Becky Babione goes up for a layup during SSU's shootaround Friday morning. Babione went through a full practice yesterday and could be the x-factor for the Bears in today's game.

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It’s 9:15 a.m. here in Sioux City and the Bears are on the court having a shootaround at halftime of the Cornerstone (Mich.) and Concordia (Neb.) contest.The Golden Eagles and Bulldogs are tied at 36 each. These teams are playing for the right to face off with the Shawnee State/Hastings (Neb.) winner Tomorrow at 1 p.m. (2 p.m. EST).The Bears arrived at the Tyson Events Center at 8:30 a.m. local time and have been taking in the action from the stands before coming out to shootaround.Subplots galore exist for the 10:15 (11:15 EST) battle between SSU and Hastings. The Lady Broncos have won three national championships since 2002. Their coach, Jeff Dittman, was in charge at Dakota State when they knocked off SSU in the first round of the 2006 national tournament.It will be an interesting contrast of power vs. speed in the battle between the Lady Broncos and the Bears. Both coaches have talked about the different styles of their post play, and tempo could be a huge factor in today’s game.Health has been a concern for the Bears with AMC Player of the Year Becky Babione being severely limited in practice the last week with illness and a pair of players going down with minor injuries yesterday.With Hastings’ post players liking to patrol the lane and leave the mid-to-long range shots open, Babione, Jill Cropper, and Alison Meyer could get looks at open jumpers.Everyone is in uniform and ready to play today, hoping to get Shawnee State out of the second round since 2001.An interesting note: the first round opponent when SSU last moved into the national quarterfinals: Florida Memorial, the same team the Bears defeated Wednesday afternoon.Stay tuned for postgame updates and stay with the Portsmouth Daily Times as we keep you up to date from Sioux City.