INDIANAPOLIS – The Atlantic Region’s road to this season’s NCAA Division II Elite Eight men’s basketball championship tournament in Springfield, Mass. will run through the campus of West Liberty University.
The NCAA announced Sunday night that Coach Jim Crutchfield’s unbeaten and No. 1-ranked Hilltoppers (29-0) had been selected as the top seed and host for the 8-team regional event, which will tip off with four quarterfinal games at the ASRC on Saturday. The semifinals are set for Sunday night with the Atlantic Region championship game scheduled for Tuesday, March 15.
West Liberty, fresh off its 94-78 romp past West Virginia State in Saturday’s WVIAC Tournament title tilt, will take on No. 8 seed Slippery Rock (21-10) in a regional quarterfinal. The Rock squeezed into the field by making a run to the PSAC Tournament championship game before falling to Indiana, Pa.
Shaw, N.C. (22-8) earned the No. 4 seed as the CIAA Tournament champion and will play CIAA member Winston-Salem State, N.C. (19-7), which is seeded No. 5 despite being upset by Fayetteville State in the CIAA Tournament quarterfinals.
The Shaw/Winston-Salem winner will meet the winner of the West Liberty/Slippery Rock quarterfinal in Sunday’s regional semifinal.
The other bracket finds defending regional champion Indiana, Pa. (24-5) holding down the No. 2 seed after its win against Slippery Rock in Saturday night’s PSAC Tournament final. The Crimson Hawks will face No. 7 seed West Virginia Wesleyan (19-10), which defeated IUP during the regular season.
The other side of the lower bracket sends No. 3 seed Bowie State, Md. (22-5) against No. 6 seed Mansfield, Pa. (18-9) in a matchup of two teams looking to rebound from disappointing quarterfinal round upsets in their respective conference tournaments.
The West Liberty University athletic department will announce tipoff times for all games and complete tournament ticket information on Monday.
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