Men's basketball to face UT-Dallas Friday in first round of NCAA Division III tournament
Shreveport – The Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference tournament champion Centenary men’s basketball team will face the UT-Dallas Comets on Friday at 7:30 p.m. in the first round of the 2020 NCAA Division III Men’s Basketball Championship, it was announced on Monday.
The Gents (18-9, 15-5 SCAC) and host Comets (21-6, 14-2 American Southwest Conference) will play the second game of the day, preceded by LeTourneau University (23-5) versus Whitworth (21-6) University at 5 p.m. in game one at the UTD Activity Center in Richardson, Texas. The winners will meet at 7 p.m. on Saturday in the second round for the right to advance to the third round March 13. Live Stats and live video will be available for all games.
The top half of the bracket paired with Centenary includes No. 1 seed Swarthmore (26-1) against Brooklyn (13-15) and Ithaca (23-5) facing Babson (20-6). The third round is set for March 13, quarterfinals March 20 and semifinals March 21 in Ft. Wayne, Ind., and the championship on April 5 at 11:30 a.m. in Atlanta.
The Gents won their first SCAC Tournament title on Sunday with a convincing 77-56 victory over the Texas Lutheran Bulldogs in Kerrville, Texas. as they won their 10th game in a row and their 21-point margin of victory Sunday was the largest in the 18-year history of the SCAC tournament. Centenary earned the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament for the first time in school history and won the title game for the first time after three previous appearances came up short, most recently in 2018. The Gents were the No. 2 seed all three previous times they made the title game.
Sunday's win also marks the Gents' first men's basketball conference title since 1980 when the Maroon and White claimed both the regular season and conference tournament championships while a member of the Trans America Athletic Conference (now the Atlantic Sun Conference).
Centenary's current 10-game winning streak is the program's longest in the division III era and the Maroon and White also set a division III program record for conference wins in a single season and home wins (10) in a single season in the division III era as the Gents went 10-1 at home this season.