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| Catawba Women, Lenoir-Rhyne Men
Earn Top Seeds for 2004 Food Lion SAC Basketball Tournament February 29, 2004 |
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ROCK HILL, SC. – The Lenoir-Rhyne College men and the Catawba College women earned the top seed for the Food Lion South Atlantic Conference basketball tournament, league officials announced today. Lenoir-Rhyne and Tusculum finished as regular-season co-champions in the men’s standings with 10-4 records. Lenoir-Rhyne also finished as co-champion last year and went on to win the tournament title. This is the fifth league championship for Lenoir-Rhyne, while Tusculum wins its first ever men’s basketball conference title. The two teams split in their head-to-head meetings, forcing league officials to delve deeper into the tiebreaker process. Both teams split their regular-season meetings with third-seed Carson-Newman as well as fourth-seed Newberry. Both teams swept fifth-seed Presbyterian. Saturday’s loss to Wingate gave Tusculum a split in their series, giving the top-seed advantage to the Bears, who swept Wingate during the regular season. Catawba is the seventh seed, while Mars Hill is the eighth seed. Catawba, Wingate and Lenoir-Rhyne finished as co-champions in the women’s standings with identical 11-3 records, giving the SAC a three-way tie to break for the second year in a row. Last year, Lenoir-Rhyne, Carson-Newman and Wingate men finished in a three-way tie for first place in the men’s standings, which had to be broken with a coin flip. No coin flip was needed this year as Catawba had a 3-1 record against Lenoir-Rhyne and Wingate, thanks to a season sweep over Wingate. Wingate, which swept Lenoir-Rhyne in the regular season, is the second seed, while Lenoir-Rhyne will be the third seed. Catawba wins the SAC title for the second year in a row and third time in four years. Wingate wins its seventh regular season championship, while this is the first title for Lenoir-Rhyne, last year’s tournament champion. Mars Hill is the fourth seed for the women. Tusculum and Carson-Newman finished tied for fifth place. The two teams split their season series, but Tusculum had a win against top-seeded Catawba to gain the advantage over the Eagles, who lost both of their games to Catawba. Presbyterian is the seventh seed, while Newberry is eighth. The Food Lion SAC Tournament will be played in Hickory, N.C., beginning Friday. The league will bring all 16 teams to Hickory this year for 14 games over three days. The festivities begin Thursday night with a banquet at Catawba Valley Community College, where the league will announce this year’s award winners. Friday’s quarterfinal action will take place at both Lenoir-Rhyne College as well as the Catawba Valley Community College Multipurpose Arena. Saturday’s semifinals will take place at CVCC, as well as Sunday’s championship games. The men’s championship game is set for 2 p.m. on Sunday, while the women’s championship game will tip off at 4 p.m. Tickets for the tournament are $6 per day for adults, $3 per day for children and students, and $2 per day for college students with ID. The men’s and women’s winners of the tournament will earn automatic bids to the NCAA Division II playoffs. MEN WOMEN |
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