings qualified. Effective with the 2023–24 academic year, NEC teams transitioning from Division II are eligible for the NEC tournament during the entirety of their transition periods. If a reclassifying institution wins the NEC tournament championship, the tournament runner-up will be awarded the NEC's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. If two reclassifying teams reach the final of the NEC tournament, the conference will stage an automatic qualifier game between the two non-advancing semifinalists. Previously, transitioning NEC teams were eligible for the conference tournament only during their third and fourth transition years. The rule change results in Stonehill and Le Moyne being eligible for the 2024 NEC tournament, since Stonehill is in its second transition year, and Le Moyne is in its first.
Teams were seeded by record within the conference, with a tiebreaker system to seed teams with identical conference records.
SeedSchoolConf.TiebreakerNotes1Sacred Heart 15–12Le Moyne 14–23Fairleigh Dickinson11–54Merrimack8–85Central Connecticut7–96LIU5–117Stonehill4–12 3–1 vs. Saint Francis/Wagner8 Saint Francis4–12 2–2 vs. Stonehill/WagnerDNQ Wagner4–12 1–3 vs. Stonehill/Saint Francis
Schedule GameTime*MatchupScoreTelevisionQuarterfinals – Monday, March 1117:00 pmNo. 8 Saint Francis at No. 1 Sacred Heart48–78NEC Front Row27:00 pmNo. 7 Stonehill at No. 2 Le Moyne59–7937:00 pmNo. 6 LIU at No. 3 Fairleigh Dickinson59–7147:00 pmNo. 5 Central Connecticut at No. 4 Merrimack51–76Semifinals – Thursday, March 1457:00 pmNo. 4 Merrimack at No. 1 Sacred Heart41–73YES, ESPN+67:00 pmNo. 3 Fairleigh Dickinson at No. 2 Le Moyne38–52Championship – Sunday, March 17712:00 pmNo. 2 Le Moyne at No. 1 Sacred Heart48–69ESPNU*Game times in ET. Rankings denote tournament seed
Tournament notes Quarterfinals
Semifinals
Final
Bracket Teams will be reseeded after each round with highest remaining seeds receiving home-court advantage.
Awards and honors Tournament MVP:
First Team
References