Vikings, Yellowjackets set for NCAA basketball tournaments
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind.---After two outstanding 2017-18 Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) basketball tournaments, the Bethany Lutheran College men's basketball team and the University of Wisconsin-Superior basketball team earned the conference's automatic qualifying berths to the NCAA tournament. Both teams learned their opening-round tournament opponents and destinations Monday, with the Vikings slated to take on Saint John's University and the Yellowjackets picked to face the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.
The Vikings claimed their first ever men's basketball regular season and postseason titles after a solid 13-3 regular season campaign and two wins in the conference tournament. Following a 96-90 win over the University of Northwestern Saturday, the Vikings improved to 19-8 overall and will head to Collegeville, Minnesota, for a 7:30 p.m. matchup Friday, March 2, against the No. 3-nationally ranked Johnnies.
Bethany Lutheran comes into the tournament on a six-game winning streak and will need to put everything into their first NCAA appearance in order to knock off the Johnnies. The pod-host Johnnies enter the tournament as the second-ranked team in the west region. The 23-3 Johnnies are a "Pool C" at-large entry to the tournament after losing in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) playoffs to Augsburg College. The two other teams in the Vikings' pod include No. 23 University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point – champion of the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) – taking on North Central College of the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin (CCIW).
The Yellowjackets are no strangers to the NCAA tournament as they make their third appearance in as many seasons since joining the UMAC in 2015-16. This season, the Yellowjackets completed another undefeated conference slate going 16-0 and enter the national tournament 23-4. They used a 66-54 second-half win over Bethany Lutheran Saturday to qualify for another national bid, and the Yellowjackets are headed to face an old WIAC foe in the No. 12-nationally ranked Warhawks in Whitewater, Wisconsin, Friday, March 2 at a time yet to be determined.
Additional information about the men's tournament featuring Bethany Lutheran can be found on the
Saint John's website, while information for Wisconsin-Superior's trip in the women's tournament is on the
Wisconsin-Whitewater tournament site.
NCAA Women's Basketball |
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NCAA Men's Basketball |
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