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Sunday,
February 29, 2004 CATAWBA
WOMEN, LENOIR-RHYNE MEN EARN TOP SEEDS FOR FOOD LION SAC
BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT 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.
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