ELKHART – Former Elkhart Memorial basketball star Akyah Taylor will be in the Big Dance starting today.

Taylor and her Michigan State women’s basketball team are set to open play in the NCAA Tournament versus Belmont. The Spartans (24-8) will face Belmont (24-8) at noon today in a first-round game at Mississippi State University. The game will be televised by ESPN2.

The Spartans lost a 60-44 final to Maryland in the championship game of the Big Ten Tournament to end their regular season.

Taylor, a 5-11 forward, has started 21 games this season. She is averaging 4.7 points and 4.8 rebounds per game. Taylor also has 47 assists, 18 steals and 10 blocked shots and has drawn a team-high 30 charges on defense.

Taylor led Elkhart Memorial to an 89-14 mark during her outstanding four-year high school career. She ranks first in school history with 1,719 points and helped coach Larry Fielstra’s program win three Northern Lakes Conference championships and four Class 4-A sectional titles. Taylor led the Crimson Chargers to a 23-2 mark her senior season in 2010-11 and was an Indiana All-Star that year.

Taylor is a graduate student at MSU. She began her collegiate career in East Lansing, where she was redshirted in 2011-12. Taylor then played at the University of St. Francis in Fort Wayne from 2013-2015 before returning to the MSU program.

Taylor was given a pair of awards at the team’s recent program. She earned the Spartan Hustle Award and the Defensive Player of the Year Award for coach Suzy Merchant’s team.

The winner of the Michigan State-Belmont game will face either Mississippi State (26-7) or Chattanooga (24-7) in a second-round game on Sunday.