Anderson Tops SAC Men’s Basketball Championship Field

February 25, 2012

ROCK HILL, S.C. - After finishing the season with a 17-1 league record, regular season SAC champion Anderson will be the No. 1 seed in the 2012 Food Lion SAC Men's Basketball Championship field, which was finalized on Saturday.

Anderson wins its first SAC regular season title in just its second year of competition in the conference. The Trojans were ranked 21st in last week's NABC national rankings and No. 4 in the NCAA Southeast Region poll.

AU will take on eighth-seeded Catawba on Wednesday in the SAC Basketball Championship quarterfinals.

Lincoln Memorial finished 14-4 in the league standings to earn the SAC Championship's No. 2 seed. LMU, which entered Saturday ranked 12th in the nation, will host No. 7 seed Tusculum in Wednesday's quarterfinal round.

Wingate will be the No. 3 seed in the SAC Championship after going 13-5 in conference play, including Saturday's 86-53 win over Brevard. The Bulldogs are followed in the final standings by Newberry, which despite falling on Saturday to Catawba, finished its league schedule with a 9-9 record and will be the No. 4 seed in next week's Championship.

Lenoir-Rhyne, Tusculum and Carson-Newman each ended with identical 8-10 SAC records, creating a three-way tie for fifth in the final standings. L-R earns the SAC Championship's No. 5 seed by virtue of its 3-1 record against the other two teams, and will play at Newberry on Wednesday.

Carson-Newman then wins the tiebreaker with Tusculum to become the No. 6 seed because of its 2-0 record against second-seeded Lincoln Memorial. C-N and Tusculum split their regular-season head-to-head matchups and both were 0-2 versus top-seeded Anderson and No. 2 seed LMU. Carson-Newman will travel to third-seeded Wingate on Wednesday.

Tusculum defeated Mars Hill 87-72 on Saturday, while Carson-Newman fell at Anderson and Lenoir-Rhyne was defeated by LMU to force the three-way tie.

The four winners from Wednesday's quarterfinals will travel to Hickory, N.C. next Saturday, March 3, for the SAC Championship semifinals. The first men's game is slated to tip at noon at the Tarlton Complex on the campus of Catawba Valley Community College in Hickory, N.C.

Wednesday, February 29
Food Lion SAC Tournament, Quarterfinals, Home of Higher Seed
No. 8 Catawba at No. 1 Anderson, 7 pm
No. 7 Tusculum at No. 2 Lincoln Memorial, 7 pm
No. 6 Carson-Newman at No. 3 Wingate, 8 pm
No. 5 Lenoir-Rhyne at No. 4 Newberry, 7 pm

Saturday, March 3
Food Lion SAC Tournament, Semifinals, Tarlton Complex, Hickory, N.C.
Catawba/Anderson winner vs. Lenoir-Rhyne/Newberry winner, noon
Tusculum/Lincoln Memorial winner vs. Carson-Newman/Wingate winner, 2:30 pm

Sunday, March 4
Food Lion SAC Tournament Championship, Tarlton Complex, Hickory, N.C.
Semifinal winners, 2 pm