By Kalle Oakes,Staff Writer

LEWISTON – NCAA Division III women’s basketball selections are in, and so is Bates College.

D3hoops.com reported late Sunday night that Bates will be one of the at-large entrants in the 63-team field for the national tournament, which begins with first-round games Wednesday at campus sites throughout the country.

Maine Maritime Academy also will receive an at-large berth, according to the online report. That would make five Maine schools in the field, joining automatic qualifiers University of Southern Maine, Bowdoin College and the University of Maine at Farmington.

Brackets and possible first-round byes will not be known until today. The NCAA is expected to release pairings after 8 a.m.

Bates’ status was uncertain following its 68-58 home loss to Bowdoin in the New England Small College Athletic Conference championship game Sunday.

The defeat was Bates’ eighth of the winter.

The Bobcats dropped only three games after Dec. 22, however. They also may have benefited from their location in one of the country’s toughest regions. Bates played top-five Bowdoin three times, winning at home in January.

Bates also lost at No. 1 Southern Maine in November, when they were without starters Meg Coffin and Matia Kostakis due to injury. And the Bobcats were regular-season NESCAC champions by virtue of a tie-breaker over Bowdoin.

USM and Bates met in the round of 16 at Gorham last March, with the Huskies prevailing in overtime.