ColumbiaMagazine.com
Printed from:

Welcome to Columbia Magazine  
 



































 
CU Basketball to play in NAIA Tournament

Campbellsville University women's basketball earns NAIA-record 26th national tournament appearance, will face Faulkner on Wednesday. Campbellsville University men's basketball earns at-large bid into national tournament; takes on Columbia in first round

By Jordan Alves and David Gerhart

The NAIA has officially announced the 32 qualifiers and bracket for the 38th annual NAIA Division I Women's Basketball National Championship, presented by Wells Fargo.

Campbellsville University was selected as one of the Top 4 seeds in the national championship field and will play Faulkner University at 2pmET on Wednesday, March 14.

For the second straight season, the event takes place at Rimrock Auto Arena at MetraPark, 308 6th Ave N, Billings, MT, on March 14-20.


Every game for Campbellsville can be heard on the flagship station for the Campbellsville University Sports Network, 88.7 The Tiger, with the Voice of Lady Tiger Basketball, Matt Payton, on the radio call. Fans can follow the Lady Tigers' run at their first NAIA Championship on the official tournament page - HERE.

The Lady Tigers, who boast a 28-5 record, are one of three semifinalist returning to the field from last year and have now qualified for an NAIA-record 26 National Tournaments. CU has also reached the NAIA Fab Four in two of the last three seasons and the national finals in 2014-15.

The Lady Tigers stayed in the Top 10 for now the 61st-straight poll dating back to the 2012 season. CU remained at No. 3 this week.

Shawnee State (30-3), Westmont (22-6) and Freed-Hardeman (29-4) all earned No. 1-seeds with the Bears the overall No. 1 seed.

Campbellsville men's basketball earns at-large bid into national tournament
The Campbellsville men's basketball team earned one of 17 at-large bids into the NAIA Division I Men's Basketball National Championship, the national office released on Wednesday night.

Campbellsville's first game of the national tournament is set for Thursday evening at 5 p.m. ET from the Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City, Missouri. The Tigers are the seventh seed in the Duer Bracket and takes on second-seeded Columbia College. The Cougars are ranked sixth overall in the final national ranking.

The Tigers are heading to the national tournament for the 12th time in program history, where they hold a record of 9-11 all-time. In Campbellsville's last tournament appearance in 2016, it advanced all the way to the national semifinals, before bowing out to eventual national champion Mid-America Christian University, 93-89.

Entering the national tournament, the Tigers are 23-10 and finished as the runner-up in the Mid-South Conference Tournament last week. Despite the loss last time out, Campbellsville has won four of its last five games entering its trip to Kansas City, Mo.

Columbia heads into the national tournament for the 22nd time in school history, which is the fourth most in the field this year behind only Georgetown College (37), University of the Cumberlands (26) and Oklahoma City University (24). This is the Cougars eighth-straight national championship appearance and Columbia has a record of 13-21 in its first 21 appearances.

The Cougars earned their spot in the national tournament after winning the American Midwest Conference regular-season title. This season, Columbia has posted a 27-4 record overall and lost in the opening round of the AMC Tournament to Lyon College, 65-61, in overtime. The Cougars have lost two of their last three games with all four of its losses this season coming against conference foes.

One of the four losses for Columbia this season came against Freed-Hardeman University - who Campbellsville beat twice this season.

The Mid-South Conference leads all NAIA Division I conferences with six teams headed to the national tournament. University of Pikeville is the top seed in the Duer Bracket, while Georgetown College is seeded third in the Naismith Bracket. Cumberlands and Lindsey Wilson College are both in the Cramer Bracket seeded fifth and seventh, respectively. Life University is the final Mid-South Conference team in the national tournament, where it is the No. 6 seed in the Liston Bracket.

Joining Campbellsville, Pikeville and Columbia in the Duer Bracket is last seasons national champion in fourth-seeded Texas Wesleyan University - who plays newcomer and No. 5-seeded Graceland University.

The winner of the Campbellsville-Columbia matchup on Thursday moves on to face the winner of third-seeded University of Montana Western and sixth-seeded Southwestern Assemblies of God University on Friday evening at 5pmET.

Thursday's meeting between Campbellsville and Columbia will be the first all-time meeting between the two programs.

Heading into action next week, The Master's College is the No. 1 overall seed in the tournament and is the top seed in the Naismith Bracket. Rounding out the No. 1 seeds in the four brackets is William Penn University (Cramer Bracket) and Louisiana State University-Shreveport (Liston Bracket).

Action for the Tigers begins on Thursday, March 15 at 5pmET from Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City, Mo.


This story was posted on 2018-03-07 18:59:23
Printable: this page is now automatically formatted for printing.
Have comments or corrections for this story? Use our contact form and let us know.



 

































 
 
Quick Links to Popular Features


Looking for a story or picture?
Try our Photo Archive or our Stories Archive for all the information that's appeared on ColumbiaMagazine.com.

 

Contact us: Columbia Magazine and columbiamagazine.com are published by Linda Waggener and Pen Waggener, PO Box 906, Columbia, KY 42728.
Phone: 270.403.0017


Please use our contact page, or send questions about technical issues with this site to webmaster@columbiamagazine.com. All logos and trademarks used on this site are property of their respective owners. All comments remain the property and responsibility of their posters, all articles and photos remain the property of their creators, and all the rest is copyright 1995-Present by Columbia Magazine. Privacy policy: use of this site requires no sharing of information. Voluntarily shared information may be published and made available to the public on this site and/or stored electronically. Anonymous submissions will be subject to additional verification. Cookies are not required to use our site. However, if you have cookies enabled in your web browser, some of our advertisers may use cookies for interest-based advertising across multiple domains. For more information about third-party advertising, visit the NAI web privacy site.