The Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Championships concluded Saturday at Birmingham’s Bill Harris Arena with the Tuskegee Tigers claiming the crown in the Men’s Division and the Benedict College Tigers taking the top honors in the Women’s Division.
The tournament brought crowds to the arena at the CrossPlex March 5-8 for exciting basketball and other community events.
Winners from the SIAC tournament will go on to the NCAA Division II Championships that begin this week. The Albany State University Lady Rams also were selected for the NCAA Division II Championships.
Tuskegee University received the #8 seed in the South Regional of the 2014 NCAA Division II Men’s Basketball Championship, as the field of 64 was announced Sunday.
The Golden Tigers (18-11), who earned the SIAC automatic bid and are making their first trip to the tournament since 2010, will face the Mocs of Florida Southern College on Saturday, March 15. The Mocs (26-4) are the top seed in the region and are currently ranked 16th nationally.
“As a team, we are elated to represent Tuskegee University and the SIAC in this tournament,” said Tigers head Coach Leon Douglas. “We are looking forward to it. It has been a few years since we’ve been in the tournament and we’ve been clawing our way to get back in. Hopefully we’ll go down there and represent our conference well.
This year’s South Regional Championship game is scheduled for Tuesday, March 18 at 7 p.m. The winner of the South Regional will face the winner of the South Central Regional in one of four national quarterfinal games on Wednesday, March 26 at the Ford Center in Evansville, Ind. The 2014 NCAA Division II National Championship game is scheduled for Saturday, March 29 in Evansville.
The NCAA Division II Women’s Basketball selection committee announced the field of 64 teams for the 2014 NCAA Division II Women’s Basketball Championship on Sunday, with both Benedict College and Albany State University earning seeds in the South Region.
Benedict (20-9), who earned the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference automatic bid by winning the 2014 SIAC Women’s title, garnered the #8 seed in the South and will face Nova Southeastern in the first round on Friday, March 14, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The Sharks (25-4), who are currently ranked 10th nationally, are a familiar face for the Lady Tigers, as the two clubs squared off in Columbia, South Carolina on December 16, 2013.
Lady Tigers head Coach James Rice is excited about the tournament and is looking forward to Friday’s contest.
“We are happy to be a part of the South Regional and to represent our conference in this tournament,” said Rice. “With facing Nova Southeastern, I’m glad we were able to play them earlier in the regular season. You want to face the toughest competition early on so you can gauge where you stand as a team. Playing them definitely made us better. We had to come together as a team during and after that game, because we lost our leading scorer and one of our best defensive players in London Richardson. After that, we had to regroup. We will be ready for the challenge.”
Also taking the court on Friday in Fort Lauderdale will be the 2014 SIAC runners-up in the Lady Rams of Albany State University. The Rams (20-6) secured the #5 seed in the South Region and will face the #4 seeded Lady Statesmen of Delta State University (24-5). After losing a close overtime contest to Benedict in the SIAC title game this past Saturday, Lady Rams head coach Robert Skinner is happy with his team’s seeding.
“It’s a blessing,” remarked Skinner. “We were praying for this and did not know exactly how things would go after the heartbreaking loss we suffered in the tournament championship game. We are very appreciative and want to be gracious about the seeding.”
