ACC women’s basketball tournament set for Conway, S.C.

The 2017 ACC Women’s Basketball tournament will be played at the HTC Center at Coastal Carolina University in Conway, S.C., from March 1-5.

The tournament was moved from Greensboro in September, two days after the NCAA pulled its championships out of North Carolina because of House Bill 2, when the ACC announced it would move the 10 neutral-site championships it had scheduled in the state during the 2016-17 academic year.

In addition to basketball, the other ACC championships that were relocated were football, women’s soccer, men’s and women’s swimming and diving, men’s and women’s tennis, women’s golf, men’s golf and baseball.

Three of those had been scheduled for venues in the Triangle: the women’s soccer championship and mens’ and women’s tennis championships in Cary, and the baseball tournament at Durham Bulls Athletic Park.

The law, which Gov. Pat McCrory signed last March, limits anti-discriminatory protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. A more publicized part of the law stipulates which bathrooms transgender people can use. On state property, the law mandates that people use the bathroom for the gender specified on their birth certificate.

Critics of HB2, which has become a central focus of a fierce gubernatorial race between McCrory and Democratic challenger Roy Cooper, say it’s discriminatory. Proponents of HB2 say it protects bathroom privacy.

The ACC Women’s Basketball tournament opens with three first-round games on Wednesday, March 1, and concludes with the championship game on Sunday, March 5.

This story was originally published October 12, 2016 at 10:40 AM with the headline "ACC women’s basketball tournament set for Conway, S.C.."