SAC Men’s Basketball Tournament Field Set; Anderson Lands Top Seed
ROCK HILL, S.C. (TheSAC.com) – The Anderson Trojans earned the SAC Regular Season title and locked up the No. 1 seed in next week's SAC Men's Basketball Tournament, hosted at the Rock Hill Sports & Event Center.
The No. 1 and No. 2 seeds will play on Wednesday and earn a day of rest should they advance. The semifinals will take place Friday, meaning the No. 3 and No. 4 seeds will play Thursday and would have to compete three straight days to try to win a championship.
This is the second league crown in program history for the Trojans, who went 20-2 and clinched the top seed and the league trophy by beating Lenoir-Rhyne in overtime on Wednesday night. They wrapped up the regular season with an 80-71 win at Tusculum today.
Defending SAC Tournament champions Lenoir-Rhyne will be the No. 2 seed. The Bears played two overtime games this week and hung on to beat Carson-Newman 87-81 today to secure the second seed. They will play on Wednesday evening and earn a day off on Thursday should they advance.
Catawba claimed the No. 3 seed after closing out the regular season with an impressive 91-69 win at UVA Wise today. The Indians caught fire down the stretch, going 6-1 in their final seven games to post a 16-6 SAC mark.
Lincoln Memorial entered today in a three-way tie for fourth place and clinched the No. 4 seed with a dominant 108-66 win over Newberry. That victory, combined with losses by Carson-Newman and UVA Wise, gave the Railsplitters the No. 4 spot with a 14-8 league record.
Carson-Newman and UVA Wise tied for fifth place in the SAC standings with identical 13-9 records. However, the Eagles will be the No. 5 seed in the conference tournament thanks to a season sweep over the Highland Cavaliers. That places UVA Wise as the No. 6 seed, and the Cavaliers will play on Thursday evening in a rematch with Catawba.
For the first time in program history, Emory & Henry earned a bid to the SAC Tournament and will enter as the No. 7 seed. The Wasps secured that spot with a win over Coker in today's regular season finale to finish 11-11 overall.
The final spot in the tournament goes to Wingate, which closed the campaign with a 10-12 mark. The Bulldogs have won the most SAC Tournament titles in conference history with 10, six more than any other program.
All tournament games will be broadcast on FloSports, and tickets can be purchased at tickets.thesac.com. The SAC Men's Basketball Championship schedule is as follows:
Wednesday, March 4 (Rock Hill Sports & Event Center, Rock Hill, S.C.)
Game 1: #1 Anderson vs. #8 Wingate, 5:00 p.m.
Game 2: #2 Lenoir-Rhyne vs. #7 Emory & Henry, 7:30 p.m.
Thursday, March 5 (Rock Hill Sports & Event Center, Rock Hill, S.C.)
Game 3: #4 Lincoln Memorial vs. #5 Carson-Newman, 5:00 p.m.
Game 4: #3 Catawba vs. #6 UVA Wise, 7:30 p.m.
Friday, March 6 (Rock Hill Sports & Event Center, Rock Hill, S.C.)
Game 5: Winner of Game 1 vs. Winner of Game 3, 5:00 p.m.
Game 6: Winner of Game 2 vs. Winner of Game 4, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, March 7 (Rock Hill Sports & Event Center, Rock Hill, S.C.)
Game 7: Winner of Game 5 vs. Winner of Game 6, 4:00 p.m.